Astronaut

Chapter Nineteen: Me Against the World

Friday 7th October

Getting up and out of his bed with the sound of his alarm clock ringing in his ears, he goes over to his chest of drawers to take out his white shirt, black tie and black suit trousers that he wore to his Beatles concert. He places the outfit onto his unmade bed, then goes into his cupboard to get his shoes. He starts to get ready for his big day. Afterwards, he makes his bed, opens his blinds, then gets his bag and carries his shoes in his right hand. Descending the stairs, he puts his shoes at the front door and leaves his bag on one of the bottom steps, he turns and makes his way toward the kitchen where his family is. He enters the room and makes his way to one of the kitchen counters where one of his siblings have left the box of cereal he assumes. He makes himself a bowl and goes over to the kitchen table and sits in between his younger sisters. He hears his dad break the comfortable silence between them to ask him the following question:

"Do you feel prepared for your speech, Harv?" The redhead gives him a look of worry as if to say, What do you think?

"No," he replies glancing down at his bowl as if that'll give him the confidence that he needs

"Why not?" He hears his dad asking again as he continues looking down at his bowl

"Because I know I'll mess it up," he answers defeatedly

"You won't mess it up, you'll be fine," his dad reassures him. Once he's finished his breakfast, he goes back into the hallway to put his shoes on and grab his bag, his siblings join him a few minutes later so they can be took to school and kindergarten by Clint and William with Kenny tagging along as usual. Pulling up at his elementary school, he gets out of Clint's car with his brother and sister behind him. Entering the building, he leads the way to his classroom and waits at the door for one of the two Secret Service agents to return to him after getting Caroline and John to their own classrooms; once Clint returns, Harvey opens the door to Miss Jones's classroom, enters and immediately goes toward the front row where his best friends are seated waiting on his arrival. He sits down in between Julia and Iain as they wait patiently for the arrival of Miss Jones. A few minutes later, the young woman arrives and begins to address the twelve youngsters in front of her.

"Good morning, guys, are you all looking forward to hearing Harvey's speech later?"

"Yes!" the eleven students shout back. Harvey shifts his eyes downward in embarrassment, he looks up at his teacher and says:

"I'm not looking forward to it because I'm afraid I'm going to mess it up,"

"You're not going to mess it up, Harvey, you'll be fine," Miss Jones says comfortingly

"That's what my dad said this morning,"

"He's right. You're just nervous because you're doing something new, you've got nothing to worry about so don't get yourself all stressed out,"

"Thanks." When recess and lunch are over, Harvey goes into the school's average sized assembly hall where he will give his speech to the rest of the students. He makes his way toward the small stage where there is a podium in the front centre of the stage, he ascends the small steps at the side of the stage and goes toward the podium, he stands and looks out at the empty seats which his audience will be sitting in just shortly. After waiting for a few minutes, he sees the students from first to seventh grade arrive with their teachers, he goes to sit down in one of the chairs that have been lined up for the class presidents when they arrive. One by one, the class presidents from all seven grades join him on stage. He glances to the right and notices one of the boys from his brother's class, he turns to the left and his eyes widen at the sight of the much older looking and intimidating fifth, sixth, and seventh graders who are sitting in the same row as him. He waits patiently for the arrival of his head teacher so the event can finally begin; soon enough, the tall and stocky man in question comes into the assembly hall and stands in front of the waiting audience, then starts to say: