This is my longest chapter by far, I believe. I just kept on writing and writing and writing. There was so much I wanted to say in this chapter. Please give me some feedback immediately.I feel strong about this one but I could be wrong. This is my favorite one so far but I would really appreciate some good feedback.
The leaves had finally fallen off the trees and the first snowflake fell down. I was watching this beautiful transition of seasons through the window in history class. Mr.Lincoln's lessons about the Revolutionary War were only part of the background as I separated myself from the class and watched as each snowflake fell down, one by one. We were taught in elementary school that each and every single snowflake was not the same. This is something that we can accept.
They're just snowflakes. That's how they were made
Yesterday, I managed to make it to Sunday School but a little way too early. Our Pastor, Pastor Fred, told me that their teacher was running late so they needed a replacement. I kindly chuckled at this and reminded him that I have only been in church for a few months. What could possibly make me be fit to teaching these little kids?
"You have potential Jay. Just like your brother" he urged
Being a little surprised when he said that, I accepted to do the job. When I entered the classroom for,the little kids looked at me, their eyes wide.
"Where is Ms. Kyle?" one of them asked
"Ms.Kyle is late" They looked very surprised at this " But I'm going to be teaching you guys for today"
I wasn't good with kids. For all I know, they probably feared Ms.Kyle and they could just take advantage of me. To my surprise, they all stared at me, waiting. I had no idea what to do.
"So what were you guys learning about last Sunday?" I asked, nervously
"We were talking about how God made us all to be different" one of the girls said
I noticed there was a manual on the teacher's desk but I didn't need it. I recently started reading my bible, so I knew this story. I decided to paraphrase.
"Okay, everyone on earth wanted to see what Heaven looked like so they decided to make a tower to Heaven"
"The Tower of Bable"
God kid. If you already know the story, why make me tell you about it?, I thought. I shook off this thought.
"That's right. Now God did not want these people to come up to Heaven-"
"How come?"
I forced a smile. I needed to be patient with these kids. " Because they wanted to create a city for themselves; They wanted to make a name for themselves. This would make them not be so much as friends with God."
"That's bad" they all said, in unison
"Now when God went down and saw what they were doing, He saw what they really wanted to do. These people had too much pride"
"What's pride?"
I thought to myself. I had to make a simple definition. "It's when you love yourself more than you love others. It's bad to have pride"
They all nodded. These kids were adorable. "So the people could not make the tower, God confused them by making each of them speak different languages making them not able to understand each other. Then the people were scattered all over the world."
"What else makes a person different from another?"
"Well a person can be richer than another person. You know, the rich and the poor. A person can be smarter than another person. A person can be strong while another is weak. But nothing really makes us different"
"How come?"
"Because we're all the same. We're all sinners. We're all God's children."
"Then how come we all act like we're different?"
One thing adults fail to comprehend is that little kids aren't dumb. This was a question I couldn't even answer.
Why do we act like we're different?
"Ms.Matthews....would you like to join us?'' Mr.Lincoln asked me, snapping me out of my daze
I looked up at him and nodded my head. The whole class was giggling.
"I know you were thinking about me, Jay" Tyrone whispered to me
I didn't say anything. Tyrone was a pain. He was the pebble in my shoe; the fly in my soup. He looked like a sincere guy, with his pearly white smile and hazel eyes but he was a womanizer. I was warned about him in Tyler's letter.
Hope you have a good school year at Prescott. It's a really good school. One thing I have to warn you about is my ex-friend, Tyrone. I warn you, Jay. Stay away from him.I'm not saying this because I'm being overprotective. It's just a rule that smart girls like you should follow.
I wasn't too interested in boys. Especially boys like Tyrone. Tyrone constantly tried to flirt with me. I bet he assumed I was playing hard to get....but how do you play hard to get if you don't want the person? Tyrone was a jock. He had connections with girls like Kathleen. I didn't want to have to do anything with that girl. Last thing I need was for her to have an excuse to torment me. I had to lose Tyrone.
The bell rang; time for lunch. As I walked out of the classroom, Tyrone put his arm around me but I angrily shook it off.
"Jay, why don't you have lunch with me?" he asked, wrapping his arm around my waist
I pinched his arm and held his wrist, threatening to break it. "No"
"Come on!" he yelled, standing in the middle of the hallway
When I made it to the cafeteria, I had a sort of epiphany. I never noticed how socially segregated the cafeteria was. The in-crowd or popular people-however you want to call them-ate in lounges. The bullies/possible gangsters sat near the windows and doors of the cafeteria. Gave them opportunities to pick on any approaching student. If they weren't there, you could see them outside smoking whatever. It was a miracle how they never got caught. The jocks sat in the tables closest to the door that led to the upstairs work-out room. Computer genuises (I don't refer to them as geeks) sat in the far corners of the room. The 'nerds' were seated next to the door that led to the library. Then I saw a passing freshman. She looked lost, wondering where could be a right table to sit at. She sat near the cheerleaders but they stared her down, making her get out of their table. As she walked away, they critiqued her outfit. I shook my head at this. She was walking around the cafeteria and this time, she went into some serious enemy territory. The bullies stood up and surrounded her. She was gone. I instantly ran over to the spot where she stood and pushed the guys away.
"Are you okay?" I asked
Tears streaked her cheeks and I noticed that her lunch was all over her stomach. Her tray was on the ground.
"Hey guys? Any reason why-"
Jerome made his way in front of me. "You were saying Jay"
He was staring me down. I couldn't be scared of this guy. I stared at him with the same menacing glare" Any reason why you guys had to do that to her?"
"What did we do? We just wanted to say hi" All of them exchanged grins. Disgusting.
I had to hold in all my energy from hitting this boy. I wanted to scream at him, but it was too soon. I could do this another time. "Have respect for yourself. You think they'll be there for you" I pointed to his friends and then came very close to him " Just watch. When the cops come for you....they won't"
He stood there trying to force that grin to stay but I could see it start to diminish. I chuckled to myself and smiled. The freshman was gone and I went to sit with Skye.
"Hey, what took you so long?" she asked " You're lunch was getting cold"
I simply shrugged. "I had to take care of some business"
"Oh" she said " Is your business behind you"
I didn't notice the casting shadow. I turned around. It was Jerome. I looked back at Skye and was a little confounded of how she could sit so casually while Jerome just stood there. I noticed her hands were shaking. She was scared but she didn't want us to see it.
"I wanted to say that I'm sorry" he said to Skye
Skye looked up and crossed her arms. "Hope you learned your lesson"
Jerome nodded and left. This was a great example of a paradox. I have never been so confused.
"People are mean these days. They need to learn a lesson." she whispered "But I won't hold any hatred towards them. I will forgive them. "
"What do you mean, they need to learn a lesson?"
She shrugged " They need to realize that we're not so different. Hurting me is as bad as hurting yourself. Making me your enemy is as bad as being your own enemy. We need to stop making walls"
The little kids questions came back to me Then how come we all act like we're different
The real question was.........what if we didn't?
