~Violet Present~
"Violet would you mind filling in Liam about the way this class works and introduce him to some new friends," Cory asked me.
"I guess," I shrugged, " Okay so basically Mr. Matthews teaches us based on what's happening in our lives. Particularly me, Riley, Maya, Lucas, and Farkle."
"Sounds good," Liam said.
"Yeah its just great," Lucas said rolling his eyes.
"Come out with us after school!" Riley told the new boy.
"Will you be there?" He asked me.
"Yeah," I nodded.
"Yeah so will I." Lucas added.
At Topangas we were all sitting in a both. I was sitting by Lucas and across from Liam.
"Whatcha looking at?" I asked maya who had her nose stuck in a book.
" Art . Kossal gave it to me. It's got all the best artists and their best paintings. It's amazing And depressing" Maya said closing the book.
"She's trying to motivate you." I said grabbing the book.
"Ain't working." She shrugged.
"Look at these." I showed her some of the beautiful art.
"I could never do anything near this. These people all have something to say" Maya said taking the book from me.
"Well, you only know that because they went ahead and said it." I told her.
"You know, someday you're gonna make somebody a wonderful fortune cookie." Lucas told me kissing my cheek.
"Are you guys together?" Liam asked us and everyone looked at us.
"Let me take a picture of everybody." Farkle said changing the subject quickly.
"What for?" Riley asked as a phone camera clicked.
" I don't know. It's may be important to somebody someday." Farkle said examining the picture.
"You guys are already important to me." Riley said.
"How?" Maya asked.
"You teach me how to be friends." She answered smiling at us.
"Aww" I said ruffling her hair sitting as far away from Lucas as possible after the awkward question Liam had asked.
We got up ready to leave, "Maya, aren't you bringing that?" I asked.
"What, this book of "Why bother trying I'll never be as good as these guys"?"
"That's a very discouraging title." I said picking up the book.
"I love you, Violet, but I'm leaving this here. It makes me feel bad and It's really heavy." Maya said picking up the book and putting it back down on the table.
~Nora 1961~
"The girl with the long, blonde hair I wonder who that's about" May said looking at my journal.
I sighed, "It's my first time here and I would like to remember everything."
"Maybe I'll write about it later." Rosie said.
"It's my first time here, too. I'm on my way to California. My bus broke down, bad luck." May shrugged.
"I don't understand why these things happen." I said
"Because if her bus didn't break down, then we don't become friends." Rosie explained "If I go sit at that table instead of this table, then I'm not friends with..." She stopped realizing we never learned this girls name.
"May Clutterbucket" the girl filled in.
"Yow." I said leaning back into my seat.
"What's in California for you, may? I'm going to say Clutterbucket now. But just so you know, when I say it I am not making fun of you." Rosie said way to fast.
"Well, there's a place where people are making art and playing music." May explained.
"Sounds cool. Where is it?" I asked.
"It's a place called Topanga Canyon. I'm sure I'll love it." The girl said dreamily.
"Topanga What a beautiful name for something that you want to love." I noted.
"I'm gonna remember that." Rosie said writing it in her journal.
"May, take the stage, may." Ginsberg said into the microphone.
"You're up." I said.
The applause started and May turned back before going to the stage, "What are your names, new friends?"
"Rosie McGee."
"Nora Evans".
"Wish me luck, Rosie and Nora." She said before going onto the stage.
"Wow, you're going to sing?" I said amazed by her bravery.
" I'm going to try."
"Yay, go get 'em! And remember, you're beautiful, man." Rosie said still clapping.
Folk music started to play and May began to sing "Car drove off airplane flew I stayed here missing you I grow old never see that you were there missing me are we now? What were we then? Will we look back and wonder when? What could have been what isn't yet will you remember or forget?"
"Wow! I'll remember, because that was great." Rosie exclaimed standing up and clapping.
"Let's hear it for may clutterbucket." Ginsberg encouraged the applause.
I heard someone scoff and turned around, "What are you laughing at, Bob Dylan?"
"Merlin. Merlin Scoggins," Edwin called the next person up to sing taking a moment to smile at me.
"Take the stage, cowboy." Ginsberg added.
"Who the heck is that?" Rosie asked loudly.
" So that's him. I've heard about him." I said as the figure took the stage.
"Hello. I'm Merlin Scoggins," he said as he turned around and immediately we looked eyes and I felt a deep connection with him.
~Violet present~
"Hello. I'm Lucas Friar." Lucas turned around in the front of the classroom immediately smiling at me before continuing, "My great-grandpa used to do that.
He was a man named Merlin Scoggins.
And this record was a big hit."
"That's amazing, Lucas." I said standing next to him in the front of the class, "Why didn't you ever tell us any of that?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna tell Maya I have a country-singing great-grandpa and that I actually do come from cowboys." He rolled his eyes and I laughed, "Yeah, because I need more nicknames to go with Hopalong, Sundance and Ranger Rick."
"No, I'm done with that." Maya said with a straight face.
"Doubtful" I said.
" I am so impressed with his rich, Texas heritage that I am officially throwing out all of those old nicknames forever." Maya said.
"Wow, thank you, Maya." Lucas said.
"No problem, Bucky McBoing Boing." Maya said.
"Yeah it only got worse" I patted his shoulder.
"From what I can piece together, my great-grandmother Rosie McGee was a weird, little, wide-eyed goofball who only saw the best in everybody. Who just happened to be best friends with Nora Evans." Riley told the class.
"Nora Evans just happened to be my great-grandmother. And I've learned that she was smart, sassy, talented, and funny." I added.
"Who's like that?" I asked
"Nobody." Maya answered shaking her head laughing.
"I'd like to play you my great-grandfather's song." Lucas said starting the record player.
The record scratched and country music began to play.
~1961 Nora~
"This seat taken?" Merlin asked when he walked over to our table.
"By you." I said smiling and I heard Edwin who was sitting across from me scoff.
"See what she did?" Rosie said excidedly.
"Yeah, you're not a normal girl at all." May realized.
" I liked your song, ma'am." Merlin told may.
"And what do you do?" He asked Rosie.
" Ah, who knows?" Rosie said trying to sound cool. "She's an observer of humanity." I answered for her.
"Well, we need those."
"The observers, the singer, the poet, and the mystery man." Ginsberg said snapping a picture of us"That's gotta be worth something to somebody someday."
"Well, thank you all for your kind words and I'll be on my way." Merlin said standing up and I stood up too.
"you have to go?" I asked disappointed.
"I try not to stay any place too long Especially when people do that." He said gesturing to Rosie who was batting her eyelashes oddly.
"Stay here with this one too long and she might change us for the better." I laughed.
He chuckled and moved a piece of hair from my face, "Yeah, anyway You keep writing down those observations."
"And you, you keep playing." He told May.
"What, my new song, "why bother trying, I'll never be as good as you guys"?" May said.
"That's a very discouraging title." I said looking down at her.
"You have something to say." She told Merlin.
"Well, now, you only know that, because he went ahead and said it." I told her as Merlin left.
"Here." She handed me her guitar.
"Why are you giving me this?" I asked confused.
" You were great." Rosie told her.
"No, he's going to change the world. I'm not gonna change a thing." May said getting up from the table.
"Where are you going?" Rosie asked her.
" Don't you worry, weirdo." May smiled at us "I'll be right back."
~Violet present~
"My great-grandmother never saw her friend again.
The world has never heard of May Clutterbucket," I said sitting on Corys desk.
"My great-grandfather had one huge hit. People thought he was gonna change the world, but he didn't.
After an appearance in a small cafe in New York City, he made some bad choices. He went to jail for a little while. He went left instead of right." Lucas said standing farther away from me than normal.
"And why do you think that was, Mr.
Friar?" Cory asked.
"Don't know. Maybe he needed some better friends." Lucas answered looking at me. Wow so that's what we were, I guess we're friends.
"Nora liked observing things. I'm going to read something from her journal. It's called "the girl with the long, blonde hair." "She said she would be gone for a moment, I am still waiting. We could have been friends, maybe in some other life. The girl with the long, blonde hair." I started reading from the journal.
" It sounds like Nora was a pretty good writer." Cory commented.
"There's a little bit more. "If you quiet your voice, if you stop, because you think other people are better, then you are not who I know you are, the girl with the long, blonde hair."
" You wrote that." Maya accused.
"No Icontinued it.," I stated, " I am a continuation. That's what history's about, right, Cory?"
He chuckled, "Oh, now I get it."
"Rosie had a daughter, and her daughter had my mom.
Rosie gave me my mom and she gave my dad his wife." Riley said joining in the presentation.
"This has been in my family for over 50 years." I said handing the guitar to Maya. "But I feel like it belongs with you. So I hope that whenever you see it, it will remind you that even though Nora's friend gave up, you never should."
Maya faced Lucas and began to strum the guitar.
"Oh, no." Lucas said and I started laughing, "this is your fault!"
I laughed and he wrapped his arms around me as Maya began to sing.
"Hello.
I'm Bucky McBoing Boing.
I got a great-grandson who's a ranger Rick and a Hopalong and a Sundance, too Everybody! All: I got a great-grandson who's a ranger Rick and a Hopalong and a Sundance, too."
The next day in class I was sitting on Lucas' desk talking to him and Liam when Farkle came running into the classroom. He ran straight to the front and flipped the nameplate to the Farkle side.
"Is he allowed to do that" Liam asked.
"Yeah it happens a lot," I said sliding into my own desk.
"Yeah, okay." Cory said sitting in Farkles desk.
"We are all part of a puzzle called history. We are each a tiny piece of that puzzle that comes together and makes a picture. Well, you're not gonna believe the picture I just found. My great-grandfather Ginsburg worked at a Greenwich village cafe." Farkle started talking.
"Hey my great grandfather worked at a place similar to that," Liam said.
"Was his name Edwin?" Farkle asked.
Liam just nodded.
"Thought so, Violet,Lucas, what year did your great-grandparents visit New York?" Farkle asked us.
"1961." We answered at the same time.
"Whoa." Riley said.
" I knew it. What month?"
"December." We both said again.
"Say it again." Farkle told Riley.
"Whoa." She said again.
"And what was the name of the club?"
"Cafe - Hey." Riley answered.
"That's where my great-grandfather worked." Liam added.
"Maya, what did you learn about your great-grandmother?" Farkle stood in front of her desk. "Nothing, my mom said to leave it alone." Maya shrugged.
"I know you, Maya. You're not a puzzle to me at all.
You went behind her back and snooped around, didn't you?" Farkle pressed.
" No." Maya answered.
"What did you find? Tell me her it or I will." Farkle threatened.
"May Clutterbucket." She said and Lucas let out a loud laugh smiling brightly.
"What?" He asked.
"I come from a long line of Clutterbuckets" she said annoyed.
"Oh, this is the greatest day of my life!" Lucas said.
" All of our relatives met each other on the same night." Farkle told us.
"Your great-grandmothers were my great-grandmother's friends." Riley said.
"No. They never became friends. She walked out." Maya reminded Riley.
"And you didn't tell me?" I asked her.
" Tell you what? That I come from people who give up. That I am a Clutterbucket?" Maya said exasperated. "Change history" I said.
"Excuse me?" She asked.
" They would have been better off being friends. That was a missed opportunity. Don't let your history be one of missed opportunities. Learn from the past." I said hugging her.
" I don't want to be a Clutterbucket." She admitted.
"You're not." Riley said joining our hug.
"You're all Hart." I said before Farkle started talking again.
"On December 14th, 1961, four pieces of a puzzle came together" Farkle put up the picture from 1961 and the one from the other day at the bakery.
" How great is history class now, everybody?" Cory laughed.
"Shh!" We all said.
" Great-grandfather Ginsburg was hard to research, because he was never in any of the pictures, because he took and gentlemen, I have achieved time you. Iam Farkle!" Farkle yelled.
The next day in class Lucas, Riley, Liam, Farkle, Maya, and I got to class early.
"Where are we going today, Cory?" I asked when he walked into the class.
"I thought you guys didn't care about any of that stuff" he asked confused.
"No, that was yesterday." Riley said.
"Yesterday is history." I said getting my notebook out ready to take notes.
"What do you have for us today, Mr.
Matthews?" Maya asked.
"The year was 1963. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
" Martin Luther King, Jr.
A lot of things happened in 1963.
The '60s, man."