Nicholas Nettle's Curious Trip to Nowhere - An Original Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure - Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The first two classes of the day had gone by rather quickly and Nicholas took his seat, ready to begin the third, which just happened to be his favorite.

Mr. Adams, the science teacher, stood up and adjusted his glasses as he looked over his lesson plan. “Okay… I trust that all of you read over chapter five last night like you were suppose to, so let’s go ahead and get started,” he said. “Can anyone tell me what Newton’s third law of motion is?”

Nicholas’s hand shot up quickly. He looked around and noticed his was the only hand in the air, which caused him to lower it just a bit.

Mr. Adams scanned the room slowly. “Anyone besides Nicholas for a change?… Anyone at all… Newton’s third law?” He continued to wait for a brief moment, hoping that today might be the day that someone else would actually participate in his class. He quickly realized that this was not going to be that day. “Alright, very well… Nicholas?”

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” he answered as he lowered his hand.

“Very good, Nicholas. Now can anyone else perhaps explain what that means in a little more detail?”

Again Mr. Adams waited for someone other than Nicholas to offer an answer. He was once again treated to a room full of blank stares from a class full of less than enthusiastic sixth graders. Nicholas slowly, sheepishly raised his hand since no one else seemed particularly interested in doing so.

Mr. Adams sighed. “Go ahead, Nicholas.”

Nicholas lowered his hand and proceeded to give a very long and thorough explanation of Newton’s third law, using an example of fish swimming through water that had just popped into his mind. He was actually feeling a little proud of himself for a brief moment for coming up with such a terrific example . That brief moment was brought to an abrupt end by something very pointy jabbing into his back.

Now one might think that the sharp pain of something very pointy suddenly sticking into his back would have made him jump or, at the very least, take pause, but the fact of the matter was that Nicholas knew exactly what this was and was honestly half expecting it. You see, Nelson sat behind him in science class and one of his very favorite pastimes was in fact poking very pointy objects into Nicholas’s back. Never enough to break the skin mind you, but nevertheless quite painful and irritating.

Nicholas had decided a long time ago to not even give Nelson the satisfaction of a reaction, so he once again simply ignored the pain and finished with his answer.

“Excellent job as usual, Mr. Nettle,” said Mr. Adams, who then went about teaching the day’s lesson.

Nelson leaned forward and whispered into Nicholas’s ear. “Doesn’t matter if you’re the teacher’s little pet, you’re still a loser, Nettle.” He then thumped the back of Nicholas’s head with his finger.

Nicholas flinched slightly, then leaned forward and out of Nelson’s reach. He remained in this position until the end of the class, doing his best to ignore the bully sitting behind.

After class, Nicholas made his way to his locker in order to put his books away and grab his lunch. He was looking forward to seeing Emma since they hadn’t spoken since homeroom. He was also glad to be away from his tormentor who he didn’t have any more classes with the rest of the day, which he hoped would make the rest of his day a bit more pleasant. Unfortunately, his optimism didn’t last long.

As he turned around with brown paper bag in hand, there was Nelson, towering over him like an angry skyscraper.

“Got anything good today, Nettle?” he said as he snatched Nicholas’s lunch from his hands.

“Hey! Come on, Nelson… just give it back.”

“I will, I will. Just as soon as I see what ya got.”

Nicholas stood there and watched helplessly as Nelson went through his bag like a stray dog scrounging for food in a trash can. It didn’t help that he smelled a bit like a stray dog as well.

Nicholas looked around nervously, partly hoping that no one would notice what was going on and partly wishing that someone would come to his aid. Plenty of kids walked by and ignored the situation completely. Even worse, a few of them were pointing and laughing from across the hallway.

“Oh, what do we have here?” Nelson said as he pulled out a plastic bag with two large chocolate chip cookies inside. “These look pretty good.”

“Come on Nelson, my mom just made those. I haven’t even had one yet,” Nicholas pleaded as he jumped up and tried to grab the bag from Nelson’s hand, which was now raised high above his head.

Realizing that his efforts to retrieve the cookies by any sort of physical means was completely pointless, Nicholas decided to instead go with a diplomatic approach.

“Listen. How about just this once, we split it. You can have one and let me keep one. They’re really big cookies.”

Nelson held his hand to his chin as if he was actually considering this offer. “Hey, I’ve got an even better idea,” he replied. “How about I take both of ‘em and let you keep all your teeth?” He then let out what could only be described as quite possibly the most irritating laugh ever; the one he always let out when he thought he had said something clever. It sounded a bit like a mixture of fingernails scraping across a chalkboard and a goat with a very severe chest cold.

“Fine. Just take them. Just let me go to lunch.” Nicholas said.

Nelson shoved him one last time and tossed the rest of his lunch at him before walking away with cookies in hand. He raised the bag over his head as he walked away. “Thanks for dessert, Nettle!”

After picking up what was left of his lunch, Nicholas regained his composure and headed to the cafeteria. As he entered, he spotted Emma sitting at the end of their usual table. He took a deep breath before walking over and quietly sat across from her, hoping she wouldn’t notice anything was wrong.

“Hey, where ya been?” she asked. “Lunch started ten minutes ago.”

“Oh… um… I was just having a problem with my locker,” he said without making eye contact. He began to unpack his brown paper bag. He always unpacked everything and arranged it neatly before eating. He pulled out a ham sandwich and placed it directly in front of himself, then a small bag of carrot sticks, placing them to the right, and finally a pouch full of juice.

Emma smiled as she watched him peel the little straw from the back, stab it into the tiny circle and then move the drink to it’s “proper” location. His little routine always made her giggle just a bit, but she usually kept it to herself. She was already finished with her sandwich and was eating some grapes from a small container. “That’s all you’ve got?” she asked. “No dessert?”

“Yeah… I um… I guess mom forgot again,” Nicholas replied.

“Your mom sure does forget to pack your dessert a lot,” Emma said. “Hmm… maybe she just doesn’t want you to get fat.”

Nicholas faked a smile and a little laugh. “Yeah… that must be it.”

Emma closed her container of grapes, deciding to save them for something later. She reached into her bag and removed a rather large piece of chocolate cake. Using a plastic fork, she did her best to cut it right down the middle before sliding one of the halves across the table in front of Nicholas. “Here ya go.”

Nicholas looked up from his sandwich. “It’s fine, you don’t have to —”

“Oh just shut up and take it,” Emma said. “I can’t eat it all anyway.”

Nicholas smiled again; this time he didn’t have to fake it.