Here is the story that Furgeson students and I came up with
Setting: in the past, in a community in Washington state
Main character: Alejandro (Alex)- mean person
Other character: Brianda
Plot: Alex has no clothes.
Ending: sad
Please remember that this story was written in about three hours. Because of time constraints, I did not emphasize the setting much, nor did I describe my characters as well as I would have liked to. I hope you enjoy the story. Oh, and I did do a small amount of research on grasshoppers in order to write this story, something many authors must do when they write. Also, to my knowledge, there is no such thing as an orange-spotted grasshopper.
"Bullying the Bully"
“What’s wrong with him, Doctor?” asked Alejandro’s mom.
Doctor Jennings was shining a light in Alejandro’s eyes while looking closely inside like maybe he had lost his keys in there or something. “Give me a moment. I’m still doing my initial evaluation.”
Alejandro just sat there with no emotion. He wasn’t happy, mad, excited, or even glad. He just was.
The doctor finally withdrew his light and put it back in his pocket. “So, you say he hasn’t spoken in a couple of days now, eh?”
“Not a peep,” replied Alejandro’s mom. “Well, except in his sleep. He talks in his sleep but not when he’s awake.”
“This gives me an idea.” Dr. Jennings turned toward the nurse. “Nurse, see if you can get Dr. Schmidt in here. Quickly!” He looked at Alejandro’s mom. “Dr. Schmidt is one of the best psychologists that we have here in Washington.”
The nurse put her clipboard on the table and scrambled out of the room.
Moments later, Dr. Schmidt arrived. Before he could enter the room, Dr. Jennings met him in the hallway. They exchanged a few words and then walked into the room.
Dr. Schmidt walked up to Alejandro. He had a gray beard, glasses, and a long white lab coat. “Okay, let’s see what we got here.” He spoke with a thick German accent. Dr. Schmidt pulled a watch attached to a chain out of his pocket and then began to swing it back and forth in front of Alejandro’s eyes.
Alejandro blinked a couple of times, but that was it.
“Can you hear me Alejandro?” asked the German doctor.
“Yes,” replied Alejandro.
Alejandro’s mom gasped, “He spoke!”
“Yes,” said Dr. Schmidt, “now let’s here what he has to say.”
“But how….” interrupted Alejandro’s mother.
Dr. Jennings, who was sitting next to Alejandro’s mom put his hand on her shoulder. “He hypnotized him, Mrs. Gonzalez.”
“Alejandro, can you remember three days ago?”
Still with no expression on his face, Alejandro said, “Yes.”
“Good,” said Dr. Schmidt. “Take us back to that time, and tell us what is happening.”
“Well, I was at school shopping for clothes as usual.”
“Shopping for clothes?” said Dr. Schmidt with a confused tone.
“Yes. Shopping,” replied Alejandro. “You see, my family doesn’t have a lot of money so I only have one pair of shoes, one shirt, one pair of pants. You know. One of everything. You get the picture?”
“Yes, continue please.”
Before the school late bell rang, I walked up to Edgar. He was shaking like most kids do when I stand in front of them. I held my fist up to him and said, “Nice shirt.”
Edgar knew right away what to do. He pulled his shirt over his head and handed it to me. I took my shirt off as well, the one I took from Jimmy yesterday, and handed it to him.
After exchanging shirts, I pushed Edgar in the chest and said, “See you tomorrow, punk. Wear some nice shoes. Mine are getting old.”
Later that day at lunch recess Brianda, Edgar’s sister, came up to me and snarled like a cat in water. “Why did you take my brother’s shirt? That was his favorite.”
I smirked and said, “Was is the key word in your sentence. It’s not his anymore, but don’t worry. He can take it back tomorrow from the guy I give it to.” I looked down at her shoes. “Nice sneaks. Too bad you’re not my size.”
Brianda pointed her finger in my face and said, “One of these days, Alex.” Her forehead was wrinkled. She was so mad at me, she couldn’t even finish her sentence.
I swatted her finger away from my face and walked away. I needed a new pair of pants, and I thought I saw Jose wearing some designer jeans earlier.
I found Jose just before the end of lunch. He walked out of the bathroom and saw me marching toward him. He thought I didn’t see him, so he snuck back in the door.
When I reached the restroom, I kicked the swinging door open to scare the pants off of him. I swaggered over to the stall. The door was closed. “I hope you’re taking those pants off because I need them.”
A few seconds later Jose swung his pants over the top of the stall. I took them and threw mine over the door. They splashed in the toilet. That’s what he gets for not watching.
The next day I spotted Brianda and Edgar walking to school. I started running toward them from behind and almost fell down. My foot had slipped out of a hole in my shoe. It was time for a new pair, and luckily for me Edgar was wearing a new pair like I had told him to do.
I took off my shoes and sprinted up to them. They stopped and looked at me.
“Don’t you dare,” said Brianda. She was holding a jar with some grasshoppers in it.
“Be quiet Brianda the panda,” I teased. It was hard to make fun of her name because it didn’t rhyme with much. I gazed down at Edgar’s shoes. “Well, hand them over.” I threw my torn up shoes down on the ground.
Brianda decided to get tough. She opened the jar of grasshoppers and threatened the throw one at me as if that was supposed to scare me. She had said something like they were a special orange-spotted kind or something like that. A grasshopper is a grasshopper to me.
Anyway, shortly after I put Edgar’s shoes on, I started getting really dizzy. For the last couple of days I’ve been really bored sitting around the house doing nothing because I couldn’t talk or move.
“Ah ha!” shouted Dr. Schmidt. “I have figured out the problem.” He reached down and removed my hospital slippers and examined my feet. “Yep, it is just as I suspected.”
Alejandro’s mom stood and said, “What is it, Doctor?”
“Your son has been exposed to what some people call tobacco from a special breed of grasshopper. It’s really a digestive juice.”
“What breed? Will he be all right?” Alejandro’s mom was rattling off questions.
Dr. Schmidt’s face turned grim. “I’m afraid there can only be one grasshopper that can do this. Do you see this yellow marking?” He pointed at the bottom of Alejandro’s foot.
She nodded.
“This is the mark of the digestive juice from an orange-spotted grasshopper. Normally, it’s pretty harmless if they spit on you. You can just wipe it off. But, if you leave this digestive juice on your skin for too long, it will absorb into your skin. When that happens, it attacks the part of your brain that is responsible for communication, making it impossible to communicate when you’re awake. The only reason Alejandro can speak to us now is because he is in a deep sleep while hypnotized, and for some strange reason, victims of the orange-spotted grasshopper can still talk in their sleep.”
Alejandro’s mom was in tears. “But he didn’t say the grasshopper spit on him.”
“He didn’t know it,” replied Dr. Schmidt. “Most likely, the grasshopper was already inside his shoe when he put it on. The digestive juice had many hours to soak through his sock.”
Knowing that Alejandro could still think, even though he couldn’t speak, his mother continued to send him to school. She figured he could still listen and learn without talking.
The next day at school after everyone went out to recess, Brianda walked past Alejandro’s desk and stopped. She looked down at Alejandro’s feet. “Nice shoes.” She chuckled. “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”