Amber's Star

by Edwin M. Torres

  On Friday, I ran towards mom’s car and stepped inside. I was glad it was Friday and I wouldn’t have to come to school in the next two days.

  I spent my weekend outside on the front lawn photographing Ernest at all times of the day. I got some great shots of him with Grace in the background. Mom and dad left us alone on Saturday night as they went out for dinner.

  “Stop taking pictures of me,” complained Grace as she texted on her phone.

  “I’m not, I’m taking pictures of Ernest,” I said. Grace rolled her eyes at me and took the camera from my hands.

  “I’m deleting all the ones with me on them,” she said as she went through them.

  “Hey, you’re pretty good at this,” she said.

  “Oh, I love this one!” shouted Grace.

  “I bet I can get a huge poster of this one and hang it on my wall,” she added. She took my camera inside and hooked it up to her laptop. The picture looked great as she set as her laptop’s wallpaper.

  “You’ve got talent,” she said.

  “Thanks,” I answered. It was great to see my photos at a large scale, and they looked much better than seeing them on the camera’s screen.

  Mom and dad arrived a little after ten, and Ernest received dad as he usually did by barking and wagging his tail back and forth. Dad lay on the floor and had Ernest lick his face.

  “Stop Ernest, stop!” he cried, laughing. It was a great moment, I ran to Grace’s room and grabbed my camera and photographed them. I shot a great one where Ernest licked right into dad’s nose and dad had a huge smile on his face. I thought about what Grace said about making my photos into posters and kept this great photo a secret. It would be dad’s gift for Christmas. I hid the camera back in my room and came back to hear how all about mom and dad’s dinner.

  The next morning I woke up to a snowy window and hot chocolate from mom.

  “Isn’t this beautiful?” she asked, looking out my window. My hot chocolate smelled great, and the snow looked great too.

  “It is beautiful,” I answered. Dad took all of outside to our front lawn and we build a snowman. We had lots of fun, and when the giant snow man was finally done, Ernest pied all over him.

  “Ernest you stop that!” cried dad. I photographed my family next to the snowman and dad asked a man and his son that walked on our street to photograph all of us with the snowman. As I got ready for the picture, I noticed the boy standing outside our fence was Noah from school. Noah’s dad took the picture and dad thanked him.

  “That’s the boy who stood up for me at school,” I drawled. Noah finally waved at me and I saw a big smile on his face. I wanted to ask him if he had got in lots of trouble for pushing Skylar and punching that other kid, but him and his dad seemed to be in a hurry.

  “Thanks,” said dad and returned to play with Ernest. I went back inside and looked at the pictures we had just taken, the photo Noah’s dad had taken of us looked great. I realized I had never thanked Noah for what he had done for me. I thought about him the rest of the day and hoped he hadn’t gotten expelled so that I could thank him tomorrow at school.

  Chapter Eight

  Noah: Mom locked herself in her room and left me out in the living room without saying a word. I knew she would wait on dad so they could both ‘discuss’ my consequences for what I had done. I planned out my story several times before dad got home. I came up with the conclusion that I would tell them exactly how things had happened. And maybe, just maybe, dad would understand. I bit my fingernails as I saw the living room’s clock strike four. Dad was nearly here. At four fifteen, the front door opened and my heart stopped. Luckily for me, it was Nick.

  “Why do you look so pale?” he asked. I ignored him and continued chewing on my thumbnail. Mom opened her bedroom door and closed it again when she saw Nick.

  “What’s wrong with her?” asked Nick.

  “I got in a fight at school,” I explained.

  “Mom’s waiting on dad to tell him,” I added.

  “Oh boy, are you in trouble,” he said laughing. Nick made me more nervous than I was before. I had never been suspended and didn’t know how dad would react. He was usually the one that helped us stay out of trouble, and mom was the one who made a big deal about it. Dad always said he was once a kid and remembered how tough it was to stay out of trouble. At four-thirty the front door opened again and my heart sank. This time, it was dad. He looked at the scratches on my face but before he could ask anything mom called him to their room.

  “Come,” she said to him. Dad looked at me as if he was the one in trouble. I was dead. At any moment, mom or dad would scream my name to go inside their room. Nick came to the living room and teased me by making the choking sign at me.

  “You’re dead,” he said.

  “Dad will whoop you like he never has,” he laughed. Dad had never whooped me, but he had punished me for my behavior.

  “Here are ten dollars if you want to run away,” said Nick. I thought about Nick’s request but knew it was crazy. “How far would I get with just ten dollars?” I thought. Mom and dad made me suffer. They talked for nearly twenty minutes. Just after I’d believe I was out of the hook, I heard dad scream my name.

  “Noah!” he screamed loudly. It wasn’t an angry tone, it was more of a disappointed one. I got up from the couch and made my way to my parent’s room. Nick waved me goodbye and enjoyed the fact that I would be screamed at. It took me minutes to get there. When I was just outside the door I heard dad scream my name again.

  “Noah!” he screamed much, louder this time.

  “I’m here,” I said, walking into the room. Dad sat on his bed and mom rested her head on a pillow. Dad shook his head as I walked towards them.

  “Why would you push a girl and punch another kid?” he asked with a confused tone.

  “They nearly expelled him,” exaggerated mom.

  “But dad-,”

  “Be quiet, Noah,” he ordered. Mom looked at me and pointed her eyes towards dad. I didn’t know what she meant. She insisted by lifting her eyebrows and looking back and forth at me and dad.

  “I’m sorry,” I finally said.

  “Sorry for what?” he asked.

  “For causing trouble, but if you let explain I’m sure you’ll understand,” I said.

  “What is there to explain?” he asked.

  “I only did it because they deserved it,”

  Dad raised his eyebrows, and I knew it was time to explain myself fast.

  “The girl I pushed, Skylar, was making fun of a new girl that just moved here from Denver,” I explained.

  “So why didn’t you let your teacher handle it?” asked dad almost immediately.

  “She wasn’t there!” I screamed. Bad idea dad raised his eyebrows even more and stood up.

  “Where was she?” he asked, trying to stay calm. I lifted my shoulders.

  “The girl they made fun of has cancer,” I said. Dad and mom looked at each other and then down at me.

  “She has what?” asked mom.

  “Cancer,” I replied.

  “I’ve seen your classmates, none of them have cancer,” said mom.

  “When our teacher left the room, Skylar stood up and did something horrible to Amber,” I explained.

  “What did she do?” asked dad.

  “She started making fun of her and finally removed her wig for all of us to see. She made Amber cry and others laughed. I couldn’t just stand there and let her do that,”

  Dad looked at mom and began asking questions but didn’t finish them.

  “What? How? Are you,” he said. looking at mom.

  “Mrs. Jones didn’t mention any of that to me,” she said. Dad pointed his finger towards the door and dismissed me. I left my parent’s room and to my surprise, Nick was just outside listening to everything we said.

  “You really pushed a girl and punched another kid?” he asked with excitement.

  “Yeah,” I answered.

  “I’ve never got expelled, sus
pended, sorry,” he corrected himself.

  “Do you regret it?” he asked.

  ‘”No,” I answered by shaking my head. I decided that this was the perfect time to tell Nick exactly how I felt about Amber. Her having cancer changed nothing for me.

  “I did it because Amber’s a nice girl,”

  “I’d think she’s more than nice if you were able to take that scratch in your neck for her,” he said looking into my shirt.

  “I think I like her,” I said. Nick looked at me funny and began telling me about a girl he used to like when he was my age. Nick stuck around in my room late at night as he used to. We talked about girls and played violent video games as we used to. Mom and dad didn’t call us for dinner.

  “I think mom and dad aren’t mad at you,” said Nick as he came back from the bathroom.

  “Why do you think that?” I asked.

  “They gave me a ten to order ourselves pizza,” he answered. Nick called the closest pizza shop to our house, and we stayed awake till midnight eating pizza and watching movies. I was glad Nick could possibly be right, maybe mom and dad saw that what I did to Skylar and Pete wasn’t so bad after all. They were the ones that had started it, and I was the one that had stood up for Amber.

  On Sunday morning, I woke up to see a foot of snow on our front lawn. Dad had me eat breakfast as fast as I could since he had received a call from our elderly neighbor saying he needed help removing the snow from his driveway, and he and I, were the ones helping him.

  “Eat fast,” he said. I nearly swallowed my eggs and ham and drank all of my orange juice in one slurp.

  “Poor Mr. Jenkins, he should live at a retiring home at his age,” said mom as she dismissed us outside. It was chilly outside and snowflakes were still visible in the air. I stood next to dad’s truck with my hands in between my legs, waiting on him to open up.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “We’re walking, it’s only two blocks away,” he added.

  It was biting cold as we walked down the streets, dad and I placed our heads down for the air not to burn our faces. I had never felt this much cold in my life. I wanted to tell dad I wanted to go back home but waited a little longer in case he said something to say.

  “I’m proud of you, Noah,” he said as we reached the end of the first street.

  “You’re very brave. Nick wouldn’t have agreed to come to help me in these conditions,” he added.

  “I’m glad you stood up for your classmate at school too,” he said.

  “Others would have done the easiest thing which was to stay quiet or even make fun of her like that kid you punched probably did, right?” he asked.

  “You keep being brave, Noah,” he added before I could answer. Dad’s words went around in my head, I meant to say something but he had answered for me.

  We reached Mr. Jerkins’s house and dad knocked hard on his door, Mr. Jerkins was hard of hearing according to dad, so he told me I had to speak very loud if I wanted to say something. Mr. Jerkins opened his door and helped us inside. He was a tiny old man, very skinny and pale. If I were a little younger, he might have scared me. His house was warm and cozy and smelled like old wood.

  “Where are your shovels?” asked dad. But Mr. Jerkins didn’t hear him.

  “Mr. Jerkins!” shouted dad, poking Mr. Jerkins in the back. Mr. Jerkins turned slowly and faced him.

  “Where are your shovels?” said dad, moving as if playing charades.

  “In the garage,” said Mr. Jerkins. Dad and I pulled out the two largest shovels and started cleaning out the snow from the driveway. It was hard work. I began feeling sore from my lower back but began feeling warmer.

  “How much is he paying you, dad?” I asked.

  “He’s not,” dad answered while shoveling the snow. I said nothing back and continued shoveling. Dad did most of the work. The shovel was too big for me and I could hardly lift any snow. Dad pulled a bag of salt from his backpack and poured some all over Mr. Jerkins’ driveway. He must have seen me confused because he explained what the salt was for.

  “To prevent Mr. Jerkins from slipping,” he said.

  Mr. Jerkins thanked us for the help and offered dad some money, but dad refused.

  “That’s okay, Mr. Jenkins,” he said as the old man handed him a handful of money.

  “Give Noah a dollar for helping me out and that’ll be just fine,” said dad after Mr. Jerkins insisted on paying him. Mr. Jerkins pulled out a five and my hand almost reached fast for it, but I waited to see if dad agreed to it.

  “Go on,” he said. I grabbed the five-dollar bill and shoved it in my pocket. On our way back I thought about all the money I had saved up which summed up to twenty-eight dollars. Amber’s birthday wasn’t too far away, and I was planning on wasting all of it on a nice present for her.

  One block down from Mr. Jerkins’ house, the craziest thing happened.

  “Look at those lunatics,” said dad, looking at a family playing with snow in their front yard. The dad lay on the snow and the family’s dog licked all his face.

  “Gross,” said dad. He wasn’t a dog person or an animal person at all. I looked at the family and noticed they were having a great time, a huge snowman was built behind them and their ugly dog started peeing all over it. Before dad and I were out of sight I noticed a girl with a camera moving her hands at us. It was Amber!

  “Hey! Could you take a picture of us?” asked Amber’s dad. Before dad could answer, Mr. Sanders handed him what looked like an expensive camera. Dad didn’t mind stepping in and took the picture from outside the wooden fence. I waved at Amber, but she didn’t bother to even look at me. Amber’s dad thanked mines, and dad and I walked home. I was too tired and disappointed that Amber hadn’t said hi that I forgot she only lived a block away from me. I got home and looked at myself in the mirror before taking a warm bath.

  Only my eyes and nose were visible, and that told me why Amber hadn’t said hi to me. “She didn’t recognize me!” I thought.

  The following days went by slow. Dad was away most of the day and so was Nick. I was stuck alone with mom and her sad movies. Mom loved watching movies on snowy days, and Boston had lots of them. On Wednesday morning, mom invited me to her room to see a romantic movie about a young couple. It was age-appropriate for me, so mom didn’t have to cover my eyes on different scenes. It was boring for me, but mom thought it was nice.

  “That’s so sweet,” she said, almost crying as the protagonist shaved his head.

  “Why is he doing that?” I asked.

  “His fiancée has cancer,” she answered in tears. Mom was sentimental. But the movie she watched had given me the best idea I’ve had in a long time.

  Chapter Nine

  Amber: Monday morning was cold and snowy, but I still had to go to school. I was hoping to see Noah and finally get to thank him for what he did, but he didn’t show up. I didn’t dare to ask Ms. Flowers if he had gotten suspended or expelled. No one knew what had happened to him or Skylar. Not even the boy Noah had punched knew what had happened. He had been suspended only for two days and was back on Tuesday. I found out his name was Pete, and Pete used his suspension to get more attention. I didn’t like him. He tried to act tough with the rest of the fifth graders, telling them he had fought Noah over Skylar and that he had won. When the truth was, he had only stood in front of Skylar and received a punch from Noah. It was the stupidest way of getting suspended. Emily and I joked about it every time we could.

  “Why did you get suspended?” I’d ask sarcastically.

  “I received a punch in the face from Noah,” said Emily, changing her voice into a boy’s. We joked about that until Friday when Pete came up to me and ‘apologized’. He didn’t mean it. I knew that. His mom was parked in her minivan waiting on him. He walked up to Emily and me, and waited for his mom to be looking to apologize.

  “I’m sorry for what I did,” he said loud enough for his mom to hear.

  “Sorry for what?” I asked. />
  “You only got punched,” I added. Emily laughed hard and Pete’s face went red. His mom called him and she looked satisfied with his apology. Emily kept laughing and when her mom arrived they both invited me to have a sleepover at her house but told them I couldn’t go. Mom had been very clear about sleepovers and had said I couldn’t stay away from home until I was cancer-free.

  The weekend was still cold, and mom had me help her with the Thanksgiving decorations that she would put up on Thursday afternoon when dad’s coworkers came home for dinner.

  On Monday morning I stood next to Ms. Flower’s desk waiting on her to come in. I was determined to ask her what had happened to Noah. I had never seen a suspension last this long and I began worrying he might have gotten expelled. I stood next to her desk as all my classmates sat. Soon everyone started laughing except for Emily and a girl from the first row. “Oh no, did my wig fall again?” I asked myself. I touched my head and found out they weren’t laughing at me. Instead, they laughed at a boy walking in the room. His head was bald, almost like mines, but still had short hair attached to it. He wore a thick jacket and still had a scarf on.

  “Noah what did you do to your hair?” asked Daniel. It was Noah, he finally removed his scarf and his little face was visible. I was glad he hadn’t been expelled. But that only meant Skylar hadn’t either. His friends laughed and joked about his new hairstyle, but I thought it was pretty cool. He had a good round head and being bald went well with his little face. He looked much better this way. His previous look with his bushy hair almost covered his eyes. I went up to him and thanked him.

  “Hey Noah,” I said pocking his left shoulder. He turned his head and automatically smiled.

  “I wanted to thank you for what you did for me,” I said.

  “It was nice for you to stand up for me,” I added. Noah didn’t answer, and soon his smile went away and his face turned into a frown. He looked at my head and then touched his.