Our Friend Steven

As the seat next to him was about to be assigned, Jeff held his breath and crossed his fingers.

Sister Marie blurted out, "Vinnchenso Minchella." "No, no... not Vinnie Minchella!" Vinnie should have been in the eighth grade, but had been held back twice, failing the fourth grade and the sixth. Vinnie was one of the biggest kids in school and considered one of the toughest. His five foot ten inch, 170 lb. frame topped with greasy, jet black hair combed back in a D.A., sat down in the desk to the side of Jeff. His black leather jacket reflected the florescent lights from the ceiling. Jeff looked at him briefly and said in a low, shaky voice, "Hi, Vinnie." Vinnie did not speak he just gave Jeff a brief, blank stare as if to say, 'Don't talk to me, you worm.' Jeff thought, 'I hope this semester goes by quickly.'

After a few days, things appeared to be settling in. One morning, Sister Marie asked the students to clean the erasers during recess. Each student in the class would smack the small felt erasers together to get the chalk dust out of them. After Sister Marie passed all the erasers out, she began to teach the math lesson. David, who sat a few seats in front of Jeff, patiently waited for sister to write the math problem on the huge chalkboard in front of the room. As soon as Sister Marie faced the chalk board and began to write, David turned around and tossed one of his erasers at Jeff's head, striking him in the forehead. Jeff wiped the chalk from his head and picked up the eraser. As Sister Marie continued to write, Jeff threw it back at his friend David, but the throw was high and the eraser continued on, hitting the nun right in the back of her black veil, leaving a square chalk impression on it. Within a split second, Jeff thought, 'What am I going to do?'

To talk during class was a misdemeanor, to get caught chewing gum was a felony, but to hit Sister with an eraser surely meant a death sentence. Jeff frantically searched his mind to find a way out before sister turned around and looked for blood. As she turned around with her fists clenched and her face as red as could be, Jeff opened his mouth, opened his eyes wide, and looked over at Vinnie Minchella, as if to say "Vinnie did it." Sister caught Jeff's expression and centered on Vinnie. "Mr. Minchella, stand up and come with me out in the hallway!" she yelled. Vinnie could only reply, "Sister, I didn't do it." Vinnie had witnessed the whole scenario of the eraser throwing and he had also seen Jeff looking at him with his 'pointing the finger' expression. Sister Marie then asked Vinnie, "If you did not throw it, then who did?" Vinnie stood mute he had a code of not tattling on another kid, even if that kid had thrown the blame at him. None of the other students said anything, not daring to interfere in Vinnie's decision. As Vinnie walked away with the enraged nun, Jeff thought, 'I'm dead... dead! Vinnie is going to kill me the first chance he gets.' Jeff knew that he would have to face the music, but he thought that taking his lumps would be better than having his parents find out that he caused trouble in the classroom. At recess, Steven and Dave talked about Jeff's predicament and tried to help him find a solution. Jeff told them, "I want to get this over with as soon as possible...