'Balaleep-balaleep-beep-baleep'
This damn alarm keep going off earlier and earlier every day, I swear. Chris thought to himself as he rolled out of bed and turned off his alarm clock.
He knew he had to be up early to get his home chores done before lunch.
The morning had flown by, Chris was trying to carry the platter of cookies and open the door at the same time. With the assistance of his foot, he had success. He shifts the platter that is pushed againist the front of his stomach by one arm so he is able to get a better grip on it while fiddling with his keys to lock the door.
He walks to the car, passenger's side first to set the cookies down in the passenger's seat of the old car.
The door falls a little when it opens, causing Chris to have to take both hands to the frame to lift it up so he can close it.
He gets in, throws it in reverse and backs out of his driveway.
After a ten minute drive he pulls up to Evan Elementary School.
Having as much trouble with getting the platter of cookies out of his car and into the school building as he did getting them from his house to the car a bit before, he seems irritated by the time he reaches Mrs. Miller's first grade class.
The minute he steps in the room though, his face seems to light up seeing all the little children finishing up with story time.
He sits the the platter down on the teacher's desk standing up by the blackboard waiting for the teacher to finish her last page of Charlette's Web.
He smiles at all the intrigued little faces listening closely to the story.
"Now, children, wasn't that a wonderful story?" Mrs. Miller asks when she finishes.
"Yes Mrs. Miller." The children chorused.
"Now, it looks as if Chris has brought you boys and girls a special treat. Why don't we go see what it is?"
The children ran up to the desk to investigate the cookies that Chris had just taken the saran wrap off of.
He had asked the teacher a while back to let the children call him Chris instead of by his last name.
"Look!"
"A tiger!"
"There's a lion!"
"Ell-lle-phant!"
"Hold on now, move all your hands." Chris says swatting away all the little pudgy hands hovering above the cookies.
"Here you go, Veronica, here's you your ell-lle-phant.
There you go Jim, a tiger.
Warner, for you a giraffe."
Chris passes out all the cookies to the children he thought would admire them the most.
"Okay girls and boys, back to your seats and I'll tell you a secret to eating animal cookies."
All the kids went back to the seats with their names on the back of them.
Chris reaches for one of the miniature seats and sits down at the front of the classroom.
The entire class laughs at the funny scene.
A grown man sitting in a seat made for a six year old.
He smiles himself.
"Okay okay," The crowd of kids quiet down. "The secret to eating an animal cookie is....biting the head off first." The children giggle. "I mean, who wants a tiger watching you eat the rest of his body." He indicates with the tiger cookie he was holding. He takes a large bite out of the head. "See, now it won't make you nervous because he can't see you."
All the kids bring their cookies to their mouths and take a bite out of the heads of various animals.
"There you go!" Chris says with a full mouth.
"Chris, you've been coming to my class for years upon years and you never cease to amaze me."
The teacher says.
"What can I say, Mrs. Miller. I am a jack of all trades, master of none."
"Children thank Chris for coming in today and bringing these wonderful treats."
The teacher takes her attention back to the children.
"Thank you, Chris."
"You're welcome kiddos."
"Thanks adulto!" A boy shouts.
"Theo!" Mrs. Miller says.
Chris holds up his hand to her to show 'no harm done.'
"I better be on my way now though, kiddies. I will see you next week."
Some of the children wave.
"Uh....Chris can I speak with you out in the hall?" Mrs. Miller asks.
"Sure."
"I'll be right back guys." The teacher says to the kids.
Chris and Mrs. Miller step out of the room right on the other side of the door.
"What's going on Ellen?" Chris asks not needing to call her Mrs. Miller anymore since the children couldn't hear them.
"Chris, I don't know how to tell you this," She starts in. Chris takes on a face of concern. "Some of the school board and the parents of the children are worried about you."
"I'm fine, though."
"No, not that kind of worry. Some of the kids in my class have told their parents of you coming to school every week and about your....." Ellen knew Chris didn't like talking about them. Chris rolls his eyes knowing what she was indicating.
"It's not your fault. Just some of the kids who attend here in other classes have been spreading rumors of how you got those scars. You know, fighting off bad guys."
"That's doesn't make me look bad at all. I kind of like that- Chris saves an elderly woman from a purse snacther-" Chris starts in.
"Other rumors, you were a murderer, one of the bad guys. There's just concern circling the conversation right now. Now, I know you, and my kids know you. It's just people who don't know you and just sees you passing through the hall....."
"Are you saying I can't and see the kids anymore?"
"I'm just saying maybe you should take a break from coming for a few weeks til everything settles down."
Chris sighs at the unfairness of this situations, but he nods in agreement.
Ellen Miller walks pass him, not being able to meet his eyes, back into the classroom.
Chris takes a glace back in the classroom at the faces of all the innocent children that he would no longer be able to see.
A sad look was slowly making home on his face.
The children knew him. They weren't afraid of him. You could actually say they liked him and looked forward to seeing him and the surprises he brought every week.
They didn't judge him by the way that he looked.
They looked past his scars like they look past the bruises their friends get on the playground.
He didn't understand the people that would take that away from him.
He didn't understand them.
They didn't understand him.
They would never understand him.
YOU ARE READING
Before You Judge Me
Teen Fiction"Look how ugly he is!" "I know right? It looks like Freddie Kruegger got a hold of him!" Chris had heard it all before. The whispers, the stares, he'd been through it all. The two young girls that had just passed him in the strip mall didn't bother...
