Chapter 2: KICK ME Signs and Such
~Ephram~
September 16, 2001
Wow, I can't believe I'm still writing in this thing. I mean, as much as it sucks, I'm now In Everwood, Colorado, just about as far away from New York as I could possibly get, and therefore I'll never have to see Mrs. Young (or Mrs. Old as we all liked to call her), or listen to one of her boring English lectures ever again. Which generally means that I don't exactly have to continue doing her stupid assignment either. But yet look at me, still writing in you. I guess I'm as big a loser as they say I am at my new school. I mean, what kind of dork writes in a journal every day for the hell of it, anyway? Oh well, I guess everyone needs someone to talk to. And I can't talk to my mother because she's dead, I can't talk to my sister because she's too young, I can't talk to my grandparents because they're in New York, I can't talk to my friends because I don't have any, and I can't talk to my Dad because as far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father either. So congratulations Journal, you've gone from a pain in the ass assignment to my best friend.
So anyway, here I am starting my second week at Everwood High. And let me tell you, it sucks even worse than I had been expecting, which is saying a lot. Not only is the town small, uncivilized, and the capital of the middle of nowhere, it's also full of a bunch of idiotic assholes. That jerk Colin that "showed me around school" last Monday, and his friend Bright (who by the way is even stupider than Colin. Trust me, if there was a prize biggest head and the smallest brain, this guy would win it), have apparently decided to devote all their free time to making my life miserable. Luckily for me, they suck at it. What they just don't get, is that I don't care. As much shit that has happened to me in the past couple of months, missing lunch or having my lock switched or whatever, doesn't exactly rate high on my list of priorities. I don't really care if these people like me or not, because I sure as hell don't like them. Anyway, their big joke today was screwing with my chair in English class so it collapsed when I sat down . . . hilarious, huh? Oh well, one good thing came out of it. My teacher decided to move me from standard English to the honors class. She said I would be "more suited in honors". I think she just didn't want to deal with Colin and Bright playing "jokes" on me . . .
*****
Ephram glanced in the mirror and wished he hadn't bothered. He looked like death. His hair was in a wild disarray and circles shadowed his eyes, the result of yet another night of tossing and turning. Ephram hadn't been able to sleep since his mother's accident . . . and when he did his dreams were haunted with nightmares. This was not something he had told anyone, and he certainly didn't intend to. Not that there was really anyone he could tell anyway.
The sun was pouring through his windows and casting its cheery glow throughout his room. It seemed to taunt Ephram with the reminder that the rest of the world was still turning, filled with happiness and joy and hope . . . and that it had left him behind.
Deciding that he had wasted too much time feeling sorry for himself, he quickly got dressed, combed his hair, brushed his teeth, grabbed his bag, and headed out into the kitchen. The distinct aroma of burnt waffles met his nose, making him want to gag. Throwing his bag down by the counter, he proceeded to head to the pantry in search of a pop tart. His father and little sister were seated at the kitchen table, eating "breakfast".
"Ephram, don't you want some waffles?" Andy Brown asked in a bright voice.
Ephram didn't even glance at his father as he opened the pop tart and picked up his bag again. As he was headed for the door he glanced over his shoulder and shot, "Being in the same room with you for more than several seconds at a time makes me sick enough. I'd just assume not make it worse."
*****
Ephram headed out of homeroom with a wary glance at Colin Hart and Bright Abbot. They were snickering and whispering and pointing . . . and it was all directed at him. He would have thought they would have gotten tired of "picking on the new kid" by now. They had really out done themselves last week. He sighed, and headed down the hall towards the English classroom. He briefly wondered if they had stuck one of those "KICK ME" signs on his back. He wouldn't have put it past them. They had already shown their impressive level of maturity last week . . . impressively low that is.
Ephram entered the English classroom and headed towards his usual seat in the back row. Throwing his bag on the ground he sat down in his seat with growing frustration. He knew something was up . . . Bright had followed Colin to the English room and they were both standing by the door staring at him expectantly. He wished that they would go ahead and do whatever they had planned.
His wish came true. Several seconds after he had had that thought he felt his chair give out and collapse to the ground. He hit the floor hard and felt the wind get knocked out of him. His heavy English Lit textbook came toppling off the desktop and hit him square in the head.
"Shit," he cursed under his breath. He stood up and rubbed the growing knot on his head. He shot a withering stare at the two blockheads laughing hysterically in the doorway. The look on Colin's face was priceless. He looked like he had just been granted an early Christmas present. Bright was turning red from laughing so hard. . . Ephram sincerely hoped he choked.
"Oh boys! What next!" Miss Lee cried running to the back of the room. Miss Lee was a very pretty, very young, first year teacher. She was apparently very smart, and knew a lot about English, but it didn't do her any good because she didn't have any control over her students.
"I'm sorry . . . Miss Lee . . . just couldn't . . . help . . . it," Colin managed between laughs.
"Boys, your behavior is inexcusable. I thought we had settled this last week, but apparently I was mistaken. You're both going to be serving detention for the rest of this week . . . or longer if I don't see some remorse!"
"Are we going to be serving this detention with you Miss Lee?" Bright asked hopefully, eyeing the pretty teacher suggestively.
Colin chuckled with appreciation as Miss Lee's cheeks lit up with embarrassment.
"Honestly boys! I know that both of you are really sweet when it comes down to it . . . I just don't know what gets into you! No, you will not be serving detention with me, You'll be serving it with Mr. Foz," she said, referring to the hairy old Physics teacher.
Both boys groaned. Bright looked like he was about to protest, but Miss Lee quickly turned her back on him, signaling that their conversation was over. Bright slapped Colin on the back and headed out towards his next class. Colin went and took his respective seat on the other side of the room.
Miss Lee then turned her pretty green eyes onto Ephram, "Are you okay, dear?" she asked. Her voice was filled with sympathy . . . it made Ephram want to scream.
"Fine," he answered curtly.
"Umm, Ephram, do you think I could talk to you outside?"
Ephram sighed and headed towards the door. His guess was that Miss Lee had just heard about his mother and was going to give him the whole "If you ever want to talk about it" speech. He had already gotten that from four other teachers in the past week. He was wrong.
"Ephram, dear, I wanted to talk to you about moving to an honors English class. I realize that you were in a standard level course back in New York, but sometimes the curriculums can vary. You seem to be well ahead of the rest of the class, and that's why I think you would be more suited in honors. Luckily Mr. McLeod's Honors class is the same period as this one, so it will work with your schedule perfectly. So, what do you say?"
Ephram was actually very confused. They hadn't done anything in the past week, save for a few reading assignments and lecture discussions, which he hadn't participated in. No tests, no quizzes, no essays, no collected homework assignments . . . nothing that could have made Miss Lee believe he was smarter than everybody else in his class. Ephram sighed, deciding this move was most likely the result of Colin's bad conduct. Poor Miss Lee apparently couldn't handle it, and had therefore decided to just get rid of the root of the problem. He briefly considered questioning her about it, but then changed his mind. The woman had enough problems, if he could save her some trouble, then why not. He really didn't care which English class he was in, anyway.
"Sure, why not."
*****
Ephram cautiously opened the door to Mr. McLeod's room. The room was chaotic and noisy with excited chatter. All the desks were pulled off into little groups and everyone was busy at work . . . so no one noticed him. He spotted Mr. McLeod sitting in his desk across the room. Ephram weaved his way through the throng of desks and approached the man. Mr. McLeod was probably in his early thirties. He had a friendly face with rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes. He was one of the more popular teachers at Everwood High.
"Can I help you, sir?" Mr. McLeod asked.
"Umm, yes, Miss Lee sent me . . . here," he finished uncomfortably, handing Mr. McLeod the note Miss Lee had sent with him.
Mr. McLeod scanned the note over quickly and looked back at Ephram with a smile, "Ahh, Mr. Brown. Yes, Miss Lee had mentioned she might be sending you to me last week. Well, right now the kids are busy at work on Summer Reading project. All of the honors level students were required to read The Lord of the Flies this summer, and now they're working on skits to help demonstrate the symbolism in the story. Now, I'm aware that you probably haven't Lord of the Flies, and so I'll probably just give you an alterative assignment on whatever book you did read over the summer -"
"Actually, Mr. McLeod, I have read that book. It was one of the required books for my school in New York also."
"Splendid!" he exclaimed, "In that case, I suppose that all you need to do is find a group that has room for you!"
"Ephram can be in our group," a voice said from behind them, "I think he'll make a much better Simon in our skit that Maria anyway."
Ephram turned around and found himself face to face with Amy Abbot. The beautiful girl that had caused his heart to stop beating when she had introduced herself a week ago. A frown quickly crossed his face when he remembered that Amy was also Bright's sister, and most likely Colin's girlfriend, considering the fact that he had saw them kiss that first day. He wondered if she was as big a jerk as Colin and Bright. She probably only wanted him in her group so she could make fun of him too . . . but no, she seemed so genuinely kind. And she was so pretty . . .
"Wonderful, Amy, Wonderful," Mr. McLeod said, breaking into Ephram's thoughts, "Well alright you two, back to work!"
"Come on Ephram, we're working over here," Amy said, leading him over to her group. She sat down next to a girl with sandy blonde hair, and motioned for him to take the seat next to her. "Ephram, this is Maria, Paige, and Jena," Amy introduced the girls clockwise around the group.
"Interesting," he said," A skit on Lord of the Flies, a book that contains only male characters, presented entirely by girls."
Amy giggled, "Well, why do you think we asked you to be in our group in the first place?" The pretty sparkle in her eyes indicated that she was only joking.
Surprisingly, Ephram found himself smiling back.
Hmm, so what do you guys think? If you have any comments, I would just love to hear! *grins* I won't know if you don't tell me~!!!~