Short Stories

Jerome

Jerome Amos Larson was the only child his parents ever had. He was subsequently pampered. He never wanted for anything. His parents got him a brand-new car the day he got his driver's license. He decided he wanted to play guitar and his parents shelled out five hundred dollars for a brand-new guitar. He practiced for two days on his own and declared that he needed a teacher... His parents signed him up for lessons.

His parents, on top of being wealthy business-people, were very religious. They brought him to church every Sunday, encouraged the memorization of Bible verses. They brought him countless religious trinkets. He went with them on missionary journeys.

They taught him that he needed to save the unbelievers. He tried to get his classmates to go to church with him, but they violently rebuked him. They wanted nothing to do with him and his superior attitude. He walked around like he owned the place. Telling everyone lies about how cool he was. He bragged about his musical talent, but he couldn't carry a tune if he tried.

His Sophomore year he joined the choir at the prompting of his friend, Jack. Jerome hadn't been in a choir before because he felt that his voice was too good to be in a choir. He'd been in Pep Band playing the guitar since seventh grade, but the choir was a completely different feel. All the choir kids were good at sight-reading and they'd been taking choir for a few years. Jerome had never experienced something so alien. They sang lots of songs he'd never heard before.

His mother and father approved wholeheartedly and they applauded him when he practiced for them. He was doing well in his classes, and he lauded his intelligence over his peers, not realizing how his classmates despised him for it., He would speak Ancient Greek to them and explain what it meant, talking slowly as if his peers were children.

People tried to explain to him what he was doing, but he wouldn't listen to them. He insisted that he wasn't doing anything wrong. He blatantly would continue to overexplain things to everyone. Finally, everyone decided that something needed to be done. They were waiting all day, until choir when they had finally had enough. He started to explain to the teacher why so-and-so was wrong because "they can't even read music, so why would I listen to them..." The teacher cut him off and sent him into the hall. He began to cry, "is that really necessary?" he wailed.

"Yes!" All the kids yelled unanimously.

His eyes widened; he began to call out peers he'd believed to be his friends. Finally, he got to Jack, the very boy who'd encouraged him to join choir.

"Sorry, Jerome, you really need to stop treating us, your classmates, like small children. We aren't stupid. You don't need to explain everything to us." Jack's words, though honest, cut Jerome.

"Well, you guys never understood true genius anyway." Were Jerome's parting words as he stormed out of the room.