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Night school was frustrating the hell out of me. I hadn’t been in a regular school since my age was in the single digits. Once I got the role on my old show, I started getting tutored privately since the studio paid for it. During the times that we weren’t filming, I tried to spend as much time as possible just being a normal kid which didn’t really include going to school. When I was fired from the show I could have gone to a real high school, but I had too many issues to work through before I could do that. Being back in school made me realize how far behind I was.
I made sure to take notes on what the teacher said and did all the studying that we were assigned to do. When a person acted for as long I had, it made it easy for me to remember a lot of what was read.
I was in the middle of an English assignment when I felt a rumbling in my stomach. Everyone was reading, so it was pretty quiet in the room. As my stomach started to cramp and hurt even more, I decided to get up to use the restroom. I excused myself and did a speed walk down the hallway towards the bathroom. I was glad that no one was inside because it felt like I needed to let loose.
As I sat there, I thought about what I’d eaten that day and there was nothing I could think of that should have made me feel as bad as it did. That made me nervous. Ever since my father dropped the bomb of his colon cancer, I’d gotten nervous every time I felt the tiniest cramp. I knew that having cancer in your family increased your chances of getting it and that made me want to go to the doctor real soon
A couple of minutes later, I’d finished washing my hands and was heading back to class to finish up what I’d been working on. I stepped out of the bathroom and almost got hit by this guy who was running down the hall. He stopped, and I realized he was all sweaty.
“My bad,” he apologized. “I didn’t see you come out of there.”
“Clearly,’ I said. I looked up at the guy’s face and there was something very familiar about him. “Yo, do I know you from somewhere?”
The guy shook his head. “No, not that I know of,” he replied.
“What’s your name?” I asked. It was one of those moments where I was pretty sure that he and I had crossed paths.
“Leo,” he said, extending a hand for me to shake. I took it briefly before letting it go.
“What’s your last name?” I pressed him. I knew I was coming across as aggressive, but the feeling of knowing him was really nagging at me.
He gave me a strange look and then glanced around to see if anyone else was there. He probably thought I was crazy or something. “Sumpter,” he said. “Leo Sumpter.”
The name was what did it for me. I realized then that I didn’t know the guy who was in front of me. I did know his face because it looked just like someone else’s that I knew, someone that I couldn’t stand. If I was correct, his father Jarred Sumter, was the person who’d replaced me on the show. They’d decided to go a more adult way and replaced my character, the son, with an uncle who was played by Leo’s father. It really was a small world.
Walk By Faith had been a major part of my life for several years. I’d started on the show at a pretty young age and pretty much grew up on it. My TV family became really close to one another, and as a result of that, we’d negotiated some pretty good deals together on the strength that we’d leave if we weren’t given what we wanted in terms of money. I thought that everything was going great.
When things started to go wrong for me, I thought that my TV family would stick by me. Instead, they turned their backs when I was cast out of the show and Jarred was brought in. The writers explained that my character went away to college, and they moved his character in and gave him a new plot and everything. Needless to say, I was hurt. I was talented, and he wasn’t anywhere near as beloved as me.
To run into his son of all people felt like a slap in the face. I knew that he wasn’t his father but that didn’t mean that I had to like him. I couldn’t see him and not associate him with everything that had gone wrong in my life.
“Oh...my bad,” I stammered out. Before he could say anything else, I turned away and made my way back to class upset.