Astronaut

Chapter Eleven: Starting Second Grade

Monday 5th September

Harvey slowly opens his eyelids and lies in bed for a minute or two, to try and wake himself up. He sits on the edge of the bed after swinging his legs over the side, then jumps in excitement and with the jovial feelings within him, he shouts out:

"I can't wait to start my first day of second grade!" He goes over to his drawers and takes out his Red Sox jersey, Boston Bruins hoodie and blue jeans to wear. He makes his way over to his underwear drawers and takes out pants and socks, places them next to his clothes on his unmade bed; he shoves his clothes on, makes his bed, goes into his cupboard to take out the pair of white-tipped red Converse sand shoes, gets his blue NASA hat from his bedpost and places both onto his quilt covers. He ties his shoes with ease, then places his hat on his head, he makes his way into the adjoining bathroom and proceeds to brush his teeth; once he's finished, he goes back into his room and back into his cupboard to get his backpack. He unzips his bag and peers in, checking that he's got everything that he needs: pens, pencils, stationery, and notepads. He zips his bag back up and throws it over his right shoulder, goes over to his bedroom door to open it and takes himself out into the hallway. He sprints downstairs to the ground floor, spots Kenny and walks toward him to ask the following:

"Do you know where my dads are?"

"Good morning to you too, Harvey(!)" comes the sarcastic greeting, "they're in the Oval Office. Do you want me to take you?"

"Yeah, sure." Harvey walks alongside Kenny in the direction of the West Wing, all the while he is going on about how excited he is to be starting a new school year. Once reaching the Oval Office after the long trek, Harvey places his right hand on the door handle to push it open, he enters the large room and notices his dads at the Resolute desk, he begins to walk towards them but before that, he trips up on the gigantic presidential seal rug in the middle of the floor. Steadying himself, he starts to walk towards his dads again, reaching the front of the desk he stands waiting for one of them to acknowledge him. His dad looks up from the document that he was writing on and notices the impatient six-year-old in front of him, with his school bag hanging off one shoulder and the skewwhiff red fringe sticking out from under the skip of his cap.

"Hey, Harv, are you looking forward to your first day of second grade?"

"Yeah, I can't wait!" He replies not giving his dad any eye contact, he instead focuses his gaze on the two swords hanging on the wall on his right side.

"So, who is going to take me to school?" He asks curiously

"Clint and Kenny,"

"Why?"

"We've got a lot of important people coming over. That's why we can't take you to school,"

"Oh, okay, that's fine,"

"When do I have to leave?" He watches as his dad checks the time on his watch

"In about fifteen minutes,"

"Okay," he starts to walk away until his dad says:

"Wait, Harv, you'll need to fix your hair first," referring to the bird's nest hidden under the NASA cap

"Oh, alright, I'll go and fix it." He makes his way out of the room and makes his way down the hall in search of the nearest bathroom to wet his hair, finding one he enters and goes over to the sink and turns the cold tap on; when he's finished, he heads back in the same direction as he'd come and makes his way back into the Oval Office with his dads and Kenny. Fifteen minutes later, Harvey heads out the door in between Clint and Kenny after saying goodbye to his dads, he walks towards the car that's idling outside; Clint opens the back door on the driver's side and lets Harvey get in, then asks: