The Street Festival: How A Wallflower Became The Hero

Chapter 2

Despite his grand transformation plan, when it came time to start school, Marty would find it much easier to just hide behind his shyness in his new school, rather than trying to suddenly force himself to be more outgoing.

He knew no one here and while he had originally believed that would make it easier, he discovered he still wasn't bold enough to go through with such an outgoing decision.

When he looked in the mirror he told himself that everyone would see right through the act anyway. What he saw staring back from the mirror wasn't as cool and manly as he thought he would be by now and he just couldn't muster the courage to do it.

The morning of his first day at the new school he completely chickened out on his plan and decided to hide behind his glasses instead of wearing the contacts. He didn't wear his new clothes either and he slicked his hair back; tucking it behind his collar.

The first few weeks of school went just as he knew it would and he made absolutely no friends at all. Even worse, the other nerds didn't welcome him into their group either and he was becoming very lonely again.

Marty was hitting depression levels he'd never experienced before, even more unhappy than he had been at his old school.

Not only was he an invisible nerd who only got attention on the occasion when someone decided to make a joke at his expense or comment on how weak he looked, but now, he didn't have his one friend, Gerald, here to hang out with either.

His friendship with Gerald had been somewhat awkward but genuine. Gerald was as socially uncomfortable around everyone as Marty was, maybe even worse, but at least they understood what each other was going through and they had endless hours of Marvel comics, anime, sci-fi movies, and their love of cutting-edge science like string theory and quantum physics, between them.

Now, without Gerald, he was truly alone.

On top of this, there were a couple of guys at his new school that were worse than anyone at his old school.

At least at his old school, he had never been held upside down over a toilet and given a swirly, threatened with violence if he didn't allow others to copy off his test paper, or been forced to give up his homework so someone else could turn it in as their own.

At this school, these things were happening a couple of times a week.

One day, just over two months into the school year, it happened. An announcement came over the school intercom that would prove pivotal in Marty's life. The town of Lakeview has announced its annual Octoberfest Street Fair would be happening on the last Saturday and Sunday of the month.

Marty thought about the street fair throughout the rest of the day. He pretty quickly realized that Saturday was two days before Halloween and the more he thought about it, the more an idea began to pique his curiosity.

Something he'd looked up on YouTube a few times out of curiosity, came to mind. This was something he'd found strangely fascinating when it came up in a TV show or a movie, but it was only a curiosity, not something he'd ever actually considered trying for himself, well not until now.

The more he considered it the more he began to want to do it.

Marty pushed the idea to the back of his mind, telling himself it was ridiculous and he could never do it because it would only end up being a disaster. Regardless of how he tried to dismiss the idea though, it still niggled in the back of his mind.

The day before the fair, on a whim, Marty threw caution to the wind and hastily hatched a plan.