歪歪漫画

BEMIDJI -- When the police rolled in, everyone else ran off.

Jakob Laducer stood like a statue in the yard, thinking. He wriggled under a nearby car and waited as the officers clicked on their flashlights, beams of white light flooding the darkness.

It wasn鈥檛 long before they came to the car and the hiding boy, who kicked one officer in the shin and then dashed inside the house, closing the door behind him.

鈥淚 almost got caught,鈥� Laducer said. 鈥淎 lot of times.鈥�

The long arm of the law never did stretch far enough to grab Jakob Laducer by the back of his shirt collar. The opportunity is gone now. He鈥檚 18. Clean, he said. Got a job at Arby鈥檚. It鈥檚 been a few years since he was mixed up in anything nefarious.

He graduates from Voyageurs Expeditionary 歪歪漫画 Friday and plans to go to college in the fall.

Talk to him for 10 minutes, and he reveals himself to be a model student, or much closer to one than he used to be. He鈥檚 a little bummed to miss a few minutes of English; they鈥檙e reading 鈥淥f Mice and Men.鈥�

鈥淚 hope I鈥檓 destined for great things, but only time will tell,鈥� Laducer said. He hasn鈥檛 decided yet whether he鈥檚 going to be a restaurant owner or a movie producer.

鈥淗alf my family are meth heads or alcoholics. They do horrible things. I don鈥檛 want to be like them.鈥�

A few years ago, he bore a resemblance. His family was living on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, up near the Canadian border. Laducer said his boyhood friends encouraged him to start selling marijuana, and later, prescription pills.

鈥淭hey were gangsters,鈥� he said. 鈥淲annabe gangsters.鈥�

He鈥檚 remarkably open about stories from back then, recalling them almost too quickly to write down.

There was the party from which everyone but him scattered.

There was an evening stroll that cut through the yard of a guy with a shotgun and a fast temper.

There was something about a different guy inside a trunk.

Laducer always managed to skate by, relying on pinchable cheeks and a face that seemed to ask: 鈥淲ho? Me?鈥�

鈥淚 was the cute, innocent kid,鈥� he said, just not in the legal sense.

Laducer鈥檚 family moved when his mom got a new job his sophomore year. Slowly he warmed up to Bemidji and the small charter school where he鈥檚 about to receive his diploma.

New hobbies started to emerge: making movies and cooking meals.

He played Batman in his first homemade movie, used the deep voice and everything.

He loves going to restaurants that serve food better than he or even his mother can cook, though she鈥檚 liable to smack him if he audibly gives a place that distinction.

When he鈥檚 older he might start his own restaurant, one that serves food like you鈥檇 find at home, assuming your home doesn鈥檛 rely too heavily on a microwave.

His grades changed too. He was failing in Turtle Mountain, another kid dropping quickly through the cracks. Now, at Voyageurs, he鈥檚 the best in his small class -- 鈥淔鈥檚 to A鈥檚,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 like it here. Going here was a great experience,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 know people will miss me. I鈥檝e left my mark.鈥�

Laducer has two younger sisters he鈥檚 trying to nudge onto different trajectories from the one he used to seem insistent on going. He said they鈥檙e smarter than he was at their age. But he knows he will set either a good or bad example.

He plans to go back to the reservation and Turtle Mountain Community College for his general studies. After that, he鈥檚 not sure whether it will be the University of North Dakota or North Dakota State University.

With his final hours of high school, he鈥檚 finishing up an immaculate report card, and when he has free time, he works on a greenhouse out back of the school, where younger students can grow and study plants.

This summer it will be Arby鈥檚, where he mans the drive-thru, the fryer and the cash register.

鈥淚 like selling things,鈥� he said. All that鈥檚 changed is the product.

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Graduation season is here as several area high schools will be holding graduation ceremonies this week and next.

• TrekNorth High 歪歪漫画 will graduate 32 students at 6 Friday at the Beaux Arts Ballroom on the BSU campus

• Voyageurs Expeditionary High 歪歪漫画 will graduate 10 students at 6 Friday at Hagg-Sauer Hall, room 100, on the BSU campus

• Blackduck High 歪歪漫画 will graduate roughly 45 students at 7:30 tonight at the high school

• Red Lake High 歪歪漫画 will graduate roughly 30 students between the main high school and the alternative learning center Saturday at 1 p.m. at the high school

• Cass Lake-Bena High 歪歪漫画 will graduate 61 students June 3 at 7 p.m. at the high school

• Bemidji High 歪歪漫画 will graduate 336 students June 4 at 7 p.m. at the Sanford Center