"The family that has been picked for us is the Farber family," Jane revealed.
"Wait a minute. Farber? As in Steve Farber?" Jon asked.
"Yes, the Farbers do have a son named Steve," she said, looking down at a sheet of paper. "He goes to your school."
"Yeah, I know that. Everyone knows that. The guy has a ... reputation."
"Reputation?" Jon's dad (Mark) asked.
"With girls, I mean," Jon said. "They call him 'The Stud'. He's a total womanizer and a jerk."
"Well, for the next few months, you'll be learning from him, Jon. He's your teacher," Jane said.
Jon felt disgusted. He had to become just like "The Stud"? A big part of him didn't like this idea at all, but a smaller part did at least like the "popular with the ladies" side of it. As he was right now, Jon didn't exactly have much luck in finding a girlfriend. But Steve was the last person he wanted to get advice from. The guy might have been popular with the girls, but he didn't really love any of them. He mainly dated them (or used them, rather) for sex. That wasn't the kind of relationship Jon was looking for.
"Zoe, your teacher is Nikki Farber."
"That airhead? What the hell could I learn from that ditz?" Zoe asked. Nikki was one year younger than Steve and was part of the "popular" crowd and was (of course) a cheerleader, and she was also best friends with Amber Levine (another total ditz) and Jessica Davis. It disgusted Zoe, thinking that she would have to spend time with those morons for the next several weeks. Maybe jail would be better after all.
"Mikey, your teacher is Bobby Farber."
Jon's little brother knew who Bobby was. He was one grade higher than Mikey, and from what he knew of him, Mikey figured that this wouldn't be so bad. Unlike Steve, Bobby wasn't a jerk. Sometimes he had a bit of an attitude problem, but it was more towards the teachers than anyone else. Bobby wasn't a bully. And that alone made Mikey feel like he got off easy.
"Mark, your teacher will be the father of the family - Brad Farber," Jane told her husband. "And my teacher will be the mother of the family - Suzie Farber."
Jane looked around at her family and saw looks of annoyance and disgust on the faces of Jon and Zoe, but it wasn't like they really had a choice in the matter. They had to do this, whether they liked it or not.
She looked down at her watch. "Okay, we're suppose to go to their house in ten minutes."
"We're starting this today?" Zoe asked.
"Do you need to be somewhere?" her mom asked her.
"Well, actually, Athena and I were ..."
"Sorry, Zoe," Jane said. "But you already know the rules. You can't go out and do things with your friends during the Life Lessons program, unless your teacher says it's okay."
"What? But ..."
"No buts," Jane said. "Now come on. The Farbers are waiting for us."
Jane, Mark, and Mikey stood up, then walked to the front door. Then Jon got up. He was still thinking about what his mom said about not being able to talk to his friends. That meant that he couldn't do anything with Karyn, unless Steve allowed it. Yeah right, like that would ever happen. Steve thought Karyn was a total loser. If Jon had to be like Steve, then Jon would have to view Karyn in the same way. He really hated this Life Lessons thing, and it hadn't even started yet!
"Zoe, now," Jane said, ordering her daughter to come with.
Zoe grunted, then stood up. And a minute later, they were all in the car and headed off towards the Farber house.
