Just a small event in the life of Noble Six.

The Ghost of Noble Six

Chapter VI

Do you ever get lonely?

Only around people.

Many Years Ago...

I sat in the back of the class room, tapping my pen on my desk, watching the rest of the class. A window on the right side allowed a fresh spill of sunlight to come in, adding light to the already brightly lit room. Desks were lined up in perfect rows facing the front of the room where the teacher was busy writing a math problem on the board. The other kids either had their heads down or were paying half-attention to the teacher. There was a light chorus of chatter as some of the other students spoke to each other, laughing at jokes that I didn't hear. The teacher, Ms. Randall, finished her furious scribble across the front board and turned to face us. She stepped off to the side and waited for the chatter to quiet down and die away.

"Now, does anybody know the answer to the problem?" Ms. Randall asked, gesturing to the board.

The class was silent.

"Anybody?" She asked, searching for someone to call on. I slowly raised my hand.

"Yes, in the back?" She was eager to hear my answer.

"Is it 15?" I asked.

A smile spread across her face and she wrote the answer down on the board and circled it. I'd run the calculation through my head as she was writing it. Ms. Randall began to explain the answer to the rest of the class, and my mind drifted off. Her voice became background noise as I began to think intensely. I wanted to get home fast today. They'd been advertising the premiere of the 3rd season of Mighty Crushers, my favorite cartoon, and I didn't want to miss a second of it. The only problem was that I'd have to wait around after school because of detention. I'd earned myself detention for an entire month because of fighting, and I hated it. School wasn't meant to drag on longer than it was supposed to. Stupid school. I hate detention with a passion. They make you sit down quietly for a long time to punish you. If only that Jeremy guy had shut his mouth when I told him to. I wouldn't have had to knock him out like I did. Now I was going to miss Mighty Crushers. I balled up the sheet of paper on my desk and shot it into a trash can against the wall.

The bell was about to ring, and everybody began to gather their stuff to leave. Ms. Randall started to speak over the sound of backpacks being zipped up and books being closed. Don't forget your homework. Study over the weekend. Test on Monday. Her voice was overshadowed by the ringing of the bell and the loudness of students rushing to leave the room. I stayed in my seat and watched the thick mob of students press out into the halls and beyond. If I didn't have detention, I would've fought my way through that crowd, rushed to my sister's classroom so that we could walk home, and then got away from the school as fast as possible. The class emptied out in record time. I sat there, waiting for my detention assignment. Sentences probably. There was another student staying after as well.

Ms. Randall walked over to my desk and I sat up in my seat.

"Now, just why do you have detention?" She asked, but she already knew the answer. She wanted me to confess my sins. Make me admit that I messed up. Her young features were lit up by the light from outside.

"Because he made me mad." I told her.

"You shouldn't let people get to you like that. You're smarter than that. You need to learn how to ignore people."

"I tried, but he still made me mad. So I hit him." She looked at me with a slight frown on her face.

"You can't go around getting angry and hitting people."

"He asked for it." I said in defense, crossing my arms over my chest. Ms. Randall sighed.

"Someday, you'll learn that violence doesn't solve anything. But today, you're going to sit in here and think about what you've done." She told me, and then headed towards the other student in the room.

I balled up another sheet of paper and shot it into the same trash can. Sitting there frowning, I thought about what she'd told me. He didn't shut up, so he deserved to get hit. Stupid fool. Ms. Randall was wrong about her ideas. I can go around hitting people if they make me angry. Jeremy had been bothering me all week long, and every time I'd told him to shut his mouth. But his mouth wouldn't close for some reason. He'd joked about me, calling me a punk in front of everyone. So I made him cry in front of everyone. It felt good to hit him as hard as I could, even though it scarred my knuckles. He'd fallen to the ground immediately and I'd kicked him in his gut several times. A smile spread across my face when I thought of that. It's the fourth time that I've gotten in trouble for fighting.

Ms. Randall walked to her desk, took out a test paper, and handed it to the other student. It was the girl called Katie, and I figured that she must be here to make up the test from Thursday. I could tell it was her from looking at her long hair. Katie talked too much. She always sat down by me at lunch, asking questions and talking all the time. I don't know why she always messes with me. She needs to find somebody else to speak to. During recess, she always follows me around. Whenever we play hide and seek, I always find the best spot, and she's always there to ruin it. I tell her to be quiet, but she always has to find something to say, getting us caught.

Maybe I have the wrong opinion of Katie. Maybe I don't. The next time she opens her mouth, I'll try to talk to her. It couldn't hurt, could it? Maybe that would get her to leave me be. Ms. Randall sat back down at her desk, looking down, and began writing furiously as she graded papers from earlier. Katie turned around in her seat, smiling. I watched her, wondering what she was doing. She waved at me with a big grin on her face, and I did a slight wave back. It was tempting to tell her to turn around and shut up, but I was bored. So I made sure that Ms. Randall was occupied with grading papers, and then grabbed another sheet of paper from my notebook, except I didn't shoot it into the trash this time.

Hay, rite down the prohblims on this and I'll rite down the anserrs to thim. Make sher that Mizis Randahl don't see you okay? Hery up.

I wrote that on the paper. I folded it into a crisp paper airplane, a model that a buddy of mine showed me how to make. Checking one more time to make sure that Ms. Randall wasn't looking, I threw the airplane to Katie. I was afraid that Ms. Randall would see us, but she didn't. Kaite caught it, looking at it with interest. She opened it up and read it. I watched as another smile lit her face. She began to write down the math problems from the test, and I waited patiently. Looking out the window, I could see the school grounds as they began to clear up. Those students would be able to get home on time, unlike me. Everybody would be talking about Mighty Crushers next week, and I wouldn't know anything about it. Dangit. I've been waiting on this day for weeks. Stupid detention.

I turned my attention back to Katie as she refolded the airplane. She made sure that Ms. Randall wasn't watching before she threw it back to me. Her awkward girly throw forced me to lean out of the seat to catch it, nearly knocking my notebook on the floor and alerting Ms. Randall. I snatched it out of the air and opened it up, examining its contents. 35 math problems were written down in big, loopy, girly handwriting. I got to work on them, running several calculations through my head at once. The work was easy for me, compared to my peers. Almost too easy. I figured out several answers at once, writing them down next to the problem. When I finished, I wrote another note on the plane.

Your luky that I am hear becuzz you wudd fell and mak an F if it wuzzint for me. But its okay thoh. I hop that you past it, cuzz I mite got sum of them rong but I dont theek so. becuzz I am gudd at it so gudd luk.

I rechecked my crazy handwriting, looking over the sentences and problems, and then refolded the paper. Katie was waiting for me to send the airplane back. I double checked to make sure that Ms. Randall was working, and then threw it back to Katie. It bounced off of her hands as she failed to catch it.

Girls. Of course. She snatched it up from the floor quickly and mouthed a silent 'Thank you', and then worked on the test. I'd lied when I said 'I might have gotten some of them wrong'. That was just there to put doubt in her mind, so that she wouldn't feel so secure about getting answers from someone else. But I know that all of them are the right answers. It felt good to help her out on the test, even though it was wrong. I might be in detention, but I'm not a bad student. I frown upon cheating. But for some reason, I felt that it was ohkay to help out Katie. Strange. I don't understand what made me do it, but I don't feel bad about it.

I slouched down on my seat, resting my head against the back wall, and nodded off to sleep, thinking about Mighty Crushers.