Teacher's Pet
By Adam Decker
Overview: Everyone thinks that Howard is acting too nice to Mr. Ratburn. Sequel to Adjustments. Third in New Kid series.
Disclaimer: I do not own Arthur. If I did, this might be a real episode. This is the continuing storyline of the new kid at Lakewood Elementary named Howard, a kid with autism and Tourettes Syndrome. He is very smart, but is still getting used to his new home. How will he fare in today's episode? Let's find out.
The school day had just ended at Lakewood Elementary. All the kids were leaving the class expect for Howard. This puzzled the other kids. They gathered outside to talk about it.
"Do you think that he's in trouble?" asked Buster.
"Mr. Ratburn didn't tell him to stay after class," said Francine.
"Maybe Howard is really an alien," said Buster. "That's the only explanation."
"Well," said Brain, "it is possible for Howard to want to talk to Mr. Ratburn about school related issues."
"If you ask me," said Binky, "it seems like he's a teacher's pet."
"You know," said Muffy, "it does seem like they hang out all the time. Besides, who would like a teacher like Mr. Ratburn?"
"I don't know about that," said Arthur. "He has been pretty helpful, Mr. Ratburn. He can just be a bit tougher than usual."
"Well, I don't like this," said Muffy. "When a kid betrays other kids for a teacher, you know that he just doesn't like kids."
(Author's Note: In case you haven't noticed, I have made Muffy the main villain in this series.)
Back in the classroom, Howard was talking to Mr. Ratburn.
"You have been doing very well in class," said Mr. Ratburn. "Is there any reason you are here right now?"
"Well," said Howard, "I like to be friends with my teachers."
"I have never had a student like you before. I like this actually. It's a nice break from being the bad guy."
"Why are you the bad guy?"
"Well," said Mr. Ratburn, "I have to be strict enough with the kids for them to behave and do well in school. The sooner you are hard on them, the better."
"I do miss my Lutheran school in Chester, but I still like it here. Everyone is nice and friendly. Tell me, what can you say about our history assignment?"
"You are really into history. I like it. Basically, just mention a curious event in history. For example you could go with the fact that the only vice-president who became president and had two complete full terms in office was Thomas Jefferson."
"Well," said Howard, "I like the legacy of presidents with facial hair. Abraham Lincoln was the first and William Howard Taft is currently the last. There were twelve presidents during that time. All but two were Republican and all but two had facial hair. One of them was president twice in nonconsecutive terms. The only Republican during this time without facial hair was William McKinley. The only Democrat who had facial hair and was also the one elected twice in nonconsecutive terms was a man named Grover Cleveland. The president during that time who was not a Republican or had facial hair was Andrew Johnson from the National Union Party (Author's Note: I know that he might have been a Democrat or even a Republican, so I would prefer to know the truth sometime. Just remember that even historians disagree on what happened.)."
"That's all very interesting. Is that all you needed to know?"
"Yep. It's been a pleasure talking with you."
"It's nice to have a student that likes you," said Mr. Ratburn. "That doesn't always happen."
"Are their any students who like you?" asked Howard.
"I'm not sure there are. I know that they all respect and obey me. But they must like me enough since they are still in the third grade (Author's Note: LOL! I broke the fourth wall!)."
"Teachers are allowed to be friends with students, right?"
"I don't see why not," said Mr. Ratburn. "The best teachers I've had cared about their students and were friends with them. So you have a good day."
"You too," replied Howard, nicely.
It's nice to have a friend, thought Mr. Ratburn.
The next day at class brought with it something strange. All the class was receiving their English papers back when they noticed that Howard got an A on his while the rest of the class got Bs or lower. This didn't do over well with the other kids.
"I swear," said Muffy, "that Howard must be cheating. He was hanging out with the teacher so much, it's no surprise that he does the best in the class."
"Howard wouldn't do that," said Buster. "Besides, you're probably disappointed with your poor letter grade."
Muffy scoffed. "I hardly see how the great history of the Crosswire's wealth is a bad topic to choose."
"Wasn't it supposed to be something odd that happened in history?" wondered Francine. "That hardly seems like the right topic to me."
"But it's an odd event!" Muffy protested. "It's odd that our great and rich family would succeed in life for so long."
"There's a reason it was the lowest grade in the class," deduced Brain.
"It was the lowest?" asked Muffy.
"You showed us all the grade," said Francine. "You were the only one to get a D."
"A D?" asked Binky. "Wow. I thought I was bad in class."
"I'm sure that you'll do worse in other projects," said Muffy. "I need to figure out why this Howard person is getting such good grades. If he's hanging out with the teacher so often, it only makes sense for him to be rewarded."
The next day, Muffy decided to figure out what might have happened. So she sneaked around following Howard wherever he went. And she noticed something interesting. Whenever possible, he would hang out with the teachers instead of any of the students. Muffy wondered what this meant.
Other students in Mr. Ratburn's class also wanted to know why Howard was acting this way around the teachers instead of the students. Buster felt that he was the closest of the students to Howard so he thought that he might ask Howard himself about the strange habit he had. But he also wondered if any of the adults might know better about Howard. So, one day, Buster decided to talk to Mr. Ratburn after class while the rest of the students had left. Howard was out sick that day and Buster made up an excuse as to why he was staying late.
"So, is there something that you wanted to talk to me about?" asked Mr. Ratburn.
"Well, it's about Howard," said Buster. "A lot of us were wondering why he hangs out with you so much."
"You see," said Mr. Ratburn, "this is a trait common among autistic people. They tend to have problems making friends with people of their own age. So it's not unusual for someone like him to be friends with his teacher. In fact, I would like it if all of my students were friends with me. But some people say I'm too tough. My opinion is that the harder the teacher, the better your students will be."
While Buster and Mr. Ratburn were talking, Muffy was nearby, secretly spying on them. She wasn't paying attention to what they were saying because she was too busy thinking. Buster is like this too, she thought. I wonder if his grades will improve. Later that day, Muffy talked to Francine about this.
"First Howard and now Buster," said Muffy. "Both of them will probably be getting better treatment from Mr. Ratburn now."
"You know, Muffy," said Francine, "I don't think that any teacher can give students better grades just because the student is nice to them."
"Great, now you'll probably wind up joining them."
"There's no them. We aren't treating them nicely by acting like this."
Muffy scuffed and went away. She knew that something unusual was going on and she was going to find out what it is. But the next day had a surprise for her. The students in the class got back a science test that they had done last week. She noticed that Mr. Ratburn told Howard to stay after class to talk about it, which would be strange if he got a good grade on the test. After class, she managed to eavesdrop on some of the conversation.
"This is a pretty bad grade," Mr. Ratburn told Howard. "I thought that you would be better at something like this than you were."
"Science was never really my strong suit," said Howard gloomily. "I knew that I would probably fail the test when I was doing it. I was right."
Muffy was shocked to learn this. If Howard was really getting special treatment, he wouldn't have failed a test, would he? She thought about this and wondered if she might be wrong about him. Maybe he was just better at some of the subjects than other people in the class. She wondered about it so much, she didn't see Howard leave right past her. When she looked up, Mr. Ratburn was looking at her.
"Did you learn what you wanted to from eavesdropping?" he asked. Muffy looked a bit embarrassed before confessing the truth. After he heard that, he replied, "in case you were wondering, I gave Howard the highest grade on that project because he deserved it the most. He put more effort into that project than any other student in this class."
"I guess this is a good lesson for me," said Muffy, "not to assume bad things about people and to do better on work for class." They talked a bit more and then Muffy told everyone about how great Howard actually was. (Author's Note: Depending on how the rest of these stories go, this may actually be the only one where Muffy's a villain, but I haven't decided or figured that out yet.) So Howard continued his classes and nobody cared if he hung out with his teacher anymore.
Author's Note: This story was not entirely based on true events in my life like some of these will be, but I thought that I would write it anyways. I can imagine that there are probably some people who thought that I was something like a teacher's pet, but I don't think I'll ever know for sure. Also, I remember there was one time in class where I was the only person who didn't have to redo something. Only, it wasn't a history project, it was a phonics text. I got an A on the first try and everyone else had to retake it because their scores were too low. Of course, I was the only one who had to stay after class to finish it because it wasn't done, but that can easily happen to a person. Also, I realize now that I may have called autism a disease in the past. I would like to apologize to everyone because it is not a disease. I should edit that story, but I don't know if I ever will. Thanks to the reviewer who posted that out. I even find that comment to be annoying so I'm sorry that I said it. Hopefully, I'll be back with more stories soon.