Chapter 101: Swalloed Pride

"Finally", thought Jeffrey the class never seemed to end. Mr. Co didn't keep a clock in his room so there was this joke that time ceased to exist in his class.

Some kids actually had wrist watches, mostly the smart kids who focused on time for taking tests. For the most part though having a wrist watch was a piece of fashion most middle school students felt to troublesome.

*bzzt*

As soon as the bell rang, Jeffrey ran out of the classroom. Some of his classmates started crinkling paper balls. A Mr. Co class tradition they called it.

See the thing was everyone knew of Mr. Co's reputation in school as a stern teacher. The shared struggle of the class made his students excel in the subject, so there was no chance he was ever getting fired. The only way he was leaving is if he got poached by another school.

The other thing was that Mr. Co had a very close relationship with the school principal. The details were unclear, but the school rumor was that they were lovers.

Anyway back to Jeffrey, as he ran down the steps as per class tradition the top scorer of the class gave the command.

"Throw!", Samantha Watts yelled

Soon after various projectiles of paper airplanes, crumpled balls, football triangles were launched into the air.

Jeffrey pretended that he had been mortally wounded enacting the scene of the Dying Gaul, some sort of Italian gladiator or Frankish soldier killed by his classmates.

There was this long standing agreement that whenever something bad happened they'd tar and feather the poor kid making the class endure Mr. Co's punishments. They suspected Mr. Co was probably from the military, but in reality he was just a strict teacher and that was his teaching style.

Jeffrey often had a reputation for making trouble, constantly spacing out. Seeing that ostracizing him for a week didn't work, he spend so much time in his own head. They finally got him to agree to their little play.

Jeffrey enjoyed it as well, a little bit of it was just the attention he received from his classmates. However, it was also just the fact that it was fun. If you were a kid in Mr. Co's class you'd want to do something special like that as well. But few were as organized or as smart as Samantha to do so.

It all started back in January, during the theater and band kid concert.

Lion costumes, witches cauldrons, an oak wardrobe was placed on the auditorium stage.

various flyers posted around the school, "School Theater & Play. Refreshments provided"

Jeffrey had been elected as the poor band kid sacrifice of being the tinman. The theater kids had a few extra costumes and roles to fill

Originally Gavin was the person the class had agreed upon, but with a coup by Steven and Matthew that vote was overturned.

Other band kids were dragged as well, being parent ushers. Miguel and John were handpicked by the band teacher herself.

Samantha was well aware of the ill-will and bad feelings toward Jeffrey accumulating in Mr. Co's class. They'd already had to suffer 2 pop quizzes after winter break. There were other kids that got distracted, but none as much as Jeffrey did.

They tried passing notes, tapping him on the shoulder, Jeffrey was like a stone buddha immovable and set in his ways. He didn't even talk that much in class either.

There were class clowns, silent kids, weird kids, but Jeffrey... well he was just Jeffrey.

Samantha talked to Aleena who then talked to him.

"Hey Jeffrey", Aleena talked to him. They were band seatmates, she was 5th chair saxophone and he was the 4th chair saxophone player. There were a total of 7 saxophone players in their section.

"What's up?", Jeffrey asked back adjusting the ligature on his mouthpiece. He tightened two of the screws and licked the reed.

Jeffrey blew into his sax and got a noise that he was satisfied with.

Aleena looked at him tilting her head to the side to show that she was serious.

"Samantha told me that you need to come up with a class punishment, before Mr. Co's class comes up with one for you", Aleena passed on her message.

Jeffrey looked seemingly unphased, "Oh, ok."

Jeffrey continued to play some simple warm-up scales.

Aleena looked a little upset and worried for her section neighbor.

"They already asked some of the band kids to nominate you for the play. That's the reason why you're going to have to perform", Aleena mentioned.

Jeffrey paused playing for a moment and looked at Aleena, "Thanks for the heads up. I'll think of something"

As soon as he finished, their band teacher Mrs. Browne had them start practicing. During practice however, Jeffrey seemed to squeak a little more than usual on his instrument and his notes were a little sloppy.

After a few restarts, the whole class made it through their daily practice and worked on some of their parts for the upcoming school play. Trombone section Travis and the Precussion Joey were given solos as well. Katherine with the tuba and Vivian on the french horn helped to compose their solos.

Eventually after a less than satisfactory practice day, band class was finally over. School was out and everyone started to pack up their intstruments.

As soon as class was over, Jeffrey headed to Mr. Co's classroom to brainstorm some ideas. Hopefully, Mr. Co was still in his classroom.