Chapter 1: Show and Tell
Just how much closer can somebody get to a skateboard?
Not much.
Branton had, of course, brought his skateboard to "Show-and-Tell" - something I think is a little childish for the tenth grade, to start with. But honestly, didn't he have anything else in his life worth sharing?
"So I gave Z a new coat of paint this summer," he was saying as he showed off his board to the class. It was mostly red and white, but had a large, yellow letter Z proudly painted across it like a big zig-zag or a lightning bolt. I'll bet he thought it looked super cool. "The old coat was kinda faded." Branton lowered Z and gave the teacher a 'can I go now?' look. The teacher nodded, so Branton went back to his desk to be his usually anti-social self. As always, he completely ignored me and the student to his other side, staring straight ahead at the next few show-and-tellers.
I tuned out in boredom, remembering my first - and last - attempt to make friends with Branton the day he'd transferred to my school.
I had caught up to Branton just outside when school let out.
"Hey! Hi!" I called, grinning and running over to him. He turned to look at me, skateboard tucked under his arm. "It's nice to see a new face in school," I said, giving him a welcoming smile.
Before I could say anything else, he grinned, jumped on his skateboard and zoomed past so fast I thought he'd knock me over.
"Watch it!" I yelled, jumping back and staring as he skateboarded out of sight. "Whatever," I said to the air in front of me. "By the way, I'm Ellen." Shrugging, I went home.
"Ellen Pekraff?"
The girl next to me had been daydreaming with a bored look on her face, but snapped out of it when her name was called for the Show-and-Tell.
Okay, so maybe I shouldn't've tried to mow her down for being friendly. In the two weeks since I'd moved here, she hadn't done anything to be rude, after all.
Ellen grabbed a couple sheets of paper off her desk and walked to the head of the classroom where the teacher waited.
"What have you got for us, Ellen?" he asked her. "A story or a poem, perhaps?"
"No," she said and turned to the students to speak to us directly. "I decided not to bring something for Show-and-Tell. Don't you all find this a little childish and silly? To 'get to know our fellow students better,' I thought it might be cool to do something more up to our age level, like talk about how we could get world peace, or something like that. Frankly, I think having a student debate about something might be a little less boring than pretending to be kindergarteners. What do you guys all think?"
"If you don't have something to share with the class, Ellen," the teacher interrupted pointedly, "then you may go back to your desk."
She gave a shrug and walked back to her desk without another word.
What a girl.
When school let out, I saw Branton hanging around outside, waiting for someone. I started to walk on past but surprisingly, he stopped me and said, "Nice speech."
It wasn't much, but you had to expect that from a guy like Branton. I smiled and said, "Thanks."
"You're wasting your time, though," he went on. "Teachers hate being wrong, so as far as they're concerned, they never are. Besides, who wants to sit around and talk about 'world peace'? It's not gonna happen, and if it does it won't be because a bunch of teens talked about it."
The nerve of that guy! I try and be nice, and then when he's rude, I give him some space. But he still has to go and find me to tell me I'm a loser? "You-y-!" I sputtered. Angrily, I snatched Z out of his hands, threw it on the ground, and jumped on, riding it away.
"ELLEN!" he hollered, chasing me on foot. "Give that back! I swear, I'll kill you, Ellen!"
"Wha?" I gasped, losing my balance. I fell off the skateboard, landing on my rear. Ignoring me, Branton charged past and grabbed Z. Turning back to glare at me, he stormed off home.
I sat there for several minutes, not bothering to stand up, staring after him in shock.