Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1)

by Shirley Miranda

  5. REACHING OUT

  The rest of the week, Patrick and I made good progress on our lab. We were much further along than the other groups. I figured we would be able to film our video part in the next day or two.

  It was really nice to work with someone on the assignments. When teachers told us to pick our own partners, we would work together in English and math class. We had settled into a little routine for our project. By the end of class, we had divided up the work and by math he had shown me at least a portion of his part. If I finished my half before our last class together, he typed it up. If I hadn’t, I typed it up and emailed it to him.

  He was hell bent on me trusting him. I had to admit, it was working. He did what he said he would do. He earned my trust, a little bit every class, every day. Patrick never gave me a reason before to doubt him.

  Toward the end of physics class, we started putting our supplies away. We weren’t quite done with what we wanted to do, but there wasn’t enough time left in the period to finish it. “I don’t have basketball practice today, if you want to finish after school.”

  “Sounds good.” I shoved my notebook in my backpack.

  “Okay. Oh, hey, how’s your practicing going?” He asked.

  My face fell. He never seemed to forget anything. “It’s going. I don’t know if I should bother.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not really very good. I mean, singing in the car by myself is one thing. But, you know how you don’t really hear yourself like others do… I know how good the others are. I think I’m kidding myself about being okay. Maybe my mom is right…”

  “Hey! Is this something you like to do?”

  “Yeah.” I really did like to sing.

  “Are you hurting anyone doing it?”

  “Well, I’d be wasting their time.” I retorted.

  He shook his head. “No, that’s not what I asked and that’s not an answer. They’ll be there anyway. Are you causing anyone any physical or emotional pain?”

  “I might.” I said sourly. “What if I’m so bad that I traumatize everyone and make their ears bleed?”

  “I don’t think that will happen.” He rolled his eyes.

  “How do you know? You’ve never heard me sing.” Crap. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I regretted saying it. Usually, I’m really good at monitoring my words, after all I’ve had years of practice with my parents, family and people at school.

  “And whose fault is that?” He grinned.

  “Hmph.” I pouted. I couldn’t help it.

  “Hey, I am more than willing to listen. Just let me know when.” He paused. “Unless you feel like you trust me less than when we started…”

  No. That definitely wasn’t the case. I was surprised on how much I did trust him in such a short period of time. “Okay.”

  “Okay? Okay what?” He looked at me curiously.

  “I could use some feedback. But you need to be honest with me. If I suck, you have to tell me so I don’t make a fool out of myself at the audition.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

  “Okay.” I took a deep breath. “After school? When we finish up this stuff.”

  “Sure.”

  “But…” I was still uneasy about something.

  “But?” He eyed me quizzically.

  “Ummm…” I didn’t know how to say it. “You’re the only audience I want. How do I sing without Mr. D hearing?”

  He looked over to Mr. D, who was heading to the front of the room. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it.”

  Somehow, I knew he would. How was beyond me. But if he said he would handle it, I could trust that he would. I wasn’t going to worry about it. Well, I was going to try not to.

  At the end of class Mr. D announced the next project. “Alright, ladies and gentlemen…your next project will be to find physics in the world around you. You need to identify 3-4 examples of physics used in ‘real life’. You will then need to describe, in general, the concepts. Photos and/or video clips must be included, so we can see what you identified. To avoid duplication of locations, please register your place with me. First come, first serve. Work with your lab partners. It is due in two weeks. The details are in the handout.”

  The bell rang and he gave each of us a handout as we left the classroom. I read over it, in my next class. Basically, we had to find places outside of school, like at the mall or at a restaurant, that used physics in their business. We had to go there, take pictures or video of it and explain the physics and diagram it. I knew that science was everywhere, so I didn’t think it would be hard to find something. But, I wanted the video to be interesting, so it had to be good.