Chapter Five

The lunch room fell silent as he walked through the door. He couldn’t even tell himself he was imagining the reason as he could hear the whispers of the kids at the table next to the milk counter.

“He’s such a show-off.”

“What’d he do?”

“He played some dumb made-up song on his recorder and now Mrs. Clark thinks he’s some kind of music genius.”

“Yeah, it was really weird, man. His fingers were moving so fast I could barely see them.”

And on it went. He went to his usual table, but Matt and Josh didn’t look at him and or talk to him even when he said hi. He ate the macaroni and threw the rest away before going outside.

The day didn’t get any better.

He couldn’t concentrate on what his teacher was saying, and had to sit in the front row as punishment for “daydreaming”.

When he looked out the window he felt like he could hear the branches of the oak tree move in the breeze, even though the window was shut tight. At recess, he heard sad sounds and turned to see one of the third grader’s crying on the other side of the playground. He didn’t get to play tetherball because everyone acted like he wasn’t there.

He climbed into the bus when the day was over, sat down in the third row, pressed his forehead against the window and stared out in silence the whole way home. Even the thrum of the engine and the rhythm of the tires on the highway did not cheer him.