3 Day Three

London Patterson took a deep breath as he walked down the aisle of his fifth-grade classroom. As far as weeks could go, this one was not so bad, considering it was almost over, just three days and a Saturday until his birthday on Sunday.

Just six hours to go until the bell rang a 3:00; that was 360 minutes,21,600 seconds,21,600,000,000 nanoseconds...,London took another deep breath to calm his mind down, going into nanoseconds was just asking for trouble, 360 minutes sounded bad enough but 21,600,000,000 nanoseconds was even worse. Well, at least the weekend was on its way...just another 48 hours...,2,880 min-he shook his head...reminding himself to not even start.

Quickly he took out his math homework from the previous night and double checked his answers. It had been the first time that his uncle/foster father Liam hadn't checked his work, not to make sure the answers were right, but that it was done at all, but some big case had Chief Liam Stevenson running ragged and checking on his nephew's homework was the last thing on his to do list.

Without even a second thought, he quickly answered the questions and wrote Alexander Patterson on the top and pushed it to the corner of his desk.London had been going Alexander since he was six for about three years,Alexander had been another name that his namesake had gone by, and frankly, they just got used to calling him that, as opposed to London, not mention that was his middle name.

It wasn't that he didn't respect his mother's choice of naming him, but that London sounded so boring, and he would rather be named after Alexander the Great, a Roman general... unfortunately for him London didn't bring up any thoughts of a great Roman general.

It was just safer to let everyone think his name was Alexander to avoid even more teasing from the other kids at school, at six years old he went up to his first grade teacher and explained his situation to her. To say she had been surprised by his explanation was an understatement, she was used to typical six year olds, whose biggest problems were remembering their spelling words and finishing their homework in time; she was completely taken aback by Jacob's request and explanation.

With his math homework done, London turned his attention to his reading; each student was required to read at least one book and over the course of three weeks was expected to read at least one chapter of their book a night, at the end of the three weeks,a presentation would be made by each student to explain what their book was about and whether they liked the ending.This day was the halfway mark in the class and at 2:00 they would discuss their book thus far.

Most of his peers were halfway through their chapter books, titles such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Chronicles of Narnia, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, London had even seen Jamar Goldberg reading Where the Red Fern Grows, in an attempt to suck up to the teacher;despite using cliff-notes and trying to find a movie on the book to watch in order to do less work. Everyone but the teacher knew what he was doing and it made London suspect if Jamar was going to succeed,but he was one to talk as he hadn't even finished one chapter of his book, there were two of his choices but they had to be 150 pages or over and it had to be something that they had not read before.

This created a problem for London as there are few books he had not read, so his choices were very limited.In the end, his only hope was to raid the local library in hopes of finding a book to read that sparks his interest. It happened to be Othello by Shakespeare, he had not read this play yet.

But before he could jump for joy he realized what this would put a label on him that he had been trying to avoid, the teacher had made a big deal when Jamar had picked Where the Red Fern Grows, he could only imagine how the teacher would react with this selection. So, he put the book back and choose Maximum Ride a "easier" book for his age group. There was only one person that knew how smart he was had been his foster mother... well he never thought of her as his foster mother, she had been his mother through and through, despite the lack of a blood connected she treated him as her own child,and in his mind that's all she was to him, but his real mother Lisa Kale and she decided to take him home when he was only 48 weeks old and despite all the medical attention that he needed at being four months premature.

She had understood his fear at being labeled as smart, she hadn't liked it and did everything to prove to London that being intelligent was a gift and something to be proud of,but she let him make his own decisions and hoped that he would see it as a gift and not a burden. Closing his eyes, London could picture her appearance and counted on every equation in childcare and knew that she loved like a mother should; they tried to keep things from him and underestimated his intelligence and his determination to figure things out, Lisa hadn't, but she had used all her willpower to make sure he didn't know.She gave up custody of him and asked her friend Alice and her husband Liam Stevenson to take him,she told them to not let London see her wither away in a hospital, dying there within a month.

He never got to say goodbye,he did not get the chance to say anything to her,even standing over her grave,which Alice Stevenson brought him to, London was unable to say anything to her as none of them seemed to be right, especially in that moment.

All London could feel was rage... at her not trusting him, for not letting him be the one to make the decision that mattered the most, he hated Stevenson for following her wishes that he would not see her on her deathbed, but most of all he hated himself for being a kid because no one respected his opinion, no one thought he was old enough or even mature enough to decide how his life should play out,he hated how he allowed himself to be governed by the adults in his life and did not stand up for himself.

Since he moved in with the Stevensons, he became reclusive and didn't talk to anyone more than he had to, he just kept his head down and did what he was told. Hence why he was looking forward to the weekend, two full days of being by himself, at least until Liam told him to come down for family time.

The couple had a child of their own, a son named Jake who was away at college and in her sophomore year at the University of Arizona, where she was studying law and psychology, so she was rarely home.

London liked it when Jake came for break, for one thing, Jake accepted the big brother role with him (something he had done before he had moved with his family and something he only gotten better at with his joining the family) and kept updated on his life through email, he loved hearing about Jake's classes that he was taking and what college was like, but with him home it also meant Alice and Liam were showering him with attention and left London alone all day, they didn't intentionally forget their nephew,but he wasn't complaining.

The coming weekend was one of those weekends; Alice had headed off after dropping Jacob off at school, would take her six hours to get to the airport and they would most likely stay in a hotel for the night before heading back home,Jake would be home for spring break and that meant a week of freedom for London. Free to lock himself in his room and read or draw in his sketchbook,only emerging for school,diner at of for his birthday, which would probably include dinner out,cake at home, and presents from Alice,Liam and Jake.

London stretched in his seat, he had five minutes now until the bell rang, plenty of time to get most of the book read before Ms.Grey came in to start class. But as he stretched,London didn't pay attention to where his feet were going; Kenneth Brown didn't either,as he tripped over London's outstretched leg and hit the floor hard. London's eyes went wide as he scrambled up from his seat.

Kenneth wasn't the biggest kid in class, but he was one of the meanest,London and Kenneth managed to avoid meeting one another since the start the school year of September, but it looked like London's number was finally up.

"Ke...Kenneth I'm sorry man, I wasn't paying any attention." The class had gone from loud chatter to complete silence as they watched the two boys. Quickly, London put his hand down to help the boy to his feet "Are you okay?" Kenneth pushed London's hand away hard as he stood up.

"I'm a lot better than you're going to be in a few seconds punk!" he said grabbing the collar or Jacob's shirt and raising his fist. Instinctively, London scrunched up his face, preparing for the blow,

"Principal!" someone whispered loudly as everyone dove for their seats, knocking chairs over and scrambling for his or her respective seats.

Kenneth gave London one last glare that told London it was far from over and headed over to his seat.

Sighing,London sat down in his chair, fully aware of his close encounter and also fully aware that recess that day was not going to be pretty, not if Kenneth had anything to say about it.

Maybe he could convince Ms. Grey to keep him in for recess; he glanced down at his math homework, complete and answered to earn him at least a 80%.Causing trouble in class was not his best interest, but maybe he could change his answers to make at least 50... that would catch her attention and have her keep him to go over the material. It had worked in first grade to give a chance to relax during recess, instead of running from 3rd graders who decided to bully him and the other 1st graders.

But before he could make a move to do so, the door swung open; standing in the frame was an older woman whom London had never seen before with a no nonsense look on about her and by the book expression. He gulped...it was a substitute,his worst fear come true.

Most times he found out about subs before they appeared in class, it gave him a chance to give them the speech he gave his regular teachers about his name. But he had been completely in the dark about this one; his only hope was that Ms. Grey had written his name down as Alexander in her attendance book as opposed to his legal name.But his hope of not being called by his legal name was flushed down the drain as the sub Ms.Cain called it out, and as the class went on with the lesson he could feel Kenneth's stare burn into the back of his head and knowing that he'll be singled out today during recess he was resolved to speak with the sub about staying in for recess; the bell rang for recess and London waited for his classmates to leave the room before going up to Ms.Cain,

"Um...Ms.Cain?"he said softly,

"Mr.Patterson,the bell for recess has rung, you only have 15 minutes so I suggest that you head outside with your classmates."

"I just wanted to ask you for a favor,"

"Mr.Patterson we are not friends and I am not your mother,I don't do favors for my students."

"It's just that,well my is London,but everyone knows me by Alex or Alexander,it's been that way since first grade,I was kind of hoping to keep London out of the equation."

"Mr.Patterson;Alex or Alexander is in this case at least ...a nickname,your name is written down in the school records as London and thus I will call you Jacob. Now I do not see any mention of the name Alexander on Ms.Grey's attendance sheet, is Jacob not your first name?" He wanted to lie...wanted to so badly to tell her that London was his middle name, maybe save some of his dignity... what was left of it anyways,but he was a horrible liar and Ms.Cain seemed to be able to tell if someone was lying.

"No..."he finally said"no ma'am,"he hadn't meant for it to come out as a no, but being truthful wasn't going to keep him from the teasing that was waiting for him outside and he was so used to denying the name London. Ms.Cain's face narrowed as she gave him a look that froze his insides.

"Mr.Patterson I don't like being lied to,now Ms.Grey may out up with your shenanigans regarding your name but I will not and as long as I'm teaching today you will be riding on thin ice. Now... London, please join your classmates outside and I will make a note to Ms.Grey to inform her of your behavior today."

"Bu..."

"Now Mr.Patterson I will not tell you again."Ms.Cain ordered,pointing at the door,realizing that he had no choice,London made his way to the door.Dreading each step he took and the minute his foot hit the blacktop,the teasing started.

"Soooo"Kenneth's whiney voice came from his right"all this time our little Alex has actually been little London...how cutsie"

London took a deep breath and tried to ignore Kenneth, instead of listening,he filled his mind with math problems, figuring out the exact amount of seconds until the weekend, then till April vacation,and before he knew it,he was figuring out exactly how many seconds until his high school graduation, he would be eighteen, that was about seven years...that would be 61,320 hours...220,752,000 seconds...no was that right? It didn't sound right...he must have missed a carry over in the problem

"So, what were your parents smokin' when they named you huh? I mean it's one thing to be named London if you're a girl but a boy? Man what a sissy! Your parents musta wanted a girl pretty bad,to bad they got stuck with a sissyboy. Bet your mom put you in little pink dresses and heels..."Kenneth's best friend Zack said,but London barely heard him , he was converting 61,320 hours to days...

Then he began to hear the other kids more clearly, he turned his mind towards something stronger than his math skills, his memory skills; he began to reciting Poe's the Raven, over and over in his head,it was his favorite poem and always calmed him down, Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered we-

"Hey London,was your mom some meth head too drugged up to know you were a boy or was trying to London ?Either way, your mom must've been a butt faced loony... what a wacko"

Quickly, London came out of his own world; he turned to Jamar... the kid who mentioned Lisa...

Without thinking twice,London lunged at Jamar and Kenneth sending all three of them to the ground, Zack managed to dodge out of the way, but London didn't care about Zack, it was Jamar who said that about Lisa.

He kicked,punched,and screamed as he attacked the bigger boys, he didn't care how beat he got , he didn't care what would happen to him at all...Jamar had crossed the line talking about Lisa,and London would get in as many as shots as possible before the yard monitor realized what was happening.

Some other kids from their class and a couple from sixth grade classes came over and tried to pull London off of Jamar and Kenneth, but he was kicking so much that every time they got near him, he kicked them.

It took nearly a minute for the yard teachers to finally get to the boys,after pushing through the herd of onlookers.

Mr.Hedgepeth the gym teacher who had been at the kickball field with some third graders, reached London first and lifted him up off of Jamar and Kenneth and held him in the air as he struggled to get back at Kenneth, meanwhile Mrs.Napier a 6th grade teacher and Mr.Rodriguez the other fifth grade teacher helped Jamar and Kenneth to their feet.

Jamar was covered in blood,but it wasn't his own,it was London's ,Kenneth had managed to hit London right in the nose before the smaller boy started the kicking;Kenneth himself had tear in one eye, because the other one was beginning to swell shut.

"What is going on here?" Mr.Rodriguez yelled looking directly at London,Mr. Hedgepeth lowered London to ground so he could talk, but he had nothing to say, he wiped his bleeding nose on his arm and sniffled back his tears"well?"

London took a deep breath, he looked at the three teachers, then his classmates,Jessica was staring at him, as if she was frightened of her friend, London then glanced at the gate just down the playground,without even thinking about it...he took off running.

The teachers were so surprised that it took them a second or two to give chase,London didn't where he was running to, but he knew he was not staying at school. He hit the gate and threw it open, and took off down the street, Mr. Hedgepeth almost caught him, but the gate he slammed into bounced back and hit Mr. Hedgepeth square in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, by the time he recovered his breath, London had disappeared down the street, leaving everyone on the playground stunned, and leaving the teachers to rush into the school to get some extra help. Mr.Hedgepeth had a feeling where London would go and while the other faculty members were frantic,Mr. Hedgepeth, a long time friend of Liam Stevenson, called his friend, hoping that Liam would have a better idea of where London might be headed to.