Total crap! it was gonna be good, but I lost my train of thought. Toot
“The Frekes wont quit!” he said as he dove through the door.
“What do you mean? I thought we fixed that problem.”
“I guess not. Its just a good thing they can’t aim worth a shit.”
“Well,” I pause, unable to come up with something that might help; “yeah.”
My brother and I were home again. After moving out here, we got really good at staying away from people. School was pointless. Its not like we were learning anything anyway. We came from the best public schooling system in the nation. Now we were supposed to dodge bullets from these stupid rednecks, just to be ridiculed for our knowledge? Only one teacher saw our potential. He came to us one day, while we were still in the halls, enjoying the safety of the school
“Hey kids, get over here!”
Sean looked at me, knowing we hadn’t done anything. Mr. Kallery wasn’t even my teacher. Curiously we approached him. He was a bear of a man, six foot three inches, about one hundred and seventy-five pounds. He wasn’t movie star good-looking, but there was a certain comfort that one could get from his blue eyes. There were stories that he was built like a wall, but he always wore the baggy button-up shirts, and jeans. He always had a clean appearance, which stood out in this place. The filth was overwhelming. I had to purposely ignore certain aspects of my appearance so that I wouldn’t get harassed by the kids here. This was high school, dammit. There was no reason for bullies here. Sorry, I’ll get back to where I was.
“I want you two in my room, now.”
So we trudged in, expecting the worst. We had been called in before, always together. Sometimes we were warned because we were ‘smart alecs’. Sometimes we had hurt somebodys feelings because we made such good grades. Anything to annoy the new kids, the clean kids, the smart kids. We had made few friends in the short time we had been here, but plenty of people wanted to be our enemies.
Once we got into the room, he shut the door. His angry expression suddenly softened.
“Sorry about that, but I don’t want anything to seem out of order.”
His fast clear sentences were a relief from the stumbling language that surrounded us. The slight accent, not so different from ours, was a comfort.
“So, uh, is there a problem, Mr. Kallery?” I spoke out first, knowing Sean was probably angry because we had missed the bus, again.
“Oh, not really. I just wanted to talk to you guys, that’s all. You certainly stand out in a place like this. I’ve heard horrible things from some teachers. I just wanted to see if there was any substance to them.”
“God, we missed the bus for nothing? This really blows, you know that?” Sean spoke out finally. “We aren’t side show acts, you know”
“Oh shit” I thought. Why can’t he control his anger? Our parents are sick of the daily phone calls from the school.
Mr. Kallery’s eyes hardened, anger seeping in around the edges. Then he smiled. “I’m sorry about that, but there are other things I wanted to talk to you about.
“You two are the brightest kids that have ever graced these halls. That just isn’t appreciated by a lot of people. These kids don’t care if you can do Calculus, as you can. They don’t want you to study and get 110’s on every test. That screws up the curve that they get. These kids, who normally get B’s, C’s, and D’s, aren’t passing. That means they have to try harder if they want to get their degree. And these are the kids who care. The rest of them don’t like you because you don’t look like they do. The rest of them don’t like you because you don’t look like they do. You have ‘nice clothes’ and they don’t. just be glad you don’t have cars.
“I want you to drop out, disappear.”
Let me tell you, that was the best thing we had heard since we got here. We knew we didn’t fit in. then Sean asked what we were both wondering;
“What do we do about school?”
“Hah. Its funny you should ask. I can get a home-schooling system for you. The school puts it out. Not many people care enough to get it, but I am in charge of keeping it updated. The reason I like you kids so much
(c) Chris N
“The Frekes wont quit!” he said as he dove through the door.
“What do you mean? I thought we fixed that problem.”
“I guess not. Its just a good thing they can’t aim worth a shit.”
“Well,” I pause, unable to come up with something that might help; “yeah.”
My brother and I were home again. After moving out here, we got really good at staying away from people. School was pointless. Its not like we were learning anything anyway. We came from the best public schooling system in the nation. Now we were supposed to dodge bullets from these stupid rednecks, just to be ridiculed for our knowledge? Only one teacher saw our potential. He came to us one day, while we were still in the halls, enjoying the safety of the school
“Hey kids, get over here!”
Sean looked at me, knowing we hadn’t done anything. Mr. Kallery wasn’t even my teacher. Curiously we approached him. He was a bear of a man, six foot three inches, about one hundred and seventy-five pounds. He wasn’t movie star good-looking, but there was a certain comfort that one could get from his blue eyes. There were stories that he was built like a wall, but he always wore the baggy button-up shirts, and jeans. He always had a clean appearance, which stood out in this place. The filth was overwhelming. I had to purposely ignore certain aspects of my appearance so that I wouldn’t get harassed by the kids here. This was high school, dammit. There was no reason for bullies here. Sorry, I’ll get back to where I was.
“I want you two in my room, now.”
So we trudged in, expecting the worst. We had been called in before, always together. Sometimes we were warned because we were ‘smart alecs’. Sometimes we had hurt somebodys feelings because we made such good grades. Anything to annoy the new kids, the clean kids, the smart kids. We had made few friends in the short time we had been here, but plenty of people wanted to be our enemies.
Once we got into the room, he shut the door. His angry expression suddenly softened.
“Sorry about that, but I don’t want anything to seem out of order.”
His fast clear sentences were a relief from the stumbling language that surrounded us. The slight accent, not so different from ours, was a comfort.
“So, uh, is there a problem, Mr. Kallery?” I spoke out first, knowing Sean was probably angry because we had missed the bus, again.
“Oh, not really. I just wanted to talk to you guys, that’s all. You certainly stand out in a place like this. I’ve heard horrible things from some teachers. I just wanted to see if there was any substance to them.”
“God, we missed the bus for nothing? This really blows, you know that?” Sean spoke out finally. “We aren’t side show acts, you know”
“Oh shit” I thought. Why can’t he control his anger? Our parents are sick of the daily phone calls from the school.
Mr. Kallery’s eyes hardened, anger seeping in around the edges. Then he smiled. “I’m sorry about that, but there are other things I wanted to talk to you about.
“You two are the brightest kids that have ever graced these halls. That just isn’t appreciated by a lot of people. These kids don’t care if you can do Calculus, as you can. They don’t want you to study and get 110’s on every test. That screws up the curve that they get. These kids, who normally get B’s, C’s, and D’s, aren’t passing. That means they have to try harder if they want to get their degree. And these are the kids who care. The rest of them don’t like you because you don’t look like they do. The rest of them don’t like you because you don’t look like they do. You have ‘nice clothes’ and they don’t. just be glad you don’t have cars.
“I want you to drop out, disappear.”
Let me tell you, that was the best thing we had heard since we got here. We knew we didn’t fit in. then Sean asked what we were both wondering;
“What do we do about school?”
“Hah. Its funny you should ask. I can get a home-schooling system for you. The school puts it out. Not many people care enough to get it, but I am in charge of keeping it updated. The reason I like you kids so much
(c) Chris N
<< Home