10th Grade, High School

Age: 15-16

February 2008

…

Her father has CNN playing on the television when Gretchen enters the kitchen. She takes her lunch box out of the refrigerator and glances up, where the reporters are sitting at a desk discussing potential outcomes for the day's election. It's Super Tuesday and twenty-four of the fifty states will cast their ballots in primary elections, including Arkansas. None of the reporters seem to think there will be a clear winner for either party tonight, but that depending on the turnout, there may be a clearer image of who will be on the November ballot for the general election.

She wonders if they'll discuss it in class. In elementary school, the teachers had set up a mock election for the students to participate in. She remembers being a third grader, walking into the gym that had been turned into a fake voting booth. It had to have been Ms. Grotke's idea to do a mock election to teach the students about their civic duties. All of the students had gone into the booths and cast their votes.

Neither Al Gore nor George W. Bush won the Third Street election of 2000. TJ organized a schoolwide write-in and their group of friends had spent most of recess campaigning for their classmates to vote their way. It worked too. Had Third Street been deciding the presidency, Senor Fusion would have been the 43rd president of the United States.

Principal Prickly had not been impressed.

This year, the election is similar in that there is no incumbent and both parties are conducting a rigorous primary and selection process for their nominee. But even so she supposes that most students won't really care. The current seniors and some current juniors will be able to vote if they turn eighteen before November, but the rest of the school won't be old enough. Perhaps she just finds it interesting because her parents have been invested in the process, watching the speeches and debates while trying to decide which candidate most aligns with their views.

Her parents never tell her who they vote for, as they want her to make her own decisions. They watch both the Republican and Democratic debates and speeches, despite both being registered Democrats.

"We vote based on values, not party," her father always told her when he used to take her with him to vote, bringing her into the booth with him when she was a little girl. There's actually a photo of her father with her in a wearable baby carrier during the 1992 election. She was about seven months old at the time.

Her mother is harder to read. She has had both positive and negative commentary about both of the remaining Democrats and the four Republican candidates. Her father, on the other hand, has become increasingly interested in the junior senator from Illinois, a man named Barack Obama.

"Did Mom leave already?" she asks as she reaches for a bowl from the cupboard for her morning oatmeal.

Her father nods. "She was hoping to beat some of the lines and still get to class on time."

Gretchen isn't surprised. Her mother has a nine o'clock lecture and she is notorious about not canceling her classes. Her father on the other hand always cancels class on election days, insisting his students use the opportunity to engage in the process if they can vote locally. Her father is a sociology professor, so she supposes it fits his subject matter somewhat.

She used to assume it was the difference in their personalities, why one parent canceled class and one parent didn't. Her mother is always working toward something – be it a new grant or a paper submission. She is extremely determined and has been awarded for her hard work in the biological engineering department. But she heard her mother mention the other day, while they were watching election coverage in the living room while Gretchen studied in the next room over, that she'd hear all about it if she canceled class for something silly like a primary election.

"It's not silly, it's important for our students to know to be involved," her father had said.

"Well, when a woman cancels her class, it's not quite the same." Then her mother gestured toward the television. "Do you see the media critiquing any of the men for what they're wearing? Or only Hillary Clinton? That's my point."

Gretchen had never thought about it that way.

She sits down at the table and glances up at the news coverage. The polls are opening across the country and they have correspondents in some of the key states.

"They're not in Arkansas today?" she asks.

Her father shakes his head. "Oh no. It'll be surprising if we aren't called immediately for Clinton and Huckabee. Candidates usually win their home states, so the networks will go to more of the wild card states today."

Gretchen nods. Mike Huckabee was the previous governor of Arkansas and Hillary Clinton had been First Lady of Arkansas for twelve years so despite being from New York, she is still expected to be the democratic choice for Arkansas.

As she eats her oatmeal, she watches the report. There's a weather alert ticking across the bottom of the screen, indicating a high risk of severe weather in their area. As the alert continues to read across the screen, almost every county is listed in the alert. She wonders how accurate it is, given that they're usually much more confined if it's a tornado or other bad weather warning.

Once she finishes her breakfast, her father offers her a ride to school and she accepts. As she steps out of the car, she sees Spinelli riding up on her bike and she goes to meet her friend at the bike rack. Spinelli clicks her lock in place and unbuckles the clasp on her helmet, leaving the matching red headgear with her bike.

"You're here early," Gretchen says.

"I think you mean I'm here on time," Spinelli quips.

"Which, for you, is early."

Spinelli shrugs and joins Gretchen, the two girls walking into the school side by side.

"I suppose TJ being on house arrest is good for one thing then," she murmurs.

TJ has been in trouble with his parents since report cards came out at the end of the winter break. Gretchen had been just as surprised as the rest when TJ had told them what had happened. She had known that school didn't come easy to him, but she had never imagined he had been struggling that much. She had instantly offered her assistance, as had the rest, but he had just shaken them off. The school had a peer tutor program that he had to do for the entirety of the third quarter if he wanted to be cleared for sports again and he figured that would be enough to pull off the C required to be part of student athletics.

But, as punishment for letting himself slip that far behind, his parents had grounded him. For the length of his mandatory tutoring, he wasn't to have visitors or go hang out with his friends. His father dropped him off in the mornings and he was to come straight home from school after his tutoring – no walking Spinelli home from ballet, no attending Vince's basketball games, no fun at all.

She can't help but wonder if the Detweilers realize that TJ has been able to sneak out of the house since elementary school without being caught. He has been using his skills to do just that, occasionally sneaking out once he knows his parents have gone to bed or when he won't be missed. Plus, Spinelli has learned to sneak in.

"Did you spend the night again?" Gretchen asks.

Spinelli nods.

"I have to be more careful though," Spinelli says as they walk through the halls. "I almost got caught coming in this morning."

Gretchen frowns. "Almost?"

"Apparently my dad took an extra shift that I didn't know about. He was already awake when I got back." She shakes her head, rolling her eyes as she groans. "He was coming down the stairs as I was going up."

"How'd you manage to get yourself out of that predicament?"

Spinelli shrugs. "I made up some dumb excuse about finishing a paper on the computer. Bought it, hook, line and sinker."

Sometimes Gretchen wonders how Spinelli learned to be such a great liar. If Gretchen snuck out of her house in the middle of the night, she is sure her parents would catch on and she would just blab out the truth. Of course, Gretchen doesn't have much of a reason to sneak out of her room at night and she isn't sure how her parents would react even if she did. But Spinelli's father works in law enforcement and must be able to tell the difference between the truth and a fib.

Maybe that's how Spinelli became a great liar – practice makes perfect.

They separate to go to their lockers and then Gretchen makes her way down to her first class of the day. When she walks into the room, there is nothing to signal that they'll be discussing the Super Tuesday elections at all. Instead, her history teacher has written "Disunification" on the board. She pulls out her book and flips through the pages, seeing where they left off. They must be beginning their unit about the Civil War. They've skipped ahead a bit in their book and she wonders if their teacher did that purposefully, trying to fit the Civil War content into Black History Month.

The warning bell rings and the rest of her classmates begin to file in. Vince flops into the chair next to her, wiping a bead of water from his forehead.

"Finish your shots?" she asks.

He nods.

"Just barely. It started spitting right at the end," he says. Then he shrugs. "At least I got them all in. My dad said the weather's supposed to be nasty this afternoon."

She remembers the weather warning from earlier.

Their teacher waits until the bell rings before she starts class. She stands up at the front of the room and starts passing out worksheets. She has an overhead projector ready and, once everyone has their papers, she flips it on.

"This is what the US looked like in 1860. You can see it is color coded with four different colors. This is because during the election of 1860, there were four men running for president. Can anyone off the top of their head tell me who won?"

Gretchen raises her hand. "Abraham Lincoln."

The teacher nods. "And this was the tipping point. Southern states were concerned that Lincoln and the federal government would infringe on their rights as states to govern the way they chose, specifically in regards to slavery."

Their teacher then backtracks a few years and discusses a few key events to give context. The Missouri Compromise and the publication of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, which described the cruelty of slavery, and then finishing with the Dred Scott Supreme Court case. This case determined that all individuals of African descent could not be citizens under the Constitution, no matter if they were free or enslaved, and wouldn't be able to sue for their own freedom.

By the time their teacher makes it back to Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent formation of the Confederacy, Gretchen notices most of her classmates are no longer paying attention. The seats of their classroom are situated in a U-shape, better to facilitate in-class discussions and debates. On the opposite side of the U from them, Gretchen can see some of their classmates looking in their direction, some frowning or with uncomfortable expressions on their faces.

Beside her, Vince has his head down. His pencil hasn't moved across the page to take a single note.

Their teacher continues her lecture, as if she would rather barrel through just to get the topic finished in one day than to stop and let the students discuss. Gretchen lets her eyes glance around, trying discretely to look behind her as well. She didn't need to, she already knows the answer to her question, but she looks anyway.

Vince is the only black student in their class.

It isn't surprising. Their school population is predominantly white. Even at Third Street, there had only been a handful of non-white kids in their grade. But she had never really noticed then either. Or, perhaps, she did notice, but it was more like the way she noticed that Spinelli has black hair or TJ has blue eyes and freckles or Mikey is blond. She has known Vince for so long.

But now, as she sits in class and looks around at the people staring at her friend in varying degrees of intrigue and discomfort, she wonders if it is something she should have noticed long before today. Undoubtedly, it has shaped his experiences in ways she may never fully comprehend.

The bell rings signaling the end of class and Gretchen realizes that she stopped paying attention to the teacher as well, never tuning back in and instead stuck in her own thoughts. Beside her, Vince stands up and grabs his things.

"I have a test next period," he tells her as he shoves his notebook into his bag. "See you in math."

She watches as he leaves the room, not appearing any differently than usual. He strides across the room with the same air of confidence he always exudes. Which, she supposes, makes sense. Just because she is having some sort of educational moment doesn't mean that this isn't something that Vince lives with every day.

…

Notes

I debated this chapter a lot, especially as to who should narrate it. I debated back and forth between Vince and Gretchen, but I wanted to plant the seed for the 2008 election here and Vince isn't really thinking about it yet. I debated because it felt slightly problematic for Gretchen to narrate a chapter in Black History Month, but there will be a tie-in to the election that's coming soon with Vince that I hope makes up for it.

The 2008 election is a big US history point and something that does ultimately affect the characters – and it will show up again in fall 2008/winter 2009. I know that politics in this country is so divisive right now, but my goal is to be as impartial as possible. I suspect the kids all come from families with very different political ideologies.

Gretchen mentions bad weather a few times in this chapter. There was actually a tornado outbreak (the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak). During a 15-hour period from February 5 to the early morning hours of the 6th, there were 87 tornadoes that spanned across five states (Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Alabama, and Tennessee). 87 people were killed and polling places were forced to close early in some locations. Most of Arkansas received a high risk for severe weather warning, but the area where I imagine this story being set didn't experience any severe tornado activity.

I don't think I make reference to any specific episodes in this chapter. As for Gretchen's parents, during the episode Parent's Night, her father asks what carob and wheat grass are when Ms. Grotke offers her cookies and her mother gives a very scientific explanation. Since then, I've always had the opinion that, while her parents are both professors, her mother is in the sciences while her father did something else. I chose sociology for him and biological engineering for her.

Sorry for the long note and the short chapter!