Good Nigh-Chapter One

Fahrenheit: 56

"Do you guys believe?" A slightly chubby bald man asks the crowd filled with high schoolers. They respond with a roar, which prompts him to smile and move on.

This man has been going on for half an hour, talking about being a proud Canadian, cooking for his kids, and how only true nerds watch The Big Bang Theory. Don't worry though, he's a true nerd too. He shows it by doing a white version of the Carlton and making the Vulcan V with his hand, holding it out, and asking other true nerds to do the sign with him. Jocks, preps, nearly the majority of the school cheers and hold up the V.

The administration  hired him to get the school ready for the 'Hoodlums Project', which he has been doing quite well. No, it's not when the school goes into the inner city and make twelve year olds quit crack, it's not that culturally offensive. This project is basically a senior project of sorts, except everyone has to do it, and try their best to make the difference. The Canadian talks about American spirit, and how it should fuel them to success. The crowd responds with hearty laughs every time he tells a joke, and are fully on board for this.

His name is Andrew Cook, he's a comedian and motivational speaker.

Right when he starts to talk about the Montreal Expos, an old MLB team, I take my face out of my palms. The only thing I can hear is Mason's slightly high pitched laughter nearly every seven seconds. Every time Andrew brings up being a true nerd, Mason raises his V high in the air. I grunt, pull out my phone, and look through my notifications when he pushes me.

"Dude, how come you're not watching?" He asks me.

"I don't find him funny, especially talking about how being a proud U.S citizen should fuel  your success. That's like putting on blackface and talking about rights." I respond. He gives a hearty laugh and looks back at Cook, who's doing the Carlton once again.

My Facebook feed is filled with pictures of Andrew Cook taken by my classmates with quotes about inspiration. There's pictures of him frowning, smiling, dancing, and of course, holding the V up. I close Facebook and stare into the back of the kid in front of me. They have a dragon design in it that lacks in originality, but exceeds in color. I spend the next ten minutes doing this, as Cook tells us the final details of this project.

"The project is due on May 1st, which we shall celebrate with a talent show on the Friday of that week! We get to see all the singers," Cook points out to a random section of the audience, "the dancers," does the Carlton once more, "and how about the comedians?" He smiles.

A girl named Angela a grade below me has her friends pointing at her. She performed last year, which involved her talking about cats and unintentionally making fun of schizophrenia. About a third of the audience was non stop laughing during her performance, but she didn't place. Angela's crowd since then has mocked the comedian who placed above her.

That being said, the comedian who had won second place, right behind the senior who was excellent at piano, had a burst of popularity right after that. He had done this "what is character" act which involved praising flip phones, a lot of government jokes, and dancing to Taylor Swift. Kids would run up to him and ask him to tell jokes. If the kids asked once, he would say a joke. If kids ask more than once, they would get a different joke.

"Your mom, leave me alone."

This kid is still popular, actually, but it has gone down once they realized that he had a different taste in music. No one expected a kid with a relatively tall stature to read a bunch of books and enjoy "weird" bands, bands that are "different". Personally, I don't find the problem with his taste, I give him props. Thing is, people called him weird but never had a reason to. For example, whenever they had asked the kid who called him weird, they would say,

"Because you're weird."

Yes, a person is weird because they're weird. They don't act out of the ordinary, they don't kill animals, they're just weird. This never phased him, as he left his footprint in the school.

"Alright, guys, go back to class! Remember, stay nerdy" Cook yells and holds up the V. I go straight down the middle of the crowd and head towards the 400 hall. Mason catches up to me as I stay behind the football team. They talk about being nerds to each other, which makes Mason laugh.

"I enjoyed the fact that he respected us true nerds." Mason pounds his chest.

"Dude, all you do is watch Big Bang Theory." I tell him.

"So? That doesn't mean anything. He even said!"

"You would only be a true nerd if he asked 'who still watches Nickelodeon'. Every time I come to your house Zoey 101 is on."

"Hey! It's a good show! I am still a true nerd."

"Spell Jean Luc Picard then." I ask him.

"J-o-h-n L-u-k-" He starts spelling. I tell him to stop as we venture outside to the 400 hall. It is a cloudy day, the sun cannot be seen. It's been cold this summer, which it usually has been warm. During the break, we got about three thunderstorms each week, and plenty of flash flood warnings. Being a person who wears shorts commonly, it has been heaven.

The crowd in front of us open the doors, so we squeeze through them and head into math. They are talking about that comedian, saying the same overused Edward Snowden joke that won over the school. A guy in the group asks if the jokester will return, which a girl responds with "I hope so", followed by laughter. 

Mason opends the door to math and we step in. The teacher, Miss Lennox, is talking to students in the front of class as we go to our seats in the back. Matt is sitting back there, eating chips with his mom's Japanese seasoning on them. I take my seat and reach my hand into the bag. Every Friday in math, we usually bring food so we can spend the whole class period eating. I would usually bring some kind of meat from the health store, Mason would always bring saltines, and Matt always bring in something Japanese.

"Damn, I really enjoy this seasoning." I tell Matt, taking more chips.

"I know, it's good. My mom usually gets it at this really small Japanese market in Reno, and they only accept Asians. They'll curse at you if you're not." Matt replies. I find this funny, considering he doesn't look Asian at all. He looks like a simple, possibly British kid.

"You probably get cursed at a lot there." I smirk. Lennox calls for our attention, wanting to talk about the Hoodlum Project. The class starts talking about what they're going to do, from giving the homeless sandwiches to world peace. Mason starts talking about working with his dad at the government, while Matt talks about working with his parents at the government. As you can tell, we have an inch of government kids.

"How about the talent show? Are any of you doing that? Wait," Lennox stops, "what about our residential comedian?" She asks. The class cheers, then they all turn around and stare at the back left corner where we are. Mason and Matt stop talking and turns towards the comedian. In a quick five seconds, all the class has focused their attention on a single kid, a comedian who hit it big with the school. 

My name is Will, and I'm that comedian.