Ring in Mine
Kim Terry
In many ways this is a continuation of the original Ring in Mine story. This continues John's story. It is written in third person. I hope you enjoy getting to know him as much as I did.
Thank you for the emails. I appreciate even a short, "I'm reading your story," goes a long way.
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I want to thank Zachary Kordus for reading over the chapter and suggesting some changes. It reads better with his help.
Kim
Ring in Mine: JJohn Chapter 3
The week before Christmas the teacher asked who would be participating in the school Spelling Bee. Hands went up around the room until John's went up. The rest of the hands went back down. The teacher moved on to other things. After lunch the teacher sent John and Andrew to the office with a note for the principal.
The teacher asked the class while John and Andrew were gone, "Why will no one sign up for the spelling bee?"
The consensus was, `Why spend time learning all the words since John would win anyway.'
"He studies harder than others. Everyone has a chance." The teacher explained.
"Studying has nothing to do with it." One student complained. "When he gets back ask him any word on the list."
When the pair returned the teacher decided to test John on some of the words.
"John would you spell pre-science, knowing something before it takes place."
"It is pronounced as if it has an SH in the middle." John explained and then spelled the word perfectly. The teacher tried a couple more words from the list. John corrected the teacher's pronunciation on only one more of them.
"Show off" was muttered from the back of the class.
There was an accident on the playground during afternoon recess. A baseball hit John in the back of the head sending him for stitches. John was upset more about missing gymnastics than the bald spot on the back of his head. John was out for a couple of days. Andrew brought John's homework home each night. Ruth came home to find the boys at the kitchen table studying with spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove, pasta draining, garlic bread ready for the broiler and green salad.
"I hope it's alright, I invited Andrew's parents for dinner?" John asked. This had been a common occurrence during the summer. Ruth really needed to have a discussion with John before he went back to school, preferably before Mark got home.
"John, I got called into your school today." She paused unsure how to break the news to her son. "John, the other kids won't be in the spelling bee if they let you enter. They feel that why should they try when they already know the winner." Andrew let the cat out of the bag. Ruth was relieved she didn't have to break the news.
"The principal suggested you use the harder secondary word list. If you win they will send you and the second place winner to the district spelling bee."
John enjoyed the challenge of the new word list. He studied when he had the chance. His mom willingly quizzed him on the new list.
John won the school spelling bee, but on the district level, if he was using the secondary list, he needed to compete on that level. Twenty-three secondary students sat on the stage and one sixth grader. John had starting growing like a weed during the year and even though he had gone from nearly the shortest to one of the tallest, he was still small in comparison. Next to the older students John appeared even smaller than he really was. There were four participants left when John finally missed a word. It was the first spelling bee he could remember not winning. He took little solace in the fact that the other three were seniors in high school. He was devastated. His father fed his sadistic side in pointing out his son's failure.
"It looks like you're not so smart after all." Mark taunted as he hit his son on the back of his head.
John wasn't going to give his dad the pleasure of seeing him down. He threw himself into his next challenge, the science fair. There wasn't the same crisis with the science fair. Participation was mandatory. Andrew and John were partners. They spent a lot of their free time on research, experiments and the presentation. They took great efforts to make sure they were both involved in the process.
John and Andrew felt a little cheated as the winners were announced. In their opinions theirs was a step above the rest. Instead of announcing a first, second and third, the judges simply announced the three projects going to the district competition.
At the district competition, the judges spent an excessive amount of time questioning the pair about the science principles behind their project. There were questions about their processes. More questions were asked about the display itself.
A dirty little idea grew in Andrew's consciousness. With the increased grilling and the fact that everyone had to sign a form stating the project must be the product of the student's efforts. `The judges thought they had cheated.' He looked at his project compared to others. Theirs had a slick, commercial look.
"Sir, John did our illustrations. He won two ribbons at the state fair for his art work." Andrew announced out of the blue.
Andrew hoped they had convinced the judges they knew their stuff. When the winners were announced they received an honorable mention. Ruth joined by Andrew's parents made a few inquiries of the district staff.
"There were allegations raised about your sons' projects. The judges felt the winners should be students that completed their projects on their own."
John had told himself that he competed for the joy of a job well done rather than winning. Now that he had tasted losing not because others were better but because of the jealousy of others he wasn't quite sure.
John's behavior in class changed. He looked at the kids in his class differently. Except for Andrew he no longer thought of them as classmates but more as adversaries. His willingness to help others faded. He did just enough to keep his straight A's but nothing more. This freed up more time for his true loves, reading, art, and gymnastics.
The teacher's job became more difficult. She hadn't realized how much John had helped in the class. John never was defiant or disrespectful; he just stopped offering to help. She called John's mom into school.
"I am concerned about the changes I am seeing in John." The teacher started. "Do you know what is going on with him?"
"You really have to ask?" Ruth laughed. "This is as much your fault as anyone's. John was always willing to help and you excluded him from the spelling bee."
The teacher began to respond and Ruth put her hand up.
"Then, unwilling to compete fairly, the students in this class or their parents, accused John of cheating on the science fair, causing him to be passed by." Ruth continued. "Why should he feel part of the team. You are just like his father, John is only valuable when it is convenient for you."
The teacher didn't really have a lot that John needed. He was reading on a college level. Andrew's dad was a mathematician doing statistical analysis for a national firm. He was so far ahead of his son, that Andrew didn't understand a thing his father was saying. John was better at tutoring his friend. Andrew's father was spending his time helping John through his old college algebra books.
The winter faded into spring and with the change of the seasons John faced new challenges, the district art show and the spring gymnastics competition.
My posting for this story is going to be intermittent. It is Medicare Open enrollment. If you would like to be notified when a new chapter is available drop me a line. ringinmine@yahoo.com