Darling Files 004: Character Sketch

September 21, 2005

            Steven saunters into class seconds before the bell rings; his pen behind his ear; his book and binder tucked casually under his arm. As the bell sounds for 8^th period to start, he thumps into his seat slamming his book on the desk and throwing his hands in the air. “NOT LATE!” he yells as loudly as if he were saying, “TOUCHDOWN” at a football game. A couple of boys snicker, but the girls just roll their eyes. The teacher, standing at the overhead taking attendance, ignores him.

            Steven’s leg twitches up and down rapidly and he jiggles his pen furiously back and forth as he reads the board work. “Please answer the following questions in your journal,” he says loudly.

            “To yourself, Steven,” the teacher says.

            “OH!” Steven smacks his head in mock embarrassment. “Right!” He immediately opens his binder, leans closely to it, and begins writing.

            The teacher watches him wondering if he’s responding to the questions, or if he’s writing his name over and over again like he did yesterday. She notices how messy his hair is. Not cool messy. It’s days without a shower messy. Steven’s clothes are old, too – a 1991 Bulls Championship shirt that was almost pink from 14 years of washing.

            Another girl was looking at Steven, too. She was trying to see what he was writing. After a bit, Steven looked up and caught her eye. “Hey, hey!” he said pointing and winking at her. She grimaced and went back to her writing.

            “OK. Time’s up,” the teacher announced.

            “Phew! My hand is KILLING me!” Steven lamented as he messaged his right hand.

            “Steven, you’re left-handed,” the teacher said.

            “Right! No wonder writing is so hard!” Steven said, and then started kissing the fingers on his left hand. He posse of boys snickered.

            “Moving on,” the teacher began. “We’ll spend the period reviewing for the test tomorrow. Before we begin, I want you to know that you may use anything from Chapter 1 that you have in your binder during the test.”

            “GREAT!” Steven exclaimed and proceeded to rip the entire chapter out of his text and slam in into his binder.

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