“Shut up, all of you!” he snapped. “You don’t deserve to sit with me! Can’t I just have a table to myself?”
The teacher said, “I’m sorry, Hanley, but you can’t have a table all to yourself. We don’t have enough desks in the classroom. If you sit alone, there won’t be a place for the other three children.”
Hanley grew even angrier after hearing the teacher’s words.
“Are you doing this on purpose, teacher? What do you want me to do now?”
“Hanley, why would I ever make things difficult for you on purpose? I’m just telling you the facts. We can’t have these three students just standing at the back of the room, can we? I’ll ask around and see if any other children are willing to sit with you. If not, I’ll have to call your parents to come in and help us sort this out.”
Hanley was furious. His family's company was in deep trouble, his dad was busy every day, his grandma was paralyzed, and his aunt had just been thrown in jail. Which family member was the teacher expecting to show up and solve this problem?
Hanley was fuming as the teacher addressed the other children again.
“If none of you are willing to sit with Hanley, he might have to transfer to another class. And if no one in the other classes is willing to sit with him either, Hanley might have to go to a different school. Then you’ll never see him again.”
One of the children piped up, “That would be great! Then my mommy and daddy wouldn’t have to worry about us catching anything from him.”
“Yeah, yeah! You should leave our class right now! We don’t want to be friends with a liar.”
The teacher was at a loss for words. Why weren’t these kids following the script?
Then again, they did have a point.
Hanley was about to lose his mind. He, who had always been at the top of the social ladder, had never imagined he’d be shunned like this.
The teacher tried one last time. “Children, let me ask again. Is there really no one who wants to sit with Hanley?”
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