Chapter 4

The teacher gave a clichéd first day introduction. Everything Kaden had expected. Hey, I'm Mr. Christopher. I will be teaching you English for the next four years. Maybe he was a dull guy. Kaden suspected more however. Mr. Christopher held something that had caught Kaden's captivation. The teacher was serious yet much laid back. Not willing to take exaggerated actions it seemed. The teachers Kaden had met thus far that day were middle aged people. White shirts. Ties. Dress shoes under slacks. Mr. Christopher was sloppy in a professional way. His hair was starting to thin in the front. It was brown and short. His face was typical of a man in his late twenties. A hard black shirt with a grey tie. The sleeves were chaotically rolled to his elbow, exposing his hairy arms. Black pants, brown shoes. English teacher. Man who knew his literature. Everything Kaden wanted to be. He chuckled.

    The two hour class was only in its commencing five minutes. It was a long room. Made with the intentions to house a good sixty people. It was first day. Awkward. Kaden sat in silence as did all the other students. They were a mirage of blacks and whites. Even. There were periodical yawns throughout the day. Summer had left its scars on their morale. The teacher had things ready.

    "Ok ok. Wow good class eh?" He complimented. What the hell do you expect? Bunch of kids at a new school. Don't worry. You'll hate us soon enough. "Today is going to be a bit typical. I guess you know my name. However, I have to learn over 150 names; so, I set up a little activity for today. Who wants to pass?" He shook a pile of papers over his head indicated something needed passed around. About six kids raised their hands. They were the bold ones. The ones that would give Mr. Christopher headaches in the future. He handed half of the papers to a short black boy and another to a light skinned black girl. She looked Asian though. Her eyes. They were like Willow's. Half?

    "Ok, while they're passing those out, does everyone have pencils?" A few people said yeah while everyone else shook their heads. Kaden did nothing. "Um…bad question. Lets rephrase. Who doesn't have a pencil or pen?" Kaden raised his hand along with a couple students. "No problem today…" he pulled out a fresh pack of Ticonderogas "But you're going to have to pay for these tomorrow. And forever after." Kaden sat on the far right end of the class. Of course, he got his pencil last. Mr. Christopher walked thoughtlessly over to him and handed him a pencil like nothing. Kaden wanted to cry. He didn't know for what indefinite reason. But, he was a bad kid. Mr. Christopher didn't like him now. No. Nonsense! The teacher walked back to his podium in the front.

    "When you get this put your name on it. You will see it has two little boxes at the top, and a big one on the bottom. In the first, I simply want your name." he rested his head on his hands. "Now notice around this room we have various computers. There are only ten. There are about fifty of you. Grow up. Taken turns. Ok. For the second box you will need to wait your turn and get onto a computer. Use some sort of search engine to find name meanings. Type up your name. Tell me what it means. And finally in the third box, draw a picture illustrating the meaning of your names. Not art class. Just do something simple. Go ahead." Kaden wrote his name in the first box. Neat now. He wanted to be impressive. Directly behind him was a wall. And along the wall were three computers. He was lucky and rushed to the second one.

    The class went about doing the assignment. Kaden had filled in the first two boxes. And spent the rest of the allotted time, to carefully draw a picture.

    "We're going to share now. Stop with what you have. Let's start on that end of the room." He pointed to the left side. "And we'll end up there." He pointed in Kaden's direction. "You can start." He gestured to a skinny pale girl. She wore lots of dark makeup and her hair was an artificial black. "Stand." He smiled.

    The girl got from her seat. She surely was shy. "Um…" She scratched the back of her neck. "My name is…" What the fuck his her problem? "I'm Alex".

    "What does that mean?" Mr. Christopher had forgotten to give directions for sharing before it started.

    "Defender of mankind." she spat the words rapidly and sat to avoid damaging stares.

    "Ah! Ah!" The teacher barked. "May we see your picture?" She remained seated and lifted the picture. Kaden could not see from across the room. It was just a bunch of black smears from where he sat. But someone closer to the girl could see it was a scratchy stick figure holding a sword.

 

    "Ok, last one and you may be dismissed." Kaden was cued. Eagerly he stood.

    "Hey uh…" he felt bad for decrying the first girl. I'm choking. Shit! "Uh…ok…" He giggled clumsily. "I'm Kaden, and that means Like a black bird. And uh….I just drew a little crow or something here." He pointed to his pencil sketch of a bird with dark feathers.

    "Good enough!" Mr. Christopher smiled. He dismissed the students. Kaden held importance to the words. Like a black bird. He pondered what that could mean.

-Jake T. Edmunds