A Lesson Long Ago

By Sherry Walraven

Five high school students, who have been life-long friends, have been given an English/History assignment for the end of the school year. It was decided to do their assignment on the Civil War era and how the people lived in the middle of a war. They knew they wouldn't have a live soldier, who had been in the Civil War as a reference, but that's when one of the boys in the group told them his cousin, who lives in the North Georgia mountains, had made a time-machine. The others, while skeptical, finally decided they could, at least, look at this machine. What they saw when going to see the home-made time-machine was beyond belief as they gazed at what the cousin had made. The cousin told them he made it for a joke, and the high school students had no plan to go inside the strange contraption until they heard a scary noise making them run inside to hide from the odd noise. That's when their adventure of a lifetime began as they learned a valuable lesson from long ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Proisle Publishing Services
• Release date: Apr 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781959449515

Book preview

Prologue

The last thing the five friends from John Tuttle High School expected upon awakening on this bright Georgia spring morning was being chased by men in blue uniforms with long strange-looking rifles. Could it be an extremely frightening dream or was it, in fact, a reality? If so, would all five students be having the same dream? Not likely.

Run faster, Emily. We need to get far away as we can from these weird men. I feel like we are in the Twilight Zone, said Hailee in a shaky voice, who appeared to be the leader of this ragged group. At least, she thought she was.

Emily hoisted her backpack filled with heavy books higher on her back as she gave Hailee an inscrutable look and said, You know I’m more of a nerd than an athlete, and stop being such a domineering person.

Hailee gave her a look of doubt and told her, Do you want to die here in a place where we don’t really know where we are? If anyone could get through to Emily, it was Hailee. They had years of knowing each other’s faults.

Emily smiled as she said, Run everybody. Run fast. The others gazed in awe at Emily with mouths wide open as she ran past them all. It amazed the rest of the group, because they knew Emily did not like to run, jump, or skip, and walking a long way was debatable.

The assortment of students managed to find a dark-looking cave in which to hide hoping they could deter their would-be captors. It was better than running, and it just might work. Some of this group had their doubts about getting inside the spooky cave where who knows what might be inside.

Amelia, who had been quiet through it all, spoke up, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not going in a cave that could have animals or snakes in it, even if it wasn’t dark inside. I’ll stand outside and be the lookout.

Would you rather have gung ho men with guns catch up to us and shoot us deader than Aunt Sally or take a chance there is not anything alive in the cave, Tom had been listening to it all with a look of wonderment trying to make sense of this crazy situation. Get in or get shot.

Sam had heard enough, Okay, I never thought these words would ever come out of my mouth, but we need to get back to school and work on our history project.

Chapter One

It was a poetic spring morning at John Tuttle High School in rural Georgia after a much-needed spring break. Student cars and busses were filling the parking lots as students strolled toward the huge red brick institution of learning. Talking and laughter could be heard over the usual outside noises as eager students anticipate the ending of another lengthy school year. Three more weeks. Excitement was in the air. Look out summer, here they come.

The students in the extended hallways inside were no different than the excitement outside. The diverse array of quiet students, loud ones, funny, and sad ones were getting ready for another school day as squeaky locker doors opened and closed. Teachers flooded the hallways as students headed to their homerooms. The teachers were also exhibiting an air of intense behavior because they looked forward to their summer vacation. They needed a break just like the kids needed it, maybe more.

Some of the students traveled in cliques. One such clique was a combination of five students, both boys and girls. They had been fast friends since elementary school when they were in their first day of kindergarten, except Sam who came in a few years later.

On that first day in kindergarten, Tom came in and jumped up on top of a desk, Hailee told everyone to sit down and be quiet, and Amelia wet her pants, because she was frightened of all that was going on in the classroom. Then five-year-old Emily came in and said with a facetious attitude, You all have a decision to make. All of you can act like monkeys in a jungle, or you can settle down and begin your learning experience in an orderly fashion. Surprisingly, they all sat.

***

Years passed, and this friendly bunch was now in the tenth grade. They were amiable and talked to everyone, but at lunch and any free time they may have, they hung together, the girls of the group like to give dating tips to the two boys, who they thought needed it immensely. They also discussed weekend plans and whatever subject of interest that came up.

The unique personalities of these five students are what has kept them friends throughout the years. Someone only had to look at these kids with their different characteristics to wonder how they all became such close friends. The three girls and two boys complemented each other in a unique kind of way.

Hailee Greenbaum appears to be the leader of this blithe group and makes some of the decisions. She exhibits a strong personality, and everyone seems to like her, even the ones who are not members of the group. She can be a bit overbearing which comes, most likely, from being the oldest of six siblings. The others let her think she is the leader, but in all actuality, they were all the same and were equally in charge of their fun.

Unlike Hailee, Emily is an only child, so she considers the rest of the group as sisters and brothers, and they were all agreeable with that. Emily has a high IQ and often uses words the others in the clique have a bit of trouble understanding at times, but she doesn’t mind if they knew them or not, so she continues with her effulgence vocabulary.

Tom and Amelia Philpott are twins and are both extremely athletic. Tom plays on the school’s baseball and basketball teams, and Amelia plays on the girl’s school basketball team and runs a mean 400 in track, and their baby sister has exhibited the same athletic abilities. They come from a happy family who is proud of their kids’ abilities and never miss an event their kids participate in at school.

Sam Greely wasn’t a charter member of the group, because he didn’t go to their school until the week before. He was now in the tenth-grade class at John Tuttle High School. After being the new kid for around a week, Sam, who liked to trick people, decided to trick their homeroom teacher, Mr. Turner.

Good ole Mr. Turner was close to six foot four inches tall, and by all appearances looked like he would only weigh in at somewhere around one-hundred-fifteen pounds. His black-rimmed glasses sat on the lower part of his nose that he scrunched up when he looked over the top. He showed his economical side when he wore the same red tie with black poke-a-dots every day of the school year. Mr. Turner wasn’t exactly oozing with personality or a sense of humor and was often the brunt of students’ jokes.

Mr. Turner’s sense of humor was put to the test on Wednesday morning, when new kid, Sam, decided to play a practical joke on his new homeroom teacher. Somehow Sam had managed to obtain a device that made weird noises which he had taped underneath Mr. Turner’s desk, with Sam having the remote control. The remote had five buttons that made different sounds. Every time the clueless teacher sat in his rolling chair Sam would press one of the buttons.

Mr. Turner walked into the classroom and said, Good morning, young ladies and gentlemen. It’s good to see all of you again today as you walk these hallowed halls of learning. This was the regular routine of Mr. Steve Turner as he entered the room daily. Since he said this every day, the students would chuckle each time he repeated it.

He walked toward his desk to retrieve his attendance book. He could have accomplished this feat on the computer, but good ole Mr. Turner was old school and insisted on having a hard copy of his students’ names.

Some of the students think he looked like Ichabod Crane from the story the English teacher had them read last week. As he slowly reached his black rolling chair and began his descent to the bottom, Sam smiled as he placed a finger over the button.

As soon as his skinny butt hit the bottom of his rolling chair, Sam strategically tapped the button. As soon as the button was pressed, a loud noise sounding like a cat had its tail caught in a lawn mower blade, making half the students jump, while the rest were laughing. Mr. Turner began looking around the room and in the drawers of his desk searching for what may have made such a strange noise, which made the students laugh even harder. In truth, it did not take much to tickle the fancy of the students, and why they loved Mr. Turner.

Finally, good ole Mr. Turner decided the noise must have come from outside the window, so he walked back to his desk to do the attendance book. Again, as his butt began to lower, Sam had his finger ready as it hovered over the farting button this time. When the button was pressed this time, it frightened the aggravated teacher, and he jumped out of his chair and tripped over his size thirteen shoes. His glasses fell off the end of his nose. He began breathing harder and when he had time to think about all that happened, he went out the door and turned toward the office area. This was certainly a memory in the making.

As the baffled teacher exited the door, the bell rang for the excited students to leave homeroom and go to their first period class. Before Sam went toward his class, he took enough time to jerk the taped device out from under the teacher’s desk. He couldn’t forget to retrieve his device. He sure didn’t want to get in trouble in his new school.

Chapter Two

At lunch on the day of the torture of Mr. Turner, Hailee, Emily, Amelia, and Tom were still laughing over the debacle of their homeroom teacher. Amid all the outside tables sat friends and classmates chatting about their day and other mundane happenings. Hailee saw Sam walking around looking for a place to eat lunch, so she jumped up and went to where he was standing, Hey, I’m Hailee. Come sit with us.

Sam looked at the table Hailee was directing him to, and he must have thought they looked friendly enough, Ok. Lead the way lovely lady.

They reached the table where Sam sat down next to Tom while Hailee began introducing everyone. Sam smiled at his new-found friends and said, Hi. Good to meet you all. It’s kind of hard finding new friends when you are the new kid at school. My dad’s job moves him around to different places quite often, so I have moved a lot.

Tom looked at Sam and began chuckling, Man, that stunt in homeroom this morning was awesome. I haven’t laughed that much at school in a long time.

You think it was too much? asked Sam. He hoped he had made a good impression at his first week here.

No, it was just right, said Tom with a smile. Man, did you see the look on Turner’s face when he heard the noises, especially the farting?

Emily, not wanting to be left out of the conversation said, What I observed in homeroom this morning was stupendous. Well done, Sam.

Sam stopped chewing and looked at the group, How did you know it was me? Sam was a little puzzled because he didn’t think anyone could tell it was him. He sure hoped no one would tattle on him. He didn’t think these new friends would, but he wasn’t sure about the others that were in that classroom.

Hailee said with a big smile, I saw you push the button. That was so amazing. Don’t worry. We won’t tell. I don’t think any of the other homeroom students will either. They were enjoying it as much as we did. Why don’t you start eating lunch with us every day? We would love to have you.

That would be great. Thanks, said Sam. He was glad to have new friends who appeared to enjoy having fun as much as he did. Maybe this move his family made this time wouldn’t be so bad after all. He had already made friends and made his homeroom class laugh.

As the joyful group got up from the table, they kept talking and realized they all had English class together after lunch, so together they ambled to the class talking and laughing. The entire walk to class Sam kept glancing at Amelia. He thought she was beautiful and wanted to get to know her better.

Tom told Sam about Ms. Gee’s class, and that she was a great teacher and funny too. Much to Sam’s delight, the empty seat was right beside Amelia’s. Sam’s smile was larger than a rodeo clown as he sat next to Amelia, who didn’t have a clue how Sam felt.

Chapter Three

Ms. Gee, their English teacher, was a short lady who was dignified and had a generous nature. She wore quirky clothes that the girls loved, and she had a sense of humor and all the students loved her. As she always did, she came in the classroom ready for class, "As you know, your reading assignment, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, was supposed to be finished by today. I want you to write a thematic analysis on this story of your opinions of the characters and what you felt about the ending. If you don’t have time to finish during this class time, you can finish for homework." That made the students give an unusual frown.

One of the smarter students, who sat in the back of the room, raised his hand, Ms. Gee, what if we didn’t have time to finish reading the book? Ezekiel had rarely read an entire book all year. He always made up a weird excuse.

Ms. Gee smiled as she looked at Ezekiel who was giving