The Princess of Room 23

One long, long blistering summer, a boy drowning in failure meets a girl who says almost nothing, yet leaves behind everything.

The city bus came to a complete stop with it’s sudden hiss and squeaks of the opening doors. I got up from the hard, plastic seat, slung my backpack over my right shoulder and headed out into the hot July sun. Summer school was waiting for me.

The last semester had been extra hard for me. I had failed algebra and in order to move forward, I had to attend summer school in the city.

I remembered looking at the final report card for that year filled with barely passing grades and one glaring F, all lined up in a jury box about to deliver a guilty verdict.

My mom saw that and threw a fit.

“An F in Algebra?! Why are you doing this to me?”, she screamed, her voice rattling me solar plexus.

“Don’t you know that if you’re father’s family ever saw that, they would call me ‘’unfit’!?!

I sank into the dilapadated couch, its arms worn with age. I looked down at the wooden floor, not daring to meet her gaze.

“ This is JUST the ammunition they need to take me to court and say that I’m an unfit mother who was raisingbs failing son and that custody would have to be given to your uncle!! Is that what you want?!?”

Sinking even deeper, I spoke barely above a whisper. …”ummmm.. no.”

“Then why do you keep on failing?!?”

“I don’t know…” I managed to squeak out, wishing I was anyplace else but there and wishing I was anyone else but me. Anyone else.

After her storm had passed, she arranged for me to attend a summer session downtown. I had no choice but to take the chance. It was my duty to protect my mother.

So, that’s how I found myself at the bus stop, making my way to 8th ave and found the school. That’s when my jaw dropped. Unlike my own high school with it’s yellow brick construction and mutliple connecting hallways, this place literally looked like a medieval castle, complete with turrets on either side.

I couldn’t believe it.

A castle in the middle of a bustling metropolis? I was only here for algebra but it made me wonder what else they would teach.

I climbed the stone steps, while the traffic whisked by, and jackhammers and bulldozers continued punching holes in the pavement.

As soon as I entered and the door shut behind me with a slam, I could immediatley feel the silence while a very stern looking woman glanced up, giving me a cold look.

I gulped and approached her and tried to speak, but that glare she was giving me felt like a vice grip.

“Ummm….ummmm..” I burbled as I retrieved the summer school sheet.

She took the sheet from my hands and peered at it through her horn rimmed glasses, scrutinizing every detail. Then without moving her head, she glared at me again and spoke in a crisp and low voice

“Down the stairs on your left. Room 23.”

Trembling slightly, I nodded my thanks and headed downstairs into the unknown.

**********

When I got to room 23, I had already met most of the other students in the class along with the teacher as well.

He was an easy going guy, so that put my own nerves at ease a little, especially after dealing with the lady upstairs.

Everything was fine and I thought I would actually enjoy the class for a change..but then……a princess entered the room. Her eyes, large and round, seeing everything, yet revealing nothing took in the room with one glance.

I watched her intently, wondering who she could be. Her small frame barely took up any space in the room, yet she was also larger than life. How could such a delicate flower, a royal, be here amongst us common folk who had failed and were forced into a remedial class?

“Mr. Smith?”

I turned back to the front and saw the teacher looking at me, frowning slightly.

“Are you okay? You’re breathing heavy”

I cleared my throat and tried to not let the embarrasment show as my face had turned as red as a tomato…and I was breathing pretty heavily.

“Oh, its okay, sir.,” I said, speaking through the wheezes. “It’s just my asthma acting up. Summer time, you know. I’ll be okay in a bit”

The teacher’s face cleared as he nodded his head and continued the lesson.

“Nice save”, I thought to myself. “She is totally and completely out of your league. You could be a knight in shining armor and you would still be out of her league.”

I sighed, knowing that my inner critic was probably right. As if to make that point even clearer, the girl was asked to come to the blackboard and write out an equation to solve the problem displayed.

I watched as her slender fingers danced over the board with the chalk, her mind completely focused. We all thought she would be done quickly, but those lines of equations just kept coming.

The teacher turned to us and said “that looks hard!”

By the time she was done, all of us were in awe. We had no idea what she had done, but the answer was correct anyway. Some of us speculated that she must be a genius.

“Okay,” I thought to myself. “Not just princess but high priestess as well?”

“Yeah man!”, my internal critic mused. “You see my point? Yeah, she is light years ahead of everyone in this room, including the teacher. Completely out of your league”

I looked down at my desk and at the algebra book in front of me, trying to ignore the aching in my stomach and I tried to concentrate on the task.

Every once in a while, though, she would pass by my desk and I would feel myself trembling, trying desparately to find the will to speak directly to her.

I never found the will. She was the princess and the high priestess of the class even though she barely said a word.

**********

About a month later, I went back to room 23 for the second summer session and she was not there.

There were some new faces in class but hers was gone.

After the class ended that day, I lingered a bit longer to ask the teacher what had happened.

“Oh, yeah. She was only here for that first session.”

“Oh,” I said, nodding my head.

“Yeah, she was something, wasn’t she?”

“Yes she was”, I said. I thanked him as I turned to leave to catch the bus.

On the long bus ride back, I still felt that ache, but I also smiled to myself thinking that perhaps this princess/high priestess was still doing her duty by spreading her quiet wisdom elsewhere.

I smiled at that imagery as I repositioned myself on the hard, plastic seat.

By the end of the second session, I had passed with the class with a B or something like it.

I never saw the princess/priestess again, but, her quiet influence still lingers admidst the chaos