Knee Deep in the Friend-Zone Chapter 2

Knee Deep in the Friend-Zone Chapter 2

Chapter 2

That April, the spring weather finally came.  We'd had such a freezing cold winter I'd thought I was going to lose a body part every time I went outside.  After walking in sub-freezing temperatures, days in the 60s were a welcome relief.  I didn't even mind walking to school.

I liked school.  I didn't admit it to everyone, but I kind of liked learning about the stuff they were teaching us.  I was in most of the gifted classes, which were considered honors courses, along with Steve and Jenna.

The good thing about being in the gifted classes like math and science was that we didn't have to worry about Kramer.  He wasn't smart enough to get into them.  Besides honors science class, I was also taking Algebra I, which most kids took when they got into high school.  If you were really good in math, the counselors let you sign up for Mrs. Addison's special Algebra I class, which counted as a high school honors math class.
The only class I wasn't too thrilled about was social studies.  Kramer was in that one.
Mr. Travers, our social studies teacher, had been teaching at our school since my older brother, Kenny, had gone here.  He was supposed to retire after Kenny had graduated from middle school, but he was still teaching.

My brothers and sisters had all placed bets that Mr. Travers would die of old age, still standing, holding his pointer in his hand and attempting to outline the boundaries of China.  Kenny said his map had been hanging in his classroom since World War II.
It's not that I didn't like social studies.  It was just that I couldn't get into all the weird customs and traditions Mr. Travers tried to teach us.  In addition to his really old maps, Mr. Travers had a globe on his desk that looked like it had been sitting there since the Dark Ages.

"I've had this globe since the first day I walked into this classroom," he would say, proudly.  The problem was, it looked it!

Mr. Travers gave really hard tests.  Most of the class barely passed, except Steve and Paul, who barely scraped by with an A.  This was one class that even Steve had to study for!  I managed to pull B's, after studying like crazy three nights before each test.

One day Mr. Travers was trying to teach us about China and Mongolia.  Learning about the Great Wall was kind of cool, though I wasn't so keen on getting picked to answer questions, especially when no one else would raise his hand.

It wasn't only embarrassing.  It could be lethal.  Kramer was watching.

"Who can tell us where the Great Wall of China is?" Mr. Travers said, whistling when he talked as usual.  Kenny said it had something to do with his false teeth not fitting him right.  Mr. Travers waited to see if one of us would be crazy enough to raise our hand.  "Anyone?"

No one dared.  Steve sat with one elbow on his desk, resting the side of his face in the palm of his hand, trying to stay awake as Mr. Travers searched for a poor sucker to call on.  Steve gently tapped the pen he held loosely between two fingers against his notebook.  Because Mr. Travers always made the students in his class sit in alphabetical order, Steve was forced to sit in the one place that he couldn't stand--the front row.

Jenna was lucky.  She got to sit in the back. The only problem with that was I couldn't see her.

But if it weren't for Rainy Jackson, I'd have Kramer breathing down my back-literally!
When no one volunteered to humiliate himself, Mr. Travers picked on old reliable--you guessed it.  Rumor had it he liked me.  I didn't know why me and not Paul or Steve.  They were the ones getting A's on his tests.  But Mr. Travers always went for the nice, mild-mannered kids.

At least that meant that Kramer had nothing to worry about.

"Mr. Isaacs, maybe you can tell the class--or better yet, show the class where the Great Wall of China is."  Mr. Travers handed me his pointer.

As if it wasn't bad enough he was picking on me!  Now he was going to make me get up in front of the whole class and try to find some tiny white line on his faded Eighteenth-century map!

Slowly I got up from my desk.  My heart felt like it was being pushed up against my ribs.  When I glanced over at Steve, he raised his eyebrow, smirking from the corner of his mouth.

Finally I made it to the blackboard and Mr. Travers' ancient, crusty map.

"Okay, Mr. Isaacs," he said with that annoying whistling sound, "with a circular motion, show the class the area where the Great Wall can be found on the map."

I motioned the pointer where China and Mongolia's borders met.

"Very good!"

I figured that was my cue to sit back down at my desk, but not a chance!  I wasn't getting off the hook that easily.

"Wait, don't walk away just yet.  Can you tell the class why China built such a Great Wall?"

I could, but I really wasn't looking to stay up there in front of everyone a second longer than I absolutely had to.  I glanced back at Steve, trying to catch his eye so he could bail me out.  He raised his hand.

Mr. Travers called on him.  "Maybe Mr. Bach can enlighten us with his knowledge."
"The Great Wall of China was built to keep the Mongols out...especially the ones wearing army fatigues," Steve said.  The last part was a jab at Kramer, who never wore anything else.  Only a handful of us got it, though.  Unfortunately, Kramer was too stupid to realize he'd been insulted.

"Mr. Bach, you are partially correct," Mr. Travers didn't get the joke either.  "But none of the Mongols wore army fatigues."

Steve lowered his head, trying not to get caught laughing.  Sometimes he was too smart for the eighth grade.

I got to go back to my seat, and, luckily, I wasn't called on again for the rest of the class period.  Kramer shot a spitball at the back of my head.  To get at me, he moved Rainy's head out of the way by grabbing a handful of her long, red hair and pulling it really hard.  Naturally Mr. Travers' back was turned as he drew some stupid chart for us to copy, so he didn't see Kramer forcing Rainy to move.

But Jenna did; she let out a gasp, putting her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound.  Steve heard her, though, and looked over to where Rainy and Kramer were sitting. Between me wiping off the back of my head and Rainy fighting tears and rubbing her own head, it didn't take him long to figure out what had happened.  He started to get really mad.

When social studies class was over, we started to make our way to gym class.  "I swear," Steve said, "I'm going to get even with that guy."  The look on his face worried me.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.  Steve almost never lost his cool, but when he did, you'd better pray he wasn't going to lose it on you.

"You'll see.  I've got a plan."

"I don't think it's a good idea to get him mad."

"Does that mean you're not going to help me?"

"Well..."

"All I know is, someone should beat him up," Jenna said, her face all twisted up in anger.  "That would teach him a lesson."

"Yeah," I said, "but who do we know that could do that?"

"I don't know," Steve said, "but look out.  It's walking this way."

As we stood in front of Rainy's locker, Kramer walked past all four of us.

Rainy was still really shaken up, Jenna could tell by looking at her.  In a moment of temporary insanity, Jenna decided to try to get herself killed.

She walked right up to Kramer.  It was unbelievable!  "Hey, Kramer!" she said.  I'd never seen her act so tough.  "What makes you think you can just pull someone's hair?  Or throw spitballs at them?  Huh?"  She was amazing!

Kramer gave her a look like, I'm going to kill you.  He checked us out, like he was measuring how big his audience was.  "Who's going to stop me?"

Then he did something that got me super mad.  Taking the palm of his hand, he placed it over Jenna's entire face, pushing her head hard against another locker.  He called her a name I won't mention here.  Glancing back over to Steve, he smirked, then walked away, casual as could be.

Jenna was holding her head.  It made me so furious, I wanted to go over there and punch Kramer.  But I was too scared.

Steve looked over at me.  "Now do you want to help me get even?"

"Of course I do."  I just didn't want to pay the consequences if either of us got caught.
"I'll call you tonight with the details," Steve said.

I shouldn't have been surprised by how Kramer had acted.  He hadn't been brought up never to hit girls.  There were rumors around town that Mr. Kramer used to hit Mrs. Kramer in front of their son all the time.  Even when people called the police, Mrs. Kramer would always refuse to press charges, so nothing could be done about it.

Mom said Mrs. Kramer had other issues.  (She'd found out about the Kramers from working at the District Attorney's office.)  Sometimes when Kramer was really little, Mom said, Mrs. Kramer would disappear for days without leaving a note or any explanation.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kramer drank a lot, my mom said.

Anyway, that night Steve called me.  What he had planned was actually more funny than bad.