MIDDLE GRADES FICTION — SCIENCE FICTION
Benji Lamperez Is The New Kid In Town
Space Cadet Academy — Chapter 1
Benji Lamperez was slow when it came to getting ready for school despite always waking up early. He hadn’t always been so slow. The truth was, he now hated going to school, especially this new school. School had been okay back in Logroño where he had grown up. But this new middle school in Pamplona was a nightmare for him.
His father had recently taken a promotion at work. That promotion had the family move from Logroño to Pamplona. The new school was bigger than his old school. It was also too far for him to be able to walk to school, so his mother usually drove him to school. Benji’s father usually left for work earlier.
Benji didn’t get to see very much of his father anymore, as he usually had to work late. His dad was trying to make a good impression on his new bosses.
“Benji! Hurry up. I don’t have all day to wait for you. Did you remember to brush your teeth?”
“Yes, Mamá.”
Benji had been ready fifteen minutes earlier, but he had delayed leaving his room until the last possible moment. As much as he hated having his mom complain about his slowness, he hated leaving his room where he felt safe even more. School was a nightmare.
“Get a move on, Benji. You know I can’t be late.”
“I’m coming, Mamá.”
His mother worked as a lab technician at the main hospital. She was doing the same work as she had done in Logroño, just in a bigger hospital. Like Benji was struggling to fit into a new school, his mother was finding it difficult to adjust to the new workplace. Fitting in was the biggest problem for both of them. The move to Pamplona had put everyone in Benji’s family into stressful situations. Home wasn’t a very happy place anymore.
The drive to the school was also stressful because of the traffic. There were too many cars for the narrow streets of the inner city. When they finally arrived at the school, his mother leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek.
“Remember, you have to take the bus home today, my love,” she said, giving Benji a smile. “Have a good day. I’ll see you when I get home from the hospital, okay?”
“Yes, Mamá.” Benji felt a wave of embarrassment, hoping the others hadn’t seen his mother kissing him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like her affection, he just didn’t want others to see it and call him a sissy mama’s boy. He wasn’t the smallest boy in his classes, but he was smaller than most of the boys, and even a few of the girls.
As soon as his mother drove off, Benji trudged into the school, his shoulders slumped. He stuck to the edges of the hallway as the other students rushed into the school. Benji still had ten minutes to kill until his first class, homeroom. These were the worst ten minutes of his morning. Only the lunch hour was worse.
As he walked toward his locker, more than one person accidentally bumped into him. Reaching his locker, he stuffed the books he had taken home, into it. Just as he was closing the locker, Benji was shoved from behind.
Turning, he saw his classmate, Alphonso Cortez walking away, followed by his small clique. Benji guessed that they must have been in a hurry. Usually, Alphonso enjoyed nothing more than to add a few pokes and cutting words before he walked off.
Benji liked his classes. The teachers were mostly okay in the school. His favourite classes were Math and Science. Physical education was okay as well. Even though he wasn’t a big kid, Benji was athletic. He had enjoyed running and playing football in his old school.
But here, he wasn’t on any of the school football teams. And, he didn’t have the confidence to try out for any of the teams. The rest of his classes were okay, for the most part. The exception was the first one, homeroom.
Homeroom class was also the shortest one of the day, the only good thing about it. Each teacher took care of classroom administrative duties, such as attendance checking, announcements for the day, administering standardized tests, and hosting an occasional guest speaker brought in to motivate the students during this time. Most of the time, his classmates were busy copying homework, or visiting while the teacher was busy with her paperwork.
Homeroom class wasn’t an academic course, which generally made for chaos. Benji hated chaos. Being a stranger in a new school had made him a new target for classroom bullies. And this was just the kind of chaos that was needed to cover the more subtle forms of bullying while a teacher was present.
It would have been different if Benji had started attending this school two years earlier, when all of the other students had begun to take classes at the school. Everyone had friends already. Of course, Benji wasn’t the only one bullied. However, knowing that didn’t help make it any easier for him. But more than anything else, it was the lack of a close friend or two that made it the most difficult for him. Back in Logroño, he had friends.
“Class, today we have a visitor,” the teacher, Mrs. Lopez called out, in an attempt to quieten the students once the bell rang to begin homeroom. Dutifully, the students stopped rustling their papers and books.
“This is Ms. Hernandez. She will be speaking to you about a special project just for students like you. Please make her welcome.”
Hernandez was younger than Benji’s teacher. She was also dark complexioned like Benji, something he noticed.
“Good morning, Ms. Hernandez,” the students sang out in unison.
“Good morning, students. You don’t know who I am, but you might have heard about the International Space Agency.”
Those words brought about a buzz of excitement.
“Quiet, class. Let Ms. Hernandez speak.”
“I am the newest astronaut at the Agency, the ISA. Part of my job is to travel to schools like yours in order to recruit students to become future astronauts. Would any of you like the idea of becoming astronauts?”
All the students put up their hands, waving them vigorously, to catch her attention.
“Ah good,” she responded to their enthusiasm with a big, approving smile. “Would you like to go to a special school to become an astronaut?”
Again the hands went up, with a few voices calling out in agreement.
“Let me tell you more,” she said once the level of excited noise subsided. “The Agency has a school program that is just beginning its third year. Like your school, most of the subjects are taught in classrooms. Some of the classes are done online, computerised classes. And some are done outdoors.”
“There is one difference between your school and the Space Cadet Academy. It is not a normal middle school. It is a more like a military academy. Students are required to wear a uniform and sleep in a dorm on the campus. Another difference is that classes start at the last week of September and go until the end of June.”
“At the end of the third year, there is only a three-week summer break. The extra school time is usually spent at either the International Space Station, or at the Lunar Academy Does this sound like something you’d be interested in?”
The idea of going to the Space Cadet Academy, knowing that summer vacations would basically disappear, kept most of the hands down. Only two students hesitantly still raised their hands, hoping in doing so, the bullies didn’t notice. Benji was one of those two students.
“If any of the rest of you become interested in learning more, please leave your name with your teacher. I will be back in three days to gather the names. Then, I will arrange for a meeting with your parents. Of course, you’ll need to get your parents’ permissions for the meeting. Now, I have other third year classes in your school to visit today. I want to thank you for being such good listeners.”
Benji watched her leave. As he sat at his desk, lost in thoughts about hoping to convince his parents to let him go the meeting, he was brought back to earth by a poke to his ribs.
“So the loser wants to go to space school!” Alphonso sneered. “What makes you think they’d even take a wimp like you, a mama’s boy?” he laughed as he mimicked kisses. “You’re such a loser.”
For the rest of the day, the bullies taunted him, knocking him on the head with their knuckles and saying “Earth to Benjamin, Earth to Benjamin. Come in Benjamin,” before giving him a shove and walking away laughing at their wit.
It was a relief when he got to take a seat on the city bus that took him to his home in the suburbs.
NB — This is a story I wrote for grandson number six. I have other stories written for his older cousins.
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