Stephanie
Anderson was excited when she walked into Mrs. Meyer’s second grade class on
Tuesday morning. It was American Idols day in class; a day to celebrate the
people that the class held as heroes. There were some restrictions: your hero
had to be someone famous, either a celebrity or a historical figure. This meant
that Stephanie couldn’t go as her grandma, which is what she really wanted to
do. She had a great idea, though, and she couldn’t wait to show off her hero
for the class. They also had to come in dressed as their hero, and they had to
give a short presentation.
That
morning, her mom helped her with her costume, which they had picked out over
the weekend at the local Goodwill. For her presentation, she would get up in
front of the class and give a speech. Not one that she had made up herself, but
one that came from her American hero. She knew that she wouldn’t have time to
give the entire speech, but she wanted to give enough of the speech so that the
class knew who her hero was.
When
she entered the classroom, no one noticed her. The seating arrangement was set
up in reverse alphabetical order by last name, so Stephanie was seated toward
the rear of the class close to the door. She didn’t really want to be noticed
though, not now. She wanted to make her grand entrance at the podium when she
went up to give her speech.
Her
main concern now was making sure that no one else had picked the same hero that
she had chosen. She scanned the classroom, looking around at the students that
had arrived in class before she had. There was a buzz of excitement around the
room as the students showed off their costumes to each other. It looked like
almost everyone had already arrived in class, and they were dressed in a colorful
array of costumes.
Brenda
Mackey wore a one piece with a winking teddy bear on the front. The teddy bear
had its tongue sticking out, and the ears were where Brenda’s breasts would be
if she were old enough to have any. On her hand, she had a foam finger that she
kept making suggestive motions with that she had seen on TV, motions that she
wasn’t quite old enough to discern what they meant. She was grinding on her
brother Tyson who was dressed in a black and white striped suit. They were
showing Marcus Redford the dance moves they had been practicing for their joint
presentation.
Marcus
leaned against a desk as he watched Tyson and Brenda dance, nodding his head as
if listening to music they were performing. For his idol, Marcus had to have
his face done up with make-up to lighten his black complexion. He wore a blond
Halloween wig that flowed past his shoulders, and a dress made out of pink and
red fabric sown together to look like slabs of meat. As Tyson and Brenda
finished their dance, Marcus started singing, “I’m on the right track, baby/ I
was born this way.”
Stephanie
saw Jeremy Spencer across the room. He had his hair styled into a modified
pompadour with a considerable amount of gel and hair products. His skin was
covered in an uneven and dark fake tanning spray. He carried around a Fisher
Price Turntable that he sat on a desk and acted like he was a DJ in a nightclub
getting the attention of some of the other students. Jeremy started pumping his
fist in the air, shouting, “GTL! GTL! GTL!”
Mrs. Meyer laughed
at the display from her desk at the front of the classroom and asked Jeremy,
“What does GTL stand for?”
“Gym Tan Laundry,”
Jeremy said in an unconvincing Jersey accent. “Maybe you should try it out,
Mrs. M.” The teacher laughed as the rest of the class went back to cheering him
on.
There were a lot
of different costumes among the class, and some were repeated, but no one
seemed to have thought of wearing the same costume as Stephanie. While everyone
was showing off their costumes, she opened up her backpack and pulled out a
piece of paper. On the paper was her speech. She didn’t want to forget it and
make her hero look bad, so she studied until Mrs. Meyer called the class to
order.
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