chapter twelve

Chapter Twelve

            The lunch room seemed unusually loud this morning, and every little thing was getting on Maxwell’s nerves.  Everything was just so damn loud!  He was sitting next to Jimmy and seething while Jimmy was stuffing his face and talking.

            "You think those are b-cups or c-cups?  Hey Maxwell, you listening man?  You alright buddy?"

            "Look Jimmy, I'm having a bad day and I don't want to discuss it right now."

            "Okay, geez, I won't bother you then.  Heaven forbid I try to have a conversation with you during our lunch break."

            "I'm not trying to be a d-bag, Jimmy, I'm just dealing with a lot of stuff right now, you know what I mean?"

            "So how'd your trip to the psychiatrist go?," Jimmy asked.

            "Oh my gosh Jimmy, could you say that any louder?!  The last thing I need is the whole freaking school thinking I'm crazy."  Just as Maxwell said these words, Phil came by and sat down at the table right beside them.  

            "Too late you two nerd buckets, I heard the whole thing!"  

            'Oh God, how could this possibly get any worse? 

            "Hey everybody, Maxwell's seeing a psychiatrist!  HAHAHA!," Phil shouted to anyone who would bother to listen.  "Hey, you guys don't mind me sitting here do you?"

            Jimmy cringed as Maxwell just looked at Phil.  He really had no idea why he was such a goober.  Why'd he always seem to be incessantly picking on some one?  Lately his favorite target had been Maxwell for sure, but this current situation seemed to have gone just a little too far.

            "Phil, do you realize how much you're an incredible asshole?," Maxwell asked him.

            "Incredible?  Wow!  Thanks for that one, Maxwell, that was a very nice adjective indeed," Phil responded with a smug expression on his face as he threw a little wink.

            "Yeah?  Well maybe it doesn't suit you very well, did you ever think of that?"

            "No."

            Maxwell didn't see any point in trying to argue with such an idiot.  It was anyones guess as to why he'd even want to sit next to them in the first place. 

            "Hey Maxwell, are you so poor you can't even afford to buy your own lunch?"

            "I gave my lunch money to a homeless person, and I'm not all that hungry right now anyway."

            "What a stand up thing to do Maxwell, good job!," said Phil, "Now you're gonna go hungry while that bum you gave your lunch money to gets d-r-u-n-k.  Smart move there, dumbass."

            There was a brief silence before Phil started firing again.  "You know what, for being as poor as you are, you shouldn't even be giving your money away to begin with.  Ever since your dad died," and Phil suddenly stopped as if even he knew he'd crossed some sort of line this time. 

            Jimmy looked at Phil with a blank face, mouth agape. 

            "you, um, haven't had as much money so you need to be more careful about that kinda stuff."

            "Oh, I see, so now i guess you're going to be my financial advisor too, thank you for the words of wisdom there co-jack, but I think I can handle things on my own for a while, okay?"  Maxwell stormed out of the cafeteria and walked all the way back to his classroom. 

            No one else was anywhere near the classroom when he got there, they were all either still in the lunchroom or they were playing around on the playground.  He sat in his seat, absolutely frustrated by just about everything, 'Know thyself?  What the heck?  I'm Christopher Maxwell House, I'm twelve years old, I like chicken; television is something I enjoy to watch, and I absolutely hate assholes!  I'm not very good at English, but I really like reading about outer space.  I'm not a big Nicholas Cage fan, either.  I definitely know myself!  I'm me, but' "now what?"

            "Now what?," Dr. Schmidt offered as he walked into the room, "Who exactly are you talking to, Maxwell?"

            Maxwell had no idea that he was thinking out loud, "I wasn't talking to anyone, sir."

            "You know that's a sure sign of craziness, don't you?" 

            Maxwell thought to himself, 'You're a sure one to talk,' "I think maybe I am going a little crazy right about now, Dr. Schmidt."

            "I just came by to see if Ms. Butternut was here.  Have you seen her?  Cause I have a few things I'm supposed to give her."

            For no reason in particular, and at that very moment, Maxwell had a very bad feeling come over him.  It was a strange feeling, somewhere down deep inside his gut, and it made him feel like something wasn't quite right after all.  He quickly shrugged this notion off, "No sir, I haven't seen her.  I just got in here and I really have no idea where she is."

            "Okay, well, I'll go look somewhere else then.  Good to see you Maxwell, study hard booter!  It'll benefit you later!"

            "Thanks sir," Maxwell said, and at that, he was gone. 

            Maxwell found himself sitting in total silence.  He'd decided he was going to go back to the cave when he got home.  He'd bring a flashlight for sure this time so that he could actually see.

            Slowly the students began making their way back into the classroom, as lunchtime was drawing to a close.  Once everyone had been seated and the bell rang, the class immediately began talking amongst themselves.  This continued on for thirty minutes.  Without anyone to control the chaos, the sound level in the room gradually raised itself to higher and higher levels.

            Maxwell slowly began to worry, 'Maybe something's happened to Ms. Butternut,' he thought.  He'd definitely had his share of run-ins with the old scamp, but he'd never wished any ill to befall her.  She might've been a little old, and he usually didn't really like 'old people' very much, but she always meant well, and Maxwell really did hope that she'd be alright.

            He found a sigh of relief when he saw her come waddling into the room at just that moment.  She was walking very slowly and looked as though she might be struggling a little bit.  She made her way to the desk and then sat down in the chair behind it.  She took a handkerchief from her purse and wiped off the brow of her forehead.  She definitely looked to be somewhat out of breath, and perhaps even a little bit more pale than usual.

            "Quiet down, children.", she said, but it was immediately drowned out in the constant commotion of the classroom.  No one even seemed to notice that she was even there at all except Maxwell. 

            "Quiet children, ... please, be quiet!"

 

            "EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" 

            Maxwell was utterly shocked to hear these words coming right out of his very mouth!  The class immediately fell silent. 

             "Give this lady some respect, okay?  She's been trying to get you guys to be quiet, but you couldn't even hear her because of you were being so loud!"

            "Just who do you think you are!?," shouted William, "No one made you boss of this class!  She was going to quieten us down!"

            Jenna glanced and Maxwell and mouthed “I’m sorry.”  She then gave her boyfriend a scorning gaze of disapproval.

            "William, go to the principal's office!  I'll not have any of my school children shouting in my classroom!"

            "But Ms. Butternut, Maxwell shouted too!"

            "I said go to the office!  We don't have time for this non-sense.  Okay everyone, get in your groups, we're going to be working on our final projects today."

            William scowled at Maxwell as he left the classroom.  Maxwell didn't understand at all why William felt the need to get an attitude with him.

            Maxwell got up out of his seat and went over to where his group was assembling.  The team making a case for evolution shaped up something like this:  Maxwell, Jimmy, Frank Workman, Jenna Myers, and Vince Black. 

            Vince was just a regular kid really, not a whole lot you could say about Vince.  Vince simply fit in with all the other kids.  His parents had money, so he didn't look like garbage.  He wasn't really that good at sports, but he knew all about the players and the teams and the statistics and words to all of the new rap songs.  He wasn't much of a talker, just altogether laid back.  He was always sort of, 'there'.  Vince had always been nice to Maxwell.  He treated everyone the same in a sense, so Maxwell actually had a little bit of respect for the guy.  He was actually very glad that Vince was going to be on their team.

            "Okay guys, I've been doing some research and I really think we're going to stick it to them in this debate," said Frank. 

             Frank had a little bit of a lisp, so every time he said anything it sounded like air coming out of a tire. Jimmy said it sounded as if he always had a little piece of phlegm in his throat.  All of his S's were drawn out like a hiss.

            Maxwell's mind slowly began to wander again, first to the lisp, then to the cave, and finally, to Plato himself.  'Does this chatterbox mind ever stop?,' he asked himself.  He actually started to think about the actual act of thinking at this point, and so it went, and the group slowly began to discuss their project, and Maxwell simply sat there without saying a single word, completely lost in the depths and recesses of his own mind.

           

            "What do you think about all this, Maxwell?" Jenna asked him.

            "Huh?  Who me?  Well, ... "

            THUMP!

           

            The class immediately turned around to find out what the heck the sound was, and much to Maxwell’s surprise, Ms. Butternut had collapsed.

             He looked at his classmates as they stared at the floor, dumbstruck.

             Maxwell then bolted out of the classroom as fast as his little legs could carry him.  He was going to have to tell Dr. Schmidt what had just happened.

            While Maxwell was gone, the classroom exploded into chatter.

            “What are we going to do?”  Jenna shouted to Jimmy, who was watching the scene unfold in front of him.  He noticed as Phil Dick went over Ms. Butternut’s desk and grabbed her record book.  He went down to Ms. Butternut’s motionless body and put his ear to his teacher’s mouth.

            “I don’t hear any breath.  I am going to check to see if she has any pulse.”

            He put his hand to her neck and looked at his watch for a moment and then looked back at Jenna, his face revealing the severity of the situation.  ”Keep an eye on Phil, he is up to something” 

            She looked over at the teacher’s desk and saw Phil walking away from it.  He had put the book back in its place.  “I didn’t see anything,” she replied to Jimmy.

           
            Soon the ambulance came to pick Ms. Butternut up and drove her off to the hospital.  The day was almost over and they were basically dismissed from class at that point.  Everyone either went outside to the playground, or simply went to wait for the bus.  Maxwell gathered all his things and went outside to the curb to wait for his mother.