“Good point, but seriously… Don’t kill yourself over this project. Its not going to wreck your average if you skip it.”
Rolling her eyes, Tristan ignored her brother. Part of her knew he was right, but she took her grades very seriously. She returned her eyes to the assignment, trying to think of an opening line. Something that would set her off in the right direction.
My mother was lovely.
My mother was crazy.
Momma was a rolling stone.
No. None of those would do.
At Steeplechase Academy, Bernard Kendricks was known as a particularly tough English Composition teacher.
He didn't just teach the basics. Kendricks demanded more from his students than most educators would even dream of asking for. He demanded that his students think outside of the box, using knowledge, creativity, and sound moral judgment. Mr. Kendricks was not above correcting the grammar of his fellow teachers, or holding a student in detention for using the wrong adjective in a sentence. He was tough, and he was not well liked by students and faculty alike. Bernard knew this, and he didn't give a damn. Despite all this, Tristan still respected the man as a teacher and she wanted to learn as much as she could while in his class. Tristan recalled suppressing a feeling of nausea as she heard the teacher announce the assignment across the classroom.
Who would have thought that a tenth grade English assignment could cause so much grief? Tristan thought.
***
Shortly after the first period bell rang, the students assigned to first period English Composition filed rowdily into room 219. They took their seats as they chatted loudly. Notes passed, gossip brewed, and Kendricks eyed his students scrupulously. Their free-spirited nature truly offended his more reserved manner. Standing at the chalkboard with a fresh stick of white chalk at the ready in his left hand, Mr. Kendricks allowed his elegant cursive scrawl to grace the green board before him. He wrote Biography Assignment for all to see. It was immediately obvious which students had taken Mr. Kendricks’ class the year before, as loud groans sounded from the back of the classroom. Tristan was surrounded by three students who had to repeat his class, and they just so happened to be her relatives as well.
To Tristan's left, her ginger-haired cousin, Shane, groaned loudly, “Not again!”
Meanwhile, two of Tristan's brothers, Blake to her right, and Tommy who sat behind her, sighed loudly as their hands hit their desks in frustration. Tristan peered behind her to see Tommy rolling his eyes in utter irritation. Kendricks took center stage, complete with a smug look and a cork clipboard in his grip.
“Attention, please… Eyes up front.”
Kendricks peered down over his wire-rim glasses, eyeing his students with deep disdain. Suddenly, all twenty-seven pairs of eyes focused on Mr. Kendricks.
"It is easy enough to write about someone famous, piggybacking off of the admiration of others, with quotes already obtained by a newspaper or a magazine. If you were to write a biography about someone who is wildly famous, there is probably not a lot that you could add that would differ from pre-existing works on the same subject matter,” explained Mr. Kendricks. He continued, “Instead of writing a report on a famous football star, world leader, or a rock band, I have decided that I am going to make this challenge a little more interesting."
“Great. I hate when he gets creative,” Tommy complained.
“It’s not like you’re going to do the project anyway!” Shane said laughing.
“Sssh!” Tristan urged, hoping not to get stuck in detention again for her brothers’ and cousin’s in-class antics.
Kendricks held his clipboard firmly and began to file up and down the aisles of neatly arranged desks.
He continued, “I am going to assign each of you a family member at random, and I expect each of you to write a comprehensive one thousand word biography on that person. You should utilize your best detective skills; conduct interviews, obtain quotes, facts, and artifacts of importance. Be prepared to present this data to the class during the week beginning October the twenty-third. Each of you will need to purchase a large poster board and neatly present your findings. You will each have fifteen minutes to give an oral presentation in front of the class.”
As the words ‘oral presentation’ escaped Kendricks’ lips, the class showed their great disapproval with a cacophony of noises.
Kendricks responded with an edge of annoyance present in his voice, "Shall we make it a half hour oral presentation?! I can devote the entire month to just this project."
Knowing that their teacher was not bluffing, silence took over the room faster than the clock on the wall could change seconds.
"Now. As I was saying, allow your inner investigator to flourish. Take pictures, add important details, and see how well you truly know your subject. Okay, here we go. I am going to call off your name with the relative you are to write your assignment on."
“Andrus, Jessica – Grandfather.”
“Callaghan, Bryan – Aunt.”