23
STRIKE—DAY 5
It was Friday morning when things started to get a little crazy.
Leo called first thing in the morning, while I was eating breakfast (on the couch, of course).
“Go to the Inkblots website.” Inkblots is the name of the high school newspaper.
“Why?” I asked, although I kind of knew. My heart started to pound.
“Just do it,” said Leo.
I leaned over to the computer (Nana had moved it next to the couch for easy access) and found the website. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There was an article about me. And it was HUGE.
Horace Henchell Student Takes a Stand by Taking a Seat
By Marcus Landis
Horace Henchell Middle School student Jack Strong has spent his entire life running from one extracurricular activity to another, and now he has finally decided he has had enough.
“I was just tired of doing all this stuff I didn’t want to do, that my parents were making me do,” said Strong, a seventh grader. “They think I need to do it to get good at everything and look good for college, but I would rather just live like a regular kid and have time for regular kid things like TV, video games, and just hanging around.”
This past Monday, after a long weekend of games and practices and recitals and classes, Strong came home from school and was very tired. When his mom tried to get him to go to soccer practice, Strong said he was too tired to go. Then Jack’s father got involved, tensions escalated, and Jack announced once and for all that he wasn’t going to practice. When Jack’s dad asked him, “Do you want to just sit on the couch for the rest of your life and do nothing?” Jack Strong thought about it for a minute, and then answered, YES.
Which is when Jack Strong went on strike.
He’s been on the couch for five days so far, and he’s decided that he won’t get up from the couch until his parents promise to let him drop a bunch of the activities that he doesn’t want to do.
“It’s not like I’m trying to make a big point or anything,” Strong explains. “And I don’t expect anybody else to do what I’m doing. It’s probably pretty stupid, not going to school and everything. But it’s just something I wanted to do, because I felt strongly about it.”
Jack now spends his days on the couch exercising and watching TV with his grandmother, reading and doing homework, playing video games and hanging out with his dog, Maddie. The only times he gets up from the couch are to get something to eat and to go to the bathroom.
“I’m not going to lie, sometimes it gets a little boring,” said Jack. “But it’s a lot more fun than learning how to say the names of various household appliances in Chinese.”
Jack Strong’s mother and father were unavailable for comment.
I finished the article, and read it again. Then I read it again.
“Leo, are you still there?” I whispered, after the third time.
“Yup.”
I let out a long breath. “Holy moly.”
“I know. Are your parents going to kill you?”
I shook my head, even though Leo couldn’t see me. “My dad is too mad to even talk to me. He’s just ignoring me now and waiting for me to get bored and give up. And my mom is making up for my dad being a jerk by being extra nice.”
That was true. I’d realized that some part of her was tired of my dad making me do all these activities. And besides, she always reacted to Dad being mad at me by being even nicer than usual. The last couple of days she’d even made all my favorite meals and picked up my homework from school. When I asked her if Dad would be mad at her for doing that, she patted my arm and said, “You just leave that to me.”
So I left it to her.
“Well, I gotta go to school,” said Leo. “I guess I’ll talk to you later?”
“I guess so. Hey did my parents really refuse to comment?”
“Nah. I think he just wrote that because he says that’s what reporters write when they’re too lazy to actually interview somebody.”
“Got it.”
We hung up, and I sat back on the couch and closed my eyes. It was dead silent. Dad was at work, my mom had taken Nana to get her heart medicine, and Maddie was outside trying to catch squirrels—she was 0 for 4,647 so far. I was alone in the house. I was getting used to being alone. I’d been on that couch for five days, and even though Mom and Nana were usually around, I’d never been alone so much in my life. But I had a feeling that was about to change.
I was right.