Toxic

Toxic: Chapter #3 | School

Zach's Past

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Well, after telling you about my family, there's one other thing that is very important to me that I would like to tell you about and it's that I love learning. School was never a chore nor was it something I dreaded. It wasn't something that my siblings dreaded either. In fact, all of us excelled at it. We were like sponges for knowledge. We soaked up anything and everything that we possibly could. All five of us were so very eager to learn anything and everything we could. Of course, we each had a subject that we did best at and did better than the rest of our siblings.

For Zoe, it was science and let me tell you from a young age, ZuZu knew that she wanted to be a doctor. So, whenever it was time to learn anything that had to do with that area, she lit up and the passion she had was so evident. It was beautiful to see her heart put it into it, but of course, that's Zoe.

For me, it was math, especially Algebra One and Two. I adored it. Looking at a sheet of math problems and equations just waiting to be solved was thrilling for me. I loved putting my brain to work. It was funny because mom and dad would have me help with taxes and bills. I'm able to add numbers up in my head. So, why have a calculator? Whenever I'd get antsy, I'd pull out my math book and work on a few problems. My math teachers were thrilled and before middle school was over, I was almost ready for college level math.

For Zeke, it was English because he has such a way with words. He's the quietest and most laid back of the five of us. From the time he could write, he was filling notebook after notebook with his poems. He would read them to us whenever he could. When he was in elementary school, he submitted a poem to a contest and was hands down the winner. The same thing could be said for pretty much every year after. He even had his poems published in the local newspaper and eventually managed to publish a small book of poems. All of us of course got a signed copy. I love reading E-Z's (That's my nickname for Zeke.) poems and hearing him read them.

For Noah, it was History, especially the Civil War and World War II eras. His favorite president is Abraham Lincoln, and he loves the movie The Pianist about Wladyslaw Szpilman. I remember us watching that movie. Well, by us I mean Zoe, Zeke, and myself. At the time the three of us watched it, Alec and Noah weren't allowed to because of how gruesome it was. I still get chills when I watch it and think about it. Noah would educate us about the hardships that people in history went through. He'd always have a fact for us from somewhere in history. His senior year, they were talking about scholarships and there was one that asked you to write an essay on voting. They wanted the students to write about whether or not you should, in fact, vote, and Noah used various examples in history to explain why you should. His essay won and he was asked to read it to our governor. It was really cool, and we were all beyond thrilled for him.

Then last but most certainly not least was Alec. I know I said that all five of us had a subject that we excelled at more than the rest of our siblings but Alec...He loved them all. He's not better at one more than another. He's really good at them all. He's not better at science than Zoe. He's not better at Math than me. He's not better at English than Zeke. He's not better at History than Noah. He's just sort of in the middle. I don't think Alec had ever loved school as much as the rest of us. Oh, but if he had to choose a subject it would be art. Alec had a hard time when he first started school because he had always been extremely shy. I know from what I've written so far that it might not seem like it but that's with his family. When it came to school, he was quiet, shy but he was also observant. He noticed things that the rest of us never did.

One morning, we were all running late for the bus, something which rarely if ever happened. We rushed out the door and ran to the road, managing to get there just before it pulled away. We quickly boarded the bus and took our usual seats. Zoe sat with Noah, and I sat with Alec, while Zeke sat in the one seater in the back. He settled, pulled out his notebook and wrote a poem. He had this challenge for himself to see if he could write three hundred and sixty-five poems by writing one every day for a year.