Troy in Motion

Troy slid into his seat in the middle of the second row, his chair tipped sideways, nearly falling over, but settling on all four legs as the tardy bell faded away. Mrs. B raised one eyebrow at him and started roll call.

“Peter Emory”

“Here”

“Angeline Emory”

“Here”

“Eric Getty”

“Here.”

Ripples of stifled giggles went through the classroom. Mrs. B looked up from her ledger, the giggles and grins were coming from the area behind Troy.

“Troy”

“Here.”

“We know you are here, what we don’t know is why everyone behind you is laughing.”

“I wouldn’t know, ma’am.”

Mrs. B walked towards him between the rows of desks. Troy turned his head to face her and more students behind him snickered. Mrs. B looked past Troy out of the window and put a look of surprise on her face and pointed “what is that?” Most of the students including Troy turned to look out the window. Mrs. B bit the inside of her mouth in an effort to keep from laughing. Troy had a paper plate mask on the back of his head. It had grass taped across the top for hair, one green eye made with a lot of crayon, the other eye was a hole with a black curl sticking through it, a purple button for a nose and the month was an oblong slit outlined with blue marker and pointed sticks glued on each side of it. “Troy.”

Troy turned back to face his teacher, his eyes wide, a small impish grin dancing on his lips. “Yes”

“Troy Zimmer, take that mask off your head, and give it to me.”

“Yes, ma’am,” He pulled the elastic strings from around his ears and handed over the mask. “Can I have it back, it’s my art project in the afterschool program.”

Several children laughed, “The afterschool program from the summer, maybe.” someone said.

“It rests in my desk drawer until the end of day. Everyone, clear your desks, take out a blank sheet of paper, a pencil and your dictionary.” As soon as the shuffling subsided Mrs. B stated “for attendance today we are defining Decorum.” She turned and wrote DECORUM in large letters on the large grease board on the wall at the front of the classroom.

There were a few groans and a “Way to go Troy” from the children.

“Name in the upper right hand corner, copy the definition from the dictionary, and write a sentence properly using the word decorum.”

The classroom quieted, the only sounds were the flipping of pages and scratching of pencils, and a pencil hitting the floor. Troy leaned over farther than necessary to grab his wayward utensil, he rolled it towards his chair with first one finger then the next, raising himself up slowly as the pencil got closer to his chair. He thought about rolling it under his chair but a look from Mrs. B made him change his mind. He found the word quickly and sat up straight tapping first one foot then the other, swaying back and forth, careful to stay in the center of his seat, he copied the definition and then wrote. “Decorum is weird.”

Mrs. B looked up from organizing the upcoming math lesson and saw several of the children sitting quietly, some with their hands in their laps others slouching and playing with their pencils, a couple were still writing, Troy however was leaning back in his chair balancing his pencil on his upper lip.

“Pass your papers to the right, I’ll collect them at the end of the rows, then get out your math books.”

Troy grabbed the papers being handed to him from his left and dramatically shuffled his into the stack and with a flourish he handed them to his right. “Here you go, Angeline.”

“Please call me Angie.”

“OK, Angel” Angeline groaned but hid a smile. “You really should learn how to behave.”

Troy opened his mouth to reply but Mrs. B cut in “No talking, Please open your math books to page 5, this week we are going to review what you learned in third grade and next week we will start on what you need to learn in fourth grade.” Mrs B paused and looked over at Troy, Troy stopped twisting in his chair and looked back. “Let's play a game first. Count off for groups let’s see, 1-5. Start with George and go back then up, George one, Angie two. . “ The children counted off Troy nearly jumped out of his seat when he yelled “four”.

The first bell sounded for lunch. “Put your books away and line up at the door.”

“Do you want us alphabetically?” Angeline ask.

“Yes, Troy last” put in George

“Alphabetically, according to Height” Troy sang out.

Mrs. B shook her head, “Let’s march to lunch today. Back straight, shoulders back, arms at your sides, mouths shut and eyes open.” When the second bell rang the line of fourth graders marched into the hall towards the cafeteria, in more or less a straight line.

3:16 pm the dismissal bell rang and the children scrambled to grab their backpacks and get out the door. Troy moved slowly gathering his things and walked up to the teacher’s desk. “Can I have my mask back now?”

Mrs. B took the mask out of her desk drawer and held it out, but didn’t release it. “Troy you are very kinetic, we need to work on you not being a distraction to the other children. How do you think we can do that?”

Troy looked her square in the face and said. “I do my best ma’am but it's like I have a bag of balls inside and they are always bouncing.”

“I know you are not a bad kid and you are trying, I can see the effort on your face and in your eyes. However, you do enjoy making the other kids laugh don’t you?” Mrs. B smiled slightly

Troy grinned, “I do Mrs. B. It helps whatever it is inside.” Troy suddenly frowned, “You aren’t going to try to make me take medication to sit still are you? They tried that at my last school and I was like the walking dead, I wasn’t me, Please.”

“I am not going to try to get you on medication, but there is a new Martial arts class as part of the afterschool program this year, here is the information to show your mom.” Mrs. B let go of the mask and took a piece of paper off the desk and handed it to him. Troy put the mask on the top of his head and took the paper.

“What’s Martial arts?”

“It is a system or group of systems in which a person focuses his or her energy to a specific task, such as jumping, kicking and eventually throwing other people on the ground. We will start with moves and focus before we start throwing people though”

“We?” his eyes scanned the paper, his eyes going wide “you’re the teacher?!”

“Yes, I am, and I think you will do well.”

“How do you know?”

“I know it’s tough being a little boy always in motion, I was a little girl always in motion. I am still in motion. If you watch me closely you will see that some part of me is always moving. Martial arts is one way to help focus that kinetic energy and learn to keep yourself under control.”

“Kinetic means motion doesn’t it.”

“Yes it does, will I see you Thursday? I can call your mom if you have trouble convincing her.”

“I don’t think she will mind, I just want to keep art too.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.” Troy waved the paper as he ran out of the room, then skidded to a fast walk. “See you tomorrow.”