School Day Blues

Chapter One

"Hi!" The small boy said, smiling and reaching for Eugene's hand, "I'm Zach! Will you be my mommy?" Eugene was taken-a-back by the boldness of the small boy and tried to back up, only to find himself against the wall. He shot a pleading look to the other two boys, a tall boy stacking colourful blocks and a shorter boy stomping around and roaring like a dragon. Neither of them bothered to even glance up but for a second, just shrugging and they kept playing. The tall boy putting the finishing touches on his castle as Zach dragged Eugene over to the other boys and down on the sticky and stained carpet, handing Eugene a blue block and picking up a green one himself. Eugene sighed and relented doing what the littler boy requested and helped him build a tower to add to the tall boy's castle. 

"I'm a dragon!" The other boy growled, knocking over the blocks, "I've come for the princess!" He pointed to Eugene and started stomping menacingly towards the Korean boy, a grin on his face. 

"Stop it Ned!" Zach scolded, looking at the mess of coloured bricks, that had once been the castle, "You're ruining everything!" 

"I'm a dragon Zach! I can't stop my dragon-y urges! GRRRR!!" He dropped to his knees and started tickling little Zach, who broke into a fit of giggles.

"I'm sorry Zachie!" Ned said, "I'll help fix up the castle!" He took a yellow block from the pile and started stacking it on top of a purple one, "Then you can be the dragon! Doesn't that sound fun?" 

"Yeah!" Zach smiled, looking over at Eugene, who was quietly stacking red and green blocks, looking completely in the zone, "He's a pretty princess." Zach whispered, "Isn't he?" 

"Yeah." Ned grinned back, handing Zach a block. 

After playtime, the teacher called them for storytime. Eugene sat between Zach and Ned, indian style as he listened to the story that the teacher read. Zach was now holding onto a pale blue blanket while sucking his thumb and leaning against Keith. 

Eugene, fiddled with the velcro straps on his shoes, and tried to ignore the way Zach kept trying to fit his sticky hand into his. The story was one that his own mother had never told him, as he had grown up listening to Korean tales as opposed to the American tales the other children had heard. Eugene looked over at Keith who seemed suprisingly used to Zach's strange antics, and took it in stride as opposed to being annoyed with him as Eugene was. Eugene had two sisters, but this was a little much, Zach was rather clingy. The other boys seemed to used to it, but Eugene on the other hand was not and disliked all the attention. 

"You can have your nap next to us." Keith said, showing Eugene the place the three boys slept at. The other kids went about to their favorite napping places. Zach was still calling Eugene 'mommy' and he had no idea how to get the smaller boy to stop so he tried to be as kind as possibly saying, "I'm not your mom." Zach ignored this and laid down between Keith and Ned, holding his blanket close to him and sucking on his thumb and falling asleep almost instatly. Eugene shrugged and laid down next to Ned, who gave him a smile, Eugene grinned back and closed his eyes, letting himself fall asleep. 

Over the next year the four kids grew closer and closer, becoming nearly attatched at the hips. 

"Hey! Eugene!" Zach called, running to catch up with his friend, his back pack banging against his back, dorky lunchbox in hand that depicted the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a matching Tee shirt. Eugene waved back and allowed himself to be hugged by the smaller boy, "I hope we're all in the same class!" Zach was chattering as they walked to pick up Keith and Ned at the corner. The two boys were engaged in an debate over the best Ninja Turtle. "Hey guys!" Zach cried out, hugging Ned and Keith together, a huge smile on his little face. The boys mothers huffed as they caught up with their sons, "Eugene! You no run off like that!" Eugene's mother scolded. "They're just boys being boys." Zach's mother defended the boys. "I still say we should make carpool, no need to do all this walking!" Eugene's mom huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, her pale blue blouse looking beautiful on her. 

"The boys wanted to walk with each other." Keith's mom laughed, taking hold of her son's hand as they crossed the street to the school. "Do you want us to walk you to your class?" 

"No way!" The boys all cried, "We're first graders! We don't need to be walked in like Kindergarteners!" Ned grumped, arms crossed over his chest. 

"Ok, ok. Remember Keith's mom is picking you up after school today." The boys nodded, let their mom's kiss their foreheads and cheeks, and then entered into the school. "Ned and I have Ms. Bee. Who do you have?" 

"Ms. Bee!!" Eugene and Zach said in unison excitedly, "Awesome!" Ned said, "We can sit by each other!" 

Ms. Bee turned out to be a rather stern woman, and broke the four up as soon as they sat down. Eugene ended up sitting next to the kid who enjoyed eating glue and picking his nose, Robert. "Hi Eugene." Robert grinned, holding tight to his bottle of glue, and reaching over to poke him. 'Its going to be a long year...' Eugene thought glumly, looking forlornly to where Keith, Ned, and Zach had all been moved to. Zach smiled, and waved. Keith shrugged, defeatedly. And Ned made a rather impolite guesture towards Ms. Bee. Eugene giggled, and got a death glare by Ms. Bee. Which shut him up quickly. 

"Ms. Bee sucks!" Ned grumbled, pushing Zach on the swing while Eugene and Keith piddled around kicking at the mulch, grumpy expressions on their face. "Yeah." Eugene nodded, "She's a jerk! We can't even sit with each other anymore!" 

"My mom said that she's so mean because she can't have her own kids." Keith said matter-of-factly, for once Zach had nothing to input and just told Ned, "Push me higher! Push me higher!" Ned obliged and did so, resulting in an excited squeal from the littlest boy, as he went higher and higher. "Hey, let's play on the slide!" Keith suggested, "Yeah!" Forgetting all about Zach, who for whatever reason decided to try and go after them, before waiting for the swing to stop and fell face first, letting out a scream and he scraped his knees and palms trying to catch himself.

Ned scrambled over to him and helped him up, "You're okay Zach," He soothed, "Come on, get up." 

Zach sniffled and nodded against Ned's shoulder, as Ms. Bee came over, "I'll take him to the nurse's office. Mrs. Karen will watch you until I can contact the boy's parents." She looked very annoyed with having to actually interact on a personal level with her students. 

"Ned. You shouldn't have left Zach." Keith scolded, "You know he's littler than us." 

Ned felt his face heat up and he crossed his arms, "He should have waited for the swing to stop." He defended himself, "Jeez." He turned away from his friends and pouted. 

With recess over Ms. Bee's class followed Mrs. Karen's class into the building and ended up sitting on the floor crammed together, Mrs. Karen put on a movie and passed out little snacks for all the kids. "I wish we had Mrs. Karen all the time!" Eugene whispered, "She's nicer than Ms. Bee." Recalling earlier when the woman had called them all up to the front of the room and making them count to 100  in front of the whole class, ridiculing them for every mistake they made, and making them start all over again. "Ms. Bee is mean." 

By the end of the day Zach was back as was Ms. Bee. His knees and hands bandaged up, and a sucker in his mouth. "Hey guys!" He smiled, "I got a green sucker!" He showed it off and let Ned have the rest of it. 

"Sorry you fell off the swing." Ned said, putting his arm around Zach's shoulders, the smaller boy shrugged, "It's okay. It didn't even hurt much." Zach assured his friends. "My mom laughed when Ms. Bee told her, and said I'm tougher than I look." He flexed his nonexisent muscles, and laughed. 

"What happened to you?!" Keith's mom gasped, as the boys piled into the minvan, "I fell off a swing." Zach beamed, rolling up his shorts a little more to show off the bandages. "I'm okay though." He said sitting next to Keith, Eugene sat next him and Ned got in last, finishing up the rest of Zach's sucker and shoving the sticky stick between the seats. "Well, we're going to Mac Donalds," Keith's mom said, "What do you boys want?" They told her and got to eat in the car. Eugene couldn't help but mention, through his burger, that his own mom never let him eat in the car. "My momma's cool!" Keith giggled, dipping a nugget in bbq sauce, "This year might not be so bad." Eugene smiled, taking one of Zach's fries when the other wasn't looking. The other boys murmured in agreement.