The Classroom

Chapter 1- Chase

Decker was at it again.

"He's not coming, guys. We need to elect a supreme dictator. I vote for myself. Anyone else for me?"

Of course no one raised their hands. It was Decker. The guy just needs to quit.

I stand up, "Alright, everyone for me as Supreme Dictator?"

I've got part of the class's attention now. Okay. I can work with that.

"Alright, if you vote for me, you will be given positions as my personal helpers. You don't get paid, but you get to mess with Decker. Let's vote again. Everyone who wants Decker, raise your hand."

Of course. Only McCartney. They were that couple. The one that isn't a couple, but they are.

"Everyone for me?"

Everyone else except for Jeremiah raised his hand. Jeremiah doesn't care.

"Alright. What is my first move?" I think to myself.

"Alright. Move the tables that way. No the other way. Can we stack those? Now move those chairs toward the back end. Put some tables on top as a roof."

They were listening. Okay.

"Put that table upside down, Hunter, we need some rope."

Hunter pulled two pieces of 30 foot rope from his bag. I don't how, why or where Hunter gets or has this stuff, but he's pretty handy.

"Can we get a table as a door? Now, tie those pieces of rope to the desk that's upside down and our door."

Decker and McCartney sat out and watched. Decker and I used to be good friends, but he doesn't have the best humor. He's very serious. He used to be dorky, but then something happened. He lost his humor. He was one of the funniest guys I knew. We met in the third grade. It feels like only yesterday.

We were on the playground, I was going up the slide, I kicked a soccer ball up on top of the jungle gym. I reached the top and Decker had the ball. He was wearing a crown of construction paper, and a blanket as a cape. The first thing he said to me was,

"What ye be doing in my domain, foreigner?"

I bowed to him, "I was hoping to retrieve the ball and go back to my realm of Soccerfield."

He responded with, "I see. Go then. But if the ball happens upon my kingdom again, you will not be so fortunate." He smiled, showing the gap in his teeth that braces would soon fix.

Turns out he rode my bus, and lived across the street from me. We hung out every day. We would have sword fights with sticks, or cardboard, or foam swords; sometimes I would win, sometimes he would win. He was fun, silly, funny. But then he met McCartney. Don't get me wrong, I like McCartney, but she's so serious. Decker changed because he really liked McCartney. We stopped hanging out. He started reading more. He became more focused on his school work.

Decker became serious and I became even more funny. At least that's how I see it.

I want to be taken seriously, but I'm not a very serious person. Life is hard. But we all have our own ways of coping, I keep myself occupied, by athletics or writing. For example I'm writing a book of quotes. Just things I say, my friends say, even some Mr. Thanson says, like this one:

"Your situation is only as bad as you make it. There's always a worse situation. Like getting eaten by a cy-cat. Part cyborg, part Cyclops, all cat."

I was thinking about Cy-Cats when we heard Mr. Thanson scream down the hall.