Certifiable Brilliance

For many other students at Crestpoint Academy, it was just another typical Monday morning full of redundancy and bore. But for 10 year-old Norman Everett, as he stepped through those large steel doors amongst a crowd of his (now very tall) peers, this marked a period of novelty and triumph. For as fast as his little heart was beating, it seemed his feet were moving even faster in order to keep from getting hip checked or trampled by his giant co-eds. 

As it was discussed with his dear mother and former guidance counselor of Kinsley Elementary, Norman understood the challenges he may face as a much younger attendee of his new school for bright young individuals like himself. However, Norman's mother always knew his great potential, and so Norman was 

encouraged of course to pursue a more suitable curriculum for his highly unique brilliance. Simply put, his teachers could no longer accommodate him to the standard of learning he deserved. 

So Norman quickly brushes his dark hair out of his eyes, clutches his new textbooks tightly, takes a deep inhale, and marches toward his classroom with ambitious vigor. He scans the room for a vacant seat, spotting a couple in the third row nearest the window. He then scampers to the desk and quickly offloads his heavy satchel of books. Taking a deep breath, Norman sits eagerly with his tiny hands folded on the desk before him. His new teacher then 

enters the room and announces her presence without haste, and instructs her students to open to page 648. Norman thumbs through rapidly and follows along.

When suddenly, the classroom door flings wide open and a quirky little redhead with glasses shuffles quickly into the room with wide eyes and a bashful grin. With her frizzy mess of red hair, she lets out a deep sigh as she sits down in the empty chair next to Norman.

"Virginia, you're late!" the teacher remarks. The girl blushes and looks down, then nods apologetically. "Sorry, Mrs. West," she says softly.

Some of the other students start laughing quietly and cover their mouths as they whisper. "Now as I said before, page 648 everyone.." The class resumes and Norman is pleasantly surprised that he can follow quite easily. Maybe High School won't be so bad after all. The class is dismissed and he continues on with confidence to a couple more scheduled classes that he quite thoroughly enjoyed.

Then, Norman makes his way to the cafeteria. Finally! With no snack time, his stomach had begun to rumble wildly. Norman made his way through the lunch line, observing foods he was less than accustomed to seeing at his old school. Chicken Florentine? Beef tips burgundy? He wandered through to the tables and peered

out to find a suitable place to sit. Before he was forced to choose a random seat, his eyes stopped on a table of two girls smiling and waving for him to come sit down. The girl with dark, silky hair pulled out a chair for Norman to sit. "Oh my goodness!" she squealed. "You are just too adorable! Sheena, you said he was young, but I didn't think he'd be so tiny and cute," Mei said with a grin from ear to ear.

"Yeah, my dad said he's some sort of child genius or something," Sheena replied.

"Well, you are going to LOVE it here!" Mei said excitedly. 

Norman blushed and smiled sheepishly. He began eating his lunch, when a sudden loud chime of silverware rang out as it hit the floor. Norman turned and looked in curiosity.

Shrouded in her mess of wild hair, Virginia was standing above the disarray. Her sweater was snagged on the rail next to canisters of cutlery, a litter of forks lying everywhere surrounding her. She struggled to untangle her clothing from the crack between the countertop it was caught in.

A tall young boy was waiting in the line behind her. "Come on Ginny, you're holding us all up here! We're hungry. Get moving!" Virginia turned bright red and delicately tried to retrieve her sweater. "I swear, if I'm late to class because of you.." The boy was obviously annoyed, as he rolled his eyes. The group of young athletes start jesting and mocking her as she tries to flee, flustered.

Norman's heart sinks as he desperately wants to spring to her aid, yet he's fearful of getting caught in the crosshairs of the freakishly tall and muscular young men.

"What is she doing?" Sheena scoffs.

One of the boys then starts snorting as if he's going to hock a loogie. "Get goin, Virginia. What are you a moron? You're so freaking clumsy." Tears start to well in young Ginny's eyes. "Hold on, please. I'm sorry. Let me just see if I can.." she squeaks the words quiet as a mouse.

"What are you saying?" Another young man asks loudly as he laughs. 

Out of nowhere, Ginny feels a light touch on her right elbow. Startled, she looks down to see Norman's tiny frame with his distinguished blue sweater vest. Norman puts his palm up to wave and says, "Hey, I'm Norman. Can I see if I might free your sweater?" 

Virginia stammers "M-my Grandma made me this last year before she-" Norman pipes up quickly. "I'll be gentle. Let me just take a peek here."

He looks up at his peers standing around them both as if they are pillars above him. Norman laughs nervously and wiggles between the group of boys to get to the sweater. He picks at it a bit, delicately moving the strands from the metal it was snagged on.

"There ya go! No damage done." Norman looked at her and smiled as her sweater was freed. Virginia sighs gently and quickly shuffles forward in the line in a hurry to be anywhere but there...

A roar of applause erupts from the group of athletes standing in the line. They start whooping and shouting obnoxiously. 

Norman squints with disapproval at the group of boys, then hurries to catch up to the fleeing mess of red frizz. "Hey, don't run off so fast," Norman pants. "Look." He points over to the table where he was seated before the ruckus. "We have an extra seat if you'd like to sit with us!"

Virginia smiles shyly. "S-sure." She pushes her glasses up on her nose.

"Thank you, my friend," she says quietly as she takes a seat.