Metal Bracelet

It has been described as "A good little story about life in high school"

 

            “Who do you have?”

            “For biology, uh…Bustemante.”

            “Cool, me too. George?”

            “Huh?”

            “Who do you have next?”

            “Uh, I got, um…Bust - ee…mant? Who the - ”

            “It’s Boo�"steh-mahn-tay, stupid. Bustemante.”

            “Whatever.”

            “So you know who he is, Kat?” said Peyton.

            “Sort of… I heard he’s tough.”

            “Like how?”

            “I don’t know. Like taking things from students all the time for no reason.”

            “Hey!” said Dan defensively, “That’s not - ”

            “Oh no!” George suddenly sprung to life. “Him? Dude, you, like, can’t even get something from your backpack without him just taking all your stuff. He’s completely insane.”

            “But - ”

            “Yeah, really paranoid.”

            “God…I hate science,” Peyton sighed. “I hate school �" it’s, like, the same thing every single year. We never learn anything new. What’s the point?”

            “I know,” Kat piped up, “and English too. All we do is read books for points, but for what?”

“Yeah! Seriously, there’s no job out there that pays you to read stupid AR books all day. And essays! Why do they have to be timed?”

“I don’t know,” said Kat, “and there’s a million rules for them. Like if you miss one concrete detail or whatever, then your whole grade drops!”

            “Oh! And math,” said Peyton triumphantly, “last year, my teacher even said that almost all of us would never use or see any of the stuff we just learned ever again.”

            “Jeez, that sucks…”

            The bell rang for the end of break. They all pulled their backpacks on reluctantly.

            “At least we’ve all got biology together,” said Dan hopefully. No one responded.

            Peyton let the rest of the group, Dan, Kat, and George, walk in before her. They all sat together at one of the back tables with stools. She dropped her backpack on the ground with a clank and flopped in her seat. Dan was already taking his binder out, George had his hood up and was listening to his ipod, and Kat was leaning back and texting on her phone. Peyton put her head down, vacantly tapping her bracelet on the table.

            Kat looked up from her phone and leaned forward.

            “Oh no. Don’t tell me you’re wearing one of those stupid metal bracelets too? They are so annoying. Even you said they were annoying!”

            “It’s not a bracelet, dummy.” Peyton held her wrist up, “Look �" it’s a handcuff, half of one. Looks real doesn’t it?”

            “No.”

            “Whatever. It’s not like those other bracelets everyone’s wearing. This one’s not girly. It makes me look like a rebel.”

            Kat laughed loudly. The teacher stood in front of the class and waved his arms.

            “Alright everyone! I’m Mr. Bustemante, please check your schedules and make sure you are in the right class. If not, I will have mercy on you and write up a good excuse for your teacher.”

            A few people checked, but mostly talking started up again. Peyton put her head down.

            During the class, Mr. Bustemante talked about what they would be doing and what he expected of them. He also confiscated George’s ipod, Kat’s phone �" along with three others �" and the paper Peyton had been doodling on, telling them to get them after class. George and Kat stayed to get their things, but Peyton left immediately, her fists clenched.

            Kat stomped to the table where Peyton and Dan were already eating lunch, then flung her backpack on the ground.

            “I hate him!” she yelled. Dan looked up from his salad.

            “Where’s George?”

            “I don’t care! Do you know how insane that teacher is? Taking everyone’s stuff!”

            “You were texting in class.”

            “So! The other teachers don’t just snatch stuff out of your hands!”

            “Yeah they do, except they don’t snatch. And neither did he.”

            “You’re just saying that ‘cause you don’t like cell phones. You probably even liked him, didn’t you?”

            “Yeah,” said Dan, “he seemed really cool, and really smart.”

            “Well,” said Kat, and finally she sat down. “I think he’s a freak, and now lunch is practically over. And he’s ugly too.”

            “I don’t really like him either,” Peyton muttered, “he’s just a fake like all the other teachers. I wonder if any of them really believe there’s any point to coming to school…”

            They ate quietly for a few minutes.

            “Um…”said Dan, “Nice bracelet, by the way.” He pointed to Peyton’s handcuff.

            “Thanks, I think it’s pretty cool. Kind of uncomfortable, though…”

            A few weeks passed, and they sat together in the back table once again in Mr. Bustemante’s room. The whole class was noisy with reactions to graded papers being passed back. Peyton had no papers in front of her, so she took the opportunity to put her head down and rest, as she always did in many of her classes.

            George was using most of his returned papers to make paper balls, and then throwing them across the room like bullets. Mr. Bustemante asked him several times to stop, but eventually he started up again.

            After all the papers had been returned and put away, Mr. Bustemante began talking and congratulating them all on their grades. Still, George was throwing paper bullets whenever he turned his head.

            “George,” said Mr. Bustemante in a deeper voice than usual, “will you at least stop while I am speaking?”

            A dead silence fell on the class. George looked up guiltily.

            “What? I’m not even doing anything.”

            “You’re disrupting the class.”

            “How? They aren’t even looking at me.”

            Peyton smirked at him in encouragement. Mr. Bustemante gestured at the class.

            “They are now, and very politely too. Would you like to continue to entertain them?”

            “No…” George was shifting around in his seat, “What? We aren’t even doing anything!”

            “We’re discussing grades.”

            “You are! I know what my grades are, why do I have to listen to you talk about them?”

            Mr. Bustemante’s face looked pained. He walked to the door and held it open.

            George sighed and followed him out.

            The class sat in an uncomfortable silence for a minute. Then, one by one, they began whispering to each other. A few people tried to sneak looks out the window, with reports of, “They’re still just talking.”

            After ten minutes, when everyone was talking regularly again, Mr. Bustemante stepped into the room, holding the door open. George shuffled in, his eyes downcast. Kat whispered furiously into Peyton’s ear.

            “What the heck did he do to George?”

            Peyton just sank lower in her seat and frowned at her hands. Then she jumped suddenly when she saw her teacher standing in front of her.

            “Peyton,” he whispered, “please speak with me after class.”

            When the bell rang, Peyton stayed in her seat, fiddling with her bracelet like it was suddenly interesting. Once the room was empty, Mr. Bustemante came over and sat down to face her.

            “First of all,” he said, “I would rather you didn’t give your friend any more encouragement when it comes to talking back at a teacher. I don’t think he liked being the center of attention. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

            He leaned forward slightly with an unbearable look of concern on his face.

            “I’m wondering…what exactly is holding you back from doing your work in this class? Now…I spoke to some of your teachers, and you seem to face similar problems there. You’re a wonderful test-taker, you’ve got nothing below a B on any test I’ve given. So I know you’re smart, you can figure things out, but I also know you’ve got way more potential than this.”

            Peyton just looked at her handcuff, and began opening and closing it.

            “We are going to have some more projects in this class soon, so perhaps that will challenge you and inspire you to get a little more work done. Besides this, I’m sure you know that school is not always going to teach you what you want to learn, but it will always teach you what you need to learn. It has to prepare you for as much about life as it can, not just the pieces you like.”

            Peyton opened the handcuff a little too roughly and it broke in two.

            “Oops,”Mr. Bustemante laughed. “Well, that’s all I had to say. Hopefully it helped.”

            Peyton walked slowly out to the lunch tables.

            “So what did he do to you?” said Kat.

            “He just - ”

            “Hey,” said Dan, “what happened to your handcuff?”

            Peyton threw away the broken pieces.

            “It’s not a handcuff. It’s just another stupid metal bracelet.”

Reviews

[Alexander Fox]

f you ask about them catching the metaphor, there gonna be on metaphor patrol. Let people take from it what they will. In the end, it's much better that way. Really long, but I enjoyed the ending. I do want to know why you always right about men however.... especially for someone who blames and condemns them for so much.