Page 26 of For Your Own Good

For all the extra trouble.

Zach knows it, too. In class, he smiles and looks relaxed. Jokes with his friends and flirts with a girl like he’s got all the time in the world.

Too bad the students don’t drink coffee from the lounge.

All of this puts Teddy in a bad mood, which doesn’t get any better when he sees Sonia. She is back at work and getting lots of attention, due to her dramatic upchuck on Friday. He expected this. He just didn’t expect her to be even more pompous than usual.

They run into each other outside the teachers’ lounge before school has started. Today, her dress is green. Puke green.

“So happy to see you back,” he says. “We were all worried about you.”

“Oh, that’s so kind. I certainly appreciate all the well-wishes, but I’m fine now. Just fine.”

“Good to hear.”

“And,” she says, “theBuglewill be out on Wednesday, as scheduled,withZach’s article.”

Teddy is a little surprised at this but doesn’t show it. “Wonderful,” he says.

“I think so, too.”

With one last self-satisfied smile, she goes into the lounge. Teddy does not. Instead, he heads back toward the stairs. Along the way, he passesthrough the Hall of Fame. That’s what they call it, this area that houses portraits of the Belmont founder, all the headmasters, including the current one, and the board of directors.

Beyond that are portraits of the teachers and staff. But not all of them.

The teachers who “make the wall”—as it’s called—are the teachers who don’t just work at Belmont; they also attended the school. Former students who return to teach or work at the school are considered special. Better, even. Belmont, they say, is their home.

Teddy is not one of them.

Sonia is.

17

WITH THE DISTRACTIONof Sonia out of the way, Teddy can go back to doing what he’s supposed to do: teach.

Although his second-period class was assigned to readThe Outsidersless than a week ago, they are already burning through it. He knows this from some of the online talk. Many of the students have read it before, which he expected, but for some it’s the first time.

“I know you’ve all just started on this book,” he says to the class. “So I just want to talk a little about your first impressions.”

Danielle is the first to raise her hand. Always.

“Yes?” Teddy says.

“In general, the book’s about the socioeconomic differences between the Socs and the Greasers, and the differences in how they’re treated. The Greasers are treated horribly because they are poor, and everyone assumes they have to be criminals.”

“Kind of like today,” says Alex, another student. He is not a scholarshipstudent—in fact, his family is very wealthy—but online Alex claims to be quite “woke.”

“Would you agree,” Teddy says, “that if you lived in the world ofThe Outsiders,the majority of you would be considered Socs?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Probably yes,” Danielle says. “Except they didn’t have the internet. Things are different now.”

“No, they aren’t,” Alex says.