P. of V.

It Begins with an Idea

Miss Bennett

The Round Table. I would like to take credit for the idea, but like most good ideas, I didn't think of of it myself. I borrowed it.

It is my second year as the guidance counselor at Mountainside Middle School, and I have had enough.

Drama. Always the drama. The:

          "I don't like her."

          "He was my boyfriend first." 

          "I'm going to whip his butt."

          "He wants me to send him a naked picture." 

A naked picture? What? I am only twenty-two years old and less than ten years ago, I was in middle school myself. We didn't talk about naked then, much less take a picture of it. When did kids get so mean and sneaky and devious? When did they grow up so fast?

Ok, I know my generation had mean kids and talked about naked, but cell phones and social media sure make meanness and nudity a lot easier and faster and more visible and permanent. I am fresh out of college and still have ideals and want to change the world and have an impact on children. And I will. 

It begins with an idea that is not my own called - "Mix it Up". I heard about it in a college prep course. Students are asked to sit with someone they don't know at lunch for a whole week. The idea is that they'll meet someone new, maybe make a new friend, and begin to understand and accept differences. I am calling my version of the idea - "The Round Table".

Why "The Round Table" you ask? Because like my Nana always says - there's always room for one more at a round table. And, I am going to use King Arthur and his knights of the round table to sell my idea to the boys. The round table in King Arthur symbolizes equality and unity, and that is what I am after. I just want us all to get along. I want to teach these kids loyalty and how to care about someone besides yourself, and if I have to use a bunch of sword-swinging, dragon-murdering knights to accomplish my goal of peace on earth, then so be it.

Maddie - Slightly Awkward

Awkward stage. According to my mom, we all go through it. This is the time in my life where I long for popularity and perfect skin. Instead, I am invisible or worse, noticed because of a pimple that appears like a unicorn horn in the center of my forehead two days before my first day back at school. Mom says since I like make-up, we can cover it up with her concealer. But, I know it is there and no matter what she says, my awkward stage has lasted all of sixth grade and now has followed me all the way to seventh. Just my luck. If an awkward stage was a trophy, mine would be an Olympic gold medal.

Miss Bennett, the guidance counselor at my school, is perfect. She is young and has long, shiny hair and you can just tell, she never went through an awkward stage. She is like an older version of the most popular girl in my school, Amelia Hudson - all wavy curls to her waist and a smile full of teeth that never needed two years of braces that I am still wearing.

Miss Bennett is beautiful and she is a good listener too. That is why, when she first mentions her idea she calls "The Round Table", I agree with her that it is a good idea. I ask if my friend, Shoshone, can sit at the same table. Miss Bennett promises me that it will not just be me sitting with strangers. Because Miss Bennett is perfect, and she is who I want to be when I grow up, I agree to participate. This is how me and Shoshone find ourselves sitting at a lunch table with a bunch of weirdos, just like us.

Josh - Who Used to be the Stinky Kid

Miss Bennett is cool and she is honest. More honest than I thought any adult could ever be. She is the one who finally told me the cold, hard truth that the teachers, and anyone they could recruit to the cause, only hinted at over the years.