Part 2

The Boy In The Red Shirt Part 2

By: Eli Susman

James sat in the passenger seat of his mom’s car doing homework. They were on their way to school, and James had forgotten he had homework to finish; hence him doing it the morning it was due. The plain Hyundai Sonata trudged across the long and everlasting beach rode. The waves crashed on the cold sand beach and the crisp smell of ocean entered the car through the open window. James’ homework was all over the place, and he couldn’t keep it from thrashing around on his lap.

“Mom close the window.” James said.

His mom, Juliet, a tall and thin blonde woman of 48 who looked like she could still be in her early thirties continued looking forward with her big glasses on her face.

James’ face went dull.

“Mom.” He said again.

She looked at him then back at the road to avoid a crash at the high speed she was going. “Oh yes darling?”

James rolled his eyes, “Jeez mom, can you just close the window?” “What?” She prodded for him to speak louder. “Close the window!”

She gave him a dirty look then flicked the switch for the window to close. As it was slowly closing she said,

“Maybe if you spoke with less attitude I’d be able to hear you better.”

She was clearly trying to agitate him, and James knew. He didn’t let it get to him.

He went back to his homework quickly, realizing they were going to arrive at his school in just a few quick minutes.

“I don’t know why you always leave you’re homework for the morning of.” “I just forget to do it.” James said.

His paper was covered in a ton of problems written messily all over the page.

Chemistry homework.

He was trying to write with a dull pencil which made all his writing look like a fourth graders rather than his usual average handwriting of an eleventh grader.His paper was loose and there was nothing beneath it besides his legs. James struggled to write each character on the page.

“Well you should really try to remember to do your…” She looked at his paper quickly, “… Chemistry homework the night before it is due. Not the morning of.”

James shrugged.

His mom put on the right turning signal, and switched into the right turn lane that was always full of cars waiting to turn right towards the school. James started to pack his paper back into his backpack. Which really just meant shoving it into his bag, and zipping it up. Within a minute they had pulled up to his school. James rushed out of the car, not wanting to hold up the long line

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of cars.

The air was cold. Each breath James took felt like cold water after a mint flowing through his nose. He checked his phone and saw that he only had five more minutes to get to class before he was late. He made a slight right and headed for his first class of the day.

Chemistry.

His school was on a block schedule, which meant that the classes students had rotated every other day. One day, three classes, the next day, a different three. It always stayed on this repeated cycle. He got to his Chemistry class and a tall skinny man sat drinking green tea in a clear mug at the front of the room. He didn’t look up when James walked in. James sat in his assigned seat in the second row and took a much needed deep breath. The classroom was covered in posters regarding Star Wars, Anime, and Harry Potter. The bell rang.

Biiiiing Biiiiing Biiiiing.

The teacher, Mr. Van Kuren looked up to the class. His big mouth was smiling and his eye brows were up.

“Good-morning everyone!”

A jaded “Good-morning.” Came back from the class.

“Good morning!” A short girl sitting in the front of the class cheerfully responded on her own.

James rolled his eyes at the girl in front of him.

Susie Salls.

Mr. Van Kuren nodded his head towards her.

James turned to his left, where his friend Phil sat.

“Does this girl seriously have to be so god damn energetic?” He whispered.

“She’s a freshman, give her a break.”

“When we were freshman, we never acted like that..” “Yeah but-”

“James.” Mr. Van Kuren interrupted.

James looked up, knowing what would come next.

“Would you like to share with the whole class what you and Phil are talking about?”

The typical rhetorical question that every teacher gives. James had heard it a million times before.

James shook his head and Phil pretended to write something in his notebook.

“Well then.” Mr. Van Kuren took a breath, “Let’s get to work.”

In all his classes James was labeled as a talker. This meant that the moment his teachers realized who he was, they noted to keep an eye on him.

James took his notebook out of his bag; it was red. He began copying down whatever notes the teacher projected onto the screen into his notebook.

Significant figures.

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Balancing equations.

Naming molecules.

Stoichiometry.

His mind was flustered. James had no idea what any of the topics were, and he definitely couldn’t take a test on them the following week.

“I hate chemistry.” James though to himself.

Just a little into class, Phil nudged James with his elbow. James turned to him, and saw that he was looking down at his phone. He followed Phil’s eyes to the phone and was unsurprised.

On the phone screen, Instagram was opened. There was a video on repeat of Kenny, their friend, shoving a kids face into the toilet and flushing it.

They couldn’t hear the video, but they knew Kenny was probably laughing his ass off. James snickered himself, and whispered very quietly to Phil, “We gotta ask him about this at nutrition.”

Phil nodded his head in excitement.

Mr. Van Kuren went on and on about Chemistry for a little while longer until,

“Okay, now it is time for the lab. Get into groups of three and follow the instructions on the lab procedure sheet.”

The class slowly got up and created groups of three.

“Shit groups of three? Who’re we gonna get for out third?” Phil said.

“Let’s get Jamie.”

Jamie was a nice guy. Basically everyone liked him. He was short, funny, and never took anything seriously.

They approached him, but when they were only a few feet away someone else called his name and he joined their group.

“Fuck man.” Phil said.

“Okay, let’s get Daniel.”

Daniel was a tall, skinny guy who was a little odd. But if you were in the mood to laugh and do something random. Daniel was the guy to go to.

“Daniel.” James said.

“Hey what’s up?”

“Wanna be with us?”

He looked behind him, and James and Phil then saw the two other people he was working with.

“Sorry guys, I already got a group.” Daniel said awkwardly.

“You good.” Phil said. They turned around, “Fuck.” Phil said again.

They stood quietly for a second. Both of them looking around the room to find a stray person

“Hey guys.” They turned to the voice.

Kadin Beninger.

“Oh. Hey Kadin.” James said.

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Kadin was a light skinned black man, with short hair.

“Wanna be a group of three?” Kadin asked in his bothersome voice.

They hesitated. Kadin was a terrible kid to work with. He was weird, he thought he knew everything, and he had no friends.

“I don’t want to work with this freak.” James though to himself.

James and Phil both were against the idea, but quickly realized that everyone else was already in a group, and it would have been very rude to say no to Kadin.

“Yeah. Sure. We can be a group of three.” James said while Phil stood next to him. Neither of them showed any emotion of being unhappy with their grouping, but they both knew how angry they were.

“Great!” Kadin exclaimed.

He turned and walked over to one of the lab stations.

James and Phil looked at each other. James just shrugged his shoulders and Phil rolled his eyes with a huff. They went to the lab station.

“Alright so what’s the first step?” James asked.

Kadin already had his goggles on and looked like a mad scientist ready to find the cure for cancer.

“Well, first, grab goggles.” In a quick exchange, James and Phil grabbed the goggles from Kadin and put them on.

At the lab station was a scale, a sheet of paper, and a myriad of different substances.

“What are all these?” Phil leaned in close to the different beakers. Kadin quickly put his hand on Phil and pulled his face away.

“These are a few elements in their natural form. Some are bad to breath in, so keep your face away from them.” Kadin spoke with his usual bossy and aggressive voice.

“I hate listening to this guy talk.” James said in his mind.

“Yeah. Gotchu.” Phil responded trying his best to play it off as cool.

Kadin took a breathe and then began speaking again, “Okay, let’s begin. James you be the recorder okay?”

James was caught off guard that he was actually going to do something in class. He was so used to waiting until somebody else finished and then copying their work. Or letting the nerd in his group do all the work. His situation now fell into the later of the two.

“So just write down everything?”

“Just follow the guide lines on the paper.” Kadin handed James the recorder paper as he spoke in a bossy voice. As if he was better than James. As if he knew more than James. James did not like this.

“And Phil, I need you to help me actually measure all this stuff.”

Phil nodded in return with his lips out, “Yeah for sure. I gotchu.” Phil’s small brain didn’t seem to understand the situation.

Then they began. Kadin would poor a little bit of a substance onto the scale. Phil would tell

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him the weight and Kadin would subtract the weight of the bowl it was in. Kadin would give that number to James, who then recored it on the lab sheet. This process repeated for all the elements. And although it was bias towards Kadin, and made him do basically all the work; he didn’t mind, and neither did James or Phil.

When they reached the final element Kadin stopped them. “Okay listen real quick. This is extremely important.” James and Phil keened their ears. James rolled his eyes.

“This next element is very dangerous, Mr. Van Kuren said so himself. So no playing around with this one.”

“What element is it?” James asked.

“It’s chromium. And if it touches you bad things happen.” “Tell us what!” Phil said.

Kadin looked down, “Okay. If it touches you, your skin will begin to boil, it will seep into your bloodstream, and will travel to your liver. Where it will ultimately kill you.” He looked up and sternly said, “So be careful.”

“We will.” Phil said seriously.

Kadin nodded a serious nod.

He reached for the beaker the substance was in and he began to slowly and carefully poor some into the bowl that was on the scale.

James and Phil watched Kadin carefully. Scared for what might happen if the substance was to spill.

Students had already finished, and nobody was paying attention to their group. The room was loud, everyone was talking. The squeaky sound of all the freshman’s voices were getting mixed with the mature voices of the seniors. With all the conversation going on that James and Phil would usually have been a part of, they were ignoring it. All that mattered to them at that point was completing the lab without dying.

Suddenly, while meticulously pouring the substance into the bowl, Kadin’s arms swung up. The beaker flew out of his hands and the substance splashed all over both James and Phil. The aqueous substance was all over James’ left arm and Phil’s right. They screamed. And tried wiping it off.

“Kadin! Kadin you idiot! What the fuck.” James yelled. Phil fell to his knees, “We’re gonna die. We’re gonna die!”

Meanwhile, Kadin was dying of laughter. He was cracking up at their reactions.

Slowly, but quickly, James realized Kadin was laughing. So he calmed down and looked up from his shirt.

“Why are you laughing?” James said. Phil was still on his knees quietly and subtly whimpering trying to clean himself.

Kadin chuckled his obnoxious chuckle then responded, “That wasn’t-” He couldn’t contain his laughter and laughed some more.

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“Could this could just shut up with his annoying laugh.” James thought.

“That wasn’t Chromium.” Kadin said simply. He had a grin on his face.

James’ face went stern. Anger filled his eyes. James did not like being messed with.

His breath became harder, and his nostrils flared. His heard raced and his mind exploded.

The monster was ready to be released.

“What did you just say?”

Kadin quickly realized that James was not finding his joke even remotely funny. “I-I was kidding, it wasn’t Chromium, it was just water with food dye.” “Kadin you fucking dumbass”

“No no, I didn’t think you’d get mad. I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to think that water is Chromium.”

A fire had been sparked inside James. Kadin was going to get his full wrath.

“Don’t you ever call me dumb you hear that. I’m smarter than you’ll ever be. Why don’t you go and fucking memorize some table of contents or something.” He paused, “Look at Phil!”

Phil was still on the floor.

“Phil get up you moron.” Phil’s eyes lit up and he popped up from the floor. He had already realized nothing was going to happen to him.

“Kadin I don’t know who you think you are. I don’t know if you think you’re important. I don’t know if you think you have a say in what Phil and I do. I don’t know if maybe you’re just outright trying to dig your own grave. But I sure do know that you’re a fucking dick that nobody likes. Maybe you should fuckin’ think about playing a ‘practical joke’ on someone like me before doing it. You don’t even know me and you do this shit acting like we are best buds just jokin’ around. Go and hang with whatever geeky friends you talk to. If you even have any.”

“Yeah go talk to those geeks.” Phil added in his stupid voice.

James glared at him then continued, “Do whatever you want kid. But don’t speak or even come near me or Phil again. You don’t know us, and we don’t want you too.” Kids in the class gathered around them with curious looks on their faces. Teddy was loud and there wasn’t a person in the classroom that didn’t hear him. The students faces had ravenous looks, as if they were just praying there was a fight. They would all remember the words that Teddy said.

Kadin looked at James with wildfire in his eyes. His heart ached and a lump grew in his

throat.

“Okay okay everyone get back to work.” Mr. Van Kuren came in the way and dispersed the students.

James and Kadin stood staring at each other. As everyone went back to their seats, the bell rang.

Biiiiing Biiiing Biiiiing

James and Phil looked at each other then stormed off. They left Kadin standing alone.

As usual.

“You don’t know me.” Kadin said menacingly under his breath.

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“What was that?” Another student in the class walking by him said. Kadin’s watering eyes went wide and he gulped, “I didn’t say anything.” “Oh, I thought you did.” The boy walked off and never thought much of it.

The entire class left, besides Kadin. He stayed back to try and clean up the mess he had made with heartrending eyes.

He was all alone.

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