one for all...

By Robert w kingett.

Ever wonder who, or where that special someone is? You know the one I am talking about? The one that you and only you know you want in your arms, in your bed at night, kissing your face passionately as she breaths “I love you?” Yes she might be next door, or perhaps at a local bar. Well, have you ever considered how you two have met? I think I baffled you with this simple question didn't I? Well I must assure you. Finding a sole mate might be way easier than picking a burger out of your nose. You just didn’t know it yet.

Me? I am an extremely practical individual. Heck I am so practical I can even take 5 jokes at the same time. That was a joke by the way ha ha. There's so many ways that romance movies lie. I figured that out when I was watching a movie last monthabout a girl who would even kill someone just to have her little darling prince hold her in her arms and kiss her on the lips. The main guy is not always that romantic. Sometimes he is a total ass, and no one cares. Now? I hate all those lies that the movies and TV have spewed out of its gaping mouth. Love does not spring up. There is no love at first sight. There is just love and friendship, which some people take for granted.

Back to my discussion about meeting that someone that would hold you in his or her arms. Would you have met him or her and not even know it? You might have. Some people meet there mate by saving them, or by just stumbling across them in the school café or perhaps even talking to them over the internet and then meeting them in person. Now I bet you are curious as to how I met my one true love. I met my true love by punching a girl in the face because she went down the same slide as I did.

I distinctly remember second grade. Why have I chosen this grade in which to tell this tale? The reason is, I feellike this is the beginning of it all. That was many a year ago, and I am sure you can’t even remember back to when u first experienced puppy love. Strangely enough though, I do remember thatday in second grade.

“wake up!” my grandmother sang as she came in the room. “wake up wake up and I will pick you up!” this saying was sung every morning by my grandmother. I loved to be hugged, I loved attention so much I craved it. But haven't we all cried out for attention at some point? I pulled off the covers and yawned widely.

“good morning grandma.” I said in my little kids high pitched voice. “I am so glad I get to see everyone at FSDB again!”

“yep, that’s right! All your friends have missed you, and they want to see you again.”

“I know!” I said jumping up and down. “I love FSDB!” FSDB was, and still is, the Florida school for the deaf and the blind. Basically the school was sort of like a boarding school for kids with hearing or visual disabilities. And I was visually impaired, so therefore, I went to the blind section of the school. I am half blind. That basically means that I can see out of one eye but barely, like someone is covering half my left eye. I also have tunnel vision, which means that I have absolutely no peripheral vision at all.

“get ready.” My gram called to me in the kitchen.

“OK!” I called back. I got on my star wars cloths and some dark blue jogging pants and I went out to the kitchen to eat some nice cereal mixed with sugar. I loved sweet things like that. I also loved school, I loved learning things before anyone else in my class. I was abnormally smart but I didn’t know that at the time. After I scarfed downn my breakfast and got my Anakin skywalker backpack I went to the old T-bird my gram had parked in the driveway.

After I walked into the red building there was a lot of confusuin already. Blind kids were raming into walls, raming into doors, even ramming into each other. No one knew what they were doing. Some kids were on the right track, as was i. I headed straight for the 2nd grade class with high spirits. After we sat down, Mrs. Burger, our teacher, went through the basics, like adding, subtracting, and reading, about half way through the morning however, she coughed to indicate that we should shut up at once.

“we have a new student today. Her name is Connie mounts, and she has came from all the way from old town, so be nice ok?”

“o great!” jess, a kid in the same class as me with a sick sense of humor. “another poo poo head!” Tara Thomas, a girl who was nice to everyone and had a smooth triangular face turned to him, her long dark hair smacked me in the face.

“jess shut up!” she turned to me, and leaned in closer to me. “oh! I am so sorry Robert!” she said in an annoying sing song voice. “I didn’t mean to do that. Are you ok?” she placed her hand on top of mine. I felt rather uncomfortable so I pinched it.

“ow! What the heck!”

“I thought you were dreaming so I just wanted to wake you up so you wouldn’t have to look at what's giving you nightmares.” I said with a hint of triumph in my voice.

“oh? And what am I supposed to be afraid of?”

I knew I would get her with this next comment. “you!” I said. Ahe glared at me, and with my blurred limited sight I thought she was sticking her tongue out at me. But she was leaning in closer. Mrs. Burger tapped on something to get our attention.

“Excuse me!” she was aiming her voice toward the doorway, which made me deduce that someone had walked in. “this is Connie M mounts. She is new here today and lets all make her feel welcome!” the whole class stood dead still. No one moved, talked, breathed, anything. A short, chubby girl with curly black short hair and squinty eyes came through the door. I could not tell if she was totally blind, like most of the kids in our class at the current time, or if she had a little vision like me. She didn’t look at anybody. She just sat down in her seat and didn’t say a word. Until a minute later when jess did something and Tara said something that made Connie bust a gut at a sarcastic comment I had said to Tara. (See, I can sum things up in one sentence). Anyway. The rest of the morning went by slowly. Mostly we just sat there while our teacher bored us with math equations, the proper way to make a sentence, and the most easy thing of all (well for me anyway) was reading. I Already knew what the word discrimination meant and I was only in second grade. As I stared up at the ceiling I swear I was carrying on a conversation with my own mind it was quite intriguing as well as just utterly weird.

Not much happened during the morning, just our teacher rambling on and on and on. The only thing that happened that is even worth mentioning was our first conversation me and Connie had with each other. It was lunch time, and I distinctly remember limping over to Connie’s table.

“can I sit here?” I didn’t hear an answer so I assumed that meant yes. I plopped my butt in the seat and started to jab my fork in the food.

“what's your name?” she asks me.

“my name is Robert Kingett.” I say Sounding very grown up.

“hahah!” she says. “You have a funny last name!” I felt like I could tell her my deepest thoughts right then, but because of my young age I had no idea what deep thoughts were. I sit there thinking about it for a nanosecond and then I give the biggest smile you would ever see on my face.

“you know I am a bad boy?” I say.

“why?”

“I am on the wrong side, Boys over there, girls over here. I know I am a nasty little devil. That’s what Rodger calls me. Gram calls me Einstein whoever he is.”

“oh.” Was conies reply to me rambling. “I like you a lot.”

“he he.” I giggle. She does to, and before you know it we are laughing up a storm, and we don’t even know why.

After lunch recess starts. I like recess because it’s a time where I can roam around, free from restraint by anybody. So, I am heading out to the playground feeling slightly perturbed at the food I had just eaten. I didn’t want to play with anyone. They all made fun of me anyway, I had a stuttering problem and we were all young then, and I am sure you remember picking on someone with two disabilities at that age and not know it was wrong. Kids did it all the time in our school, even though our school was for disabled kids allover the state of Florida. So anyway, I trudge to the slide all lonely and angry. What I do not notice or I should say who I do not notice will become my best friend in a few days. I approach the does she. We ram into each other. I stumble back, my back hits the pole near the slide entrance.

“Hey!” Connie says. “I Wonna go down first!”

“No! I do! I am the oldest!” this was true, but I just wanted some sort of excuse yo go down. “move!” I start to push her hard. She pudhes back even harder.

“i'm going to hit you!” I yell at the trop of my lungs.

“go!go on shrimp! Hit me! Huh? Huh? Huh? HIT ME!” Connie screams at me. Now this is weird, but I remember this like it was yesterday and I am not sure why. Maybe this is the start of our lives, but then how can that be since our lives had started when our mother gave birth to us. I am not sure. All I know is that this is the beginning of a legend at FSDB’s Kramer hall building. Something that will make the older teachers stare at our year book pictures and think Ya! I know them!. This is the moment. So I curl my bony hand in a fist. wrench it back, and let it loose. The fist lands in Connies eye, which makes her fall backward and on to the rope ramp that leads to the slide, where she is turned around like a question mark, and left to hang there. Her foot caught in the roap. Time has slowed down so much now I don’t know what I am doing. All I know is I am running after Connie as fast as I can and I hope the teachers do not get to her first, but they do. And in short. I have given her a black eye, and also I am suspended for three days. At the end of the day I lay in my bed, thinking about her, and weather it was necessary to perform such an action. Now, looking back on it . I would have to say, without a doubt. Yes..