Astronaut

Chapter Fourteen: Harvey for President

Harvey F. Oswald-Kennedy

Leaving the sheet of paper lying on his desk until Miss Jones comes to collect it, he looks over at Julia beside him who is copying the work that's been written on the board, he then asks her the following question:

"What have we to do?" Julia looks up from writing and turns to face him and replies with:

"Well, if you were paying attention you would know that we're writing about what we would do if we were president," he looks at her questioningly

"As class president you mean?"

"No."

"Oh." He says disappointed

"Hey! Consider yourself lucky! None of us has the President of the United States as our dad but you do,"

He takes in Julia's words and says to himself:

I've got my dad as president and I've got a long list of politicians on my dad's side of the family, Grandpa, Uncle Bobby and Uncle Ted, so this should be easy! He goes into his bag again to take out his notepad and write down what's on the board for all of the students to copy, he opens up the notepad at the next blank page and begins to write:

If I Were President... 9/30/66

If I were president I would give NASA more money so we can go to the moon quicker and get faster rockets. I would give all of the poor people in the country money so they can buy better houses. I would stop African Americans from getting hurt by bad policemen and I would help them fight against the group of bad people who scare them by burning big crosses on hills and in their front yards. I would want everyone to be treated the same.

When he's put his pencil down, he puts his hand up.

"Have you finished the assignment, Harvey?"

"Yeah, I have,"

"That's great, I'll come and have a look at it," Miss Jones tells him as she makes her way over to his desk; now standing in front of him, she takes the notepad into her hands and starts to read what has just been written down.

"This is phenomenal, Harvey, great work!"

"Thank you,"

"I see you've made your dad's ambition about going to the moon your number one priority, I can't say that I'm surprised!" Harvey looks sceptically at her, unsure if she's making fun of his obsession or making fun of him.

"Are you making fun of me?" He asks candidly

The shocked and crestfallen expression on Miss Jones's face dismisses his previous suspicions.

"What? No, of course not! I wouldn't make fun of you, Harvey, I'm sorry I should've made myself clearer. I'm joking about the fact that I'm not surprised that you've made NASA your top priority, given your passion for the subject. I'm sorry if I upset you," Miss Jones apologises at length

"It's fine, don't worry about it. It's just because I don't understand when someone is making a joke or if they're genuinely taking advantage of me without me realising,"

"Don't worry, Harvey, I wouldn't do that to you or your classmates. Ever. Or anyone else for that matter,"

"Okay." Miss Jones goes around the class to check the work of the other remaining eleven students. Soon enough, it's time for recess and the kids sprint out of the room and filter out into the playground, Harvey as always walks beside Clint and Kenny as his friends tag along behind the trio.

"So, did you just steal your dad's idea then, Harv?" Kenny asks with amusement

"Yeah," Harvey replies nonchalantly. Kenny lets out a small laugh at the redhead's funny antics. Getting outside, Clint and Kenny follow behind Harvey, walking at a medium pace as they watch him interact with his three friends in the near distance; he runs after James, Julia and Iain during a game of tag so he can run away from whoever becomes "it", he catches up with Julia and taps her left shoulder lightly and announces:

"Tag! You're it!" He runs off to join Iain and James before Julia catches up to them. A few moments later, they hear Miss Jones calling on the class to come in; returning to their classroom, the quartet of friends sit in their respective seats side-by-side waiting for their teacher to return so they can get their next lesson started. Miss Jones returns to the class and almost immediately starts the next lesson, which is literacy. Harvey takes out a pencil and his notepad from his bag and opens them up at a new blank page so he can copy the work that Miss Jones puts on the board. Finishing both the literacy and maths activities, he sits staring into space again whilst he waits for his classmates to catch up; when it gets to lunchtime, he heads to the canteen with Kenny, Iain, Julia and James to get lunch and then goes outside to play for a while until it's time to come back in for his last lesson. Then, it's no school until Monday! Once finishing his last lesson, he takes his bag out from underneath his desk and puts the left strap over his left shoulder, he trails behind Kenny as they follow behind the line of students leaving the room, so they can meet up with Clint, Caroline and John; getting to the main corridor, he sees his siblings and Clint and begins to walk out of the school and into the car park where William is waiting in the car.