Reasons To Love A Nerd Like Me (Sample)

Chapter 3 - The Tale Of Vincent Hunter

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Let me tell you a little story about Vincent Hunter. There are lots of rumours and different versions of what happened on the momentous day he gained school notoriety, but I was one of the only people who was actually there. I witnessed it with my very own eyes.

It was a couple of years ago. I was in year 10 and he was in the year above. It was almost two years after my Dad died, but I was still struggling to come to terms with losing him, which is why I happened to be in detention. I know it's hard to imagine a model student such as myself ever being in detention, but it took me a very long while to settle back into school around that time and I was often getting in trouble for missed homework. There were some days when I just couldn't muster up the effort to study at all. Usually my teachers made allowances and turned a blind eye, but Miss White the science teacher apparently had a heart made out of stone.

Detention times in Havensdale are divided by subject rather than year group, so it's not uncommon to have kids of all different ages in one session. As a result, I found myself sharing the science lab with a load of little year 7s and a handful of year 11 boys. Vincent Hunter included.

We were all sat at individual desks, catching up with work while we were stuck in the lab for an hour. Miss White supervised the session for about ten minutes before heading to her office and telling us all she would be back by the end of our sentence.

As soon as she left, the boys from year 11 started messing around. Not Vincent, he was sitting all alone at the very back of the room. But there were about three other guys a few desks in front of him. I was sitting right at the front away from any of them, resolving to keep my head down and ignore them all as I worked.

Vincent was working too, his head of brown hair facing down towards his notebook in concentration. His school tie was hanging loose and his shirt was creased. I couldn't help looking over at him. He always looked so cool and totally confident with himself. He was the kind of guy who did exactly what he wanted and didn't give a damn what anyone else thought of him. At that point in time, I wished I could be a little more like him and a lot less like me.

As I peeked over at him he caught me looking and gave me a slight scowl. I quickly turned back around, coughing in embarrassment. I didn't know much about Vincent, but he looked like the type you didn't want to mess with. Besides, I had inevitably heard the gossip going around the school. Everyone had, even the people who didn't know him.

You see, a month previously, Vincent's Dad had been sentenced to five years in prison for grievous bodily harm. It had been all across the local news, so everybody knew. Mr. Hunter was a well-known drunk and general troublemaker. Some stupid bar fight had led to him hospitalising an innocent pub-goer by smashing a pint glass over his head. Luckily his victim didn't suffer any long-lasting damage, but we'd all seen the pictures in the paper and they weren't pretty. He'd beaten the guy to a bloodied pulp.

After this news had got out, there had been endless rumours going round the school about Vincent.

"I heard he was part of the fight, but he didn't get charged because he's a minor."

"I feel sorry for him. I think his Dad beats him too."

"You know what they say, like father like son."

I couldn't really imagine what it would have been like to have a father like that. My Dad had always been really kind and gentle. Not some kind of violent thug like Vincent had clearly had to deal with. I knew how hard it was to lose a father and I somehow imagined Vincent was going through the same kind of emotions as me, just in a different way. So I hated to see him getting judged and talked about. It was hardly his fault what trouble his Dad decided to get into, after all.