Chapter 96
My eyes probably resembled dinner plates, and for a moment, I thought Elliott was going to tell them he has a friend who fought in the war, but while everyone else puzzled over what he meant, he continued, “You see, as long as you continue to think about all of the things these men and women did for us, all those years ago, it’s like they’re still alive. I mean, think about it. George Washington died, like, two hundred years ago, right? But you’re still talking about him. Why? Because he was one awesome dude.” Most people couldn’t pull off that phrase the way that Elliott could. I looked around the room, and a lot of the kids were nodding. “Abe Lincoln? What do we know about him? Tall dude with a stylin’ hat, right? But… he made changes to our country that still impact us today. It’s important to know that stuff so we don’t screw things up. If we don’t know about the Emancipation Proclamation, we might do something really dumb like try to take another group of people’s rights away, right? That would totally suck.”
There were a few gasps as a few of the girls were shocked at his unexpected language. Elliott pressed on. “So, since I’m an old guy, with lots of old guy friends, I happen to know a thing or two about history. What do you wanna know?”
We all looked around for a moment, like we weren’t sure if he really wanted us to ask questions or not, but one of the kids in the back, one who never participates at all, I think his name is Jeremy, raised his hand and Elliott gestured for him to go ahead. “So, like, my grandpa says that Kennedy was this great president, and then this other dude shot him in the head. Why would someone do that? Were you alive when that happened?”
Elliott looked at me, and I had to look away, because I realized he actually was alive when Kennedy was assassinated. But looking at Jeremy, he asked, “Dude, how old do you think I am? Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Do I look like I’m in my fifties?”
“No,” Jeremy laughed. A bunch of other kids laughed at him. “Sorry, man, I mean, sir.”
“Don’t call me sir, kid. I just told you, I’m not an old man.” That had everyone laughing. “I may not be in my fifties, but the Kennedy assassination is a great topic to discuss. What do y’all know about Kennedy’s presidency?”
Elliott called on a girl named Nora who is almost as smart as Emma. “He was president when we started the space program,” she said, very sure of herself.
“That’s right,” Elliott agreed. “So, why was that important?”
He called on another student, and for the next forty-five minutes, we talked about how people like Kennedy, Einstein, Helen Keller, and of course, George Washington, contributed to American history and why it is important to learn about these people and the things that they did to make our country great. By the time we left, I think we all had a new appreciation for why we needed to study the past. While I’ve always been good at memorizing facts for tests, I had never thought about it the way that Dr. Sanderson explained it to us. Of course, I wasn’t completely convinced there was no brainwashing going on, but I sort of thought Mrs. Neely would return to a class that didn’t quite know as much about the Battle of Saratoga as we were supposed to, but we would listen better during her next lecture because we would all appreciate history a little more.
The rest of the morning seemed to fly by, and as I placed my tray of overcooked spaghetti down on the cafeteria table, I couldn’t help but let my eyes flicker over to Liam. I swear he was looking in our direction. I decided to pretend not to notice but did flip my hair over my shoulder as I sat down.
“Barf,” Lucy said, plopping her tray down. Emma was already there, since she brought her lunch, and she joined me in trying to figure out what Lucy was referring to.
“Barf the spaghetti or…?” I asked.
“Barf the spaghetti and the boy you’re flipping your hair over,” she replied, pounding the thin plastic tube surrounding her silverware on the table a little harder than she probably needed to in order to get her spork to burst through the top.
Emma turned and glanced over her shoulder before turning back to face us. “If the spaghetti is gross, why did you get it?”
Lucy shrugged and stirred it up a few times before loading a bite onto her fork. “I guess the line was shorter than the salad bar.” She took a bite and made a face.
Frustrated, I set my spork aside. “Why don’t you like him?” I asked. “He’s a good guy.”
She raised her eyebrows at me and stared for a moment. “You’re entitled to your opinion. I just… he’s shady, that’s all.”
“He’s throwing shade all up in this place.”
Both Lucy and I turned our heads to survey Emma who had a perfectly straight face for a few seconds before she started laughing at herself, which made us laugh as well.
“Who are you, and what have you done with our Emma?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know,” Emma shrugged. “Just being silly. Was that silly?”
“Very silly,” I assured her. I thought about returning the conversation back to Lucy’s comment, but then thought better of it and let it go. She didn’t have to like Liam. It wasn’t like we were dating.
Lucy and I both had Mrs. Neely for history, though at different times of the day, while Emma had a different history teacher, so she wouldn’t get to sit through Dr. Sanderson’s engaging lecture. We both had similar stories about how much more interesting he had made the class, and I was just about to make another comment, one that had something to do with his true age, when the chair across from us screeched out from under the table, and I looked up to see Dr. Sanderson standing there. I was glad I hadn’t opened my mouth, since as far as I knew, he wasn’t aware that Lucy and Emma were re-aware of the truth.
