"OK, Mr. Witwicky you're up," Mr. Hosney, Sam's teacher, says from his desk. Sam stands up from his desk, backpack in hand. He reaches the front of the classroom and takes a deep breath as he starts to dump out the content of his backpack.
"Sorry, I got a lot of stuff," Sam says as the final items fall out. One of the students, Trent, whispers to someone, "Watch this."
"Oh-kay," Sam starts, "For my family genea-," Before Sam could continue something hits the side of his neck. The class laughs while Trent smiles to himself after flinging something at Sam, probably to impress his 'girlfriend', Mikaela.
"Who did-," Mr. Hosney stands up, "Who did that? People! Responsibility," Mr. Hosney lectures. The laughter dies down, Sam glances around the room a little annoyed.
"So, for my family genealogy report, I decided to do it on my great-great-grandfather, who was a famous man, uh Captain Archibald Witwicky. Very famous explorer. In fact, he was one of the first..." Sam pulls a map out of his pile of things, "to explore... the Arctic Circle," He unfolds the map to show the Arctic Circle, "which is a big deal. In 1897, he took forty-one brave sailors straight into the Arctic Shelf."
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Ice-filled water can be seen in all directions, but an object seems out of place. There's a ship trapped in the ice.
"Move Faster, men! Move! Chop! Heave!" one of the crew members yelled. Most of the men on the ship are now at the front of the boat. Trying to break it free from the ice.
"The ice is freezing faster than it's melting!" shouts a crew member that is using his ice pick to free the boat.
"Chop faster!" a man on the deck of the ship yells down.
"Got to chop faster or we'll be stuck!" commands a second man on the ship.
The men hack at the ice with all their strength, they fight the harsh weather hoping to free their ship. An older man is standing off to the side of the others. His white beard was covered in ice and his glasses slightly fogged up from his breath.
"Heave, men! Heave! No sacrifice, no victory! We'll get to the Arctic Circle, lads!" the captain, Archibald Witwicky, yells to his men.
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"So that's the story, right?" Sam sets down his map, "And here we have some of the basic instruments and tools used by nineteenth-century seamen," Sam sifts through his things and tries to sort through them as he speaks. The class, again, laughs. Mr. Hosney lifts a small paper stop sign that says 'Quiet'.
"This here is the quadrant, which you can get for eighty bucks. It's all for sale, by the way. Like the, uh, the sextant here," Sam continues as the class begins to laugh again. And once again Mr. Hosney lifts the quiet sign, this time higher in the air.
"Fifty dollars for this, which is a bargain. These are pretty cool," Sam picks up a glasses case and opens it, inside is a pair of beat-up glasses, "These are my grandfather's glasses. I haven't quite gotten them appraised yet, but they've seen many cool things."
"Are you going to sell me his liver? Mr. Witwicky, this isn't show and sell. It's the eleventh grade. I don't think your grandfather would be particularly proud of what you're doing," Mr. Hosney interrupts, sounding annoyed.
"I know. I'm sorry. I just, you know, this is all going towards my car fund. You can tell your folks. It's on eBay. I take PayPal. Cold hard cash works, too."
The class quietly laughs as Sam continues, "And the compass makes a - a great gift for Columbus Day."
"Sam!" Mr. Hosney interrupts.
"Sorry. Um. unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather, the genius that he was," Sam grabs more papers that are covered in weird symbols, "wound up going blind and crazy in a psych ward, drawing these strange symbols and babbling on about some, uh, giant ice man that he thought he'd discovered." The bell rings as Sam finishes his project. All of the students began to collect their stuff to leave.
"Okay. Might be a pop quiz tomorrow. Might not. Sleep in fear tonight," Mr. Hosney yells to the students as they leave.
"Sam?" Mr. Hosney calls. He walks in front of his desk after trying to bargain his things to another student.
"Yeah. Sorry, sorry. Okay. Pretty good, right?"
"Uh... I'd say a solid B-minus."
"A B-minus," Sam says, sounding defeated.
"You were hawking your great-grandfather's crap in my classroom," Mr. Hosney yells back annoyed with Sam.
"No, kids enjoy... Look, can you do me a favor?" Sam asks with desperation.
"What?"
"Can you look out the window for a second? You see my father? He's the guy in the green car," Sam points out the window to his left, Mr. Hosney lowers his glasses as he looks out. In front of the school is a small dark green car. You can see a man in the driver's seat and he seems to be waiting for someone.
Sam brings his teacher's attention back to him, "Okay, I wanna tell you about a dream. A boy's dream. And a man's promise to that boy. He looked at me in the eye. He said, "Son, I'm gonna buy you a car. But I want you to bring me two thousand dollars, and three A's." Okay? I got the two thousand dollars and I got two A's. Okay? Here's the dream. Your B-minus," Sam brings his hands together like he is holding something, then separates them as he speaks, "Poof. Dream gone. Kaput. Sir, just ask yourself," Sam pauses, unsure of how his next statement could help him or not, "What would Jesus do?"
"Yes!" Sam cheers as he runs to his dad's car, and jumps into the front seat. Not seeing someone hiding in the back.
"So?" Ron asks.
"A-minus. It's an A, though," Sam closes the door as he speaks.
"Wait, wait wait. I can't see... it's an A," Ron grabs Sam's paper to get a better look.
"So I'm good?"
"You're good," Ron gets ready to start the car, but before he drives off a voice comes from behind Sam.
"Good job on three A's Sam," (Y/N) says from behind him. Sam lets out a high-pitched scream and jumps. He swivels in his seat to see his cousin dying of laughter.
Sam glares at them, "Oh, haha very funny. Glad to see your home." Ron is trying to calm his laughter before speaking.
"Alright, let's get going," Ron finally starts the car and drives away from the school.
YOU ARE READING
Transformers (2007)
Fanfiction(Y/N) makes it home from their deployment in Qatar just in time for their cousin to buy his first car. They expected a relaxing break, but end up with the opposite. Uses they/them pronouns and no love interest so everyone and anyone can enjoy.
