Literary Spotlight-- Life Through Faded Eyes: Part 5

The day after Club Day Monday (that rhymes), I kept noticing Haley in the hallway. She would always smile, and wave at me. I didn’t know why. I never really knew her, but now I knew she was a freshman, and only one grade below me.

Wednesday, I sat down in my study hall in the far back with Theodore. We both purposely chose a study hall earlier that year so we could have one guaranteed class together. Lewis sat with us too. He was one of Theodore’s Debate Club friends, and he was smart. He normally had a lot of work in study hall, but today he sat with us to talk.

We were talking about Mrs. Brandywine’s English class, and about how paranoid she was yesterday when someone rearranged her desks yesterday for the class’s group discussions. She liked to leave all her students’ desks organized in their rows, but someone formed a circle with three of the desks, and she went off.

“Group discussion doesn’t mean destroy my classroom!” Theodore mocked.

“Like, chill Mrs. Brandywine. It’s just three desks. One of them is still in the same spot,” Lewis replied in his best hippie voice.

“All of you are coming back in here tomorrow for detention!” Theodore said, in a high pitched woman voice.

“And you are going to sort through all my filing cabinets,” I threw in.

Lewis and Theodore laughed, and I laughed a little too. Then something crazy happened. The classroom door squeaked open, and Haley came striding into the classroom. She walked up to Coach Dickens, and they whispered to each other for a moment. Then Coach Dickens nodded, and Haley stood up looking straight at me.

“Charlie, can I speak with you in the hall for a moment?” she said. I was surprised. What did Haley want to speak with me for? I just stood up, and followed Haley out into the hall.

“What do you want?” I asked Haley. I didn’t realize I sounded like a jerk until Haley scowled at me.

“I realize you just got thrown into the Interact Club, but we’re pretty low on members. Half of the people going to the nursing home this Saturday backed out. I don’t even know why. But, Charlie, I really need someone to come there with me Saturday.” Haley’s ponytail bounced while she talked with her hands. There was one strand of hair that hung in front of her face, and at first I wanted to fix it, but it actually looked kind of cool.

“Umm…” I scratched my head. What could I say? “I have a chess match that day. I’m sorry.” Haley rolled her eyes.

“Fine.” She said smacking her hands on her thighs. “We’ll just cancel the visit.”

I walked back into class and sat back down with Theodore and Lewis.

“Theodore,” I began, “you’re going to have to schedule a chess match this Saturday.”