Marchetta Written By Marcus Liam Breu

"How do you see the world?" read the activities sheet sitting in front of me. It's another one of the those stupid work sheets we recieve when we have a substitute teacher... When is Mr. Timms going to get back from his family reunion? Mr. Timms went to his family reunion at the goldcoast two weeks ago & he still hasn't come back yet. None of the other teachers know when he'll be back either. All he told us was that he hasn't seen his uncles and aunts and cousins and so on for years & that he'll be gone for a while. But a while has passed. And still, no Mr. Timms. What's his idea of a while? My idea of a while is the time it takes me to walk from here to the local shops & that's only fifteen minutes... It's funny that some people have different ideas about different things. They use the same terminology to talk about it, but it differs with different people. "Have you written anything yet?" Someone's voice pulls me back into reality. I look at the substitute teacher looking over my shoulder at the sheet in front of me. He's gay... We all know he is. Not that he came into the classroom for the first time & was wearing a pink dress shouting "I love guys!", but it's nearly just as obvious. "I'm still thinking about what to write... It's a hard question" I say. lying. The question isn't hard. Well , if I really thought about it it would be, but they don't actually expect me to think about how I see the world, and put the results on a piece of paper. Nobody actually puts their view of the world onto paper. Not in this class anyway. What if you see it different to everyone else & you are the only one? And someone reads it & boom, just like that... You're cast out. Not one of the boys anymore... Not allowed to hang out with certain people anymore... Because you see the world in a different light? "C'mon..." Mr. Marchetta trails off. He can't remember my name... again. "Reese?" I say, with a hint of anger in my voice. "Yes, Reese. The question isn't that hard. Just write down how you see the world. Is it a good place to live? How would you make it better?"he continues. Is it a good place to live? That's pretty stupid. How can I answer that. It's not like we have an alternative planet to live on. So I can't write how I think Mars would make a much better place that Earth. I look down at my at my piece of paper, and try to ignore the fact that there's a homosexual looking over my shoulder. Breathing down my neck. The room is pretty silent, and I swear I can hear him lick his lips. I move my chair closer to the desk, trying to get away from him. I think he gets the gist of what I'm signaling. He moves on to someone else on the other side of the room. I puff out a sigh of relief. I put the end of my pen in my mouth. Trying hard to think of an answer that'll sound good when it's on paper.

I feel someone nudge me. I turn to the person sitting on my right. Dirk. Well, really his name is Jason, but everyone calls him Dirk. As in Dirk Diggler, from the film "Boogie Nights" (If you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about... 13 inches!) Ever since Dirk moved to this school in year eight, he's been going on about a massive trouser snake lurking behind his zipper. But we found out the truth when we were getting changed during swimming class. Seems as though Dirk has an acute case of dwarfism. But we still call him Dirk... Irony is funny to year tens.

Dirk's pointing to something that he's written on his work sheet. He chuckling to himself. That's a sure sign that it's not going to be funny at all. I look down at his sheet, written underneath "How do you see the world?", is one line. It reads 'With my eyes'. I look at Dirk, smiling. What an idiot. Dirk's the type of guy that hands in things to teachers with hardly any work done & still gets pretty decent marks. "You're not going to hand it in with just that written on it, are you?" I ask him, inquisitive. "Maybe... Why not" he replies. I think about that for a moment. Why shouldn't he hand it in like that? It's not like it isn't true. Knowing Mr. Marchetta he'll probably give him top marks for really thinking about the question & using the full capacity of his mind. But on the other hand... It's just a pathetic stab at humour. All I do is shrug my shoulders. He turns his attention to the person sitting on his right. Belinda. Belle for short. She likes being called Belle, ever sicne she watched "Beauty & The Beast" with her little cousin. She found out that Belle is French for beauty & she says that it suits her perfectly... Someone thinks their top shit. It's not that she isn't good looking... She's pretty hot. But she knows it, and that just takes all of the fun out of it. Modesty isn't one of her strong points. She won't deny the fact that she's attractive. Which makes it really hard to give her a compliment, so we avoid it.

I look to my left & see Pia. Head down, working hard. She's already written three quarters of a page... Making me realise that I still need to make a start. But I just can't be bothered. Work sucks... And from what I've heard... So does Pia. She started going out with this guy a few months ago & in the last couple of weeks we've started hearing things... Rumours. One of the most popular rumours is that she's pregnant & it's not even his. Another rumour is that they were caught by her Dad in bed & she's been kicked out of the house. And the most recent one... She's broken up with him. Of course, all of the rumours have no truth to them. She isn't pregnant. She hasn't been kicked out of home, because I've been there several times in the past few weeks. And she's told us that there's no truth to the rumours that they've broken up. We believe her. She has no reason to lie. She's good looking. Not Belle-Good-Looking. Pia doesn't believe she's hot & that makes it all the more fun to tell her. Of course... I'm not allowed to tell her... It's like an unwritten rule somewhere that guys can't tell their chick friends how good looking they are... Unless their gay of course. You can tell your girlfriend, but not your chick friend. It pisses me off totally. Having a friendship, but not one that's full circle. It's always been known since I was little that I'd grow up with a strong girly side. I live with my mother & my aunt... No father, no uncle... Pretty much no male influence in my life at all... Thank god for TV & movies. I sort of know how to treat the girls, but then I just dig myself a deeper hole because girls don't want a sensitive guy. They want a player. A guy that sleeps with all of the popular girls, and, from what I've heard, if a player sleeps with you... Your popular too. Pia looks up from her work sheet & gives me a smile. I smile back. Her eyes then drift down to the piece of paper in front of me. She gives me an over- exagerated frown. I let out a small laugh. Pia leans in closer to me "Looks like you & Mr. Marchetta are getting pretty close" she says refering to the incident a few minutes ago. "Yeah... He's pretty hot & all, but he's just too much woman for me..." I say in an exagerated gay voice. Pia giggles. "Dirk & I are going to the movies on Saturday to go see the new Lord Of The Rings movie, wanna come?" I ask in a voice that I think managed to sound pretty close to cool. "Is Belle coming?" "Dunno. You can ask her if you want" "How 'bout Bianca?" Bianca? She moved here a few months ago & as soon as she got here our group snatched her up. She was the type of girl that could of slotted into any group in the school, but we needed her. She was the type of person that everyone liked, which means we needed her. Our group needs a broaded audience. We need more friends. All we have is each other. Bianca is the only Bianca in the entire school. I am the only Reese. Dirk is the only Jason. Belinda is the only Belinda. But strangely enough... We have two Pia's at our school. We've estimated between 70 & 100 people in the whole of Australia have Pia as a name... Maybe twenty here in Adelaide. It's amazing that we have two. But of course, Pia hates it. Every time she sees the year nine with her name she gives her the scariest death stare I have ever seen. I'm sure glad I'm not named Pia. "You can ask Bianca too" I tell her, just as the bell sounds. "Cool" I look down at the sheet in front of me... I haven't put my pen to the paper since I wrote the date... Oh well... Better luck next lesson.