A Blue Jay, The Little Boy And Tuna

• Scott Sun, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2011

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
The slow rhythmic ticking of the clock resounded around the classroom, the monotonous rhythm marking the second-by-second progression toward recess on the warm summer's day.

Briiiing!

The bell rang, and what was a near silence and stillness just moments before broke out into the scraping of chairs and rabble of chattering.
"...did you just see the new movie-?"
"...and I was like...I don't care who Alex was kissing-"
"Dude what the hell-?"
"Ahahaha-"

And then they were gone. All except one that was. At the back of the room, a mousy little boy with shiny brown hair perfectly combed to the side by his mother.

"You don't want to go out looking like any rabble..."

He was packing slowly, book stacked neatly on top of the other, slowly putting it on top of the other. He didn't want the books crinkled or anything.

"We spend a good deal of money on you young man, don't go and-"

He shook his head. "Stop thinking of mum."

Of course, there was plenty more reasons of why he was packing slowly. He was new at Stonebrook High,nobody knew him. He knew how it was back in his old school; strangers were treated as weird, strange, different they probably had some secret super powers.

He stepped out into the warm sunlight. He looked overhead and saw a magnificent Blue Jay fly into a hollow tree. Determined, he pulled up his bag and approached a group of boys at the edge of a soccer field.

Good day fellow-“he started at a blond haired boy standing there.

The blonde boy gave him a weird look and walked away to a group on the other side of the field. Slightly crestfallen, the mousy haired boy heard a loud twittering and looked up. The Blue Jay he had seen before had been chased out of the hollow of the tree by a flock of brown sparrows. The Blue Jay flitted away angrily, settling itself next to a magnificently plumed bird on the ground.

Turning himself back to earth, he went back on his quest to find companionship in this barren wasteland of hospitality and acceptance.

He bumped into a pretty brunette about his height.
“Good morrow fair maiden-” he stammered awkwardly.

“Okay?” she replied, giving him a dirty look “Get away from me weirdo!”

A squawk and the Blue Jay was sent flying into the air again. The beautiful plumed bird was merely a female pheasant covered in colourful leaves nothing more.

Downhearted and giving up hope, the boy sat down underneath an oak tree taking of his lunch. Tuna sandwiches. He began to eat when suddenly three noses came sniffing around the tree. Three brown-haired Greeks emerged grinning.

“Hi, I’m Jon.” He grinned “Welcome to the tuna eaters club.”

The Blue Jay, the boy noticed, had nestled itself with a group of bluebirds, twittering contentedly.