Finals: The Dolbin School Book 4
I am serializing my next book here first before it is available anywhere else. Previous chapter links available at the bottom of the post.
Chapter 21 Finals
The alarm was loud. Jake opened his only useful eye. He felt his bandage with his right hand. “Yup, still there.” He whispered to himself.
He climbed out of bed. Mark was sleeping. His mouth opened with drool wetting his pillow.
Jake threw his pillow at Mark. “Whaa! What!?”
“It’s time to get up sleepy head,” Jake instructed.
Mark looked around. “Okay, I’m up.” He grabbed his leg. “But I’m going to be a lot slower today.”
Jake smiled and took a shower.
Thirty minutes later Jake and Mark hobbled into the dining hall. The hall was already full.
As soon as they walked into the hall, the hall went silent. Conversations and the clanking of silverware stopped. Students stared at Jake and Mark.
“It’s him.” A whisper came from a nearby table. Jake and Mark stopped and looked around the dining hall. They took a few steps toward the breakfast line, not sure if they were supposed to move or not.
A boy, a middle school boy, wiped his mouth with his napkin and stood up from his chair. He walked across the hall and put his hand out to Jake.
“I’m Justin. I’m glad you’re okay. I’m glad you’re here.”
Jake looked around, looking to see if someone would tease him or laugh. When he saw no one doing that, he put his hand out to Justin. “Hi, Justin. I’m Jake Cooper.”
“I know. We…all know.”
Evelyn Anderson, an eleventh grader, put her tray down and walked over to Jake. “Everyone is glad that you are okay.”
Jake paused. “Thank you. I’m sorry, what is going on?”
Justin spoke, “We all know what happened with the fight. Why you have the bandage over your eye.”
“We’re just glad you’re okay!” Evelyn interrupted. “And we’re all glad you stood up to Brad.”
Someone whistled from the far corner of the dining hall and laughter spread throughout the room. Clapping started where the whistle occurred and then it spread throughout the hall. Soon the entire dining hall was clapping for Jake and Mark. The boys’ faces turned red. Jake looked at Mark and a smile burst across Jake’s face. Mark’s face lit up with a glow.
Mrs. Brisby walked into the hall. With her hands folded she looked around the room, looking for the reason the students were clapping. She saw Jake and Mark, she titled her head, smiled for a moment, and then she joined in the clapping.
Mrs. Brisby raised her hand for silence. The clapping died down. She cleared her throat. “Mr. Cooper, Mr. Daniels—Jake, Mark, we are glad you are both okay. I hope you hear this as the appreciation for you both being here at Dolbin.” She looked around the room. “But in spite of the eventful end of the year, everyone in here still has exams to take today. So, I suggest that we eat out breakfast and continue on to class.”
There was a low groan across the hall, as students were reminded of the tests that awaited them.
Two hours later Jake and Mark walked out of Professor Guinness’s final.
“That was long,” said Jake as they walked into the hallway.
“It was shorter than taking the Virginia Studies SOL we would have to have taken back in Virginia,” reminded Mark. “Remember how long those took, even in third grade? I’d rather take these than an SOL any day.”
“Good point. But it was still long.”
Cal and Henry walked up behind them. “So, how did your first final go?” asked Henry.
“It was hard, but I think I did well,” replied Mark.
“It was long,” moaned Jake.
Cal chuckled. “They’re all long. That somewhat the point of finals I think. I think the teachers get together and figure out how to punish us for an hour and then call it legal. So they go, ‘Hey! We’ll call it Finals Week!’ and then they punish us.”
“I told Jake it wasn’t as long as the SOLS we took in Virginia,” said Mark.
“That’s true. The silly state tests that we use to have to take, or would take are definitely longer than the ones you will take here,” agreed Cal.
“But these tests make more sense and they are useful,” replied Henry.
“I don’t know if they are ‘useful’, but true Guinness’s test was definitely shorter than what we would have taken,” said Jake shaking his head.
The boys laughed and headed for lunch.
Thank you following along
It is still in the formatting stage at the moment. I have serialized the other three books here on Steemit in the past year. Here are the first chapters from where I serialized each book.
Dolbin School for the Extraordinary
You can click here to see them on Amazon.
And Now this book is available for preorder on Amazon. Click here to have it delivered to your Kindle when it is released.
Hope you follow along! Click here for Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20