Eq Renaissance Part 5 (Ed)

   “So,” Cheerilee said, staring out at a sea of young, blank faces.  “Why do you think he decided to call it ‘The Metamorphosis’?”

   She was met with silence.  Some blinked rapidly.  Others cast their gaze down, as if it would prevent them from being called upon.  She really hadn’t expected any more.  It was late in the afternoon.  Her students were tired.  They were bored and only wanted to go home.  Blood sugar was probably low.  There wasn’t really a lot she could expect from them at this hour.

   “Pff,” sneered the snottiest kid in the class.  “It’s because he turns into a giant bug.  Duh!”  Giggles erupted throughout the class.  Her best friend and lackey, the second snottiest kid in class, laughed the loudest.  Cheerilee ignored their rudeness.

   “Does everybody agree with that?” she asked the class.  More silence.  She could hear the second hand of the old clock ticking away behind her.  The way the students were staring at it, she could tell there were only moments left before the bell rang.  She sighed and was ready to give up.  She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.

   “I...,” came a voice from the back.  Cheerilee looked up, a little surprised.   “I don’t think that’s right.”

   It was a voice that Cheerilee had least expected to hear.  It was a voice that hardly spoke up at all anymore.  “Yes, Twist?” she asked.  “Why do you think that?”

   Diamond Tiara rolled her eyes and snapped her gum.  Cheerilee shot her a glance, just daring her to interrupt.  The brat pretended she didn’t notice and kept her mouth shut.

   “Um, well.  I... because...”

   “Go ahead,” Cheerilee encouraged her.

   “Because he’s already a bug when the story has already started.  He doesn’t change at all.  And that’s what it means, to undergo a metamorphosis.”  She struggled a bit with last word.  Her lisp was bad, that was part of the reason she hardly spoke any more.  She had grown very self-conscious as she grew into her teenage years, and it only got worse when she was nervous.

   “So if he doesn’t change, then who does?” Cheerilee asked her.

   “The sister.  She’s the one who changes.  That’s why it has that title.  She turns into a butterfly.”

   “What?” Diamond Tiara laughed.  “No she doesn’t.  Did you even read the book?”

   Cheerilee was just about to tear into that brat when Twist stood up for her own argument.

   “No, no,” Twist said.  “She totally does.  I mean, not literally.  It’s like... um... not something that really happens, but um... it’s symbolic.  Um, a...”

   “A metaphor,” Cheerilee helped her out.

   “Yeah, a metaphor,” Twist said.  “At the beginning, she’s sad and depressed because she has to do everything.  Her brother can’t take care of the family any more.  And her dad’s pretty mean too.  And then her brother dies, and that’s sad.  But afterwards she can leave the house.  She gets a job somewhere else.  She’s happy then.  I mean, it’s not great, but it’s better than it used to be.  I mean, I think he actually calls her a butterfly or something.  Hang on,” Twist had the book on her desk.  She flipped it open to the last page.  “Well, OK. No.  He writes ‘...Grete was the first to get up and stretch out her young body.’  He also says she ‘...was blossoming into a well built and beautiful young lady.’  It’s like she’s a butterfly coming out a cocoon.  That’s what you’re supposed to think when you read that.  That’s the metaphor.  Yeah, you’re supposed to think that it’s about the bug when you first start reading it, but at the end it’s really about the girl.”

   Cheerilee smiled.  “Thank you, Twist.  That’s a very interesting interpretation.” Twist blushed, and looked down at her desk.  Cheerilee shot a glance over at Diamond Tiara, who wasn’t looking very happy at all.  “I think that-” She was interrupted by the bell.

   A classroom full of students sighed in relief, then got up to shuffle their bodies out of the door.  The lesson completely forgotten, Cheerilee raised her voice above the ruckus to remind them all of the homework they had been assigned.  She got grumbles in response.  Maybe half of them would turn it in on time.

   At least half of what remained.  Cheerilee’s class wasn’t what it used to be.  A month ago, it had been filled to the gills, and beyond.  The school district’s answer to budget problems was to stuff as many students as they could into every classroom.  It had been a problem, at least for teachers like Cheerilee, going back for years now.

   It wasn’t a problem anymore.  Her class had been hemorrhaging students.  Two weeks ago there had been over forty.  Now there were under thirty.  She didn’t even need to do roll call.  The mob that was forcing its way out the door was visibly smaller.

   All the missing students had been boys.  When she had found out where they’d gone, she had called in a sub for the afternoon, then immediately marched herself straight down to the recruiting office.  She had barged right in, cutting past the line.  She had pushed her way into the recruiting officer’s office, kicked out the kid he was talking to, and given him hell.  He had listened to her calmly, and then when she was finished he told her to get out or he’d call the police.   Then she really gave him a piece of her mind.  The police showed up.  So did the superintendent.  And the mayor.  She told him that what he was doing was illegal.  That these were kids he was signing up to fight, some as young as fourteen.  She told him he could go to prison for that.  When he told her that they had all sworn they were at least eighteen, then she really got mad.  When she took a swing at him, and he told her he could have her tried for treason, she had to be physically hauled out of the building.

   The cops wouldn’t listen.  Neither would the mayor, or the superintendent.  Nobody cared.  Her boys had gone off to war.  When she got home that night, she got drunk and cried herself to sleep.  Then she got up the next day and went to work, as if nothing had ever happened.  She still had a job to do, no matter how much it broke her heart.

   The last straggler filed past her desk.  Except, when she looked up, they weren’t the last.

   “Twist?” Cheerilee asked.  The girl was still sitting out of her desk, still staring out the window, a blank look on her face as if she were lost in some deep thought, perhaps still thinking of the book.  When she heard Cheerilee’s voice she gave a start and blushed, realizing she was the only student left.  She got up, clutched her books to her chest, and started to leave.  She held her head down as she approached the front of the room.

   “That was an interesting answer you just gave,” Cheerilee walked around to the front of her desk before Twist passed by.

   She stopped.  “Um, thank you.” Twist managed a meek smile.

   “I’m glad you read the whole story.  I think there were a lot of students who never finished it.”

   “I liked it,” Twist said.  “That one and, um, the one about the penal colony.”

   “Is everything alright, Twist?” Cheerilee asked.  She knew perfectly well that not everything was alright.  There was something about the way Twist had been acting, the way she had been carrying herself, the expression on her face.  Cheerilee could read her students like a book.  She knew when they were lying, when they were learning, when they were hungry, when they needed to go to the bathroom, when they were in love and when they were about to erupt into a fight.  It came with the job.  Sometimes she felt as if she were a psychiatrist.  Or, if she were feeling less generous, a zookeeper.  She prided herself on her ability to read between the lines.  She had helped out a lot of students that way, when they needed her the most.

   “Yeah, I’m OK,” Twist lied.  It was quite obvious that she wasn’t; her voice broke when she said it.

   “Twist?  Sweetheart?  I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what the matter is.”

   Twist didn’t respond.  Her lower lip was quivering, and she was looking up at Cheerilee with big dark eyes.  When she closed her eyes, fat tears rolled down both freckled cheeks.  There was a very soft but high-pitched sort of wail rising up in the back of her throat.

   “Oh, Sweetheart, come here,” Cheerilee said.  She wrapped her arms around the girl and hugged her close.  Twist dropped the books on the floor and hugged back.  She buried her face into Cheerilee’s sweater, between her breasts, and started to sob.

   Teachers weren’t supposed to hug students.  The district called that a physical display of affection, and they were strictly forbidden.  There had been too many lawsuits, the district warned.  Too many accusations and too much innuendo.  It just wasn’t worth the risk, the district said, just look at the budget.  To hell with the district, Cheerilee thought.  If the army doesn’t need to follow the rules, why the hell should I?

   Cheerilee waited until Twist was able to speak again, until she wasn’t choking on her own tears.  “What’s the matter, honey?”

   “It’s Snails,” Twist cried.  “He’s joined the army and gone off to fight.”

   Cheerilee did her best not to react to that.  It wasn’t easy.  She herself was so heartbroken at the loss of her students, she hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about how the students left behind must feel.

   “I love him so much,” Twist sniffed.

   Cheerilee rolled her eyes.  Now she fought back the desire to throttle the girl.  Love? She thought to herself.  What do you know about love?  Nothing.  You know nothing about love.  You’re barely a teenager.  You’re not even really in love.  It’s some sort of dumb, childish puppy dog love.  He’s just the first in what’s going to be a long line of boyfriends that will probably stretch through and past college.  How can you possibility think you know anything about love?  Teenagers like you think you know everything about everything, but you don’t know anything.

   Cheerilee said none of this to the girl.  She just hugged her as she cried.  Cheerilee began to reflect.  It’s not that bad, she thought to herself.  She could remember her first boyfriend in school.  She had bawled her eyes out when they had broken up, as if it were the end of the world.  She had ended up with a new boyfriend the next week.  Then again, Cheerilee realized, she had been one of the prettiest girls in class.

   Things were different for Twist.  She was one of Cheerilee’s favorite students, sure, and she was sure that Twist would grow up to be a wonderful woman someday, but...  But Cheerilee knew full well how homely the girl was.  And she knew how hard that must be when you’re so young.  The girl didn’t really have any friends.  When she thought about it, she realized that Snails must really be all the poor thing had in her life.  It was no small wonder that she would miss him so much.  He wasn’t that much of a looker either.  His legs were too long and his ears were too big.  Still, he was awfully sweet to Twist.  Cheerilee had seen them holding hands.  Somehow the couple was cuter than the sum of its parts.

   “He’s going to be OK,” Cheerilee whispered to her, and then immediately wished that she hadn’t.

   “You promise?” Twist whimpered, letting go, and stepping back a little.

   “I... well... listen.”  Cheerilee knew that she couldn’t promise anything of the sort.  “Honey, I promise that I’m going to to do everything that I can to get him and the other boys back safely as soon as possible.  I’ve already had a little chat with that recruiting officer.  And the superintendent.  And the mayor.”

   “Really?  You talked to the mayor?”  Twist managed a smiled.  “Is she going to do something?”

   “I... don’t know if she’s going to do anything or not,” Cheerilee said.  Twist didn’t look encouraged.  “But I’ll tell you what.  If she doesn’t do anything, I won’t stop there.  I’ll talk to the governor.  Or our MP.  I’ll take it straight to Princess Celestia if I have to.  I won’t let her give me no for an answer.”

   Twist actually laughed a little, and wiped away the tears.  “Thank you, Miss Cheerilee,” she said.

   “I’ll get those boys home if its the last thing I do.”

   “I’m sorry, Miss Cheerilee.  I can’t believe I just cried like that.  I’ve been so emotional.  I’m all over the map.”

   “Well, these last few weeks have been a tough time on all of us, Twist.  It must be really hard on a girl your age.”

   “I guess so.”

   “Have you talked to your mom about it?”

   “Umm.  No.  She doesn’t really know I have a boyfriend.”

   “Hmm, well, that’s really something you should probably be talking about with her, don’t you think?”

   “I guess.  Maybe.  That’s not something we really talk about.  Anyway.  Maybe I will.  I guess I should be going now.” Twist started heading to the classroom door after picking up her books, and Cheerilee followed her out.  Her little crisis was over, and the shift in conversation seemed to make her a little uncomfortable.

   “OK, Twist, have a good weekend.  Don’t forget your homework, and I’ll see you on Monday.”

   “Thanks for, um, talking to me.  You’re not like my mom.  You’re cool.”

   “OK, Twist, bye bye,” she waved, and Twist waved and ran off home.  Cheerilee sat back down behind her desk to do her paper work.

   Cheerilee, as a teacher, prided herself on her ability to read her students like a book, and pick up on all the little cues.  It had done an immeasurable amount of good, both for her and her students.  Still, Cheerilee was only human.  Some cues she missed, especially while distracted.  Now, for example, she hadn’t even noticed the way Twist had been brushing her hands across her belly.  Or how her belly was just a little bit rounder than it had been just a few weeks before.