Shawn buried his head in his hands and breathed in deep, and looked up back at everyone, his mouth a narrow line. He cleared his throat.
“So . . . me and Jessica broke up,” he said, his mouth curving up in a half smile. A couple of chuckles broke out around the room as he stood back up, shrugging. “Look, I, um, I know her dad sometimes helped out with some of our trips and what-not through the school year, but nothing is going to change. I’ve still got some fun things planned this year.”
Shawn’s voice faded as he went on about the club, and Leila stared ahead, feeling a bit disappointed. What kind of guy was he if he dated a girl like that? Too bad.
Shawn walked towards the back of the classroom, closed the door tightly, and then strolled back over, shrugging.
“So, unfortunately, this will sadly be my last year at the helm, and I hope one of you will take the green throne after I move on and graduate.” He hung his head down, shaking it solemnly. Leila glanced over at Sarika, who exchanged looks with her.
Green throne? Was he for real?
“Boo!” shouted a few of the students sitting closer to the front of the room. Shawn smiled and waved them off.
“There will be time for mourning later,” he exclaimed, looking back up. He held his hands in the air, as though to calm the masses before him, even though there were only a dozen or so people in the class. Then he sat back down and rubbed his hands together. “The drama is over, and today, we get to know the new recruits. The acorns, if you will.”
“Hah! I won’t,” Sarika said with a smirk.
Leila laughed and nudged her, and the rest of the students who had assembled turned and looked at them with a mixture of bemused expressions and utter horror.
“What?” Sarika snapped at one of the students glaring at her. The student turned away quickly, looking back at Shawn. “I’m not a boring average nut from off a tree. Neither of us are. Me and this girl are more like hazelnuts, thank you.”
“Well then, I suppose we can start with the two of you,” Shawn said, hopping back off his desk and standing in front of the class. He extended a hand. “Or, how about I start and break the ice. Me, I’m Shawn Kennedy, president and founder of the B.E.A.C. here at Belmont High School.” He started to pace in the front of the room, hands behind his back. “In addition to all that, I’m captain of our lacrosse team, and vice president of the student government.”
He walked back over to the desk and sat back on it.
“That about sums me up, I suppose. Anyone care to go first?” He looked around the room. No hands raised.
“Sure, why not,” Sarika chimed in, standing up. She gave a little wave to everyone in the room and then sat on the edge of the lab table, crossing her legs and leaning back on the black surface. “So I’m Sarika Krishna. Not super into the environment, but I am really into coffee—”
“Ah, the plague that hurts the planet.” Shawn interrupted, a disapproving look on his face.
“Excuse me?” Sarika asked, hopping off the desk.
“Just saying, those coffee farms decimate the planet.” He shrugged and smiled at her. “And those instant coffee pods people love using these days, so much waste, so much—”
“Whatever,” she snipped. “I’m into coffee; specifically, if you’d had let me finish before 'actually-ing' me, the sustainable kind. Coffee that comes from small communities, harvested from individual farms, roasted locally and sourced with minimum damage to the land. So sure, I guess I’m into preserving the environment, but I’m a little more interested in how saving land helps save and preserve ways of life.”
“Ah,” Shawn said, looking down at his hands. “Well, that is interesting. I’m sorry.”
“Accepted,” Sarika said curtly.
“Geez, Sarika,” Leila muttered.
“Hey, no one gets to “well actually” me and get away with it,” she said, crossing her arms and looking back up at Shawn. “So yes. I’m here for that. There’s an excellent coffee community in Philadelphia, and I’d love to learn more about preservation and environmental science, and how that can help me be a bigger part of it. And, of course, I’m here for this one.” She nodded at Leila and grinned.
“Damn it, girl,” Leila groaned, burying her head in her hands.
“Ah, yes,” Shawn said, and Leila could hear him grinning. “I believe you’re up, and that we’ve met before, no?”
“Yes,” Leila said into her hands, wanting the earth to open up and swallow her.
“Well?” Shawn asked. Leila looked up, and there he was, at his desk, his hand out, welcoming. He was smiling that lopsided smile, and she forced herself not to sigh.
“Hey all,” Leila said, sitting up. She waved to the faces that had turned to look at her. “So yeah, hi. I’m Leila, with an I and not a Y. Um.”
She looked around at all the eyes staring at her, and felt that warmth returning to her chest, bubbling up. The pressure and the anxiety that brewed in her when around too many people she didn’t know. She could feel her heart speeding up, her breathing quickening.
Leila glanced at the door leading out of the science lab, and moved to walk away from the desk. Sarika grabbed her arm.
“Hey, come on now,” Sarika said, her voice soft.
“I just don’t think I can do,” Leila looked up at the class, their eyes all on her, as she whispered to Sarika, “all this, you know?” Shawn stared at her, his eyes soft without any trace of judgement, none of that awkward pity or concern. His eyes sparkled. It calmed her down in an odd way, and she took a deep breath.
“Come on,” Sarika repeated. “It’s just like, you know.”
Leila looked down at Sarika, who nodded her head.
“It’s like group.” Sarika muttered.
Ah.
She did know.
The long talk sessions at Adam’s Café, foster kids and recent adoptees, bonding together, talking long and hard into the evening. Parents that walked away, foster families that didn’t work out. Stories of estranged siblings and runaway friends were frequent and heartbreaking, but the words poured out as long as there were people around to listen.
“Sorry, I, um, I don’t speak in front of people all that often,” she said, laughing awkwardly. She took a deep breath, and felt Sarika squeeze her hand. “I just, you know, care a lot about what happens to our world. When you spend most of your life moving here and there, with new families and new schools, you learn to find something to stay connected with that’s a constant.”
She blinked away tears that threatened to show themselves and cleared her throat, the mixture of digging up a personal story hitting hard with the anxiety of being around so many new people.
“You can do it,” Sarika whispered.
“Anyhow, that constant for me is, well, all of that.” She nodded at the windows in the back of the lab, which overlooked a patch of trees in a park near the school. “The trees, the outdoors. The world under my feet. Things that are solid and hard to move, difficult to change. And the things that want to change them, change them in a negative way? Well, I’d like to be there to stop it. To preserve something.”
She looked up at Shawn and saw his gaze full of something a little deeper. Admiration, maybe? She felt a gentle touch on her forearm, and saw Sarika still holding her, smiling softly. She nodded at her friend and looked back the room.
“So yeah, that’s why I’m here. I um, saved a willow tree recently.” She shrugged. “Sometimes you have to start small. Although, it didn’t feel small for me. I loved that tree.”
“Thank you for sharing,” Shawn said, his tone gentle and soft.
“Man, I’m just here so I have something that looks good on my college application,” muttered one of the students up front. Leila let out a laugh, and the redhead in front of the room threw a pen at the kid, the plastic clattering across the science lab’s hard floor.