50

Junior nearly fell asleep on his school desk. If Cody didn't tap him on the shoulder, he probably would've slept through the entire morning. He looked up groggily, and turned towards his nerdy friend. "Did you not sleep last night?"

"I slept too long actually. I didn't even eat dinner or breakfast." Junior groaned, feeling his stomach grumbling slightly on-cue.

"Yeah, that'll make you tired. I have some granola bars in my bag for my low blood sugar, you want one of those?" Cody offered, to which Junior reluctantly accepted. Cody dug through his bag to find them, and continued to speak. "Do you know if you'll be able to speak during tomorrow's trial?"

Junior shrugged as Cody handed him the snack. "I wouldn't count on it. Everyone thinks I'm insane or something. Unless they try to get the 'truth' out of me, I doubt it."

"Well, would you like me to teach you how to act if you are? My mom watches those court shows every day, not to mention I've been to some of my stepdad's trials before, so I have some pretty good knowledge of how to behave." Cody asked.

Junior thought for a moment. He really didn't know what he'd say if he got up on the stand. He really didn't want to make a fool of himself, or give the wrong idea. He told Cody he'd like that, but before Cody could give a response, Jackie Chu came into the classroom.

"Alright class, sorry I'm late. Ling Ling took too long making my eggrolls." He apologized. "Now, let's get into our first lesson, which is math. Today we'll be learning about proofs. Proofs are..." Junior suddenly felt exhausted again, almost bored into slumber. He knew he couldn't fall asleep, so he got out a piece of paper and a pencil and doodled while drowning out the teacher.

While drawing a totally awesome dinosaur, he remembered what he asked the teacher the previous morning. He'd forgotten to ask him about it when class started. He wrote down a reminder on the paper he was drawing on, before continuing to doodle. He really hoped that he would say yes. Even if he didn't know the chef that well, maybe the attendance records would prove something? Junior didn't know for sure, but what he did know is that Chef PeePee needed all the help he could get.

Once the math and following history lesson was over, Jackie Chu gave the students a short break before lunchtime. Joseph still hadn't shown up to school, so Jeffy stole his seat again and sat with Cody and Junior (and Penelope but she was lost in some fantasy romance whatever the hell book.) Junior was showing off his dinosaur to his friends, when Cody pointed out the note Junior had written earlier.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we have to ask the teacher if he made up his mind about coming to Chef PeePee's trial." Junior said. "Come on, Jeffy, let's go ask him."

The two boys got up from their seats and walked to the front of the classroom just like they had the previous day. Jackie Chu was busy typing something on his laptop when he noticed the students in front of him. Junior asked him the question, and he thought for a moment about his answer. "I guess I could. I don't have anything to do tomorrow, and I'd do anything I can for my students. Just make sure you get your grades up. That goes for you too, Jeffy."

Junior internally cheered before thanking the teacher. He along with Jeffy then happily made their way back to their seat. Cody noticed how happy Junior seemed. "Let me guess, he said yes?" Junior nodded and sat back down. "That's great. During lunch, you want me to coach you on my newly opened 'how to act in a court setting' course?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. I'll probably inhale my lunch so we'll have a good amount of time." Junior joked. The three waited until they were dismissed for lunch, then made a beeline to the cafeteria to get a good spot. Once they sat down in a booth, they started discussing.

Cody told Junior all about how the court system worked, along with how people were selected to come up and answer questions asked by the judge, prosecution attorney and defense attorney. All the talk about being put on the spot and having people go against Chef PeePee made Junior nervous. He was kind of prepared, but far from mentally ready. He was especially nervous about breaking down or fainting like he had when he first saw his dad. The thought of seeing Chef PeePee in a jail uniform didn't make him feel very well at all.

Cody and Jeffy reassured him and told him that they had a good feeling. Even if Goodman was the best lawyer in town, the truth had to triumph. Junior started to feel a little bit better. Lunch was then over, and the three went back into the classroom to finish the rest of the school day.