Terence feels his face go hot as she leads him around a corner They head up to the school’s second floor and she stops in front of the first door 212 This is your room band boy she says Have fun With that she leaves him standing in front of the closed door to his first public-school class since fifth grade He sneaks a look in the window The tables are set up in clusters of four Walking among the tables with her hands behind her back is Terence takes a quick look at his schedule Ms Hardison his new math teacher OK you can do this he whispers to himself as he leans on the wall next to the door Of course if everyone in there is as nice and helpful as Meredith was this might be the worst hour of my life Suddenly the door flies open and Ms Hardison pokes out her head Will you be joining us this morning Mr Kato she says or do you have a soliloquy to rehearse out here Oh um Terence mumbles not because he doesn’t know what a soliloquy is Hart Arts had a
renowned drama department In fact Polly Winger the singer from his band at Hart had been one of the department’s top stars even though she was only in eighth grade Terence missed his old school and his old life But most of all he missed the Kato Quintet They were his best friends and the best band at Hart Arts Sure they were only miles away but they might as well have been on another planet Sorry Terence finally says I had trouble finding the room Ms Hardison steps to one side and holds the door open for him smirking Welcome to Franklin Middle she says as he passes dodging the top of his gig bag What is that The class laughs as Terence finds an empty desk in one of the clusters It’s my bass guitar he says It didn’t fit in my locker Just lean it in the corner Ms Hardison says not bothering to hide her contempt for Terence’s extra baggage
Terence obeys and then slumps into his seat His cluster-mates don’t even look at him
CHAPTER TWO Terence’s first day at Franklin Middle is as long and arduous as the first five minutes Without Eddie as a tour guide he’s late to every class even lunch The one brief moment of pleasantness during his day is Music The teacher Mr Bonn plays piano for forty-five minutes straight practically and the students sing with varying degrees of enthusiasm To be honest Terence is probably somewhere in the middle and even the most enthusiastic singers in the room aren’t nearly as good as Polly Almost no one is Terence thinks as Mr Bonn takes a brief pause between the end of the Beatles Here Comes the Sun and the start of A Great Big World’s Hold Each Other
