Corinne was a seventh-grade student at Hamilton Middle School. On most days, she would walk from the school campus to the Westgate Center, a common after-school gathering place for students from her school. As she did on most days, Corinne sat alone at a table for two in the center of Smashburger, a restaurant popular with the middle school and high school students. She didn’t like the hardness of the wooden chairs in the restaurant. She preferred to sit at one of the tables with a cushioned bench-type seat, facing the cold soft drinks machine. The ham and cheese sandwich she’d eaten during lunch on campus that day had filled her up, so she wasn’t too hungry. She had ordered a strawberry milkshake to get her through the rest of the afternoon. Corinne was engaged in the task of rereading her latest poem, which she had titled “No H8.” It was a poem about a small group of mean girls on campus.
Cami, Brittany, Laurel, and Courtney were not Corinne’s favorite classmates. They moved about their world as one inseparable unit. Most of the kids at Hamilton Middle School referred to them as the Fearless Foursome. Corinne thought that was a strange name for those four girls. To her, it seemed that, rather than being fearless, they were actually terrified at the possibility of being alone. The four attended all their classes together, walked the halls together, sat as a group during lunch, and even went to the rest room together. It seemed that they also shared one opinion on everything, one set of values, one set of likes and dislikes, and one snooty personality. Corinne had little use for such people in her life, yet these girls would often go out of their way to make life miserable for Corinne. They regularly referred to her as Cinderella, because Corinne, who lived with only her father, did all the cooking and cleaning in her home. The Fearless Foursome were often vocal about their refusal to engage in such mundane, demeaning tasks in their own homes.
On the other side of Smashburger, sitting at a table for four near the window, were Jason, DeShawn, and Mateo, also seventh grade students at Hamilton. The three boys had become unlikely best friends when they met at school at the beginning of the previous year.
Jason lived across the street from the Westgate Center on Atherton Avenue. He was a competent student, did fairly well in those subjects he liked, or in classes in which he liked the teacher, but consistently underachieved in other courses. Despite constant pressure from his mother to put forth a better effort in those courses, Jason had a difficult time finding the motivation to do much more than the bare minimum required to earn a passing grade. He also found himself a bit distracted by a number of seventh grade girls, who often vied for his attention.
DeShawn met Jason in their physical education class in sixth grade. His family had recently moved into their dream home -- a large house with a backyard swimming pool and jacuzzi, on Colusa Way, not far from the school. DeShawn was one of the top academic students in his class. He was popular, a gifted athlete, and, if you were to ask the girls at Hamilton, extraordinarily good-looking. He was a star player on a club basketball team, which often took him on the road for tournaments around the United States. When Jason thought about how little he and DeShawn had in common, he often wondered why DeShawn would want to hang out with him, yet DeShawn often referred to Jason as his best friend.
Mateo lived with his parents on Los Felice Drive, just a few blocks north of the Westgate Center. His mother had grown up in the same house. Not surprisingly, Mateo, whose family most often spoke Spanish at home, struggled a bit in his language arts classes, even though he enjoyed writing stories. In math and science, however, he had proven himself to be one of the top students in his class. He met DeShawn during an orientation for new students at Hamilton the year before. It was through DeShawn that Mateo got to know Jason.
The three boys enjoyed hanging out at the mall together after school. Sitting at a window table in Smashburger that afternoon, Jason sat next to DeShawn, who was closest to the window. Mateo sat opposite DeShawn, with a view into the mall toward the Falafel Bar and Gong Cha. As was usually the case, there was a long line for drinks at Gong Cha. Mateo was grateful they’d decided to eat at Smashburger that day. Miss Lucy, the daytime manager at the restaurant, brought the food they’d ordered to their table.
“Okay, guys,” she said. “I’ve got a Classic Smash for you, Jason. DeShawn, here’s your Avacodo Club with sweet potato fries. And for you, Mateo, a Spicy Jelepeño with Smashfries. No fries for you today, Jason?”
“No, ma’am,” Jason replied. “I’m just gonna snag a few from these guys!”
“I hope they don’t mind,” she said as she returned to the counter.
Immediately, the three boys began eating their afternoon snack. It was as if the burgers had become the only things that mattered to them. All conversation ceased. It was all about the food,... until Jason looked up and saw Nick walk in the door from the outside patio.
“Nick!” Jason called. Nick was 28-years-old. He’d grown up in Portland, Oregon and moved to San José in 2010 to take a job with a startup high-tech company, but the company folded in 2012. In the aftermath of that closure, Nick had not been able to find comparable work. Two years later, he found himself living on the streets. He could no longer afford the skyrocketing rent in Silicon Valley, nor was he willing to return to Portland, where he feared being labeled by family and friends as a failure. He may have been homeless, but Nick was well-educated. He loved philosophy, read every book he could get his hands on, and often shared words of inspiration with the kids he met at the mall. He was a likable guy. Because of this, Miss Lucy, as well as the managers of Starbucks, the Falafel Bar, and Subway, would often make sure that Nick had something nutritious to eat. During the winter months, the security guard at the mall allowed him to sleep inside the mall. As a result, Nick had a sense of responsibility for the place, and especially for the young people who hung out there.
“Hi, guys,” Nick responded. “How was school today?”
“Jeeze, Nick. You sound like my mother!” DeShawn scolded.
“Hey, I’m just askin’,” Nick replied defensively.
“Just kidding,” DeShawn said. “It was a good day. No tests today.”
“I never liked testing days when I was in school,” Nick explained. “My teachers always seemed to ask questions about the things I didn’t understand. They never asked about the stuff I knew. I was always better at verbal testing. I could tell a teacher anything she wanted to know if I could just talk about it, but I couldn’t always explain what I knew through regular testing.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Jason said agreeably. “I just stress out when I have to take a test. If I had the opportunity to just talk with my teacher about the same stuff, I think I’d do a lot better.”
“Well, I’m glad it was a good day for you guys,” Nick said. He started to walk away.
“Hey, what’s our lesson for the day, Nick?” Mateo inquired. Nick stopped in his tracks. He had a habit of sharing a pearl of wisdom with the kids when he saw them.
“Hmmm.... the lesson for today.... Okay, how about this one? ‘The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.’” Nick watched the boys as they pondered the meaning of his statement. There was a long pause before Mateo spoke up.
“I think I know what you mean, Nick,” he replied. “It’s about simplicity. It doesn’t matter how much you have if you always want more. Right?”
“Spot-on, Dude,” Nick responded. “You nailed it!”
“My dad’s always telling me the same thing,” said DeShawn. “He says that if you’re not grateful for what you already have, you’ll never be satisfied with more.”
“He’s right,” said Nick. “There was this guy, Eckhart Tolle. He once said, ‘Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.’”
“Huh?” asked Jason.
“Oh, sorry, Dude. My bad. Too much for one day,” Nick blurted out. “I gotta go. Enjoy your food, guys.”
As Nick turned to leave, he noticed Corinne sitting alone at a table on the other side of the restaurant. He looked back at the boys.
“Hey, do you guys ever talk with that girl?” he inquired.
DeShawn spoke up. “Her? Um, yeah, sometimes, I guess,” he replied, “but I think she likes to be alone, so we don’t bother her.”
“Are you sure about that?” Nick asked. “Maybe you could invite her to join you at your table some day. She could always say ‘No’ if she really wanted to be alone.”
“I guess. We’ll try it some time,” DeShawn replied, though he doubted he’d ever actually extend the invitation.
Nick walked up to the counter to say hello to Miss Lucy. Mateo noticed that Miss Lucy handed Nick a bag of food. Nick thanked her graciously and gave her a hug before exiting the restaurant.
“That’s so cool,” Mateo said.
“What’s so cool?” asked DeShawn.
“The way Miss Lucy takes care of Nick like that. He didn’t even have to order food. She just had a bag of stuff ready for him when he went up there.”
“That’s how she is,” Jason pointed out. “She’s sort of like that with us, too, you know. I came in here one day and asked for just a glass of water. I didn’t have enough money to order food that day. I got my water and sat down. She walked up to me awhile later with a burger and fries. Didn’t say anything. Just put it on the table in front of me... and smiled.”
“One day,” DeShawn said, “I was in here alone, playing Minecraft on my iPad. Lucy walked up and asked if I’d finished my homework. I told her I’d do it when I got home. She took my iPad right out of my hands, put it in my backpack, and told me not to take it out again until my homework was finished. At first, I was ticked off, but then I realized that she really does care about me.”
“She cares about all of us,” Jason agreed. “I hear she used to be a teacher in Taiwan before coming to the United States.”
“Yeah, I’d heard that, too. I guess we’re her students now,” DeShawn replied.
As the boys continued eating, Jason looked over at Corinne once again. Then, without saying a word, he stood up and walked over to her.
“Hey, Corinne, wanna come over and sit with us? I’m sittin’ with Mateo and DeShawn over there.”
Corinne looked suspiciously at Jason, then across the room at DeShawn and Mateo, but she seem to know instinctually that Jason’s invitation was authentic.
“Um, yeah,... okay,” she replied. Corinne gathered her belongings and stood up. She dropped her empty milkshake cup in the trash bin near the cold drinks machine before walking around to where the boys were sitting. She sat in the empty chair next to Mateo.
“Hey, Corinne,” DeShawn said with a welcoming tone. “Were you workin’ on your homework?”
“No, I never do homework here. I was just proofreading a poem I wrote.”
“You write poetry?” Mateo inquired excitedly.
“I try,” Corinne responded. “Some of it’s not so good, but some of it turns out okay, I guess.”
“What about this one?” DeShawn asked.
“Um.... well, I like it,... I guess. But I don’t know if I’d ever let anyone at school read it,” Corinne said cautiously.
“Why?” inquired Jason.
Corinne paused before responding. “The poem’s about the... um,... Fearless Foursome. I wouldn’t want them to ever know that I’d,... you know,... written a poem about ‘em -- that I even cared about ‘em.”
“Can we hear it?” DeShawn asked.
Corinne paused a long time. “It would probably be best if no one saw this one. I wouldn’t want those girls to have a reason to hate me any more than they already do.”
“Why do you think they hate you?” Mateo asked innocently.
“They just do, that’s all. They don’t need a reason to hate anyone,” Corinne replied. “It’s just a part of who they are,... and what they have to do to convince themselves that they’re better than everyone else.”
“Oooh, girl, you are so right about that!” DeShawn said with enthusiasm. “I’ve never heard anyone say it so accurately. They really are insecure. They just try to put everyone else down to make themselves look better.” De Shawn paused briefly. “How sad is that?”
Jason spoke up. “Corinne,... please read it. We won’t tell anyone about it. You can trust us.”
Somehow, Corinne knew that she could trust these guys, and deep down inside, she had a strong desire to share her poem. She didn’t want to read it to her father, because she knew he’d somehow find fault with it. Maybe this would be the only opportunity she’d have to read it aloud to anyone who would listen.
“Okay,” Corinne said. “This is how it goes...
They strut their stuff on campus
and walking through the mall.
They’re called the Fearless Foursome
and I want to hate them all.
They think they’re so much better
than all the other girls,
each perfectly accessorized
with imitation pearls.
They always stay together
during lunch and after school,
doing everything they can
to make themselves look cool.
It’s really sad but, truth be told,
they’re really quite pathetic --
I know that’s really mean to say.
I’m not apologetic.
They treat me like a piece of trash,
and try to make me mad,
but all their insecurities
just make me kinda sad.
While others really hate them,
I refuse to let them know
I’ll never hate a person --
That’s just not the way I go.
I do not have to like them,
and I’ll never be their friend,
but I will do my best to just
ignore them ‘til the end.
I won’t let them control me,
and they’ll never make me hate.
Those girls just can’t accept themselves,
and, yeah,... that’s kinda great!”
“That’s awesome!” DeShawn said excitedly. “It’s REALLY good! How long did it take you to write it?”
“Um,..... about forty-five minutes, I think,... but then I spent a few hours tweaking it. That’s how I write. I usually start by just writing whatever comes to mind. Then I go back and make changes.”
“Yeah, I can see why you don’t want them to know about the poem,” Jason said. “I can’t stand them either. They think they’re so popular, but, really, no one likes them.”
“I kinda feel bad for them,” Corinne said. “I talked with Miss Lucy about them one time. She was the one who helped me to see that it wasn’t about me. She told me that they’re just insecure in themselves, and that the only way they can deal with life is to put others down. It's kinda sad.”
“I wish I could write poetry like that,” said Mateo, “but I’m not so good with words. Not in English, anyway.”
“Yeah,” replied Corinne, “but you’re really good in math and science. Everyone has something they’re good at.”
“That sounds like something Miss Lucy would say,” said DeShawn.
“Actually, I learned that from Miss Meyers at school,” Corinne replied.
“I love Miss Meyers!” shouted Jason. “She’s the best teacher I ever had!”
“What I think he meant to say,” DeShawn teased, “is that she’s the hottest teacher he’s ever had!”
“Hey......” Jason said defensively. “I loved her Food and Nutrition class. Did you ever try her ‘Greens and Beans’ recipe?”
“It sounds disgusting,” DeShawn replied.
“Yeah, it does,” responded Jason, “but I had four servings of it one day, and I would’ve had more if we didn’t run out.”
“She’s a really good teacher,” Corinne replied. “I live alone with my dad. I don’t usually tell people this, but... he’s the head custodian here at the mall. That’s why I hang out here so often. My mom died when I was nine. Miss Meyers is the closest thing I’ve had to a mom since then. Well,... her and Miss Lucy.”
The boys were silent for a moment.
“I’m sorry about your mom,” Jason said compassionately. “You’re lucky to have people like Miss Meyers and Miss Lucy in your life.”
“Yeah, I really am,” Corinne responded. “I don’t know where I’d be without them. They both know how mean those girls have been to me, and they’ve both helped me to understand that it’s not about me.”
“That’s how it works,” agreed Mateo. “Especially at our age. Kids can be so mean,... and for no reason. And then they suck-up to the teachers so the teachers think they’re all perfect.”
“It’s weird,” said Jason. “My mom said it was the same when she was in school. She said that when it comes to bullying, nothing has changed, except that people are talking about it more today than in the past... and that social media has made it a lot worse.”
DeShawn looked at Corinne. “Thanks for sharing your poem. I promise we won’t say anything to anyone about it. You’re a really good writer.”
“Thanks,” Corinne said shyly. “I have a whole binder at home full of poems I’ve written. Most of them have never been seen by anyone. But who knows?” she said with a smile. “Maybe some day I’ll publish them and be all rich and famous!”
“Yeah! Then we can say, ‘Oh, yeah, we knew her,’” Mateo replied. “Then you’ll have to give us autographed copies of your book.”
“Yeah, right,” said Corinne. “Like that’s really gonna happen.”
“You never know,” DeShawn replied. “My mom has a poster on the wall in her office. It’s a quote by Walt Disney. It says, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.’”
Corinne smiled. “I like that!”
Jason and Mateo had long since finished eating their food. DeShawn dipped the last few sweet potato fries in the ranch dressing.
“Hey, I gotta get going,” said Mateo. “It’s almost six o’clock.”
Jason looked at DeShawn and asked, “Hey, don’t you have practice tonight?”
“No,” he replied. “Coach gave us the night off. He has some stuff he has to do. We’ll be back at it again tomorrow night. We have a tournament in Santa Barbara this weekend.”
Corinne spoke up. “Hey, thanks for inviting me to join you guys. It was fun.”
Just then, Miss Lucy approached the table, a little surprised to see Corinne sitting with the boys.
“Hi, Corinne. What’s new?” she asked.
Corinne looked up at her, paused briefly, then replied with a gentle smile, “Everything!”
© 2016
