You and me | Pacey Witter

fifteen

AFTER SCHOOL, Aurora and Pacey were in her bedroom, sitting on the bed. Pacey had told the girl everything that had occurred in Mr. Peterson's class today, and man, did she hate that teacher, and she hardly really hated anyone, but two people had just happened to make that list.

"So, Jack wrote a poem about a guy?" Aurora asked. "Well, I mean, it doesn't matter," she shrugged. "It doesn't mean anything. If Jack's gay, then he's gay, no one can change that. I don't know about you guys, but I support him 100%, and if people can't wrap their head around straight enough to support him, then the least they could do is keep their opinion to themselves and leave him be."

"Yeah, but that would only be in a perfect society," Pacey told the girl. "He only wants to see us miserable. But I'm not going to take it anymore. Someone has to take a stand against him."

"I have an idea," Aurora told the boy before she grabbed his hand and rushed out of the room. The two made their way downstairs and down to where her uncle sat on the couch, watching television. 

Joshua paused the tv, "damn, I thought a herd of cows was coming down the stairs. What's all the ruckus for?"

Aurora sighed, "we need help on how to deal with a teacher, and at this point, we don't care if we get in trouble or not, but he pretty much outed our friend to the entire class, and we wanted to make a stand."

Joshua sighed, "uh, I don't know. The only way I took a stand to a teacher, it got me in trouble," he told them. "But your right, that isn't right for him to out someone else, if they aren't ready, or at all for that matter."

"I don't care if I get in trouble, sir," Pacey told the man. "Trust me, no one but the school is going to care."

Joshua frowned before he spoke up, "spit in his face." The two of them looked at him with questioning looks. "Spit in his face. It's the least troubling thing I did to a teacher before, and the least the schoolboard would make you do for a situation like this, is make you apologize," he stated.

- - - - - - - - - -

THE NEXT day as Aurora walked down the school hallway, all she could see was Jack's poem printed up against the wall. She snatched one of them from off the wall and crumbled it up. This was Jack's personal poem, and now someone had exposed it to the entire school. She felt bad. He was new to this school, or at least newer than everyone else, and he's already being bullied by others for something he can't control.

Lucas sat in class behind Pacey, the two of them both annoyed with the teacher. All eyes fell on Jack, when they heard Mr. Peterson speak up from the front of the classroom. "Mr. Mcphee?" he called out.

"Yes?" 

"Would you care to continue reading your now very public work of poetry?" Mr. Peterson asked.

Lucas scoffed at the teacher as he looked over at Jack, before him and Pacey shared a look of disbelief. Jack glanced around the classroom; all eyes were on him. "You can't be serious?" he questioned.

"I am," Peterson replied. "You left us high and dry," he explained to the Mcphee boy who still sat there in disbelief. "If you want a completed grade, then you have to complete reading the poem. It's that simple."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Jack asked, his voice soft and shaky.

"Because he can," Pacey replied, standing up from his seat. 

"Mr. Witter, I recommend you sit down," Mr. Peterson threatened.

"No."

"I said sit down!" he exclaimed.

"You want somebody to read the poem, I'll read it," Pacey said, snatching up the paper from Mr. Peterson's hands. "Today. Today was a day the world got smaller, darker; I grew more afraid. Not of what I am, but of what I could be-"

Pacey continued to read the poem until Mr. Peterson stormed over toward the boy, "I said, stop!" he raised his voice. He pointed a finger in Pacey's face, "you will listen t7o me when I talk to you, young man!"

"Why should he?" Lucas scoffed. "You never listen to a word we have to say. Jack has clearly expressed many times that he was uncomfortable with sharing his poem and you didn't listen to a damn thing he said. You're a hypocrite!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Benson?"

"You heard me," Lucas retorted. 

"That's it," Mr. Peterson stormed back to his desk. "I am writing you both a pass. You can report immediately to principal Markey's office." He scribbled down on the small slip, quickly before he handed it to the two boys who stood by his desk now, with their backpacks on already."

"What part of you is it that gets off on torturing your students?" Pacey questioned the older man. "Everybody else in this classroom maybe be afraid of you, but I'm not! I see your miserable scare tactics for exactly what they are, the misguided lashings of a bitter, lonely old man who only feels good when somebody else in the class feels worse."

"Thank you, for the analysis, Mr. Witter," Mr. Peterson stated. "I'll send a check along with the 'f' you'll get on your report card."

Pacey looked back up at the man with an annoyed look. "You can't fail me," he told the older man. "I've gotten a 'b' or better on every test in this class!" he exclaimed. Lucas's head hung lowly as he shook his head.

"Hell, I can't," he replied. "I've been waiting to fail you all quarter."

"You disgust me," Pacey spat. 

"And you, Mr. Witter, are a failure, destined to always be a failure" Mr. Peterson told him. "Trying to teach people like you is like spitting in the face of the entire educational system!" he exclaimed.

Pacey and Mr. Peterson were now stood face to face, chest to chest. Pacey clenched his jaw in annoyance before he spit in the teacher's face. Lucas's eyes widened in surprise. "No, sir. That is spitting in the face of the entire educational system."