Change

Ring Ring Ring! As the school bell kept on signaling through the children of the school as they all ran out the doors and distract themselves from the lessons they were taught. They were laughing and cheering with smiles on their faces as they ran through the grass.

The sun was shining upon the children on the playground as they played games and laughed together. They played tag constantly under the sun and had a great time, the grass beneath their feet was dancing with them with every movement.

The four boys were bustling through the grass but one dominated them all and his name was Johnny the tangerine rush due to his love of oranges. He was a 5th grader who always wore an orange shirt and brown khaki shorts: He was quite short being 4”9’ and 100 pounds.

After tag was done the children were exhausted as they fell under the tree’s shade, inhaling and exhaling the oxygen around them; They laughed and made jokes with one another like they were family.

“Huff huff, that was an amazing game that we had, we should do that again and again!” Johnny yelled with excitement.

One of his friends stood up and said, “Johnny, you’re way too good at this game… Can’t you just give us a little disadvantage?”

Johnny looks towards him with confusion for a while. He then laughed and said, “Oh come on Samuel, You’re such a sore loser… Why can’t you just get hmmm a little bit better?”

Samuel started to puff up and said, “Seriously, you make it less fun with your cocky attitude...”

Johnny began to laugh even more and said, “Ha you guys can’t even catch up to me, until then I’ll keep on having my fun except for chubs over there.”

Alexander looked at him and kindly asked, “Hey Johnny can you please stop that?” Unlike Johnny, Alexander was the complete opposite of him. He was chubby and tall for a 5th grader weighing at 160 pounds and stood at 5”5’.

Johnny looked back at him and responded, “Heh why should I? You’re chubby like a balloon that you’ll pop at any second plus you can’t keep us with us so lose weight heh.”

Alexander was slowly losing his composure but kept on his straight face and said, “Look just because I’m just a little bit chubby doesn’t mean that I’m completely unhealthy so please stop.”

Johnny chuckled and ignored him entirely and said, “Meh it’s just a joke, nothing too personal Alexander.”

Khin spoke to Johnny and said, “You know that this type of attitude will come back to bite you one day.”

Johnny chuckled and said, “Oh wow, I’m so scared of getting detention over a couple of jokes… Shiver me timbers.”

After recess was over, the group headed back to class and everything was normal. They learned basic mathematics and listened to the teacher.

Suddenly the principal came into the classroom and interrupted the lesson they were having.

“Ah excuse my intrusion but I have a certain someone to come with me please.” the principal said.

The teacher looked at him and said, “Ah principal Martin, who do you want to come with you?”

The principal then said, “Johnny, please come with me and we’ll get you somewhere.”

Johnny wasn’t scared in the slightest but quite curious and got up from his seat to meet the principal.

As the door closed, the two began walking down the hallway of the school while the principal started the conversation.

“So tell me, Johnny, did you tell Alexander a couple of jokes or no?” the principal asked gently.

Johnny responded, “Yeah I did and they weren’t even there to harm him, it was just for fun.”

The principal nodded and asked, “I see… So just a couple of jokes?”

Johnny ignored him and asked a question, “What are you going to do, make me sit in a silent room for an hour to punish me or something?”

The principal smiled and said, “What makes you think that this is a punishment? Certainly, you aren’t just jumping to conclusions.”

Johnny still had a confused look on his face, him not knowing about the destination but shrugs it off.

The principal finally showed him the room that Johnny was going to sit in and the size was massive: It surely was built for a room of at least 30 students but he was the only one sitting there.

Johnny was amazed by the size of the room so much that he didn’t even recognize the person sitting at the table right in front of him; A tall woman wearing a black and blue dress that was like a wedding gown, she also had yellow eyes shimmering from her face. She was smiling ear to ear reading a book wearing a straw hat.

“Mrs. Bedits, here is the boy that I was talking about.” the principal said with a smile on his face.

She stopped reading her book as she turned towards Johnny with such a kind aura that it began to intoxicate him, it almost made him question if this was even the same destination.

“Hello there Johnny, my name is Mrs. Bedits and I welcome you here!” as she held her hand out to Johnny for him to shake hands.

Johnny shook her hand with an eyebrow raised as he was left there to ponder on what was about to happen with them.

“Well I’ll just leave you two to talk with each other, it’s going to take a while but I know you two have patience.” the principal said. He then closed the door on them and left without a word, click as the door closed.

Mrs.Bedits told Johnny to sit anywhere he’d like to sit at whether it be the front or the very back, so Johnny decided to sit in the middle of the classroom where the sun was shining upon him; he looked behind him and saw a treasure trove of books, games, toys, and a big mat surrounding them all while he looked at his front and saw Mrs. Bedits still reading her book.

Even when he saw what was behind him, he was more interested in Mrs. Bedits as she stares at a lot of words. She stopped reading, looked at him out of curiosity, and was surprised by his decisions.

“Johnny, aren’t you going to go at the very back to play with those toys?” Mrs. Bedits asked.

Johnny responded with a snarky attitude, “Hey you said that I could sit anywhere that I want to and I choose to sit here in the middle.”

Mrs. Bedits chuckled and said, “Well you are right about what I said but I’m curious too because you’re pretty rare.”

Johnny raised another eyebrow and asked, “So is this part of my detention? Because I feel like this is going somewhere.”

Mrs. Bedits responded to him, “You know I feel like you’re being quite anxious by this… Is it because we haven’t talked much or is it because of your feelings?”

Johnny scoffed and said, “I guess it’s because of me being in my head Mrs. Bedits, I don’t know.”

Mrs. Bedits responded, “Well I apologize if you felt that way about this whole ordeal and I’d appreciate it for you to talk to me… If you want to, no pressure at all!”

Johnny then looked at the clock and said, “Has 10 minutes already passed us? Wow, this is going to be a very boring punishment.”

Mrs. Bedits responded to him, “I guess you can make it boring if you wish since we’re both stuck in here.”

Johnny looks back at Mrs. Bedits with a surprised gaze in his eyes and then said, “Well I guess you’re right… But aren’t you supposed to be sitting there quietly or something?”

Mrs. Bedits looked back at him and responded, “Oh Johnny, we’re not that cruel! Humans are complex in their own ways and not letting them socialize would be tormenting for them.”

Johnny stares at her with squinted eyes and said, “Okay stop using all of those big words, you know that I’m not that good at English.”

Mrs. Bedits chuckled and said, “Well you’ve now just told me Johnny, but I do apologize because it’s just a force of habit for a teacher.”

Johnny smirked and said, “Heh you teachers are so into sounding smart or whatever, I bet that you all have some brain implant to know stuff.”

Mrs. Bedits responded to him, “Johnny we’re normal humans like you and me, we weren’t born with such a gift.”

Johnny looked at her and asked, “So you’re telling me that teachers weren’t born smart?”

“Precisely, that’s the reason why we want to share with you all the gift of knowledge.” Mrs. Bedits said with a smile on her face.

Johnny chuckled and asked, “Next you’re going to tell me that teachers don’t live in schools?”

Mrs. Bedits giggled and answered him, “Yes of course we don’t live in schools Johnny, we have our own homes like you all do!”

Johnny paused for a second and asked, “So you guys are just like us?”

Mrs. Bedits looked at him with a raised eyebrow and said, “We’re living people Johnny, do you think we’re robots or something?”

Johnny looked at her and spoke in a serious tone, “Yeah I thought you guys were robots because of the way you speak and walk.”

Mrs. Bedits jokingly responded, “Yes you figured it out, Johnny we’re here to take over YOUR WORLD! Try and stop us.”

Johnny got scared and stood up from the desk in protest of this. He then confidently said, “I’m not letting you take over my friends!”

Mrs. Bedits calmed him down and said, “Johnny it was just a joke, don’t worry we’re not out here to harm anyone.”

Johnny stared at her and yelled, “Don’t pull any stupid crap like that again!”

Mrs. Bedits apologized to him and the room went silent as the birds chatted with one another: It was quite the boring mood as the clock ticked each minute, it felt like one year.

Johnny cut the silence and asked, “Hey Mrs. Bedits, what book are you reading?”

Mrs. Bedits looks at him and signals him to close. He nodded and walked up to her out of curiosity, she then explained the book, “This book is called Taiga’s Tale and it was created by my mentor of the same name.”

Johnny’s eyes sparkled as she said that, the copious amount of stories that they may have is tingling his body. Johnny asked another question, “Are they an important figure in this town, and what kind of cool special powers did they have!?”

Mrs. Bedits explained to Johnny in detail in the book, “Well it’s about his journey throughout the land and discovering towns, villages, and even temples; He was a great inspiration for me and I recommend that you read it.”

Johnny slouched his body and somberly said, “Come on Mrs. Bedits, you know that reading is super boooooring!”

Mrs. Bedits shrugged and said, “Well if you don’t read then how can you get information or ideas from anything from the world around you?”

Johnny stared at her and said, “Well you do make a good point I guess… Okay, I can try it!”

Mrs. Bedits handed him the book and placed her hand gently onto his. She looked at him and said, “Please take good care of this book Johnny.”

Johnny nodded and asked, “Hey Mrs. Bedits, what was Taiga like?”

Mrs. Bedits eyes widened as if she had seen her firstborn baby, she couldn’t contain her excitement and started talking, “Taiga was a fantastic mentor who taught me everything that I needed to know and got me into being a teacher, he was like a father figure to me...”

Mrs. Bedits rambled on about Taiga, she was passionate about her work and started to gush everything all over Johnny but it didn’t bother him it surprised him that teachers like Mrs. Bedits exist.

Johnny listened to her ramble on and asked, “hey this guy is pretty great… How come we don’t hear him anywhere?”

Mrs. Bedits smile faded as she sadly said, “Well he isn’t here anymore, he… passed away from my life before I got to truly know him…”

Johnny was unsure of how to react to this, he still felt sad for his teacher. She then started to softly cry as she put her head down with her arms resting on her face, her shaking and soft crying was noticeable in front of Johnny.

Johnny wanted to say something but decided to go against it as he went to get a box of tissues and placed it in front of her desk. He then jokingly said, “Here Mrs. Bedits… You should wipe your face or else you’ll ruin your makeup!”

He then sat at the very front and kicked his feet up on the desk as he relaxed his whole body. Mrs. Bedits took the box of tissues as a thank you for Johnny and wiped her face.

After everything, the bell then rang Ring Ring Ring! It was time for Johnny to go but before he opened the door, he heard a chair moving.

He looked back and saw Mrs. Bedits right in front of him. When he was about to leave, he hugged her and said, “Goodbye Mrs. Bedits… I’ll make sure I’ll read his tale”

She nodded and opened the door for him; They both waved goodbye and the future awaits them both.