As the school bell rings a flood of students enter the classroom. One kid in a Messi jersey sits front and center and immediately puts their head on their desk and begins to snore. The teacher rights put a name on the chalkboard and turns around. 

“Alright class today is the start of Black History Month. Can anyone raise there hand and tell me anything they know about Martin Luther King Jr.?” Ms. Mandy asks pointing at the name.

A kid in the middle row slouching in their chair point into the air. On the top of their pointer finger is a finger hand. 

“Yes Cameron,”

“...”

Ms. Mandy sighs touching her head.

“Did you just want to show the class your finger hand.”

“Nice one Cameroon!” A kid behind him cheers as other kids begin to laugh. He wears backwards cap and baggy shorts. “High-five me!” 

Cameron and the kid high-five with the finger hand.

“Don’t interrupt my class Freddy,”

“Sorry Ms. Mandy,” Freddy says unapologetically and then starts laughing again.

“Well is there anyone else?”

In the front left corner of the class a kid in a black hoodie drawing on their desk mutters.

“He didn’t exist.”

“I’m sorry?”

The hooded kid looks up and directly into and. Mandy’s eyes.

“He didn’t exist, Ms. Mandy.”

“Zeporah, I can assure you that he did exist. I have a picture of him on the wall.” Ms.Mandy points at a poster of Martin Luther King Jr.

“So what? Are you telling me that Pikachu exists? I have pictures of it.”

“Ahh that Detective Pikachu Movie was epic!!” Freddy calls out, to which the group around him all agree.

A kid next to Freddy gets excited and stands. He wears extremely short shorts and a cap that reads  MASON in big bold letters on the front.

“Yeah!” Mason calls out. “I saw that with my Mom!”

The room goes quiet. Mason slowly sits back down.

“Obviously Pikachu isn’t real, but Martin Luther King Jr.’s a historic person,” Ms. Mandy replies.

“You know who’s also historic?” Zeporah asks, “Uncle Sam, is he real? What about Anansi the spider? Are you telling me Robert Downey Jr. is real?” 

“No Robert Downey Jr. is re-“

“R.I.P!” Freddy shouts putting up the cross.

“Yeah R.I.P when he died in Avengers: Endgame!” Mason calls out.

All students looks at Mason with a disgusted look. 

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“People who spoil movies are scum.” Zeporah says pulling out a Nintendo Switch and beginning to play it. 

Ms. Mandy lightly massages her forehead with a forced smile on her face.

“Let’s just get back on the topic at hand. Does anyone know who Martin Luther King Jr. is?”

Cameron slowly raises his finger hand up.

”Put your hand down Cameron.”

Cameron slowly puts his finger hand down.

A girl sitting upright with 3 different colored hairpins in her hair, Uggs on her feet, and wearing red glasses raises her hand.

”Yes July?”

“Uhh, he like didn’t ask questions right?”

“What? That doesn’t make sense,”

“No yeah, I think that was his thing. You know Benjamin Franklin had like created the first lightning, Ghandi was all like super hippie, and Samuel L. Jackson wears stupid wigs in his movies. Martin Luther King Jr. like never asked questions.”

“I’m sure Martin Luther King Jr. asked questions.”

“No I’m pretty sure,” She puts her finger to her lip thinking, “I read about this on like TIME magazine.”

“TIME magazine! I like their front pages, they always look so cool!” Mason exclaims.

The room goes quiet.

Ms. Mandy massages forehead profusely shutting her eyes. The sleeping boy wakes up yawning and stretching his arms wide and standing up.

“Alright I think it’s time for the ‘Kenbo’ to get his Kendall on!”

He then proceeds to take of his shirt in a overtly sexual manner. Ms.Mandy realizes the change in mood and upon opening her eyes sees Kendall with his shirt off and all the other students watching on as he pretends to ride an invisible bull with his belt as a lasso.”

“Kendall!!!!” Ms.Mandy screams, “Why are you taking off your shirt?!”

“Ah well you see,” Kendall says as he begins to take off his pants, “I read in TIME magazine that—“

“PUT YOUR SHIRT BACK ON NOW!” Ms. Mandy yells. Kendall, pouting, reluctantly puts his shirt back on, “And you will see me after class.”

“What the hell?” Kendall says walking back to his seat,  “I was just practicing.”

Ms.Mandy breathes in deeply.

“Now,” Ms. Mandy exhales and starts to speak in a much higher tone, “I see that, despite how surprising it is, none of you know who Martin Luther King Jr. is...”

“If he’s even real.”

“SHUT IT.” 

All the adjust themselves students sit upright. Ms.Mandy coughs readjusting her voice.

“So we will all start with a rough outline.” She forces a gentle smile onto her face “You see Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the civil rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s.”

“I bet you’re in your 50’s or 60’s.” Mason says.

The room stays quiet.

Ms. Mandy stares him down. Mason struggles to look her in the eye as he involuntarily sinks into his chair firing out anything he can to survive.

“Sorry Ms. Mandy, I lied, I actually think you’re very beautiful and could easily be in your late 20’s, even with your bags of bricks under your eyes, would you like to go out sometime? please don’t kill me.”

“Haha! Gerontophilia!” Freddy calls out. The class all look at Freddy. “It means you’re into old people.”

The class laughs. Ms.Mandy roughly massages her pained forehead again sighing. She then turns to write ‘I have a dream’ on the chalkboard.

“Settle down class. Now, Martin Luther King Jr. is best known for his ‘I have a dream’ speech. This is a speech in which MLK would—“

“Like Woah!” July exclaims putting her hand out to stop Ms.Mandy.

“What is it July?”

“Why are you talking about MLK?” 

“Because,” Ms. Mandy touches her forehead in pain, “That’s what we have been talking about this whole time.”

“Ms.Mandy we’ve totally been talking about Martin Luther King Jr., not MLK.”

“Yes July. Martin Luther King Jr. is MLK.”

“Nah MLK was everyone’s favorite black dude back in the day.” Freddy calls out, “He constantly got sent to jail and his house even got bombed for standing up for his people. OG!”

Freddy stands up. Everyone around him stand alongside him.

“Right MLK was like totally a genius who went to college at 15 and studying Sociology and later got a doctorate in Theology.” July says standing to her feet, “He then went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize too. He was totally as devout as a Shoalin monk.”

“Plus MLK was real.” Zeporah added standing up.

“MLK was a hero who fought and died so that little black boys and little black girls,” Mason grabs Cameron by his finger hand. The rest of the class follow suit holding hands with one another in a long chain around the classroom. “Can hold hands with little white boys and little white girls as sisters and brothers.”

The bell rings. Everyone leaves muttering about how they can’t believe Ms. Mandy didn’t know anything about MLK. Ms. Mandy sits on her desk massaging her head. Kendall grabs her shoulder.

“You know MLK had 4 children too. So he must have taken of his shirt at least a f—”

“You have detention for a week and I will be calling your parents again.”

“Damn it.” Kendall sulks off muttering, “No one understands me.”

-The End-