"Beauty" from the Ashes
Drake and Josh are assigned to volunteer at a children's hospital for a school assignment. Drake rather not be there…. until he meets a fellow volunteer named Belle. He immediately develops a crush on her and tries to ask her out. Unfortunately, she refuses his advances. Not willing to give up, Drake volunteers more and more to get her attention. As time goes by, the two become close friends and slowly, find themselves attracted to each other… which pleases Drake but worries Belle. Things are going so well that Drake decided to ask Belle to the junior prom…however Belle lands in the hospital as a patient.
Tap-Tap-Tap went his pen on the desk. He checked his watch and groaned at the fact that only 10 minutes had passed since the bell had rung, starting another boring class. That's what Drake Parker thought of Mrs. Robinson's character education class. Drake didn't understand why this class was a requirement. Character education was supposed to teach them about how to be polite, kind, and responsible. Well, Drake inhabited two of those qualities. Responsibility wasn't one of Drake's qualities. All he cared about was two things and music. Drake played guitar, sang, and wrote music, even being the front man for his own band. Plus, he seemed to have a crush on a different girl every week and tried everything to get that girl's attention. He wasn't one to pay attention to homework and studying. That was always his brother Josh's department. Josh was the ideal student, always did his homework, studied, and always took responsibly for himself. They were total opposites, yet they were friends and brothers. That hasn't always been the case. Up until a while ago, the two didn't even know each other. Drake's mom and Josh's dad married after a brief courtship and suddenly, Drake and Josh were forced to move to become roommates. Despite all their differences, the two 16-year-olds found a way to balance each other out with Josh's intelligence and Drake's musical talents and somehow, along the way, the two became friends and brothers.
"And teenagers are finding out now more than ever that it's never too late to start volunteering and making a difference in someone's life. In fact, a teen who volunteers finds that whenever impacting someone's life, s/he finds that his/her life is being impacted as well."
While Drake cared about others, he didn't really care about volunteer work. However, Mrs. Robinson was about to give him and the class the news that he was about to. Drake knew by her stature, tall and lanky, with earth-tone clothes and gray hair in a bun and Coke bottle-shape glasses, that the news was going to be an assignment, a long, boring assignment. Sure enough, Drake was right!
"For the next 6 weeks, all of you will be doing volunteer work," she explained, surprisingly not being met by groans. "Each of you will be given an envelope with the assignment and address of your volunteer group. You will go for two hours every week and will be require to email me a reflective journal, explaining your time at volunteering. You will be given guide questions to help you make a more elaborate journal. This will count for 10 of your final grade."
Drake rolled his eyes in disbelief. He couldn't believe this! He was going to have to waste his precious guitar and band practice volunteering! This just stinks!
RING! Finally! Class was over! Drake quickly stuffed his textbook and blinder in his blue book bag and ran to meet Josh, who was already at Mrs. Robinson's desk, getting his and Drake's assignments.
"Hey, bro," Drake said, warmly slapping Josh's back. "Whatcha doing?"
"Nada, just picking up our volunteer assignments," Josh said with a smile, handing Drake an envelope.
Drake rolled his eyes again and said, "Why do we have to do this volunteering thing? It's so boring. A waste of time."
Mrs. Robinson heard this and said, "I heard that Mr. Parker. This volunteer assignment is not a waste of time. It's a way for you to be more responsible, help others, and see that there's more to life than music and girls."
She walked over and packed up her brown briefcase. As she left the classroom, she looked over to Drake and said, "I sincerely hope you realize that when you go to your assignment."
Drake felt his face fall, humbled for the first time in a while. As he and Josh walked out the classroom into the hallway, Drake eyed the envelope and thought about what his teacher said. For a second, a split second, Drake thought that maybe she was right.
Darn! I hate when teachers are right! Drake thought to himself.
Drake opened up his envelope and found that he was to be working at St. Philips' Children Hospital. He rested his head on a locker in disbelief. He couldn't believe that out of all places he would have to work at a children's hospital. He so wanted something else, anything but a children's hospital!