{"id":8569,"date":"2015-01-16T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=8569"},"modified":"2015-01-22T14:39:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T19:39:15","slug":"wanting-to-be-a-cool-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wanting-to-be-a-cool-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanting to Be a Cool Kid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CoolKid_585x585\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The television set was black.\u00a0 The remote rested in the teacher\u2019s hand.\u00a0 The project was simple.\u00a0 The students went to work, and most of the footage shown was humorous.\u00a0 Some of it was stupid.\u00a0 Nobody would remember it.\u00a0 They would only remember her.<\/p>\n

She had walked down the hallway with the boy and girl.\u00a0 The girl called the shots.\u00a0 The heavy camera rested on her shoulder.\u00a0 The boy was eager, awaiting direction, and she poked her head into the passing classrooms, looking for the perfect spot.\u00a0 They finally stopped before an open door to a packed class, and the teacher kept his back to them, writing on the chalkboard.\u00a0 It was time to go to work.<\/p>\n

The teacher pressed the red button.\u00a0 She stepped back, crossing her arms across her chest.\u00a0 Her nervous gaze fell upon the one before her, not trusting the other two assigned to work with her.\u00a0 At first, nothing happened.\u00a0 Then, the boy and her began to argue.\u00a0 He then took off his belt.<\/p>\n

The television set exploded into darkness.\u00a0 The remote dropped onto a desk.\u00a0 All eyes were on her.\u00a0 Comments of great acting flickered through the air, but none met the concern now shining in the teacher\u2019s eyes for she knew better.\u00a0 But she was smiling, enjoying the attention her peers were giving her, and ignoring the blinding concern that her teacher now showered her in.<\/p>\n

The bell rung.\u00a0 The teacher grabbed her by the arm, keeping her behind the class.\u00a0 Everyone else left.\u00a0 The boy and girl paused for a moment, wondering if they were in trouble, but she was still smiling.\u00a0 That was their cue to go and not worry, but they should be worried.\u00a0 They should be very worried, if the teacher had her way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d she said as she pulled away from the teacher.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m a cool kid now,\u201d and she left the classroom, the teacher, and that awful video behind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
Melissa R. Mendelson has been working for the State of New York for the last five years. \u00a0She is also a published short story author and poet. \u00a0Her poetry has been included in Names in a Jar: A Collection of Poetry by 100 American Poets (Amazon, 2007). \u00a0Her short story, Whispers in the Night, has been included in Espresso Fiction: A Collection of Flash Fiction for the Average Joe (Amazon, 2012).<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The television set was black. The remote rested in the teacher\u2019s hand. The project was simple. The students went to work, and most of the footage shown was humorous. Some of it was stupid. Nobody would remember it. They would only remember her.<\/p>\n

She had walked down the hallway with the boy and girl. The girl called the shots. The heavy camera rested on her shoulder. The boy was eager, awaiting direction, and she poked her head into the passing classrooms, looking for the perfect spot.<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":8797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,201,219,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8569"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8798,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8569\/revisions\/8798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}