Chapter 61 - 9
Chapter 9: My Face Meets Fists, and Somehow That's Progress
—In which I go toe-to-toe with a bowl-cut tornado and realize pain is part of the curriculum.
Okay. So I've fought ghosts. Sort of. I've survived surprise gym pop quizzes. I've even endured Tucker's garlic-laced "health smoothies."
But nothing—nothing—could have prepared me for the soul-crushing horror that is... catching up on schoolwork.
It all started after dinner, after that surprisingly emotional heart-to-heart with my ghost-hunting parents. I should've gone to bed like a normal kid who had just emotionally reconnected with his family. But no, I had something even scarier than ghosts waiting for me upstairs.
"If you want to walk the path of strength, kid," Naruto said as we climbed the stairs to my room, "you gotta handle the boring stuff too."
I blinked. "You mean like... dishes?"
"No," he said, deadly serious. "Worse. Textbooks."
A few minutes later, I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, staring at a pile of schoolbooks I was pretty sure hadn't moved from the floor since September. Naruto handed me one like it was a sacred relic.
"U.S. History, Volume I: Pre-Colonial Times to the Civil War."
I stared at the cover like it was going to bite me.