I Am Who I Am
...And so children, with your volcanoes finished we can get on to making the lava...
Little Willy Wonka was resting his chin on his open and much doodled in science book, seriously contemplating the option of a small nap. Mrs. Welch may have benn a good teacher but entertaining she was not. In fact, if Mrs. Welch were to be compared to any living creature it would have been a flea. Add to that, the constant mumbling.
...you will now pour a little portion of your vinegar into...mumble mumble...and then a bit of red...mumble mumble. You will use the funnel to...mumble mumble...
"Now remember class: Too much baking soda will cause an eruption."
"But that's what we're aiming for isn't it?"
The sudden change of voices in the classroom got everyone, Willy included, interested. All eyes turned to the back where a small boy with slightly spiked black hair was sitting. He beamed at the amount of attention the class gave but one girl sitting beside him rolled her eyes and put her head in her hands. Mrs. Welch pursed her lips and glared.
"I mean volcanoes, they are supposed to erupt. Blow chunks." he continued. Half the class laughed.
"Yes Mr. Masters. You are correct." Mrs. Welch answered.
"I am? Wow! Hey, party at my house in celebration!"
There came a number of cheers and also what Willy seemed to hear as a groan coming from the girl sitting beside Masters. He covered up his grin as he imagined her to be the next Mrs. Welch, mumbling and mumbling away, boring her class to tears.
"And if I have any more trouble from you Terrence, then you should consider rethinking your party plans."
"Oh please don't call my daddy-o." Terrence said, clasping his hands together.
It was at that moment that Willy let out his held in laughter. The class all turned their eyes to him and Willy, noticing this, sank a little in his chair.
"Well Well Well." Mrs. Welch said, walking over to where Willy sat. He gulped. It was a mistake to laugh. A huge one.
"Mr. William Wonka is it not?" she asked.
Willy forced to words out of his mouth.
"Yes."
"I thought it was Metal Mouth." whispered a boy to his friend. Mrs. Welch ignored the comment.
"May I ask what is so funny?"
"Well, it's me of course." came Terrence's voice from the back.
Willy swallowed. "It was." he said quietly. There was a pause as he waited to hear the teacher's response.
"I'll let you go." said Mrs. Welch. "Goodness knows I hardly see you laugh or act up."
And with that she walked away. Willy breathed a sigh of relief.
"When your finished testing we will head outside to do the real eruptions. Some of you do need some practise to gain my trust." Mrs. Welch said, looking straight at Terrence.
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And practise, the kids did do. It was a fairly simple task really. A little bit of red food colouring, some baking soda, vinegar and there you had it. Lava! Well the safe version of lava anyway. However, Mrs. Welch was correct. Terrence did need practise. Ten minutes later and he and the girl sitting next to him were covered in frothy red goo.
"Did I do it right Mrs. Welch?" he asked with a beaming smile plastered on his face. It was quite a funny smile to some but Willy thought different. There was a certain charisma in it that seemed to hide any fear of Mrs. Welch yelling at him.
"Had this been real lava, you would have been footing the hospital bill for Miss. Clearwater." Mrs. Welch said with a distasteful look at Terrence.
"Oh Ruthy forgives me don't you Roo?"
Terrence put an arm around Ruthy and she responded by shaking it off and pushing him off his seat.
"Ow. Guess not." he moaned from the floor. The bell rang and with one last disgusted took at Terrence's prone figure, she headed for the door. Mrs. Welch hurried out with the rest of the class, leaving Willy once again the last one out. Or maybe not. There came a moan. Terrence.
After collecting his things, he walked over to him.
"Little help?" Terrence asked. Willy sighed and held out a hand. However, this good deed of helping someone up didn't bring much good. At least not to Willy. He looked down at his palm, now coated with red goo.
"Sorry bout that."
"It's ok, I'll wash it off in the bathroom." Willy said, slightly grimacing at the mess. Terrence followed him out, moving through the crowded halls with ease that Willy could never think to have. Not when half the school stopped to laugh at the "thing" on his head.
"So what's that "thing" on your head for? Protection?" Terrence asked as he walked besde him.
"Braces. My dad made them."
"Your daddy-o must be a real badass."
"Yeah. He is." as Willy pushed the door open to the boy's room. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that no other boy was there. Although he supposed that if he were to be bullied again, he might of had some sort of protection with Terrence around.
"So, Terrence said, sitting down on the radiator as Willy went to wash his hands off. "None of the cats see you around."
"I...keep my head down you know." Willy said as he turned on the tap.
Terrence nodded.
"What about you and that girl that pushed you off your chair?"
"Oh Roo? She's a friend. But she does sweep me of my feet as you saw."
They both laughed, and Willy realized that this was the first time he laughed openly in school without having to worry about Mrs. Welch or any of the other teachers harping on him for it. Maybe, just maybe, he had found a friend.
After Willy had dried his hands off, he and Terrence headed for the door and Willy was quite shocked and embarrrassed when he saw that the opening of it almost hit a girl. Judging from her angry expression and constant toe tapping, she must have been waiting for them.
"Terrence, do you have any idea how long it might take to wash out all that goo in Ruthy's hair?" she asked, all the while continuing her rapid toe tapping.
"A...long time?" he guessed.
"Half the lunch period in fact."
"It was a joke."
"That's funny because...I'm not laughing!" she shouted.
As they bikered, Willy drank in the sight of her. She was taller than Willy, with hair done up her straight black hair finished with white streaks a la Tracy Turnblad's 1962 Teenage Hairspray. Uh...not like he watched the Corny Collins show. Moving on, this girl seemed to have dared the limits in school by wearing a shorter than normal, black and red checked dress.
...Well fine! I'll buy the shampoo...
Terrence's voice helped to refocus his attention. The girl was now looking at him curiously, no doubt because of the headgear.
"Who's this?"
Terrence looked up.
"Oh right. Veronica, this is Willy. Willy Veronica."
"As in Metal Mouth Wonka?"
Willy groaned. Here we go again. Braces people. Braces! I know they look like a torture device, but that's because they came from my dad.
"Yes."
"Your father's my mom's dentist." she told him.
"Does he torture her too?" he asked.
"Well...No. Not like that anyway."
The bell rang again. There came a scramble of kids.
"Look, I have to book it." Veronica turned to leave but turned back to Terrence.
"We're watching Corny at my house today?"
Terrence nodded.
"Great. Uh, your invited too Willy."
"Me?"
"Oh course."
Veronica then dashed off through the huge crowd of students. Willy rounded on Terrence.
"Corny? As in The Corny Collins Show?"
"Oh yeah, every since it started broadcasting in more than Baltimore it's all Bop-Be-Bop all day long. Why? Do you watch it?"
"Oh yeah! Tracey is my favourite."
"Too bad she's already with Link." Terrence sighed.
"Well, do you want to get something to eat?"
Wow! First a friend, then an invitation to a party and now lunch! It was his lucky day!
We may never know how old our wonderful chocolate maker is but from the slang he used in the movie I have decided to set this in the mid 60's. The Corney Collins show never was a real show but it's from Hairspray, the quickly becoming new favourite movie of mine. Also, go me! I finally wrote a longer chapter!