SWNOVELS Chapter 15 Rise and Shine
The next morning, Ben’s mom came in and shook me awake. I jumped up, thinking something was wrong, but she just said, “Time to get up, Ben!” and left. After I got up, she made me an early breakfast, and then I forced myself to get ready in the clothes she had laid out for me. I didn’t know when she had done it, but there they were, perfectly folded on my chair: a dark blue New York Giants jacket with a matching cap, a gray striped shirt, blue rolled-up jeans, white sneakers, and super dorky black sunglasses that made me look like an extra from one of the Spy Kids movies.
If I hadn’t looked like an eighth grader for the past couple of days, I sure did now. And to top it off, Ben’s mom spiked my hair up with gel even though I specifically told her not to. Her reasoning was that I “have to look good on my first day”.
I rolled my eyes and went to the bathroom to try to fix my hair while brushing my teeth. It was hopeless. I looked like a dork. But I figured I’d just have to live with it and let her have her moment as this would hopefully be the last time I would ever see her. Getting out of the bathroom, I was quickly ordered by my sister to get in the car with my stuff. As soon as I was done, I took my backpack and duffle bag that was in my room and walked over to the car where with the help of “my” family put it in the trunk, even though I could do it by myself, and off we went to school.
We rolled up to middle school at the crack of dawn, and I started having these weird bright orange flashbacks to my eighth grade field trip. It was like a light switch flickering on and off, and I was left feeling confused and a little disoriented. Then I saw my best friends, Riley and Zach, standing in front of me by the bus. Riley was wearing the Green Day concert t-shirt that we went to together back in 2014, and Zach was wearing our middle school class shirt with sweatpants. They both had short hair, just like they did back in eighth grade. It was like they hadn’t aged a day. Now here they were, standing next to Josh and Allison, Ben’s friends, hugging and saying goodbye to their families. After they were done, Allison, Josh, Zach, and Riley just stared at me creepily, showing zero emotion, and then they all yelled in unison, “What are you doing? Join us!”
Suddenly Megan came into the picture and tossed me a duffle bag practically at my face, that made me snap out of it just in time to catch it. She then hugged me like no tomorrow and whispered in my ear,
“Don’t do anything stupid while you’re there, and keep your eyes and ears out for you know who.” I whispered back, “Thanks. I’ll try not to.” I looked past her and saw that my friends Zach and Riley, who had been as real as you and me just a moment ago, had vanished. All I could do was wave goodbye to Ben’s family and tell them I loved them.
On the bus, Josh kept calling my name while everyone else talked, played games, or listened to music. I finally made it over to him and sat down, grateful for the distraction. He kept talking so much that I didn’t even notice when Mrs. Jacobs, the “mean sixth grade math teacher”, started calling attendance. I was so tired that I almost fell asleep, and I only heard her say “Benjamin Harper” when she shouted it really loud. I jolted awake and raised my hand, squeaking, “Here! I’m here!”
Where my response was quickly overshadowed by laughter of these kids on the bus including Ben’s friends. The teacher then menacingly walked over to where me and Josh were sitting, glared down at me and simply asked,
“Alarm didn’t go off this morning, Benjamin?”
“Yes ma’am.” I answered while trying my best not to let out a loud yawn.
I mustered up all my courage and energy to answer. The teacher smirked and went back to calling attendance. After she left, Al, who I didn’t know was sitting to my left, said, “Nice going, Ben.”
My friend Josh defended me. “Hey, it’s not his fault. It happens to the best of us, Ally.”
“Do you—”
“Oh my god!” I groaned loudly, interrupting their argument. I startled them both, since they hadn’t seen Ben be mean in a while. “Can you two just put your little grudges aside until we get to DC? Please? It’s too early for this.” I rubbed my eyes, fed up with their arguing.
What do you know, Megan was right all along. They do care about Ben’s feelings. As they locked eyes with each other, then back at me, and said “FINE!” in unison, with their arms crossed and their bodies turned away from each other.
Allison and Josh didn’t say a word to each other the whole bus ride to the airport. Fine by me. The only time they spoke was when Mr. Goodman, our other chaperone, handed us our plane tickets. I looked at mine and saw I was in row 16, seat B26. Not bad. But when I saw Allison was in row 16, seat B27, I knew the teachers or whoever had done the seating chart had done it on purpose, hoping we’d still be friends and sit together.
It didn’t help when Josh gloated, “Ha ha, I got the window seat!”
“You better let me have a look,” Allison pouted. “You know I always wanted the window seat.”
“Of course you can, Ally,” Josh said. “I’m not that mean.”
With that, we were instructed to head to the new security check area called TSA. TSA? I haven’t heard that name in forever. It’s nice to recognize something besides food and pop culture references. On the flight to Washington, D.C., we just sat together and actually had a pleasant time talking without arguing for the first time ever. But it didn’t last long. As soon as we were in the air, I fell asleep. The next thing I knew, someone was shaking me. I opened one eye and saw Allison, her diamond-shaped face framed by her curly brown hair and her brown eyes staring really close to me. “Morning, sleepyhead,” she said softly. “We’re here.”
“Really?” I yawned, stretching my arms.
“By the way, you were resting your head on my shoulder the entire flight.”
My eyes practically fell out of their sockets hearing that. Meanwhile I just stuttered “I-I-I did? I’m so sorry, Al I-”
“It’s okay.” She quickly reassured me as she interrupted mid-sentence. “I didn’t mind.” She then mumbled “It was actually kinda cute.” thinking I didn’t hear it. I did, but for her sake I decided not to respond but Josh sure did and said, “Oooo, looks like someone’s in lo-o-ove-e-e.” then started to make kissy noises.
Al blushed, confirming my suspicions that she saw Ben as more than just a friend. I then noticed how she quickly tried to hide it once she noticed I saw and went red in embarrassment, made an audible gasp and hit Josh’s left shoulder a couple of times and threatened, “Say that again or next time it will be your face.”
“I like to see you try.” He retorted.
“Is that a bet?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “Cause you know I would easily win.”
“Seriously guys!” I chimed in to complain. To my surprise they both whipped their heads 180 degrees to me where Josh pointed out,
“Hey, you were the one that said wait until we are in DC. Now we are, soooooo all bets are off.”
My mouth was wide open as I was not expecting that answer from Josh of all people. To add insult to injury, Al jumped in and actually agreed with him by saying, “Yeah, he’s right, I do remember you saying that. So yeah, this is all your fault.” as I saw her giving an evil smile. They both were.
“My fault?! Did I ever tell you guys that—”
“We’re the worst. We know.” Allison and Josh surprisingly growled in unison. To make it worse, Josh added,
“You’ve said it countless times before, but you’re stuck with us.”
“So you better get used to it.” They both said in unison… again. I groaned in disgust. Of course they’d finally agree on something, and of course it would be against me. After we got our luggage, we all exited the plane and were immediately grouped up into our groups of A, B, and C. That’s when Brittney “accidentally” bumped into me and locked eyes with me. She had that same killer look that Tommy Cooper, my past reflection’s former bully, used to give me. It made me tense up a bit. After that mess, I was just glad that they could at least tolerate each other. It was starting to get to me. But I had to remind myself what Megan had said. I had to tell them how I felt when the timing was right, and somehow give the evidence I had of Brittney’s meddling to Allison. Obviously not right now, as we were all pretty sleep deprived. So it wouldn’t do me any good.
When we finally made it outside the airport, I saw three black and red tour buses waiting for us. I couldn’t wait to get inside, as it was way too cold out here. It made me feel like I was back in Chicago already. I wasn’t out there long as I, like every kid here, was immediately ushered into our respected black and red tour buses. Once my group sat down in the tour bus, one of our fun chaperone teachers Mr. Goodman - who if you recall was Ben’s Social Studies teacher - announced after head counting and as the buses were just starting to move, “Alright boys and girls, before we make our way to our first stop, the Washington monument, can anyone here tell me who the current president of the United States is?”
A male black student confidently raised his hand where Mr. Goodman pointed to him and asked,
“Khalil. Do you know?”
“Yeah, of course I do, it’s George Washington, everyone knows that, Mr. Goodman.” He jokingly answered while a couple of his buddies gave him high fives and laughed.
The teacher had the most disappointing look ever and clinched his teeth saying,
“No Khalil, that’s not it. Maybe if you would pay more attention, you would know this. He’s our very first president but is not our current one. Does anyone else know the answer?” As a joke, Josh, unknown to me at the time, raised my hand until I saw Ally whispering at me to “look at your arm” as she pointed at my arm that I saw was raised. I immediately whipped my head towards Josh, saw what he was doing and instantly went to put my hand down. But as I started to tell him off… it was too late as Mr. Goodman had spotted me and singled me out by announcing, “I saw that hand, Ben. Do you know who it is?”
All of the kids in this bus turned towards me and looked at me with so much eagerness like they were a bunch of hungry jackals stalking their prey.
Without even thinking I immediately said,
“Joe Biden.”
All the kids made a stink face then the bus immediately filled with children’s laughter. I didn’t realize why there were even laughing until Mr. Goodman with a surprised look shushed the class saying,
“That’s…not the answer I was looking for, Ben. I asked if anyone knows who the current President is, not a Senator. If I did ask that, you would’ve gotten that right. Anyone else besides Ben have the real answer?”
Seemed like my “guess” was the only close answer he was looking for as apparently my answer gave every kid here permission to joke around by people saying names like Rosa Parks, MLK, and Bill Clinton. I guess this must be one of the fun parts of being an 8th grade teacher and chaperone. Surprisingly, all these answers didn’t trigger him though. But what really made this teacher lose his marbles was when someone hollered,
“Donald Trump.”
This comment clearly upset Mr. Goodman as he replied,
“The Real Estate mogul? Try to take this seriously. You are going to be the newest generation that is going to vote SIX years from now. Knowing who your president is, is very important, especially when the election is just two years away.” He then put his hand on his head, sighed and said, “Since Benjamin Harper here was the only one who actually answered someone currently in office, would you gladly stand up and tell the group who that president is?”
Judging by his tone of voice, I knew he was serious. I got up from my seat, tugged the collar of my shirt and said,
“Why it’s…” I then quickly had to go down memory lane and remember who was president and with a lump in my throat said, “George Bush, he’s our current one, everyone knows that, Mr. Goodman.”
Mr. Goodman’s eyes immediately sparkled with delight hoping to embarrass me and corrected me by saying,
“But which Bush? There’s two.”
Shit, there are two… I forgot about that. I thought to myself. So I went out on a limb based on my earliest memories and said,
“Uhhh… George W. Bush. He wa–is our current president.”
The teacher sighed with relief probably thinking to himself that there was still hope for this generation after all and said with a slight goofy smile, “Yes, that’s the answer I was looking for. Thank you, Ben, you can go sit down with your friends now.” As I sat down, a couple of classmates gave me high fives and a couple of pats on the back. Ally after being quiet for some time… I guess out of embarrassment suddenly whispers to me,
“Why on earth did you say Joe Biden earlier?”
I shrugged my shoulders and said,
“I don’t know, it was just the first thing that came to mind.”
Which was true.
“What else are you hiding in that brain of yours, Benjamin?” she curiously asked.
“A lot of things, Al, a lot of things that you probably wouldn’t understand,” I answered truthfully. She seemed to buy it, and the field trip went on as normal.
Or as normal as it can get anyway.