Stacey's Diary Extract 1

Stacey’s Diary Extract 1

That T.J’s in my class again this year, and my Mama’s our teacher. He keeps bugging me about the big test were having to get into the next grade. That boy thinks that just because our teacher is my Mama that she is going to let me know the answers to this test. I don’t want to cheat on the test and I don’t think T.J should either, its not honest and it would be like lying to Mama. That boy has been pestering me since the beginning of the year, he doesn’t want to work for anything, and his got no morals. As long as he gets what he wants his happy, he don’t mind whose feet he steps on to get it. It’s going to get him into trouble one of these days.

Today T.J met us the way to school, as usual. He came over boasting about how clever he is. I didn’t want to hear it, I’m just about sick of him AND his stories, but it didn’t matter we was all going to hear the story whether we wanted to or not. T.J had been up the Wallace stores again, a place that’s strictly forbidden, well some how his Mama found out he had been up there and when he got back boy was she mad. So to get himself out of trouble he went and said that he had only gone up there because his little brother Claude had gone up there, and T.J was bringing him home because he knew he shouldn’t be there. T.J’s mum just about wore poor Claude out. Now young Claude is just as scared of T.J as he is of his mother. So poor Claude pretty much takes the fall for most of T.J’s mistakes. I don’t know how T.J can be so selfish, I could hardly believe it when he told us, T.J does some bad things but he just seems to be getting worse. I could never do something like that, if you do something bad you should get ready to pay the price. If I were Claude I wouldn’t be able to take it, if someone done that to me they would get a beating.

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That T.J over stepped the mark, boy I’m so mad at him I could scream, and if I weren’t so scared of what my Mama’s going to do to me I would go get him right this minute, and if it weren’t for Mr Morrison I’d still be pounding him. That boy T.J wont be showing his face to me if he knows what’s good for him. I already told him that cheat notes would do no one any good; they would only get him in trouble. So when he showed me them in the morning, I ripped them right up and threw them in the ditch. He had gone behind my back, behind Mamas back and written up these notes when he was over at my house. I wasn’t going to be doing any cheating so I just kept away from him for the rest of the day. Despite my warnings, and despite the risk, he got another set written up at lunch.

Later in class he calls my attention and with a slight grin coming over his face, he pulled the second set out of his pocket. When he see my Mama come walking up towards us, instead of just hiding them he threw me the notes, I didn’t have time to do anything with them. Mama see me with the notes, she disqualified me from the test and gave me whooping in front of the whole class, the whole class! That whooping should have been T.J’s, but his too Goddamn, self-involved to take responsibility for his own actions.

As soon as school finished that boy was out of them doors like a flash, with me closely behind. Boy did I give him a whooping, I owed him it. That boy was so scared instead of fighting me there, he tried to escape by running to them Wallace stores, thinking I wouldn’t follow because of what my Mama said, but I was so blinded with rage, all I could think about was revenge on T.J. not just for me, but for little Claude and every one else that had been the butt of one of T.J’s pranks or lies.

I was in the middle of giving T.J his beating. A whole crowd of people were gathered around us cheering, even them Wallace’s were watching. When Mr Morrison turned up in his wagon, the crowd suddenly muted and started to drift off, as if trying to deny being there. Mr Morrison tore T.J and I apart and loaded the others and me into his van. No one said any thing on the way home, until I plucked up the courage to ask Mr Morrison if he would tell my Mama. I didn’t expect to hear what he told me, it was up to me to tell Mama what I had done. I found myself in T.J’s position, I could take the blame and tell Mama or I could stay quiet and loose a friend. I realised then that Mr Morrison was a good man and I realised the stupidity of my recent dislike for him. Mr Morrison had morals and pride in him self, not too different from myself. I done the only manly thing, I told Mama but I gained a friend out Mr Morrison.

Felix Barnes