“Okay, this is your schedule. Your classes will be mostly upstairs. If you have any questions, just come down and ask me. My name again is Ms. Williams. I will be your high-school counselor for these next four years,” she said.
“Thank you,” said Pedro.
Pedro headed upstairs to his class. He found the room number 201 and knocked on the door. An old white man opened.
“You are the new student?,” asked Mr. Hudson. Pedro nodded.
“Alright, come on in and have a seat on the front row empty desk,” he said. Pedro came in. As he walked to his desk, there were whispers around the classmates.
“Look, a brown boy” or “He probably isn’t that smart”, they would say.
There were giggles and disgusted looks. The rest of the period was paperwork.
The bell rang and everybody went to their second period class. It took more than five minutes for Pedro to figure out where to go. When he got to his other class, it was the exact same thing that happened just like Mr. Hudson’s class: front row seat, loud, unappreciative whispers, and looks filled with disgust.
After second period came lunch. Since it was his first day, his lunch application was still being processed. He unzipped his backpack and pulled his two tacos he made that morning. He loved them but this time he didn’t eat both of them because everybody who saw him would kind of giggle and whisper to their friends as they walked by, so he just threw it to the trash. Lunch was forty five minutes, so after those forty five minutes, the bell rang and everybody started heading in. Pedro was already in his third period. He had went five minutes before lunch ended so he could see his biology classroom.
“My name is Mrs. Stevenson. Welcome. Your seat is here close to the door,” she said. Mrs. Stevenson was a short woman with green eyes.
“My name is Pedro,” Pedro said.
“Well nice to meet you. So, from the school you came from, what were you doing in biology?”
“We were learning about cells,” Pedro lied.
“Really?, And did you like it?”
“It was alright.”
“Well, ok let’s talk about it more later. I have to get class started.”
“Alright.”
Mrs. Stevenson turned around and walked to her front desk.
“Ok guys, get your warm-up sheet as you are coming in.”
Pedro got up and got his sheet. After everything was settled, Mrs. Stevenson then walked to her personal desk and got on her computer. She searched for Pedro’s history folder. All of his grades from the school he came from weren’t bad, but they weren’t great either. He was passing his classes with seventies in his old school. His average on his grades were seventy-three. She looked at Pedro. On the past years she had been working on that school, all of her students in her advanced class had been been noticed by colleges due to their great abilities or good grades they had on their test scores. But this year it was maybe going to change. Anyways, she got up and walked to the class projector and started the class lesson. Then she handed out the class worksheet for the students to practice. They had the last fifteen minutes of class to work on it.
“Whatever is not finished is for homework. If you are finished, turn it into the basket,” said Mrs. Stevenson some minutes later.
Many started finishing and were turning it into basket. There were ten questions on the worksheet and by the end of the period everybody was done except for Pedro. He had only answered three questions. On the way out, many of the students who walked beside Pedro, himself still sitting on his desk, would say, “He is dumb”. Others would say, ”He is going to be the one to change Mrs. Stevenson’s record”. Pedro would hear what they were saying but wouldn’t lift his head up and look. A white boy named Dominique though, stopped in front of his desk and whispered, “ You are an accident. You are not supposed to be here, just go back from where you came from.” With that said, Dominique walked out the door to his next class.
“Hey Pedro,” said Mrs. Stevenson, “ the bell rang already. You are supposed to go to your fourth period class. That is going to be your last class.”
Pedro stood up from his desk and placed his worksheet on his backpack.
“Hey Pedro, you now this is an advanced class, right?,” Mrs. Stevenson asked.
“Yes ma’am, why?,” said Pedro.
“No, I’m just checking,” she said back.
“Why, you think I am an accident too?” asked Pedro with a frown on his face.
“Not at all,” she said sounding a bit nervous.
Pedro stood there not knowing what to do. He had that feeling of anger, but sadness mixed at the same time too. He just walked out and started walking. This time he wasn’t heading to his fourth period class. He was going downstairs to Ms. Williams’ office. Pedro knocked on her door.
“Ms Williams, can I get the biology final test?”
“Why?, You don’t like your biology class? I can change it.”
“No, I want the test,” said Pedro with a decisive voice.
“Alright” is all she said.
Ms. Williams then handed him the test and said, “You have three hours to complete this test.”
“Ok, thank you,” said Pedro.
She then left the office for Pedro to have a quiet testing room. Pedro then started right away, flipping through the test. Within twenty-five minutes after, Pedro was finished. He went outside with the test looking for Ms. Williams.
“I’m done,” he said.
“You can’t be, that was too fast,” replied Ms. Williams.
“I’m done,” he said again.
“If you say so,” said Ms. Williams. “Can you hand it to me?”
“No I want Mrs. Stevenson to grade it,” said Pedro.
“Well let’s take it to her then,” she said.
They both walked to her class. Nothing was said. Then Ms. Williams broke the silence by asking Pedro, “You know that what you get in this test is what you get and you can’t change it, right?” Pedro just nodded, not even looking at her.
“Hey Mrs. Stevenson,” said Ms. Williams. “Can you grade a test right now?”
Pedro stayed outside but Ms. Williams didn’t notice
“Sure, I’m off this period,” said Mrs. Stevenson. She went to her computer and printed the answer key. She then got her red pen and started flipping through the test. She would flip the first page and then the second and the third and the fourth too and so on. She kept checking them with the answer key. At the end, not a drop of red ink was found on the test. She didn’t even took the cap off to use it.
“Wow, a rare perfect score” - she said to Ms. Williams - “what a smart kid.”
Mrs. Stevenson then flipped to the first page of the test to see the name of this student but the test had no name written in it.
“Who took this test? I sure want him or her on my class,” said Mrs. Stevenson with a giggle.
“Oh, Pedro,” - said Ms. Williams looking outside the door - “you forgot to put your name on your test.”
Pedro came in and and wrote his name on the test in big letters. He said nothing. He turned around and walked to the door and then said, “Ms. Williams, can we go review my schedule?”
“Perhaps we should, that would be a good idea,” said Ms. Williams.
Pedro turned around and glanced at Mrs. Stevenson, who still had wide eyes and a open mouth, obviously still couldn’t believe it.
“Sorry for the inconvenience," is all Pedro said to her. With that said, Ms. Williams and Pedro walked out.