Crane's Crisis
Hard as he tried, Crane McFadden simply could not keep himself focused upon his math teacher, the same teacher who stood at the chalkboard demonstrating the multiplication of fractions. Still he made certain his demeanor appeared attentive, because he was already in mega trouble at home.
The last thing he needed was more backlash at home for subpar schoolwork.
If he could make it through fifteen more minutes the class would break for lunch. Then directly after that those members of the 4H club would meet with the 4H leader for an hour.
Fifteen minutes would drag, though.
At eleven, the blonde sixth grader had just transitioned to middle school that year. Always a good student and normally described as taciturn or a bit shy, he followed rules and did what was expected of him.
Teachers loved his sensitive nature and had doted on him from kindergarten. Crane was just that ideal kid who made an ideal student.
Adults praised his respectful attitude and genuine interest in the world around him.
Further, he pulled his own weight at home, contributing to the ranch work and household obligations without reminders.
Crane acted as role model to his four younger brothers.
Rarely did he even warrant a correction from Adam, his older brother and now guardian-parent.
Crane shifted in the hard desk. He tried to concentrate on the math problem on the board but slipped back into his musing. Honestly, those had been apt descriptions of Crane until the first week in January when he returned to school after the Christmas break.
Without warning that day after New Year's his life underwent a complete transformation.
Just like that, Alyssa Sessions sashayed into his Social Studies class.
Crane risked a glance out the window and saw the January sky beginning to darken. If it stormed that meant recess would be held indoors.
That might prove advantageous for him.
A sudden shuffling around him snapped Crane out of his reverie and he realized the bell had rung and his teacher was instructing the class to form a line. He hurriedly joined his classmates and Ryan Neeley and Tyler Jordan, his best friends, slid in front and in back of him. The three had been buddies since elementary school and generally stuck together at lunch and recess, as well as any occasions the sixth came in contact with the older seventh and eighth graders.
Ten minutes later when the boys carried their laden trays and cartons of milk toward their usual table Crane suddenly halted. "Let's do something different today. Why don't we move to that table right over there?" Crane pointed to a round table nearer the windows.
"But it's by a table of girls!" Ryan protested.
Tyler objected, "What do you have against our regular seats?"
Crane licked his lips. "I just thought that maybe it'd be fun to try something different. Look, you two don't have to go over there with me. I'll go by myself and you can sit at our usual place."
Ryan and Tyler exchanged glances and Tyler answered with resignation, "Naw, let's stay together. I just really wish we didn't have to sit by girls, though."
"There's that cootie threat," Ryan reminded them.
Crane ignored the observation, led the way, and picked his seat strategically. It provided a clear side view of Alyssa, who sat at a table with three other girls from Crane's class. That made Crane a happy young man.
Once Ryan and Tyler plopped into seats on either side of him and began to talk Crane relaxed. A conversation would keep his buddies occupied and allow him the opportunity to indulge in admiring Alyssa.
Crane marveled at her strawberry blond, wavy hair which hung past her shoulders in soft looking silky curls. Her green eyes were darker than his baby brother Guthrie's, more of an emerald green, and she had a dimple which appeared in her left cheek anytime she smiled.
This girl was the real deal.
She had infatuated him from the second he'd first seen her.
Crane opened his carton of milk and took a long swallow. There had been a song on the radio playing for months by a band called Air Supply. The lyrics described a girl who was every woman in the world, besides a fantasy and a reality. Crane had asked his big brother Brian what the song meant and Brian had explained.
That was his Alyssa.
Crane watched Alyssa nibble along the side of a cinnamon roll, her eyes widening with pleasure at the first taste of sugar and cinnamon.
Dainty and beautiful-
She was his fantasy.
He wanted her for his reality.
When he was a really little kid and Adam had just started high school he remembered that Adam would always commandeer the car radio on trips to town. Usually all of the family would hum along or sing aloud but there was this one song by Dr. Hook, When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman, andAdam knew every single one of the words. He would sing enthusiastically, belting the words with such fervor that he drowned out any other participants. Once the music concluded Adam would announce that the song was about him, and about his girlfriend, Chelsea.
Their parents would cast sideways looks at each other and try to hide their smiles.
Crane wrinkled his nose. Adam and Chelsea had broken up in…He tried to think, but couldn't remember.
It didn't matter anyway. Crane got it now. He felt exactly that way that Dr. Hook said about Alyssa, and could plainly see other boys couldn't help but notice her. That's what the song said. You even had to watch your friends when a beautiful girl appeared.
Alyssa suddenly stood and Crane felt his heart begin to race. His eyes followed her movements while trying not to appear too obvious. He watched her gracefully return to the lunch line to collect a new fork.
Something must have happened to her other fork.
Crane tried to focus upon something slightly to her right but at the same time, he wanted her to notice him.
What else could he do to make her conscious of him?
He had run out of ideas, but not for a lack of trying.
The entire situation was a full-fledged crisis now.
That first week when Alyssa joined his class he had spent most of his class time reflecting upon his utter inexperience with females. Why couldn't he have sisters like Ryan and Tyler? When he'd spent the night at Ryan's house the year before he had come into contact with Ryan's little sister, true. But she was four, so that didn't help. As for Tyler, his two older sisters appeared the most promising for Crane to analyze but both girls now attended college hours away. That was a dead end.
Why did his parents have to have seven boys anyway? Didn't they see that they should have thrown in a girl or two along the way?
That first day when his Alyssa arrived the teacher asked her to tell them a bit about herself. Alyssa shared that she and her mother had just moved to the area after Christmas to be closer to her mom's parents.
The teacher directed each member of the class to individually welcome Alyssa with a personal introduction. She had stood at the teacher's side, dimple on display, as each sixth grader offered a name and some general information.
So mesmerized was Crane that his turn crept up as he regarded her, fascinated.
The blanket of silence that cloaked the room finally penetrated his thoughts and with horror he realized his turn had come and the entire class now focused upon him.
Crane thought quickly in an effort to salvage his embarrassment and pretend his reaction was planned. He smiled broadly and called, "Well good night Alyssa," which caused his peers to laugh with delight. The goodnight line hailed directly from The Waltons, a tv show which had just ended a decade long run. Each popular episode concluded with family members bidding good nights to other family members.
Emboldened by the reaction Crane continued, "Good night, and I'm Crane McFadden at your service. Welcome to sixth grade." Crane counted his turn a success when Alyssa laughed delightedly and thanked him, and even the teacher seemed amused.
From that one incident Crane concluded that humor would turn her attention straight to him. Though shy by nature his heart was at stake. This, after all, was the love in his life! In the next two weeks he elevated himself to class entertainer, seizing upon one or two opportunities each day to create a comic diversion which would convulse the class with laughter and leave Alyssa gazing at him as she laughed.
Still, she didn't single him out for a more in-depth introduction.
Crane reevaluated his school day to determine a new approach.
The second he had begun school his teachers had zeroed in on his intelligence. He had been tested and those scores subsequently cemented his eligibility for gifted services, designed to address students with above average intelligence.
In sixth grade it meant that he would routinely be pulled out for enrichment activities. Crane normally enjoyed that time with other gifted students. However, with Alyssa in the picture his priority had changed. Those times when he left the classroom would allow other boys the chance to endear themselves to her. Plus, Alyssa might not want to hang out with someone smart because maybe she'd think that was nerdy.
Along with his extemporaneous comedy, Crane decided to curtail his own academics by skipping assignments and pretending to not know the correct answers to questions. He never imagined playing dumb could give him so much satisfaction. Tyler and Ryan complimented his academic bravado and the other sixth graders viewed his responses as hilarious, quickly elevating Crane to the most popular boy in the class.
Still, Alyssa didn't seem any more or less impressed and Crane was at his wit's end. This was a crisis! What could he do next? That girl had him all mixed up!
Then fate jumped in to sabotage him in the form of his math teacher, who ordered him to have Adam sign the test he had just failed that morning.
Now that had not been pretty, and Crane's stomach knotted just remembering it. Adam had considered Crane's actions blatant disobedience and a deliberate disregard of his school responsibilities and immediately laid down the law. Crane found himself not only grounded, but just a step away from being yanked across Adam's lap for a spanking.
He hadn't counted on that.
Common sense finally surfaced and he decided he needed to find some other way to capture Alyssa's interest. Of course that meant abdicating his class clown role and reclaiming his academic prowess. He could not risk- no, he would not risk disobeying Adam's instructions again. Adam had already proved himself immune to tears, pleas, and accusations of being unfair. Crane found him just too formidable an opponent to provoke.
Honestly, in hindsight he was a bit ashamed of himself. Both of his bright ideas had backfired against him, and Alyssa treated him no differently in mid-January than she had at the beginning of January.
Tyler snapped him out of his reverie. "Time to leave."
The rest of the day Crane didn't see Alyssa. She wasn't in 4H and the next two periods he was pulled out for his advanced classes.
But his luck improved when the students were sent back to the cafeteria to wait for their afternoon buses. Once he grabbed everything he needed that night to complete homework he slammed his locker and went to join Tyler and Ryan. Crane's bus came before theirs did, but usually they had ten minutes or so to socialize.
As he entered the large cafeteria though, he spied that familiar strawberry blond hair. Alyssa had chosen a seat at a table in one corner of the lunchroom, and she was sitting alone.
Crane thought quickly. If this wasn't a great illustration of that Carpe- Diem- seize- the- day philosophy Adam had taught him in fourth grade then he didn't know what was!
Slinging his bookbag over one shoulder he beelined to where she sat with her arithmetic book and notebook open before her. A pencil dangled from her fingers. Before he could lose courage Crane slipped into the seat beside her. "What are you doing?"
Alyssa pointed to the page. "This fraction stuff we've been doing really confuses me. I failed the last test and I don't want to fail the next one."
"I can help teach you," Crane offered.
"You?"
Crane shrugged his shoulders in surprise. "Why couldn't I?"
Alyssa dimpled, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just you're the most popular boy in our class and I don't even have any friends yet. I'm not popular at all. I can't believe you'd want to waste time with me."
Crane took a deep breath and decided to handle the situation with honesty. "Actually I am not the most popular. What I am is a pretty good student who fell in love with this girl who just moved to his school."
"Oh!" Comprehension dawned and she regarded him wide eyed. "I didn't, I mean you didn't…"
Crane reached over and grabbed her hand, then placed it across his heart. "Let me finish, please. So this boy is usually pretty shy but he came up with a couple of plans to get this beautiful girl's attention."
She sat up straighter. "Like being really funny and making everyone laugh?"
"That," he admitted. "Along with suddenly ignoring schoolwork."
She swiveled in her seat so they were face to face. "Ridiculous."
Crane winced. "He knows that now. Believe me on that."
"Is he sure?"
"Definitely, and he's in big time trouble at home because of how he's handled school."
Crane placed her hand on her lap and shoved both of his hands into his pockets. Had he said enough? Too much?
"Well," Alyssa tilted her head. "That boy overreacted."
Crane nodded softly. "He did, yes."
"Because if he'd just stopped all of what he was doing he would have seen that the girl liked him the second she walked into the classroom." Alyssa dimpled again.
Crane scrambled to yank his hands from his pockets and grab both of her. "Really? Is that true?"
"Yep, she's got a thing for tall, slender, blonde guys."
Crane smiled and she smiled back. "Well, ok, then. So would that girl consider being that boy's girlfriend?"
"She would indeed," Alyssa confirmed.
The duty teacher interrupted and they both jumped. "What spooked you? If you two are not working on homework go ahead and pack your bookbags. The last two buses should be here within the next few minutes."
Alyssa and Crane assured her they would and Alyssa started packing her materials. Satisfied, the teacher left.
"I really can help you with math," Crane promised. "I'm actually pretty good at it."
"Give me your phone number and I'll call after I get home."
"Sorry," Crane admitted. "I'm on restriction. That means no phone for me."
"Okay, then maybe in homeroom tomorrow."
He smiled. "That won't be a problem. I can deal with that."
"Crane?"
"Yes?"
"My mom said she'd take me to the skating rink Friday night if she doesn't have to work. Will you go with me? I know my mom wouldn't mind picking you up from your house wherever you live."
Crane threw his head back and sighed dramatically. "Again, I would love to go with you but I can't. I'm grounded, remember?"
"Oh." She didn't hide her disappointment.
He leaned towards her. "Let's make it a promised date. The first weekend I'm not grounded we'll go to the skating rink together."
The duty teacher announced Crane's bus and he stood quickly, then bent down and dropped a soft kiss on Alyssa's cheek. "See you tomorrow."
She watched him begin to walk away. "Crane?"
"Yes?" He paused and turned to regard her.
"I just wanted to tell you I hope it was worth it."
"You hope what was worth it?"
"Getting grounded. I hope whatever you got on restriction for was worth it."
Crane smiled. "It was. Oh yes indeed, it was worth it all right!"
