Back to School

Meeting our heroes

Back to School

Matt Franklin didn’t realize his invisibility had worn off until he noticed the rest of the class looking at him and giggling.

     “Well, Mr. Franklin?”

     It was Matt’s new teacher, Mr. Broward, and he had called on Matt in class, something that hadn’t happened since he was in third grade. Now that he was in seventh grade, he had almost completely forgotten how to participate in class.

     Of course, Matt was never really invisible. Unnoticed would be a better description. Matt had the uncanny ability to blend into the background. He never got detentions, but he never got awards, either. His teachers would regularly forget his name, calling him “Martin” or “Michael.”

     Now, everyone in class seemed to notice him as he blushed furiously.

     “What a dork,” Scott Farnsworth, the class bully laughed, pointing a finger the size of a hotdog at Matt and looking around to make sure the rest of the class was laughing along.

     Aw, crap! thought Matt. One of the biggest advantages of being invisible was avoiding the class bully. Now, he was on Scott Farnsworth’s radar screen, and that was a place no seventh grader wanted to be. Scott Farnsworth wasn’t just big for his age, he was a giant. Matt wasn’t sure who was bigger; Scott Farnsworth or Matt’s dad. He always wore jeans, black tee shirts and big boots, perfect for stomping on kids’ feet. His hair was reddish blond, cut short like someone in the Army. His face was covered with freckles, and he had one think eyebrow over both eyes. He was not smart, but he always seemed to know which kids had extra lunch money or a new pack of Starburst.

Matt could now look forward to being pushed, shoved, teased and wedgied by Scott Farnsworth and his crew. A chubby, Asian kid was looking at him sympathetically, and Matt was sure he was thinking the same thing. In fact, that kid and a girl with short, dark hair and funny clothes were the only kids in class not laughing. For everyone else, a kid getting embarrassed was like blood in the water to a pack of hungry sharks.

     “Perhaps you didn’t hear me, Mr. Franklin. I asked you if you could name some characteristics of mammals for the class.”

     Matt’s voice cracked as he began to answer, prompting a new wave of laughter. Scott Farnsworth laughed loudest, of course.

     “Mammals have hair or fur and feed their babies milk.”

     “Excellent, Mr. Franklin. If you had only answered me the first time I asked, it would have been perfect. Now, please pay attention in my class. You are now in seventh grade. You are not small children any longer. I expect everyone in my classroom to participate in a meaningful, positive way. And by positive, Mr. Farnsworth, I do not mean laughing at your classmates.”

     Now, it was Scott’s turn to blush, and Matt couldn’t help but smile. Unfortunately, Scott saw Matt smiling and the look on Scott’s face was enough to wipe the grin right off Matt’s face. Now there was no doubt: Matt was on Scott’s list. The Asian kid and the girl with crazy clothes looked at him like he was already dead, and he wondered if he wouldn’t be better off if they were right.

     Just to break eye contact with Farnsworth, Matt focused his gaze on Mr. Broward. He didn’t look like the typical teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School. For one, most of Matt’s other teachers were old, some even older than his parents. Mr. Broward didn’t look like he was old, but he dressed kind of funny, like Matt pictured people in black and white movies. He wore a grey tweed suit with a vest and a tie. Most of his other teachers rolled up the sleeves on their button down shirts, and it was a special occasion when they weren’t covered in wrinkles �" both the shirts and the teachers. He had dark hair and a thin beard, like he hadn’t shaved in a week. He looked strong and the muscles of his arms made his coat sleeves bulge, but he seemed to limp a little as he paced in front of the class. As he paced, light glinted off his round, wire-framed glasses.

     “Ok, class,” Mr. Broward said, taking a stack of lined paper from the corner of his desk. “I believe the first day of class is the perfect time for your first quiz.”

     Groans erupted from the classroom, and Farnsworth glared at Matt, as if this was his fault, too. Mr. Broward just smiled.

     “Settle down, it’s not that kind of quiz. Just write down as many mammals as you can think of. Mr. Franklin has given you a great basis of comparison, although there are exceptions to every rule, of course. The top three lists will receive extra credit, and there will be no penalty, as long as you put in a good effort. A good effort, Mr. Farnsworth, which includes turning around and facing the front of the class.”

     Stop, please! Matt thought desperately, as Farnsworth gave Matt one last glare before swiveling his considerable bulk in his chair. Matt barely looked up as a piece of paper was passed back to him. His palms were clammy, and he had trouble keeping a grip on his pencil. The dark-haired girl gave him one last look, part pity, part understanding, before she turned her attention to her paper.

     “Please begin. And please do the work on your own.” Mr. Broward walked down the aisle between Scott and his friend, Kenny Breck, a thin kid with a cruel face that looked a bit like a rat. They were always coming up with new and creative ways to torment kids, and this year it appeared that they would have ample opportunity to talk about how to inflict maximum torment, seeing as they were sitting next to each other.

     Matt watched his classmates put their heads down and begin to write, his pencil poised over the paper. As he looked around the class, he caught Mr. Broward looking at him, making him freeze. Mr. Broward gave him a small smile, then a quick nod. Matt smiled nervously back before putting his pencil on the first line, and beginning to list all the mammals he could think of.

     To Matt, this was like someone asking him to name some of his favorite things. Matt’s room had a huge, old bookcase that used to be in his grandparents’ house. It was filled from top to bottom with books on animals. He had the books organized by type: Bugs weren’t his favorite, so they were on the top shelf, requiring him to get a chair from his desk to stand on whenever he wanted to get one down. Next were fish, which mostly consisted of shark books, with a couple tropical fish books mixed in. The prime position, right at eye level, was where he kept his bird books. His grandmother had even given her a beautiful Audubon book, and he never tired at looking at the beautiful bird paintings. Beneath birds were mammals, with books on lions, tigers and bears, as well as dogs and cats. The bottom shelves had reptile books �" big picture books filled with colorful pictures of snakes, crocodiles, and lizards. The books were his prized possessions and best means of escape when he felt lonely, which was often. He had no close friends and was constantly being ignored by his parents, who were more concerned with their older, more popular and talented daughter, Jennifer.

As the minutes passed by and his paper begin to fill, Matt stopped worrying about being noticed by Mr. Broward, or even Scott Farnsworth. A small smile played on his face without him even knowing.  It was the first he had enjoyed school for a very long time.

     “Pencils down,please.”

     Matt scrambled to finish the last animal on his list. He was disappointed that he didn’t have more time, because he had so many more mammals he wanted to add to his paper, but he was shocked when he looked and saw that he had filled the front completely and put quite a few more names on the back. He was sure it was the most effort he had put into a class assignment since he could remember.

     Matt passed his paper toward the front, and heard a small gasp from Kenny Breck as his paper reached him. He had the feeling that Kenny hadn’t listed nearly as many mammals as he had. He knew that wouldn’t help him avoid being picked on, but he also felt a bit proud of his work.

     Mr. Broward took a few minutes to review the class’s work, and Matt stared out the window, trying hard to not notice the glare directed at him from Scott. He wanted to hold onto the good feeling as long as possible. A crazy thought popped into his head: What if I could feel this way in class every day? He almost laughed at the thought, but a small part of him really wondered why it couldn’t be possible.

     The class began to get restless as they waited for Mr. Broward to finish grading the quizzes. As usual, Matt observed the class from the outside of any conversation. He noticed which kids were grouping together. Of course, Scott and Kenny were leaning close and whispering. Matt was sure that they were planning their next attack, and wondered if he was the target.

A few girls in the front row giggled at each other as they compared their new, first-day-of-school shoes. Matt was sure by this time tomorrow, they would have all their books covered with pictures of the newest teen singing group or actor. Having an older sister, he had seen it all before, and wondered how long the book covers would last until the next, latest, greatest thing came along.

There were a couple groups of boys. One group was easy to pick out because they all wore hats, shirts and jackets of their favorite team. It didn’t even matter what sport it was, they were drawn together by the colorful plumage of their chosen teams, and tried to relate everything to sports. The other group didn’t wear any particular clothes, and rarely looked up from the hand held video game unless they heard the clicking of someone else’s game. To talk to them, you would think they had been to the deepest jungle, the deserts of Persia and far into outer space. Of course, they rarely left their rooms, so any interstellar travel was highly unlikely.

The only kids who weren’t grouped up were the same two who looked worried when Scott Farnsworth started teasing Matt. The boy had his head down over a notebook on his desk, and it looked like he was drawing something pretty complicated. His clothes reminded Matt of his father. He wore a pastel blue golf shirt and khaki pants with white tennis shoes. Matt wondered if he had used a bowl to cut his hair. He looked soft, like the Pillsbury Dough Boy, but based on the size of the kid’s book bag, Matt guessed he was a lot stronger than he looked.

 Matt craned his neck to try to see what the boy was drawing. From what he could see, the boy was drawing an animal, but not like any animal that Matt had seen. It looked like it had the body of a deer, the scales of a dragon, the head of a lion, and a single, spiral horn in the center of its head. He tried to wiggle in his chair to get a better look, until the boy looked up and noticed Matt. He blushed fiercely, and moved the notebook so Matt couldn’t see it. He gave Matt an apologetic smile and Matt smiled back before the boy turned back to his drawing.

The girl didn’t seem shy at all. She sat up strait in her chair, slowly surveying the class. She wore jeans, a concert tee-shirt of a band called Led Zeppelin, and bright colored canvas tennis shoes. On one wrist she had a wide leather bracelet and on the other she had dozens of bright plastic bands. Her hair was short and spiked up, with magenta highlights. When she noticed Matt, she tilted her head slightly, like she was sizing him up. She had large green eyes, and she didn’t seem to blink very often. Matt couldn’t meet her eyes for very long, and broke away to look out the window. As Matt looked back, he saw that the girl had moved on to look at Scott Farnsworth, and was pleased to see his big frame squirm under her gaze.

“Settle down, class.”

Mr. Broward stood and moved to the front of his desk, where he leaned back against it, arms folded.

“I must say, I am impressed. Most of you put quite an impressive list together.” He nodded appreciatively as he scanned the class. “I believe we will have quite a productive year. Just remember; you will only get out of this class what you put into it.”

He pushed off the desk and turned to grab a few papers off his desk. He scanned them one at a time, looking up after he examined each one. After the third sheet, Mr. Broward looked up and Matt found him looking right at him. He gave another of his nods, causing Matt to blush a bit and break eye contact.

“The top three papers were produced by Toru Watanabe…” He placed a paper on the boy’s desk, who kept his head down, but said politely “Please call me Theodore, Mr. Broward.”

“Of course, Theodore. Maya Rodriquez…” He placed another paper on the desk of the girl with the crazy clothes and short hair. She beamed up at Mr. Broward.

“Thanks!”

“No need to thank me, Ms. Rodriquez. You are the one who produced such an impressive list. I was amazed at the number of felines you listed, in particular. Excellent work. And last, but certainly not least; Matthew Franklin.”

Matt’s paper was placed on his desk, and Matt noticed that Mr. Broward’s hands were covered with scars. Matt thought they didn’t look like a teacher’s hands, but a cowboy or a miner �" someone who did hard work all day long.

“I have never seen a more extensive list in my years as a teacher than the one produced by Mr. Franklin. I have a feeling the only reason it was not longer was because I concluded the exercise.” He tapped Matt’s paper with his scarred finger appreciatively. “Well done, all three of you. Let us give a round of applause for these three students.” He clapped his knarled hands together, looking around the class until the other students reluctantly joined in the applause. Scott Farnsworth barely touched his hands together, looking at Matt with such loathing that Matt was sure that he was firmly at the top of Scott’s hit list. He was pretty confident that most of the other kids didn’t like him too much either. But Maya and Theodore, at least, seemed pretty nice, and they were pretty much in the same boat as Matt.  And for the first time, Matt wasn’t in a boat all by himself.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 - same as the first, any feedback is appreciated.

Reviews

[RainDancer1997]

lol great 7th grader character:) nothing wrong with being an outcast:)!

[Sharon Kim]

Great descriptions. Matt's observations seem very authentic and believable for a seventh grader. This moved along well. You've set it up nicely for the three 'outcasts' to become friends. I like the character of Mr. Broward. I'm intrigued by him, and wondering where the scars come from-what's his story?
Keep writing!!!