The group stared at her, neither angry nor confronting. They were really just staring, wondering how she'd react. They'd been made fun of far too many times to return the favor.
When she finally gathered her wits, well more like her ego, she turned to look at them and gibed, "Fucking good-for-nothing dorks!"
"Settle down everyone. That means give Mr. Lafferty his inhaler back, Tyrone."
"Mr. M," Tyrone started to protest, but was cut short by Mr. M's raised hand.
"Yes Tyrone, you were simply borrowing it because inhalers are so interesting to you, aren't they?"
The room of teenagers filled with laughter, some snorting and snickering with each other boisterously while the rest, Glen's group included, barely laughed at all even if they clearly found the theatrical conversation funny.
To the lens of a camera, there are two frames in this library. One captured in pastels, vibrant futures and structured schedules but, where in the negatives, lurk images of social anxiety and decaying self-esteem. On the other is a bleak black and white of tormented pasts and suffocating day-to-day lifestyles, craving but often, unable to claw out of an inescapable stigma. Let's all raise a metaphorical glass to life's cruel humor that Emma can't afford her own camera because she doesn't see the frames, just the whole picture.
As the laughter died down, Mr. M stood in front of group and motioned for everyone to face him.
"Some of you may already know me, I'm Mr. M to those who frequent the art center down at 57th and Mr. Montgomery for the gifted few who took AP English Literature. You guys have at least one thing in common, you all agree that I am the best teacher you've ever had." He said with a straight face until the room broke into a louder stream of laughter.
"Okay, okay, settle down." The group tried to quiet down as much as they could, but with this teacher's natural humor, it's hard to keep a straight face and not let a few snorts slip.
It's apparent though that he has the respect of these kids. You can tell by the way they looked at him and hung on to every word he said. He was an inspiration; his words meant something to them.
"You guys all know Emma by now, right?"
Emma stood from one of the chairs behind Mr. M and waved to everyone. She was greeted with a loud applause, cheers and wolf whistles. Well, hello little miss popular!
"Thanks Emma. We'll be hearing one of her stories again later, before we break up into groups."
There were audible intakes of breath from the crowd, even a few sighs. They weren't too happy about mingling, clearly. Emma smiled at the nervous tension in the air; she was all too familiar with that feeling.
Luke, despite his normal insensitivity to other people's feelings, noticed the tension too. It was palpable since he and Emma took their seats after, this time, having read her almost 10 chapters of Heathcliff and Catherine's love affair. These kids weren't particularly excited to interact with each other. He thought, "If that's that case, why even be here?"
"As you may have already guessed, you were invited here to spend some time with each other."
More intakes of breath.
"I know some of you think this is a book club, but it isn't. Well, it's not just a book club. We will be reading books and discussing it as a group, but we will also be writing and keeping journals."
"What?" Tyrone said a tad too loudly.
"Zip it, T," someone from the group jeered.
"You can approach me for questions later, but let me finish first so we can move on to Emma's story for the week, okay?"
YOU ARE READING
In Her Words
General Fiction"When he first heard her, he knew. She was his bestseller." Before there were great stories, there were only words. Luke's were smart and eloquent but hollow. It was nothing like Emma's story, bleak and awkward, but honest to a fault. This is a comi...
nine: nerds nor thugs
Start from the beginning
