Seconed Chances
Drake Parker's After School Music Program
The car ride to the Parker-Nichols household was very uncomfortable. Renae was forced to have Matthew D. on her lap, and Katie had to sit on Allie's lap, there was so little room.
As soon as everyone in the car was settled, Drake turned on the radio. They arrived at the home at about 3:30, and were in Drake and Josh's room by 3:45. (Everyone got a Mocha Cola)
Alex, Evan, Matthew, and Josh all sat down on the couch while Drake, Renae, Katie, and Allie sat on Drake's bed.
"Ok, students. You have been invited to this study group because you are identified in the gifted program. Now, I understand you all came from the same elementary school except for Katie, right?" Josh said.
"Did you like go through the class profile or something?" Alex asked.
Josh just ignored this comment. "Let's start with math, shall we?"
"Ok, gifted we may be, this homework is confusing!" Evan said, with a disapproving look you would normally see in parents.
" Yes, you all got different homework than the rest of the class." Josh explained.
"Let me see that." Drake said, snatching the paper out of Renae's hand. "I don't even understand this!" Drake exclaimed.
" Big surprise there." Josh said.
" This must be college level work though!" Drake complained. " They are in the sixth grade!"
" I am up to the challenge." Alex commented.
" Not all of us are!" Matthew said. " I hate math, but the only reason I'm here is for the music thing afterwards."
" That's the spirit!" Drake said.
" Yeah, the spirit for poisoning young children's minds!" Josh spat. " Can we start now?" he added desperately.
"I suppose, but if you'd rather just complain, Matthew, then we can just continue with that." Katie said, with a cheerful voice.
" Cut it with the sarcasm, will you?" Josh said. These kids were awful rude to each other. Was he ever like that in the sixth grade? He really didn't think so. Was this some kind of new fad? Oh, well. It wasn't really any of his business in the first place, but he really didn't appreciate the arguing going on while he was trying to teach. " First of all, you should read the paragraph thoroughly, then you should answer the math questions below. Any questions?" he said, without any interruptions.
"Yeah, one. What does the paragraph have to do with the math questions at the bottom?" Allie asked.
" It explains how to do the questions. When you are done, please just sit silently, while I talk to Drake in the hallway." He added grimly.
The room was silent for about a second when suddenly, Renae jumped down from Drake's bed and whispered, " Dude, I don't have a pencil."
" Right. Pencils…." Josh said while thoroughly searching the room for pencils for everybody.
"You might want to try the desk." She added helpfully.
"Right… desk…" he said, while opening the drawers of the desk. He pulled out a number two yellow pencil, and handed it to Renae.
"There you go. Does anyone else need a pencil?" Josh asked.
"Nope, I don't." Alex stated, pulling out a mechanical pencil.
"I do." Matthew said, standing up.
Josh handed a pencil to him, then walked to Drake's bed and said, " Come here, we need to talk."
"Can't this wait?" Drake asked.
"No, I need to talk to you now." He said.
Josh practically dragged Drake outside their room, then leading him to the kitchen said, "What did Matthew mean by ' the only reason I'm here is for the music thing afterwards'?
"Oh, yeah. I'm having Renae, Matthew and Alex stay here for a while so I can tutor them with their music. I came up with the idea all by myself."
"Why didn't you ask me first?"
Drake was silent for a second then answered, "I didn't think you would let me do it."
"That's right I wouldn't! Why did you even think about doing it in the fist place?"
" I thought it would be really cool to teach little kids what I know."
"Will you stop with the 'little kids' thing, it gets really annoying, they are in the sixth grade, so I don't think they qualify as little kids." Josh said, while pointing a finger at his stepbrother.
"Can we just hurry up? I want to see if they are done yet." Drake said impatiently, starting to walk up the stairs.
"They might not be done yet." Josh said, as he hesitantly followed Drake up the stairs.
"Oh, c'mon. How long does it take for six gifted students to do a simple worksheet?"
Meanwhile
" Are you done yet, Alex?" Matthew asked, throwing down his worksheet and his pencil.
"Why exactly do you want to know?" Alex asked, skeptically.
" This is way to hard. I don't understand this at all."
"Big surprise there." Katie Cole said to Allie and Renae. They giggled, just to make Matthew suspicious of what Katie said.
"Matthew, it's not that hard if you read the paragraph thoroughly, like Mr. Nichols suggested in the first place." Evan said, setting down his page upside-down so Matthew wouldn't cheat.
Even walked over to the desk, just for a second when Matthew snatched up his paper and started copying down the answers.
"Hey!" Evan exclaimed, running over to Matthew.
"Wait!" Alex yelled, running over to where Matthew and Evan were. Alex whispered into Evan's ear for a second, then Evan nodded. They had a plan.
Josh's point of view
When Drake and Josh walked through the doorway, Evan ran up to Josh and whispered something into his ear. Josh nodded, then walked over to the couch and sat down. Somehow, Evan's paper had returned to it's original spot.
"Are you all done with the paper?" Josh asked, as Drake sat up on his bed.
"Yes" everyone answered.
"Ok, then, let's go over it. Matthew, what did you get for number one?"" Josh asked in a business-like tone of voice.
" Um… I got x 87. Is that correct?"
"Yes it is, but tell us Matthew, how did you arrive at that number?"
"Um… I first multiplied 97 by 23 then divided the answer by 23…"
" – Or did you just copy Evan's answers?" Josh finished for him.
" Yeah…"
" You should have just asked for help. I would have helped you, you know."
" Yeah, but I didn't want to seem like an idiot."
"The only stupid question is a question not asked you know."
"Whatever."
After a lot of hard work, the non-music program people (Allie, Katie, and Evan) left. Josh volunteered to drive them home, and Megan had oboe practice until 5:30 (It was 4:30), so that left the new after-school program people alone.
"Do you want to hear what I can do?" Drake asked them.
"Wait, why are we here in the first place?" Renae asked him.
" You three are here because I think you can play a musical instrument. Alex, you play the saxophone, Matthew, you play the drums, and Renae, you play the piano, right?"
Everyone shook his or her heads in agreement.
" Now do you want to hear one of my songs?"
"So, you write and play songs? On which instrument?" Matthew asked.
"I play the guitar, and yes I do write and play my own songs." Drake answered, then waked over to his guitar and picked it up off its stand. "Ready?"
"Yes." they all answered.
"Ok." He got into his guitar-playing position and started to play:
Hollywood Girl is lost again
All of her hopes left her stranded
Seasoned dreams are just pretend
And she can't stand it
Why'd it have to happen to me
Why'd it have to hurt so bad
'Cause in this town
Can't find up, but I've found down
You know the city life
Can't turn around
Can't give up I feel to proud
Under the city lights
She doesn't' believe in believing
Miracles have died in her mind
She knows the world is deceiving
Everything is wasting her time
Why'd it have to happen to me
Why'd it have to hurt so bad
'Cause in this town
Can't find up but I've found down
You know the city life
Can't turn around
Can' give up I feel to proud
Under the city lights
Get in line and hold your head high
Pretty face will help you get by
Step inside I'll make you tears dry
So put on your smile
'Cause in this town
Can't find up, but I've found down
You know the city life
Cant' turn around
Can't give up I feel to proud
Under the city lights
At the last note everyone clapped for Drake. They really did like his music. But they were confused on why he showed them this.
"You're really good and all, but why do you want us here?" Renae asked.
" I want to teach you what I know about music." Drake answered.
"Why would you want to teach us?" Alex asked.
"Because I just do, ok! Will you please just drop the subject, please?" Drake begged "Ok, will you show me what you can do Alex?"
Alex walked over and put his saxophone together, then started to play a really beautiful song on it. When he was done everyone clapped, and he took a bow.
"That was great, Alex! What I was really looking for! Renae, will you go next please?" Drake said.
Renae walked over to the piano, and set her hands up, ready to play. Before she started. She said, " I learned this song when I first started to play, and I changed it up a bit." Then she started to play. It was really great; everyone loved it and clapped for her when she was done.
" Great, another great performance." Drake exclaimed. He really thought these kids had great potential, if they were taught up enough. "Matthew, will you give it a try next?"
" Um… ok."
He walked over to the drum set in the corner of the room and sat down. He grabbed the drumsticks that balanced on the cymbal and started to play a really whacked-out piece.
"That was good, but could you play the piece a little more up-tempo?" Drake asked when Matthew finished.
Then Matthew geared up to play the song again. He started to play a song, but it wasn't the same one as he played about two minutes previous. Drake was furious, but he tried his best to subdue his anger long enough for the kid to explain.
"Matthew, why didn't you play the same piece?" Drake asked through gritted teeth.
" I can't really play the drums." He admitted.
" So you lied to me about playing the drums?" Drake yelled.
" Not really, I just exaggerated about my playing ability." He stated. Drake no longer wanted to hear him. Drake hated it when people lied to him.
At that very moment, Josh walked through the door. "What's up brotha?" he said to Drake.
"Josh, will you do me a favor?" Drake asked, his gaze still pointed at Matthew.
"Sure, what do you need?"
" I need you to take Matthew home. Now."
"What about—"
" Now, Josh."
"Ok, c'mon Matthew. Let's go."
Matthew followed Josh out of the room, his head bowed.
" Don't you think you were a little harsh on him?" Renae asked.
" I hate it when people lie to me." He responded, still boiling up with anger at what Matthew did.
" But you don't know Matthew like we do. He does things like that all the time. It's in his personality. He can't really help it. You should apologize to him." Alex said wisely.
" I agree with Alex. You really should apologize." Renae said.
After Drake took Renae and Alex home, he went home, got himself a Mocha Cola, and sat down on the couch. He didn't turn on the TV, but instead just sat there thinking. He wasn't really sure what to do, but he didn't want to go to the sixth grade class the next day. But, he begged Josh into letting him go all three days, and Drake Parker wasn't about ready to go up to Josh and admit to him that he was wrong; that he couldn't handle being a student teacher's assistant. And he really wanted to prove Josh wrong again.
Josh's Point of View
Something was definently wrong with Drake. Josh wondered if it had something to do with Matthew. Josh had tried to talk with Matthew in the car, but he was just silent. He seemed very depressed, but Josh still didn't know why. He wanted to help Drake, but Drake wouldn't let Josh in their room. He was going to have to lighten up eventually, and let him in the room. Unless Drake was going to make him sleep in the bathtub again. That WAS NOT going to happen. Not again.