In English, Zoey slumped against her seat as she tapped her pencil lightly onto her notepad, whilst Mr. Turner was talking about the book - The Grapes of Wrath.
"Okay, we're talking about The Grapes of wrath. Who can give us an overview of what we've read so far?" Mr. Turner asked the class and Cory immediately shot his arm up. "Muscle spasm, Matthews?"
"No, sir. I'd like to take a shot." Cory said.
"Okay, everybody, give him room." Mr. Turner told the class. Zoey smirked slightly.
"All right. I think the conclusion of the book shows the Joad family's been pretty much destroyed by the greedy farm bosses, but the author's telling us they still have their dignity, and they're gonna fight on." Cory simply explained.
Everyone in the room went silent. Zoey turned to face her friend, mouth slightly parted in shock.
"What just happened?" Mr. Turner asked in confusion.
"You're a disgrace to the entire back row." Shawn told Cory in disgust.
"Okay, this story about migrant farm workers in the 1930s shows us that powerful people will exploit the powerless until they organize and stand up for their rights." Mr. Turner informed, walking around the classroom. Cory raised his hand. "Yes."
"Yeah, the thing about the 1930s... will we have to know dates for the test?" Cory asked.
"The date is not as important as understanding the historical context of the whole struggle for workers' rights." Mr. Turner responded.
Shawn raised his hand. "Excuse me. What page is the historical context on?"
Zoey blinked a couple times. "Okay... what is happening?"
"Are you kidding me?" Mr. Turner questioned, looking at Shawn like an idiot.
"We need to know that for the test, right?" Shawn said.
"No, forget about the test." Mr. Turner told the class. "I want you to learn about this book to add to your personal knowledge, not to just pass a test. I don't wanna hear anymore about the test." Cory raised his hand. "What?"
"Uh, when is the test?" Cory wondered.
"What did I just say?" Mr. Turner questioned.
"Okay, could I just ask one more question about the.... you know, the written thing you put a grade on that tells our parents we're idiots. There won't be any essays, will there?" Cory asked.
"Matthews, as long as you read the book and open your yap during the class discussion, no test. Okay?" Mr. Turner responded. "Now can we possibly return to what is important here?"
The bell rung throughout the school.
"No test!" Everyone said. Zoey gathered her things and rushed out of the classroom.
••••
During the next day at School, Zoey sat at her desk, happy. She read the book last night that Mr. Turner assigned them to so she didn't have to do the test instead.
"All right, class. In The Grapes of Wrath, we see that the struggle to organize, to get justice for the migrant farm workers, was long and difficult. Heads were broken. People were killed. A lot of blood." Mr. Turner told the class.
"Sounds like Bingo night in my trailer park." Shawn commented with a smirk.
"Now, like the Joads, we also find ourselves in the middle of a little struggle." Mr. Turner said as he began passing pieces of paper to people. "We don't want tests. We think we can learn the material without 'em."
"Right." The class agreed.
"Now, the boss - or Mr. Feeny, in this case - doesn't believe us, so what we gotta do is prove to the boss that we can learn this book without taking a test." Mr. Turner continued.
Cory nodded. "Right."
"Right. And to prove that, we're just gonna answer a few questions on this piece of paper." Mr. Turner said.
When Zoey was handed a piece of paper, her eyes immediately widened.
"It's a test!" She exclaimed.
"No, don't think of it as a test. It's a survey." Mr. Turner said.
"Survey says...." Cory trailed off.
"Test!" The class shouted.
Cory stood out of his seat and looked at Mr. Turner, shocked. "You gave us your word."
"I even read the book." Shawn added as he stood behind Cory. The class gasped in shocked. "Yeah, my head still hurts."
Zoey got out of her seat and stood beside Shawn, crossing her arms over her stomach, giving Mr. Turner a pointed glare. "So, why don't we just talk about the book, like you said?"
"Because I couldn't change the system overnight, Francis." Mr. Turner explained. "Come on, work with me here."
"I'm not taking this test!" Cory exclaimed.
He than walked over to Mr. Turner and gave the test back to him. Everyone went silent. Cory turned around, surprised as he made his way back over to Shawn and Zoey. Zoey raised her eyebrows, shocked.
"You can do that?" Shawn wondered.
"I didn't know you could do that?" Zoey muttered.
"I don't know." Cory said, looking over his shoulder at Mr. Turner, hesitantly.
"Me neither!" Shawn exclaimed.
"Same." Zoey said as her and Shawn made their way over to Mr. Turner and gave their tests back.
A second later, everyone in the class walked up to Mr. Tuner and placed their tests back to him. Zoey smiled as she sat down back at her desk.
"Good morning, Mr. Turner." Mr. Feeny greeted as he walked into the classroom. "Obviously I was wrong, and your students were so prepared that they managed to finish the test two minutes after the bell has rung."
"Let me grade em, and I'll get back to ya." Mr. Turner responded sarcastically.
Mr. Feeny looked at the test pages. "Well, that shouldn't take long, considering that all of these papers are blank."
"I guess that'll kill the curve." Mr. Turner said.
"Do you mean to tell me that your students refuse to take the test?" Mr. Feeny wondered.
Mr. Turner slightly nodded. "That's the decision they seemed to have made."
Mr. Feeny than gestured Mr. Turner to talk with him. The two talked for a brief couple of seconds before Mr. Feeny walked up to the front of the class, holding the test papers.
"I realize that all you seventh-graders are delicate adolescent flowers just beginning your high school blooming." Mr. Feeny said. Zoey straighten her back as she listened to him. "And so I say this with utmost sensitivity: Take this test... or die."
Everyone gave Mr. Feeny a pointed glare, to which he found uncomfortable. He made his way back To Mr. Turner and handed the test papers back as he whispered something to him.
Cory slammed his hand on the table as he made his way to the front of the class, determined. "Is this fair?"
"No!" The class, including Zoey shouted.
"Have we been tricked?" Cory questioned.
"Yes!" The class yelled.
"Take the test or die?" Cory repeated Mr. Feeny's words.
"Die!" The entire class shouted.
"Then we die together! Organized, like the people in the book should've done. The first student union." Cory exclaimed.
"Yeah!" The class agreed, applauding Cory.
"Look for the union label..." Cory started signing. Shawn and Zoey immediately got out their seats and began singing with Cory.
"If you are buying that coat, dress or blouse..." They sang. Everyone in the class got out their seats and joined them as Cory began marching around the room. "Remember somewhere our union's sewing... Our wages going to feed the kids And run the house..."
Cory lead the group out of the classroom and into the cafeteria. Zoey stood beside Shawn as Cory was standing on top of one of the cafeteria tables with the class surrounding him.
"What are we?" Cory questioned.
"We are kings!" The class shouted.
"And what do kinds say?" Cory wondered. Everyone was about to answer but couldn't. Zoey scrunched her face slightly, trying to think of something while Cory hesitated. "They say... 'no more macaroni'!"
"No more macaroni!" The class repeated.
"We want steak!" Cory shouted.
"We want steak!" The class, including Shawn and Zoey yelled.
"And what do we want with out steak?" Cory questioned.
"Macaroni!" Shawn shouted in confidence. Zoey chuckled, realizing that he was the only one who responded.
Cory looked down at his best friend. "No, we don't like Macaroni."
Shawn paused for a moment. "Oh!"
"And as a side dish to out steak, lobster!" Cory announced.
"Lobster!" They all shouted, excited.
"All right, this is your warden speaking." Zoey turned around to see Mr. Feeny, standing on the other side of the cafeteria, holding a megaphone up to his mouth. "So, you wanna play rough with George Feeny? Fine. We'll take off the gloves."
"Uh-oh." Cory muttered.
"The seventh-grade dance is hereby canceled." Mr. Feeny announced. Zoey's eyes widened in shock.
Shawn stepped forward. "You can't do that."
"I can do whatever I want. I have the megaphone." Mr. Feeny responded through the megaphone. "Here's a doozie: the entire football season... cancelled!"
"B-b-b-but that means..." Shawn stuttered.
"Yes, Mr. Hunter. No cheerleaders." Mr. Feeny told him.
"No!" Shawn shouted as he sunk down onto his knees, holding his face into his hands.
"Shawn!" Cory called as he made his way over to him. "It's a strike - we have to make sacrifices."
"But he's taking my girls." Shawn cried. "Why can't we just sacrifice you?"
Zoey stood beside Shawn, looking down at him with raised eyebrows. "Shawn. Like a cheerleader's going to date you anyways."
"Shup up, Zo." Shawn said before he began crying once more.
"Now, I would prefer you go back to your classes and take the test, but being a reasonable Joe, I am willing to offer you a one-minute window of amnesty, beginning... fifty-five seconds ago." Mr. Feeny informed the class. "You have five seconds... four, three..."
Everyone from the class began walking out of the cafeteria apart from Shawn, Zoey and Cory. Shawn got back up onto his feet and stood beside the brunette.
"Wait a minute, everybody." Cory called, gaining their attention. "He can't punish the seventh-grade class if there is no seventh-grade class. We're a union, remember? And I say, starting right here, right now, our union is on strike. Let's go, everyone. We're walkin' out of school." He then began to sing and make his way over to the cafeteria entrance, followed by Shawn and Zoey. "Look for the union label... is anybody behind you, my Shawn and Zoey?"
"I gotta tell you, there's no one with us... We're all alone here, I'm gonna bail." Shawn sung as he turned around and began walking away from Cory.
Cory grabbed the back of Shawn's shirt. "You'd better not."
"Yes, I am." Shawn sang as he tried to get out Cory's hold.
"Oh, no, no, no." Zoey sung as her and Cory began to pull Shawn out of the cafeteria.
"Yes, yes, yes, yes." Shawn said as the two eventually pulled him out of the cafeteria.
••••
After what happened in the cafeteria, Shawn, Cory and Zoey went to Cory's house instead of school. The three of them sat on the couch, Zoey in the middle, as they watched the news and ate popcorn which was sat in front of them.
"How come there's nothing on the news about our walkout?" Cory wondered. "I mean, why is every station covering that dumb missing-bomb story?"
"You men and young girl..." Mrs. Matthews started as her and Mr. Matthews walking into the living room, and stared down at the three of them. "I just got off the phone with your principal."
"You held a strike over a test?" Mr. Matthews questioned, his hands on his hips.
"You walked out of school?" Mrs. Matthews asked in disbelief.
"What were you possibly thinking?" Mr. Matthews wondered.
"Well, thinking's not Shawn or Cory's strong suit, Mr. Matthews." Zoey pointed out, trying to ease the tension in the room.
"I'm convinced." Mr. Matthews stated before he looked down at her in confusion. "What about you, Zoey? You're smarter than this."
"They're my best friends. Of course I'm going to side with them." Zoey simply responded.
"You know, maybe what we did wasn't smart, but at least we stood up for our principles." Shawn said.
"And what were your principles?" Mr. Matthews wondered.
Shawn paused for a moment. "I remember something about Macaroni."
The door bell than rung. Mrs. Matthews let out a sigh before she began walking over to the door and slapped Shawn on the head as she made her way over to the door. Zoey watched as Mrs. Matthews opened the door to reveal Mr. Turner, who wore his leather jacket and held his motorcycle helmet.
"Yes?" Mrs. Matthews asked.
"Mrs. Matthews, Mr. Matthews. I'm Jonathan Turner." Mr. Turner introduced. "I'm Cory's English teacher."
Mrs. Matthews noticed the motorcycle helmet. "You wear a helmet."
"I fall off the desk a lot." Mr. Turner said.
"You wanna talk to Hoffa and Costello?" Mr. Matthews asked, gesturing to the three kids.
"Yeah." Mr. Turner said as he walked into the living room. "I don't usually make house calls, but this all started in my classroom, so I thought I might step in and mediate."
Mr. Matthews crossed his arms over his stomach. "You're not gonna bust their heads, are you?"
"No." Mr. Turner said.
"Cause I'm okay with that." Mr. Matthews assured. Zoey narrowed her eyes at him.
Mr. Turner than gestured the three of them into the kitchen. When they walked into the kitchen, Zoey immediately sat down at the kitchen table.
"Mr. Turner, all we did was read 'The Grapes of Wrath'." Cory said as he sat down at the table. "And you know what we leaned? You have to fight for your rights? That's why we went on strike, and that's why we're in trouble."
"That'll teach me to read a book." Shawn muttered.
"So I guess this is what happens when the little guys try to stand up to the bosses, huh?" Cory wondered, looking at Mr. Turner.
"No, let me straighten you out, Matthews. You threw a hissy fit and you walked out." Mr. Turner explained.
"We went on strike." Cory corrected.
"You didn't go on strike, because you didn't have the one thing you need to go on strike." Mr. Turner told them. "You know what you didn't have?"
"Mob connections?" Zoey guessed.
"A job." Mr. Turner said. "You're just kids. You're in school. Your parents make you lunch. You're not a migrant farm worker picking grapes. You're just kids. You sleep on sheets with little dinosaurs."
"Rocket ships." Cory muttered.
"Look, I messed up too." Mr. Turner confessed. "I should've taught you that you can only take action if you're prepared to take responsibility for those actions."
"Mr. Turner, put yourself in out positions." Cory told him. "If you had done to you what we -"
"No, been there. Don't..." Mr. Turner interrupted. "Look, you're just three kids playing way over their heads. Okay? Now, you can decide that you're still students and get back in school, where your sheltered and protected, and abide by the rules that go with that."
"Or you can go out into the real world and get an immediate test called 'find a job or starve'." Mr. Matthews said as he and Mrs. Matthews stood in the kitchen entrance. "Now, you wanna take that test, or you wanna take his?"
Shawn, Cory and Zoey looked at Cory's parents before they turned to Mr. Turner, who was looking at them, waiting for an answer.
"They got us surrounded." Shawn muttered.
Cory sighed. "I guess we'd better talk to Feeny."
Zoey frowned slightly. "We do."
"Yeah, I guess you'd better." Mrs. Matthews told them.
"Face it, guys. Feeny's not gonna go away. I mean, he's gonna be all over your case. You turn around, he's gonna be there." Mr. Turner said as he turned to the backdoor to see Mr. Feeny over the fence gardening. "Now that's scary. You know you got a principal living next door?"
"It's not something we brag about." Mr. Matthews responded.
Shawn, Cory and Zoey got up from their seats and walked outside to he backyard. Mr. Turner opened the backdoor and approached the fence.
"George, you live next-door to Matthews?" Mr. Turner asked.
"It's not something I brag about." Mr. Feeny said as he looked at Mr. Turner in confusion. 'What are you doing here, Mr. Turner."
"I came to talk to the guys. Turns out they have something to say to you." Mr. Turner said.
Cory sighed. "Look, Mr. Feeny, we got it all wrong, because we read this book all the way to the beginning."
Mr. Feeny slightly nodded. "Really? And I don't suppose you learned anything from it?"
Zoey breathed heavily. "Well, we learned you're supposed to fight back against what you think us unfair."
"And that's the parallel you drew from the Joad family?" Mr. Feeny asked.
Shawn scoffed. "They were out in the real world, and they knew they had something big to fight for."
"And how do the Joads relate to you?" Mr. Feeny asked, turning to Cory.
"I guess they don't. I mean, we're just kids." Cory responded.
"We're not really out in the world yet." Zoey added, placing her hands into her back jean pockets.
"They had nothing to eat, nowhere to live." Cory pointed out.
"All they knew was that they deserved a decent wage." Shawn informed.
Zoey shrugged her shoulders. "And all we know is... nothing."
"'And wherever there's a guy who don't know nothin... I'll be there'." Shawn said, quoting from the book.
"Well said." Mr. Feeny said.
Shawn smiled. "It's from the book. I actually read it."
"I believe you did. And I'll take that into consideration." Mr. Feeny said. "That'll be all. You can go."
And with that, the three of them nodded before they walked back into the kitchen.
_____________________
PUBLISHED: February 28, 2018
WORDS: 2987