ONE

ONE

My name is Tommy Hawkins and I am an African American who lives in Minnesota U.S.A. with my mom and my dad, who are old enough to be my grandparents, or so everyone says.

My mom managed to give birth to me when she was fifty eight and so when people see my parents for the first time, their jaws drop.

I am twelve and go to an amazing school, you know what's so amazing about it? The bullies! They always target me. I used to hate it but never let it show because, no one understands, or cares, now, I'm totally used to it and don't cry myself to sleep every night wishing I was in someone else's body.

My mom was a house wife and my dad was retired, I had no idea where our funding came from since my parents never told me, because my house was too big for the pension pay of a Veteran soldier.

Anyway, to begin with, I ate my breakfast, kissed my mom goodbye then sprinted to the school bus.

On the largely private transport vehicle... largely, everyone looked at me, since I was literally the king of the nerd herd.

The car was moving and I struggled to walk to a seat by Janine but she put her bag on the extra seat and said,"Buzz off weirdo, only popular kids are allowed near me."

"Okay, thanks."I said, concealing my anger.

I looked around and everyone seemed to do the same thing.

I decided to stand. I held one of those hoop thingies at the top of the bus on my tippy toes. There was a lot of cacophony in the bus so I put in my headphones and listened to one of my favourite tunes, the Mario song.

I got to school and rushed to my class.

Mr. Miller, the Science teacher came a little late but he had an evil smile on his face, I did too...Pop quiz.

The papers were handed out and I spun my pencil in my hand then began.

The questions were a sinch and I submitted my paper first, Mr. Miller wasn't surprised as that often happened.

He taught about the celestial bodies in our galaxy and asked more questions than usual.

When the bell rang, I went straight to my locker but was pinned to it by Mitch and his gang.

"Let me guess, you want my money?"

"No, you answered too many questions in class today, you made me look like an idiot."

"You don't actually need me to do that for you two- thirds of the time."

He didn't understand the insult but Freddie, one of his followers did.

"How dare you insult Mitch?!"

"Yeah, how dare you?", Cody, the microscopic microphone said.

"I'm only saying the truth."

"You just got yourself a one way ticket to pound town for insulting me."

I gulped my pride down and would have let out some lemonade if my bladder wasn't freaking out.

I ended up being saved by the bell, literally as it rang and teachers spread across the hall.

"I'll get you later, Pipsqueak." Mitch said.

I ran to the next class, forgetting my books and sat down. I then remembered them and wanted to leave until the P.A. system spoke,"Tommy Hawkins, please move to the Principal's office, immediately."

I was dazed as everyone in the class laughed. The only times I had gone to the Principal's office were to receive awards and commendations, but no exam had been written recently neither had there been any play, so what was the problem?

What the heck had I done?!

Tommy, what have you done wig your life?!

Your parents gave you everything and...you...are... nevermind, it could be something good, like the scholarship I've been working on...in two years time...

I slowly walked through the seemingly endless hallway to the brown, mahogany door of Ms. Anderson's office.

She looked sad and the suspense was killing me…

What did I do wrong?!

She began to speak.

"Tommy, please take a seat."

I sat down on the rotating leather chair which had several indelible traces of gum on it's bottom.

She said,"There has been an incident at your house."

"What incident?"

"...there was a fire and... your parents didn't survive."