The R Word

Clarence

My first year at K.B.H High! I couldn't believe it! Better make a good impression! I walked through the doors, and upon looking at my face, some guys sneered and laughed. What was their problem? I decided to walk over to them. Bad move!

"What's your problem?" I asked politely.

Stay nice. Stay nice. Too late. I had already about to receive a full punch blown right at my face. Now was a good time to run. I ran past the slippery floors, along with a wet floor sign. Behind me I could see one of the klutz's fall. Since I finally escaped them, I might as well tell you my story.

My name is Clarence Jo. I was born with a brain dysfunction from being hit on the head too hard. It wasn't anyone's fault. Except one day I was being kidnapped. The man was wearing all black, and looked like a ninja. He was on the way to take me outside, when he heard a movement, and my father rushing towards him with a bat. Startled, he dropped me hard on the wood flooring. Ever since then, I have had trouble spelling, writing, arithmetic...you name it. Luckily, my dad gave the kidnapper a concussion and called the police right away.

Even now that drop still shattered my brain, possibly for life. But as I was about to continue, one of the mean guys caught me, and I had to run into the Principal's Office to save myself. The bully knew he could be caught, so to cover it up, and to keep myself from getting hurt, I lied and said I wanted to meet the new principal.

And at then, i heard a thud. Crap! My foot was sticking out! I tripped a girl. She was a junior now. She had hair like mine: blonde! She looked very nice also! So i held out my hand to help her up. She gave the papers to the principal after I helped pick them up off of the ground. She waved goodbye to me, and we never saw eachother since the bell.

First class was Language Arts. Yes, it was definitely hard, but I'm sure it was hard for everyone! It was an essay over a big topic. I don't even remember what the topic was!

Second class was Reading. Simple enough, I could actually read. I sounded out the words in my head, and I could easily read a 200-300 page book in about a week or two!

Third class was Algebra. Math was tough enough. Now we were stuck with random letters being thrown in, like 'x'! Letters were for the alphabet, right.

Fourth class was Science. Honestly, that was my favorite class. Exploring through the microscopes was actually a lot of fun, and I met a new friend. His name was James Elton. He was more friendly than those guys who chased me before school.

Fifth class was History. History sucked. That's all. Who cares about what happened in the past, when all we need to care about is the future, with surgeries for arms, legs......brains.

Then there was lunch. I looked around for the girl, but stopped when I saw James. He was talking in the corner with two kids that were both boys, and were holding hands. I was not a homophobe, but I had never met any gay kids, and decided to go over and meet them.

Hey, I never met gay people before! That sounds so stupid, like they belong in a zoo.

Hey, James, who are your friends? That sounds nice enough, and there is one rule of being a freshman: Never act like you're top boss. Be polite all the time.

"Hey James! Who are your people?" I squeaked out.

Did i seriously combine the two? I'm a loser.

James just laughed, "I don't know about my people, but these are my friends!"

Just then, a girl walked by and leaned against James and kissed him. On the lips!

She suddenly figured out who that girl was: the girl from the principal's office!

The girl seemed to know her as well! "Hi! I saw you today at the office! What's your name?"

I let out a humble reply: "Clarence Jo. And you?"

"Sara Thompson!"

"Oh, I'm supposed to tell people that I have a brain disorder, so you can't ask me to do my homework. Well, you can, but I'm not sure I will be much help."

Everyone laughed! I just made some good friends! They grabbed their trays and invited me to their table. This was amazing. Being friends with anybody gave her good rep, but being friends with Juniors made them even more awesome! She could possibly survive a year.

"So, is it easy to survive school?" I laughed, thinking it would be funny.

Everyone at the table grew silent, and looked at Sara.

"Not if you're like me." Sara said seriously.

I looked at her with a confused look. She was so pretty and seemed popular...what was wrong?

"Last year, I had the same problems you did, but I got them fixed-"

I immediately took note of this: "How?"

"Surgery." One of them replied, his name was Rodney.

"And i tried to kill myself because I was bullied so much."

"Twice." The other gay guy replied with a sandwich in his mouth. He was..charming, and his name was Steve.

"Well, yes. The first time I tried jumping off a bridge, and it ended up being the most popular girl in school to fall. I was devastated and went to her funeral. That got me even more depressed, and I put on another show there. And shot myself. I was saved just in time."

Sara grabbed my hand.

"Do you promise not to ever do what I did?"

There was a brief silence. Perhaps it was me reflecting over her life story.

"Yes."

Sara smiled and let go of her hand. She immediately stretched her back out in the seat.

"Then you will survive. Do you want some help on homework after school? We start a study buddy session with Freshman now. It used to be only Rodney and I, but we decided that bad grades can get kids depressed too, and that's the last thing we need."

They leaned in on her answer: "Yes."

Sara was about to leave, but she took both of my shoulders and had to get my attention again. What was it this time?

"You are not a retard."