New Title 3

by H. T. Night

  The three of us approached the bulletin boards and were silent.

  Timmy uncharacteristically said, “I really hope all of us are in the same class.” Blayne and I smiled.

  The three of us had this unwritten agreement that one would look and not say anything until all three had seen it.

  Timmy was first. He looked at the board for about thirty seconds, and then grinned and backed away so Blayne could look. He also looked for about thirty seconds and had a real surprised look on his face.

  I could tell it wasn’t good. I knew Blayne’s expressions. That wasn’t a good one. He backed away so I could see. I walked up to the bulletin board and just closed my eyes.

  Before I could open them, I heard my sister yell. “We can’t be in the same class!”

  I quickly opened my eyes. When I did, I saw Mrs. Phyllis’ class first. I went to the boy side of the list and spotted my name, but there was no Blayne or Timmy. I quickly looked at the girl side. I saw Sarah Davis, but then I thought I saw something that had to be a misprint. I saw the name Carrie Greer, my sister. There was no Ali or Tanya. I looked over at Mr. O’Neil’s class and sure enough all four of them were in the same class.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was alone. I was alone with my sister. The person I saw every day. This was horrible. But wait, Sarah Davis was in my class. I couldn’t talk about it though because my friends didn’t know I liked her. Or did I like her? All I knew was that she was the only reason that I had to smile.

  “Sorry,” Timmy said.

  “I really wanted us to be together,” Blayne followed.

  “You know, Blayne and I have never been in the same class,” Timmy continued.

  “I’m happy for the both of you,” I gave them both an obvious fake smile. “Hey, let’s get out of here. Let’s go to the ice cream shop and get a shake and kick back in the tree.” The tree was our secret hangout. It was in the back of the school. We discovered it when we were in third grade. It was always a good place to go and think or to just get away and talk.

  So there it was. The big event in my life was over. All that was left now was the first day of school. As we walked to the ice cream shop, I felt empty inside. I felt sort of isolated and alone. I felt almost as if I was the outcast of the group. These were my best friends. I had known them since we were little. They would treat me the same no matter what, for sure.

  “Hey, Cody?” Blayne said.

  “Yeah?” I replied.

  “There is always recess.”

  Chapter Two

  I woke up feeling pretty good considering the class situation. It was the first day of school. Why shouldn’t I be excited?

  I went to the closet and put on a brand new shirt and a pair of shorts. I had showered the night before. That was good enough for me.

  My sister, on the other hand, took hours to get ready for school. I always woke up about twenty minutes before I wanted to leave. Not my sister, she woke up with the sun.

  She was also never ready when I was ready to leave either.

  My sister had really long blonde hair. Her hair was much blonder than mine was. My hair was blonde but Carrie’s was white. She said the reason why it took her so long to get ready was because her hair was so long and tangled easily. I thought girls just enjoyed getting ready more than boys did. With guys, it was just a hassle.

  I walked into the bathroom. My sister was now putting on her lip-gloss. My mom allowed her to wear lip-gloss. I couldn’t believe it, but she was almost ready.

  “What time did you get up, two a.m.?” I said, yawning.

  “No, about an hour ago,” she answered.

  “Yeah, right.” The bathroom looked like a tornado had hit it. So I figured it was at least a three-hour job. I wasn’t in the mood to prove my point so I left it alone.

  “When did mom leave?” I asked.

  “She left at her usual time.”

  Her usual time was seven o’clock. My mom worked as a dental assistant at a dentist office. She made okay money. From what I heard she got a lot of money from my dad’s child support each month. So we were not poor or anything. We were not rich either. We were, as you would say, middle class.

  “Did she leave us any breakfast?” I asked.

  “The usual,” my sister said, giggling on the way to her room.

  The usual was donuts and milk. My sister knew I didn’t like donuts because one time on a camping trip all of my food spoiled and I was forced to eat nothing but powdered donuts for three days. Ever since then, I had a strong dislike for powdered donuts, actually donuts of any type, shape, or form. I decided to just drink some milk and head off for school.

  When I got to school, the excitement of the first day was in the air. Everyone was wearing new clothes. Kids were playing tetherball, jump rope and of course, school would not be complete unless Blayne was shooting baskets at the basketball courts, and sure enough he was.

  I walked over to him. Blayne wasn’t as tall as me but he was pretty close. We were the two tallest in the sixth grade. Blayne was a lot skinnier though.

  I’d known Blayne since I was about four years old. Girls seemed to like him more than me. Blayne had a face full of freckles that really didn’t stand out. They almost made his face look tan. I, on the other hand, was as pale as a ghost. My summer tan was wearing off and I was sort of at the pink state. Having blonde hair and blue eyes was definitely a plus for me.

  Blayne, Timmy and I had all been best friends since the first grade. But Blayne had a secret only I knew. You see Blayne liked Tanya. But Timmy and Tanya were boyfriend and girlfriend last year. However, on the last day of school Tanya broke up with Timmy for no reason at all. Timmy wasn’t the type of guy who would just sit down and talk about how he felt. Blayne and I both knew it must have bothered him, but he just shrugged it off.

  I thought the problem with Blayne and I was that we were too picky or maybe we were just shy. Every once in awhile we would hear about a girl liking us or thinking we were cute, but we never did anything about it. It was always the wrong girls who seemed to like us. I wanted to tell Blayne and Timmy about Sarah over the summer, but I never could get enough nerve to do it. It was easier to talk about the girls everyone knew were pretty. Sarah was special to me, unique in her own way. They probably wouldn’t understand.

  “Toss me the ball,” I said, motioning to Blayne. Blayne tossed me the basketball.

  “Can you believe it’s finally here? We are in the sixth grade. We’re finally on top,” Blayne said with a little too much excitement for my taste. “Hey, by any chance did you notice whose class Eric was in?”

  “No, I wasn’t looking for him,” I said. Eric Mullins was this big jerk that I couldn’t stand. Yet for some reason, girls always seemed to like him. So did Blayne. I never knew why, but he and Blayne got along fine. I always thought he was a creep with a bad attitude.

  One positive thing you could say about him was that he was quite an athlete. He was real good at football and baseball. I think he enjoyed football more, but he was an incredible pitcher. He and I had our share of games in which we pitched against each other. He was cocky, because he knew he was good. It gave him some strange pleasure to bother people. Due to the fact that I loved baseball, I never got along with him.

  “So do you think your class is pretty lame?” Blayne asked, knowing perfectly well that I was totally disappointed. Sometimes Blayne just said things just to say them.

  “It isn’t as good as yours,” I said. “Let’s just leave it at that.”

  Timmy walked up. He was dressed really nice. He always wore nice clothes, which was kind of weird, because his family was pretty poor. Timmy was about a head shorter than Blayne and I. Timmy had dark hair and brown eyes. Girls were always saying how cute he looked. It was kind of nauseating, but I could handle it. Ever since I had known him I’d heard that. What was cool about Timmy was he didn’t have a big head about it.

  “Are you guys ready for the best school year of your life?” Timmy asked
with enthusiasm. “Hey, toss me the ball.” He was way too excited for my taste.

  “Are you sure you want to play?” I asked. “I wouldn’t want you to get your clothes dirty.” I tossed the ball to him anyway.

  “Who cares,” Timmy said and laughed. Yet we all knew Timmy would have a fit if his clothes got dirty.

  Then the bell rang.

  I instantly began to feel sick to my stomach as I thought of Sarah. Was she going to be there? Did she move over the summer? Did she have a horrible accident and was in a wheelchair? I needed to know.

  “I guess we’ll see you at lunch, Cody,” Timmy said. “Let’s go, Blayne.” They both ran off to their room and I walked toward mine. My room number was 26. It was in the last building at the end of the school. I decided I had better hurry also.

  As I approached my classroom, I saw that everyone was in line. My sister and the usual crowd were there, but no one outstanding. Just the same kids year after year. Then someone yelled my name. It was a familiar voice. A voice I did not seem to care for. I turned around to see Eric Mullins. There he was, tossing a football. Apparently, he was in Mrs. Phyllis’ class also.

  “What’s up, Eric?” I asked, trying to be as polite as I could.

  “Hey, Mr. O’Neil is having after school flag football this year,” he said in his usual cocky voice.

  “Cool,” I said. I liked football. I was not obsessed with it like Eric, but I liked it.

  “He already told me that I’m going to be captain of one of the teams.”

  “That’s great.”

  “You should talk to him about it. He’ll probably make you a captain, too.”

  “Do you think?” I said, surprised.

  “You know because you’re so freakishly tall.”

  Eric lined up in front of me. His little statement bothered me. I was a good football player. I could run circles around him and he knew it. He might have had a great throwing arm, but I could outrun him any day.

  What was I doing letting Eric interfere with my destiny? I turned back away from him and looked for Sarah. She was nowhere in sight. I looked up and down the girl’s line about ten times. There was no sign of her. Had she moved after all?

  Then Mrs. Phyllis walked up, and we filed into our lines quickly. We knew the procedure by now, boys on one side and girls on the other. After all, we were sixth graders.

  Mrs. Phyllis stood by the door. She was prettier and shorter than I remembered. From the back, someone might mistake her as one of the girls in the class. From the front, she was all “woman”.

  “All right everyone, straighten up those lines and please come in quietly,” she said very pleasantly. “As you walk into the classroom, you’ll notice that all your names are on specific desks. Please find the desk with your name and sit down.”

  This was actually fun. As I looked for my name, I began to see a trend in how the names were set out. They were in alphabetical order by last name. That could only mean one thing. I would be sitting next to my sister.

  I found my desk and sat down.

  I looked to see if there was a desk with Sarah Davis’ name on it. When everyone settled, I noticed there were two desks that no one was sitting in. One of the desks had “Sarah Davis” on it. Well, at least the teacher thought Sarah was in the class. I was relieved.

  Mrs. Phyllis walked to the front of the class. She smiled and asked, “How are you today? To start with, my name is Mrs. Phyllis.” She then wrote her name on the chalkboard.

  I looked over at my sister. She wrote the teacher’s name down on a piece of paper. I thought that was a bit much, as if she would not have the whole year to memorize it. My sister always tried very hard to get good grades. I, on the other hand, had never tried much at all. The crazy thing was that I always got straight A’s. Sometimes, I might get an A- in something lame like penmanship or music. My sister always seemed to get B’s and C’s. We were not that competitive about grades. She was younger than I was and I gave her a break.

  Mrs. Phyllis talked for what seemed like an eternity. I looked over at Eric and noticed he was already falling asleep. It was no secret that Eric was not a good student. He often left class to get help in the resource room. I had never teased him about it. That was not my style.

  I continued listening to Mrs. Phyllis explain the rules and codes. When I heard the phrase “extra-curricular activities”, my ears perked up. I began to listen more intently.

  Chapter Three

  I straightened up in my seat. I was definitely interested in any activities that were outside the walls of the school.

  “We’re going to have a camp over Thanksgiving weekend for our students who we feel will represent our school to the highest potential. They are going to compete with other schools in Math, Science, and History. We’re going to select the top students of each subject in both sixth grade classes.”

  Suddenly, every single hand in the class went up. I didn’t raise my hand. I figured either I would be selected or I wouldn’t. I didn’t really like scholastic competition. The only competition I enjoyed was sports.

  This real snobby girl, named Lucy Johnson, kept waving her hand. Mrs. Phyllis finally asked her to speak.

  “When will we know who is selected?” Lucy asked, gleaming as if her smile would help her be a candidate. Lucy was real smart. The problem with Lucy was she knew she was smart and constantly reminded everyone.

  “The six will be chosen in the beginning of November,” Mrs. Phyllis answered. “We’re also going to have other events, such as after school sports for boys and girls.”

  Eric’s eyes gleamed.

  “That’s not all. The sixth grade will be doing a production of The Wizard of Oz,” she said proudly. “I personally will be directing it.”

  “The Wizard of Oz,” I thought, how interesting. I never thought too much about acting, but if Mrs. Phyllis was directing it, I might just try it.

  Again, everyone raised their hands and asked questions. When the teacher called on Eric, I listened closely. He had the only question I was interested in. “What other sports besides football will the boys be playing?” he asked.

  “The boys will be playing football, basketball, and baseball. The girls, I think, will be playing kickball, volleyball, and softball.”

  There was something about Mrs. Phyllis. When she spoke, it was as if she sang the words out of her mouth. Her voice was very soothing. I think it was almost too soothing, because my eyes were getting heavy. I decided to close them for a second, but I must have closed them longer than I thought. All of a sudden, I heard a real deep voice come from the back of the room that startled me. I straightened up and turned around quickly, almost as if someone had pinched me.

  Everyone in the class instantly got real quiet.

  It was Mr. Jones, the principal. He was a tall, muscular man in his forties who was to say the least, extremely intimidating. He had a real thick mustache that did not look real, like something you would buy at Halloween.

  “Yes, Mr. Jones, for what do we have this honor?” Mrs. Phyllis asked, very professional-like.

  “I need to speak to Cody Greer,” he said very sternly.

  Cody Greer? That was me! What could I have possibly done? It was the first day of school. It was the first hour of school. Maybe he found out about my fight with Tommy Madkins. Maybe he was transferring me to Mr. O’Neil’s class. I didn’t know. This was extremely weird. I got up slow and stood by my desk. My sister was grinning the way sisters do when they know you are in trouble. But, I couldn’t be in trouble. I didn’t do anything wrong at school. I walked over to him and followed him outside. He shut the door behind us.

  “Son,” he said, “do you know how long I’ve been teaching?”

  “No,” I said, almost petrified.

  “Twenty one years. I have been a principal for ten of them. In all my years of teaching...”

  Uh oh, here it comes, I thought. He knew about the fight. I was dead. He was going to suspend me.

  “...Fr
om Kindergarten to now, you have never missed a day of school. You are on your way to a perfect attendance here at Wenchester Elementary School. Are you aware of that son?”

  “Yes sir, I am.” Was that all he wanted? He just wanted to congratulate me?

  He continued, “Every year we choose a sixth grader to do the attendance for the entire school. This year we have chosen you. Every morning you need to first report to your teacher, and then go to all the classes and get their attendance sheets for the day. When you are finished, just bring all the attendance sheets to the office. The way I figure it, if you never miss a day of school then you’re the one for the job.”

  I couldn’t believe it. That was all he wanted to say to me. I never thought it was much of a big deal to attend school every day. However, never missing a day got me a lot of attention from teachers. I had never dreamed that the principal would pay me a personal visit though. I felt special.

  Mr. Jones looked pretty scary before he talked to me. Apparently principals tried to do that. It was probably a power thing. If I could scare kids all day long, I would too. To be completely honest, I was relieved and disappointed at the same time. I was hoping that maybe he was transferring me to Mr. O’Neil’s class. Sometimes the school administration did that sort of thing on the first day of school.

  “So what do you think? Would you like to do this for us?” Mr. Jones asked boldly.

  “Sure. It could be fun,” I said and thanked him.

  “I’d like for you to start right now, if that’s okay with you. You need to just go to every classroom and pick up their attendance sheet. It’s that simple. I’ll go back inside your classroom and tell Mrs. Phyllis what I have you doing.”

  I went to every class and picked up their attendance sheets. I thought it was pretty cool walking around outside. The sun was shining and it was breezy.

  It was weird going to Mr. O’Neil’s classroom though. The kids all had their noses in books and were real quiet. No one turned around. Blayne and Timmy didn’t even know I was in the room. Mr. O’Neil seemed like he might be extremely strict. He was just the opposite of Mrs. Phyllis.