Doing it my way Page 2

attractive longer than he should, did not go unnoticed.   He made it a point to smile and say "Hello" to anyone who happened to be in any of his classes whenever he would pass them in the hall. He did this regardless of whether or not they appeared to like him or not. Ian hoped that merely letting people know that he knew their name might result in their taking an interest in his. Unfortunately, the opposite was usually the case. No one seemed to even know his first name. This fact was slowly starting to get on his nerves more than he cared to admit to himself.

     Of all the people he would greet every morning, there was no reaction stranger than that of Rita's. Rita was new to the school this year, and an absolute princess. Not just in her appearance, but in the way she carried herself. She seemed matured beyond her years. Her long straight black hair was always perfectly styled, and her choice of make-up was always an ideal match for her big brown eyes. On top of all that, she was an honour student, a star in the school's gymnastics program, and managed to get the lead role in the school play as well. In short, she was perfect.

     As luck would have it, her locker was located right next to Ian’s. Every morning, the same routine would take place. He would smile and say "Hello Rita," and she would give absolutely no response at all. Not a half-hearted greeting, not an insult, not evens a change in her facial expression. Nothing. It was as if he was merely a ghost talking from a different astral plane that she was completely oblivious to.

     This was not the case with her three closest friends, Phoebe, Betty and Trish. Unlike Rita, they all had gone to this school the previous year. Phoebe had long ago surmised that Ian fell into the category of complete loser. If Ian said "Hello" to her, the response was always "Lay Off!" Betty's opinion of him wasn't quite as harsh. Out of pity, she would usually just respond with a sarcastic "Yo!" Trish would usually just point at him and laugh. As annoying as the four of them were, their beauty could not be denied. Ian had assumed that the reason Rita was so quickly assimilated into their clique, simply had to do with her looks, which matched theirs. In this school, girls often traveled in groups that were based on appearance, and these marvelous four were certainly at the top of the food chain.

  10:35 am

     "Hello Steven."

     "Hi Ian."

     The two boys exchanged greetings as they filed into the classroom. Steven was just about the only kid in the school who would return Ian's greeting, and get his name right. One might describe him as a stereotypical nerd intellectual. Like Ian, he was a bit of a loner, but in his case, it seemed to be by choice. A guy who was at ease with his own company. Schoolwork came naturally to him.

    Third period sociology, presented numerous peculiar challenges of its own. It was the only class that Rita, Phoebe, Betty and Trish were all in as well, which was quite a distraction. The four of them always sat at the left-front area of the class, while Ian always sat in the rear-right, which gave him a clear view of Rita, without her knowing that he was always looking at her. He also deliberately sat back there, as he did in most classes, to avoid being called on by the teacher to answer questions.

     The teacher, Mrs. Pinny, wasn't nearly as cruel as Mr. Norman, the math teacher, but she was for the most part, a serious woman who wasn't given to injecting much humor into her lectures.

     "I'd like everyone to please turn to page 62 in their books." The class complied. "Steven, would you do us the honour of reading aloud in your special way."

     She frequently called on Steven, when something needed to be read out loud. He had a way of playing with the intonation as if he were reciting one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

    The moment he started reading, it didn't take long for Ian's mind to start drifting off to other interests. More often than not, he would think about what it would be like to be really good at something, and be appreciated for it. Occasionally he would wonder what it would be like if the four girls were his friends...Or for that matter, what it would be like to have any real friends at all.

   "Ian!" Mrs. Pinny's loud voice jarred him out of his REM state.

     "Huh?"

     "Would you agree?"

     Obviously she had asked a question that he hadn't heard. He didn't want to risk saying yes or no because there was a fifty percent chance of him making a complete fool of himself. "Would you please repeat the question ma’am?"

     This immediately caused spasms of laughter blasting throughout the classroom, combined with the sound of a few kids mumbling words like "moron" and "idiot" under their breaths.

     "Okay, enough!" the teacher interrupted. "Everyone listen very carefully. I have an important assignment that will be due this coming Friday."

  Phoebe's voice rang out over the cacophony, "Mrs. Pinny, is it okay. if all four of us work together?" she asked, referring to herself, Rita, Betty and Trish.

     "It's perfectly alright for all of you to get together and work on your assignments, but I'm afraid you're still going to have to turn in two of them." She turned to the rest of the class. "Is there anybody here who doesn't have a partner?" Ian and Steven both raised their hands. "Well Steven, it looks like you're going to be working with Ian. Is that alright with you?"

     "No problem,"

     "Fine with me," agreed Ian.

     "Alright, everybody settles down," Mrs. Pinny continued. "I haven't even told you what the assignment is yet." Everyone sat back down in their chairs and all eyes and ears were focused on the teacher. "I want each pair to pick either a trend, an event, or an invention of some sort that played some part in changing the course of history. On Friday, I want one person to stand up in front of the class and present an argument to the effect that the fruit it bore was mainly positive, and the other to make a case that its effects were mostly negative. This event, trend, or invention can be anything from as far back as seven thousand years B.C. right up to the present. You will each have eight minutes or less to state your case."

     Betty raised her hand.

     "Yes?"

     "Would you kindly give us an example?"

     Mrs. Pinny thought about it for a moment, and then spoke in her usual slow and deliberate manner. "As a matter of fact, yes I will. Let's take an obvious one, like the television. Although I'm sure it's hard for people your age, and for that matter my age to imagine a time when it didn't exist, believe it or not, prior to 1948 there was no such thing. Needless to say, its negative effects are pretty self evident. Television, required one's undivided attention, and thus, proved to be time consuming.. Prior to television, when a child entered a toy store, it was to find out what the latest toy was. With the advent of television, suddenly children already knew what the latest toy was before they entered the store. Then they started begging their parents to buy them this and that, which they now knew existed, without even leaving the house. See my points?"

     Although usually it was difficult for Ian to stay awake during one of her long-winded dissertations, somehow this subject matter seemed to be tightly holding his attention.

     The bell rang.

     "Alright," she finished, "Other than this one assignment, for the rest of the week there will be no homework. Go now."

     As all of the kids shuffled out the door and on to their next classes, Ian and Steven approached each other.

     "Shall we get started on this right away?" Asked Ian.

     "Yeah,."

     "My house or yours?"

     "I think mine's closer. Where do you live?"

     "Near the Public Field."

     "I'm at 23 Prune Street. Since I walk to school, and you've got a bike, it definitely makes more sense to meet at mine."

     "Sounds like a plan," agreed Ian. "Is four o'clock o.k.?"

     "Nice."

     The two youths went off to have their lunches.

  12:05 Noon.

     It was always not easy to stay awake during 4th period history
. Mrs. Jaya had a monotone delivery that rivaled Mrs. Pinny's. It made studying the ancient Roman Empire a lot more boring than it should have been. Memorizing a bunch of difficult to pronounce names, places and dates wasn't anyone's idea of a good time, and it never ceased to amaze Ian that anybody could possibly remain focused, let alone someone whose threshold was as low as his. The classroom overlooked the school's track and field area. This caused him to frequently lose out while gazing out the window at the 4th period physical education class, which had more girls than guys in it.

     "Ian!" the teacher shocked him out of his state of delirium.

     "What?" It was as if a hypnotist had snapped his fingers and said 'you will now awake'. It was obvious that this must've been the second or third time she had actually said his name. The rest of the class started laughing as usual.

     "Would you mind repeating what I just said?"

     "Uh, no I wouldn't." Once again the class erupted in laughter.

   

  1:10 pm

     Math was easily the killer of the day. Ian's brain simply was not programmed to absorb anything beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Alamanda didn't have any kind of a remedial math program, so he was stuck in an unending woes. The teacher, Mr. Norman had had Ian's sister Erma in his class three years earlier. She was his star pupil, and he simply couldn't square the fact that her younger brother was a