Chapter III

    I wandered the hallway. The second class was over so we had a short break. Many students were hanging out in the campus courtyard. Jimmy, Sam and Chuck were jumping out from behind the water fountain in front of the alcove at one side of the courtyard. Daniel and Syl were talking in one corner where a huge, fully grown oak tree cast its shadow over them. Syl was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Her silver hair ran like a smooth river over her slender shoulders, and her cerulean eyes were clear, bright and shone like diamonds in her perfect ivory face. Daniel, her older brother, shared his sister’s silver hair, but his face was paler.

    I sat under the oak in the shade. The weather was sultry with sweat. I closed my eyes and sat there for some time. All the while, the buzzing noise never stopped. I suddenly remembered that Ms. Humphrey had asked me to go to her office. I stood up unwillingly and began walking toward the staircase.

    Ms. Humphrey’s office was on the second floor at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t a long walk, and I admired the pictures hanging on the walls of the stairwell. Mostly, they were by some third-rate painters or from former students. It was not as much the paintings I enjoyed as the colors. There was marble white, crimson red, baby pink, grassy green, navy blue, cherry brown and jet black, all blended into one picture with so much life and promise. How marvelous! It must be the greatest pleasure in the world to be a painter!

    Then I saw Ms. Humphrey moving up the stairs. “There you are, Mr. Lewis. Hurry, you should have been in my office by now.” Ms. Humphrey closed the door behind me and seated herself in her armchair. “Go on, please have a seat.”

    I looked around her office. It was not the most tidy office I had ever seen, and there was a small potted plant on the shelf by the window desperately wanting water. There was a box of cookies on her desk, so I took one and sat down in front of her desk.

    Ms. Humphrey sighed. “See, this is what I was trying to say, Andy. You can’t always be so egocentric without the slightest concern for others. When you saw the cookies, which belong to me, you just took a piece without asking. Of course, I wouldn’t mind sharing them with you if you asked, but did you?” She looked at me with her heavily lined eyes. I kept my head down. “Do you know how much trouble you could cause by running out of the classroom? There are 20 other students in the classroom, and the whole class must stop because of you. There are students who would hate to miss a minute of the class — students such as Marian, Sarah, Douglas, Syl and Daniel…do you even care? Do they matter to you at all?” Her voice grew cold. “Grow up, Andy! You can’t always be impulsive!”

    I fidgeted with the bottom of my shirt. “I didn’t…I didn’t do that on purpose.” I started to kick at Ms. Humphrey’s desk, and tears welled up in my eyes.

    “Alright, alright. Stop kicking! You can go back now. I’ll have to call your mother.”

    I walked out of the office, slammed the door behind me and cried like hell.(to be continued)