Nadine and Adele

The Project

With Mr. Trudeaux running late, the students are taking advantage of the free time conversing. All conversations come to an abrupt halt when Mr. Trudeaux enters the classroom and announces his presence...

"Pardon my tardiness, everyone; but I had some business to attend to before class."

Adele timidly enters the room. Immediately, all eyes are focused upon her.

Frankie leans over to Troy. "What's the Retard doing here?"

Troy shrugs his shoulders.

Mr. Trudeaux faces Adele. "I don't stand much on formality, Adele; so please, feel free to sit wherever you'd like."

Mr. Trudeaux heads to the front of the classroom; leaving Adele standing in the back alone. Aware that everyone's staring at her, she quickly becomes unnerved; even more so than usual. She's convinced that even though being in Mr. Trudeaux's Sociology class was a big honor; it was an even bigger mistake. Adele hurries to an empty seat in the back corner of the room and immediately gazes out the window as a means of escape.

Facing the chalkboard, Mr. Trudeaux jots down the word "SOCIOLOGY".

"Who knows what sociology is?"

Class clown, Troy Washington, jokingly responds, "It's the study of sociopaths."

His remark gets the class to laugh; even evoking a slight smile on Mr. Trudeaux's visage.

Still keeping his back to the class, Mr. Trudeaux wryly retorts, "No, Mr. Washington; sociology is not the study of sociopaths. However; with a basic understanding of sociology, one may be able to ascertain who may possibly be a sociopath...perhaps keeping oneself from being buried in the basement of one's next door neighbor."

Now it's Mr. Trudeaux who receives the class' laughter. Without turning, he calls out to Adele...

"Ms. Wilson, I know you know what sociology is; I heard you explain it to Principal Davis earlier this morning."

All at once, the entire class spins around in their seats; and again, all eyes are fixed upon Adele. And when Mr. Trudeaux turns around, he immediately notices Adele's terrified face emanating a pleading look for him not to put her on the spot.

"That's okay, Adele; I'll tell them." He turns back around and begins writing notes on the chalkboard. "As Ms. Wilson explained; sociology is the study of people...or more specifically...the study in trends of how society interacts...taking into account factors such as culture, religion, sexual gender and orientation, economic status, politics and so forth and so on. In general, the dynamics and workings of society as a whole. Now I suppose I can bore you all with loads of facts, statistics and terms to learn...but I've come up with a little experiment that I feel you might find interesting."

Troy once again calls out. "So, we won't have to learn terms or facts?"

Mr. Trudeaux faces Troy. "Alas, Mr. Washington; I'm afraid you will. But I'm sure you'll all find the project somewhat intriguing." He turns back to the chalkboard and continues scribbling down notes. "Each of you will pair off with a classmate and become friends for the school year."

Frankie exclaims, "Ooh...I pick Nadine."

Frankie, in his mind believing his delivery being equivalent to that of 'Rico Suave'... appearing more like 'Marmaduke' to Nadine...goofily grins and nods at her; then finishes with a pitiful, cliché wink. Nadine responds by shooting him a look of disdain.

Eddie Cooper, the class 'School Band Ambassador'; yes, a little bit of a nerd ,but all around nice guy...who's had a major crush on Nadine since the fourth grade; but has always been too shy to express his feelings to her...finds the nerve to assert...

"Actually...if it's alright with you, Mr. Trudeaux...I'd like to be partnered with Nadine."

"Whoa...slow your roll there, 'Antonio I'm-in-the-band-deros'...a girl like Nadine needs a real guy to be her partner."

'Marmaduke' appears again; and Nadine shoots Frankie a bigger look of disdain.

Mr. Trudeaux, who's been continuing writing notes on the board all this time, informs them, "Yes...I am sure all the gentlemen in class would like to be partnered with Ms. Martin..." turns to Frankie, "but alas, Mr. Kowalski; you are not going to be Ms. Martin's partner."

Eddie heartily exclaims, "Ha!"

"Ha indeed, Mr. Cooper..." Mr. Trudeaux turns to Eddie, "but perhaps you shouldn't be so quick with your 'ha's'...for you aren't going to be her partner either."

Frankie snaps, "Ha!"

Mr. Trudeaux turns back to the chalkboard. "No...I will be selecting the partners for this project...and I have decided that Ms. Martin will be partnered with Ms. Wilson."

Adele quickly turns from looking out the window to the front of the classroom. Are her ears deceiving her...can it be true? Did Mr. Trudeaux just announce that she was going to be partners with Nadine Martin? Were they really going to be friends for a whole year?

He looks to Nadine. "I take it you don't have a problem with that, Ms. Martin?"

Nadine looks back to Adele and smiles. Adele shyly smiles back. Nadine, still smiling, turns back to him and says...

"No...no problem at all, Mr. Trudeaux."

"Fine...I gathered that you wouldn't." He resumes writing. "And besides; it wouldn't matter...as I said; I will be assigning partners. I've chosen to partner each of you with someone whom you might not normally associate with on..."

Frankie, being the smart-aleck that he is, cruelly blurts out, "Shoot; in that case, we should all be partners with the Retard."

Every student except Nadine, Janice and Eddie laughs.

With his back remaining to the class, Mr. Trudeaux angrily chastises Frankie...
"Mr. Kowalski...if you feel compelled that you must speak out of turn in my class; I implore you that you at least have something productive or worthwhile to say...and not to do so just to demonstrate your ignorance and spout your Neanderthal blathering." He turns around to face Adele. "I apologize, Ms. Wilson, for your classmate's rudeness."

Another first. Adele now feels as if she should pinch herself to see if she's awake; and to make sure this wasn't just some fantastic dream of hers. Mr. Trudeaux apologized to her. No one outside of her tiny family circle had ever apologized to her before; it was always her place to do the apologizing, whether it was her fault or not...which, in most cases, it wasn't. And even though the real culprit wasn't the one to apologize to her, she still had received an apology. This has to be a dream.

Realizing that there's lingering tension permeating the room, Janice hesitantly raises her hand and gingerly asks, "Excuse me...Mr. Trudeaux?"

"Yes, Ms. Damas?"

"What's the purpose of this project? I mean...I'm sorry, Mr. Trudeaux; but I don't see the point to it."

Having had his composure return, Mr. Trudeaux goes on to explain...

"The point...my little Sociological disciples...is that you are now High School Juniors; and next year, most of you...it may take some of you a little longer..." he looks at Frankie, "others perhaps requiring Divine Intervention..."

He returns to looking about the class and continues...

"But a good majority of you will graduate; and enter what is commonly referred to as 'the real world'. And be rest assured, you will often be required to interact with someone of a differing background at one time or another. So why not take the opportunity now... in the safety of your own little pond...to learn how to get along with others from different backgrounds. 

I want you to take this time to experience spending time with someone unlike yourselves...to make an honest effort to understand them...to learn something about them. And perhaps...when this project is over..." he smiles at Nadine, "maybe even learn a little something about yourselves."