Chapter 2: What Can I Do?
We walked into the doors of John Quincy Adams Middle School, I don't think one kid between the ages of 11 and 15 wanted to be there. Except one special kid, Farkle Minkus. Farkle is one of me and Riley's friends. He is a bit outside himself, but that's what makes him special. He is the smartest kid in school, perhaps. He was in Grade 7 history in 6th grade too. He's a step ahead of everyone, he's even smarter than Mr. Matthews, the teacher.
"Ladies!" Farkle said approaching me and Riley. "Farkle!" I said, Riley stood beside me, no words. "Winter coming early for you?" Farkle asked her studying her unusual appearance. Riley must've been sweating in her layered clothing. "No, why does everyone think that?" Riley asked in a dull voice, which definently isn't her. "Because you look like the sun trying to avoid a winter blizzard" I said. Riley looked down at her clothing, they were different for sure.
Lucas came up to the 3 of us as all the students chatted amongst themselves in the hallway. "Hey guys" Lucas said, smiling at both me and Farkle. "Whoa, Riley. I-I like your outfit today" Lucas complimented her, but clearly confused. Both me and Farkle looked each other in the eye, nodding our heads. "Give us one second, Riley" Farkle said. "Get over here, cowboy" I said to Lucas. He followed me and Farkle, a reasonable distance away from Riley, who was playing with her shirt sleeve.
"What's the matter with Riley?" Lucas asked us. "And why is her skin like a different shade or something?" he added. "You noticed that too?" Farkle asked in relief. "I thought it was just me, I was thinking about going to the eye doctor after school" Farkle added. "I have no idea what is going on and her parents know no more than I do" I explained. "Well, we need to do something, she's our friend and she's....whatever she is now" Farkle said. "I agree with that, something's definently not right" Lucas agreed. "Well, what do we do, you guys are the smart ones, think of something" I fired at both the boys. "How hard can it be to make her admit it?" Farkle asked. "I don't know, but something tells me this is going to be alot harder than what it usually is..." I drifted off, thinking maybe I couldn't change a thing. "What are you gonna do?" Farkle asked me. "I-I don't know. Maybe I can't do it, what if I can't bring her back" I said hopelessly. "Don't worry, Maya. You'll think of something" Lucas said patting my arm. I looked over at him, hoping he was right, but my head was full of doubts. I was low on hope and high on doubt.
"Well, we'd better get to class" Farkle said leading the way into the history classroom. Lucas followed him like a baby duckling. I sighed and forced myself into class. I plunked down into my desk, and Mr. Matthews arrived seconds later. "Just in time" I thought. "Okay, so today we will be talking about Martin Luther Kind Jr. and how he helped put justice to people who were treating others unfairly" Mr. Matthews said. "Here we go again" I heard voices behind me saying. "Martin Luther King Jr. lived during the time where white people were more respected than black people. People judged others by their ethnicity. They treated them unfairly. If a white person wanted something a black person had, the black person had no choice but to give it to them, by the power of the law. They judged people by their appearance. Martin Luther King Jr. decided to stand up for what is right. He fought against that law, that all people should be considered equals. But he got thrown in jail for it. He was persecuted under the name of the law. But adventually, he was released and put a stop to judgement by differences. What have we learned here?" Mr. Matthews explained.
I sat there and looked down into my lap, thinking about what Mr. Matthews said. Lucas raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Friar?" Mr. Matthews answered. "Don't judge a book by it's cover" Lucas explained. "Maya?" Mr. Matthews looked at me. "Stand up for justice because you may be someone's only hope at life" I answered. "Very interesting observation, Miss Hart" he replied. "Riley?" he asked looking to his only daughter. Riley sat there with her head burried in her arms, down on the desk. "Riley?" Mr. Matthews repeated. She looked up, realizing he was talking to her. "Do you have an observation on the acts of Martin Luther King Junior?" he asked her. She looked puzzled and confused. I realized she had no idea what we were talking about. Suddenly, she doved her head back into her phone and answered a recieved text. "Riley, this is class time, you can text your friends later" Mr. Matthews fired. "What makes you think I'm texting my friends?" Riley responded.
The room went silent. Nobody said a word for about 2 and a half minutes. "If you see something happening in the world, that is causing harm to you or someone else, what is the right thing to do? If you know somebody who is in danger, and their life is on the line, what should you do? If somebody out there is being attacked, abused, hurt, harmed, bullied or targeted, it may be hard to do the right thing. You may fear getting yourself caught up in the same situation as them. You may fear of becoming the next target. You may fear that the harmer will get revenge on you. It's hard to stand up for what is right and tell a responsible adult about what is going on. If someone threatens you, that if you tell on them, they will get you back, it makes it even harder to tell someone. What would you do in that situation?" Mr. Matthews lectured. "Bring, Bring, Bring!" the bell went. Everyone got up to leave, except Riley. She assumed everyone left class already, she didn't know I was still there. Then I something I never thought I'd see. Something that made me KNOW something was definently wrong.
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