CHAPTER 28
Mr. Rock bent down and picked the Ding Dong wrapper up off the floor. He pulled at his collar and loosened his tie, just like my dad does when he’s really mad.
“Nick, I can’t believe you would do something like this,” he said.
“I was hungry,” Nick said, “so I had a little snack. Can I help it if I’m a messy eater?”
“You intentionally tried to distract Chelsea,” Mr. Rock said. “That was wrong, Nick. Do you understand that?”
McKelty gave a “So what’s the big deal?” kind of shrug. Even if he was feeling bad, he sure wasn’t going to let Mr. Rock see it.
“There will be consequences for this,” Mr. Rock said. “Severe consequences. For starters, I’m going to call your father right after class, even if he is hanging out with the president of the United States, which by the way, I doubt very much. And tomorrow, you’re going to have a nice long visit with Principal Love. I think you’d better get used to the detention room, because you’re going to be seeing a lot of it.”
Chelsea was on her hands and knees, picking up the pages from her scrapbook and trying to shake the water off them.
“I don’t think I can finish the presentation,” she said to Mr. Rock.
“Another time, Chelsea,” Mr. Rock said. “You’ve done a fine job, and I’m very happy to see how much your reading skills are improving.”
Everyone gave Chelsea high fives as she took her seat in the front row.
“So, Hank, you’re next,” Mr. Rock said as he perched on top of the desk McKelty was sitting in. I could tell he was going to keep a close eye on him. “Think you’re okay to go on?”
I was more than okay. I was pumped up. I wanted to get up there and do the best presentation I’d ever done. I wanted McKelty to know that his bully tactics didn’t work in the Reading Gym. I wanted to get even with him not just for me, but for Chelsea and everyone else who was too shy to stand up to him.
“You bet,” I told Mr. Rock.
“Teach that guy a thing or two,” Ashley whispered as I went up to the front of the class.
“Yeah,” Frankie agreed with Ashley. “You’re the dude to do it.”
I placed my scrapbook on the table and looked out over the class. Zoe was smack in the middle of the front row, and I could feel her eyes on me. Her turquoise eyes.
“The presentation I had planned for today was to show all of you my life story scrapbook,” I said. “Here it is. It’s filled with lots of wonderful memories from my past. I’ve worked really hard on putting it together. But because of what just happened, I’ve changed my mind. I’d like to talk about another part of my life, one that it’s not so easy to talk about.”
Mr. Rock stood up from his seat on the desk. He looked surprised and curious.
“For most of my life, I had learning differences and didn’t even know it,” I began. “I always knew that most subjects in school were hard for me. Spelling, math, reading, handwriting. My best friends, Ashley and Frankie, sailed right through them with no problems. Me, I always had problems.”
“Last year, after Dr. Berger tested me, I found out that my problems were because I have real actual learning differences that make it hard for me to learn in the regular way. Finding this out was the biggest relief of my life. It was incredible to know that I wasn’t stupid, I just learn differently.”
Mr. Rock was smiling at me. So were Ashley and Frankie. I didn’t have the nerve to look at Zoe, because I didn’t know how she was reacting. I just knew that I had to go on, to try to say what Chelsea Byrd couldn’t say.
“Even though it’s a relief to have a name for it, I think we all know that having learning differences isn’t easy,” I said. “I’m always aware that school is hard for me, that reading is hard for me, and that I’m not like everyone else. One of the most difficult things I can ever do is to stand in front of people and read out loud. The words jump around on the page. Any little sound or sight distracts me. I lose my place and can’t find it. And then I feel so embarrassed I just want to find a cave and hide in it like a big grizzly bear.”
“That’s what just happened to me,” Chelsea said.
“I know it is, Chelsea,” I answered. “I bet it’s happened to all of us in Reading Gym. We all know what it feels like.”
Then I looked right at Nick McKelty.
“One thing I know for sure is that if you really and truly know what it feels like to be embarrassed about yourself, you’d never make someone else feel like that.”
“You’re the man, Hank,” Brandon Clarke piped up, raising his fist in the air.
“The thing about us kids with learning differences is, we’re just like everyone else in most ways,” I said, walking over to Nick so I was standing right in front of him. “We’re smart. We’re funny. We’re nice. We have lots of talents. And we don’t want to feel bad about ourselves just because we need some extra help in school.”
“You tell that dude!” Felipe Aguilar called out.
“Making fun of us is not okay,” I said right to McKelty’s face.
“Go, Hank!” Sloane Wilson called out.
“And making us feel bad about ourselves is not okay!”
“It sure isn’t!” called out her sister Kacey.
“And being rude is not okay.”
“You know it,” shouted Luke Whitman, with both nostrils finger-free.
“And most of all, Nick McKelty, being a bully and picking on people who you think are weak is definitely not okay. Not ever! Am I right, guys?”
Everyone in class jumped up on their feet and started to scream and yell and whistle and applaud.
But I only saw one person, the one who was applauding the loudest. And that was Zoe McKelty.