Short Stories

Round One - Marblehead Johnson

I strolled through the school hallway with my neighbor walking with me. We weren't really friends, but our moms told us to hang out for the day. Of course, mothers know best, but I didn't think I needed to be friends with a smart aleck like my neighbor. He was anything, but quiet.

In fact, right now, he was trying to explain to me why he absolutely knew that Aquaman was a useless superhero. In my opinion, Aquaman's awesome and he helped the Justice League many times. Especially when the fate of the ocean was at stake. He could control fish minds of all things.

Eventually, I got so used to him talking, that I started to drown out all the outside noises and focus on my thoughts. That was stupid on my part. The second the bell rang, I jumped straight out of my skin and into the most violent of bullies... Glenn.

I backed away slowly as Glenn turned around like a treacherous nightmare. "Your chances of getting beaten to a pulp is roughly 90%." My neighbor calculated. "What about the other ten?" I asked, staring straight into the monster's eyes. "Distract him for a moment." My neighbor said and started writing on his notepad.

Not being able to look away from the viper's eyes, I backed away, terrified. Glenn scared the heck out of me.

Instantly, my neighbor ran right in between us. I'd never seen anyone confident... or stupid... enough to stand up to Glenn. "This is a diagram." My neighbor explained to the bully. "This diagram depicts what will happen if you continue bullying kids like my friend Jack."

From that point, Glenn backed off quietly with his hands shoved in his pockets in deep thought.

"What did you do?" I asked my neighbor. "Nothing. He's just scared about how intelligent I am. Come on." He shoved me into our first period class.

My eyes widened in fear for the second time today. On the teacher's whiteboard was plastered two dastardly words. POP QUIZ.

I could feel my feet sway from under me with even more fear than I had for Glenn. This was not my day. "Oh no..." I mumbled.

"What?" My neighbor questioned me, seeming as calm as ever. "Pop quiz..." I muttered as if just saying it would forever curse me with pop quizzes. "You mean the easy questionnaire?"

"No. Pop quiz." I told him, dumbfounded that he called it easy.

"You say tomato. I say solanum lycopersicum." My neighbor chuckled.

"You've lost your marbles." I sighed.

"Nah. I'm too smart. I have all my marbles."

"What was your name again?" I asked him for the fifth time that day. I just couldn't remember.

"Virgil." He rolled his eyes -for the fifth time that day- and took his seat.

"Can I give you a nickname?" I questioned, an idea already formulating.

"Shoot." He waved carelessly.

"Marblehead Johnson." Smiling, I could see the words in a neon sign, blinking on and off.

"Okay."