I Gotta Go!

[Cole Parker]

Colin Kelly's I Gotta Go! is a cute high school story. Read it and smile!

http://www.codeysworld.com/colinian/i-gotta-go/i-gotta-go.php

[Nigel Gordon]

I really enjoyed this story and would recommend it to anyone.

[dude]

Yes... I am afraid the teacher was caught "fragrante delicto"....

[Cole Parker]

Ouch!

[DesDownunder]

That was really well written, Colin.

I laughed more than once.

[colinian]

Thank, Des. For full disclosure I'd like to say here that I never had a teacher like Mrs. Ritchie. And didn't base in on any teacher in my high school. Really. "That wouldn't have been right for me to do, would it?"

Colin

[DesDownunder]

If you had based it on such a teacher, then I would say she deserved it.

My own teachers, grade 4-7, didn't actually smell, but their skills as compassionate human beings certainly did stink.

[Rutabaga]

The only high school teacher I remember being comparably bad was a French teacher who would not let me sit near the front even though my vision was impaired and I couldn't see the blackboard properly from the back row, where her mandatory alphabetical seating arrangement placed me. Luckily I was able to rearrange my schedule and get out of that class, although it meant giving up something else I was interested in.

With today's emphasis on reasonable accommodation for disabilities, I'm confident no teacher could get away with that kind of BS today.

And speaking of all this, I think it's time for Cole to share another Sebastian story.

R

[Cole Parker]

I doubt there'll be another of those. After writing the first, I decided to challenge myself to write a trilogy, something I'd never done. I like challenges like that.

But I wrote the three parts, and if I wrote another, it wouldn't be a trilogy any longer, would it? So, I think I have to stop where I am or the challenge won't have been met.

But Colin writing a trilogy about David, Jeremy, Neil and all would be a wonderful thing. Let's all focus on making that happen!

C

[Merkin]

You must not be afraid, Cole, of thinking beyond the ordinary. Now that you've got a trilogy under your belt, so to speak, why not turn it into a quartet? After all, Lawrence Durrell has been celebrated among GLBT readers for his openness and acceptance as a writer. You could pay him no little homage with a fourth part to your Sebastian tale...

[Graeme]

Or, you can take the Douglas Adams approach and have a trilogy in four parts....

[Cole Parker]

Hey, we're talking about Colin here! Remember! Colin! Focus, guys! He's the one who should turn Gotta Go into Gotta Go Again. And then Gotta Go Real Bad!

C

[Rutabaga]

Maybe Sebastian can move to the Bay Area.

R

[Guest RBartlett]

Reading this had me thinking you must have been in my 8th grade geometry class.

[colinian]

I've already written my trilogy: One Warm Coat, One Best Friend, and One Perfect Boyfriend. I'm NOT writing a Sebastian story! And apparently neither is Cole.

Colin

[Chris James]

Colin's story reminds me of several of my junior high school teachers. (that statement alone ought to date me in some minds) Mrs. Marple (no kidding) had to be the worst English teacher any eighth grader could encounter. Not only did she smell like some cheap perfume day in and day out, it seemed to linger on everything she touched. I'd swear she must have been drinking the stuff and it was oozing out her pores.

Mrs. Perez was my ninth grade language teacher. She spoke English with a heavy Spanish accent and that would have been fine if she had been teaching Spanish, but the subject was French and we had a hard time understanding her. I only passed that class by depending on the textbook.

So I Gotta Go was a fun experience for the readers, a good laugh here and there, but I would not wish a teacher like that on any student.

[Cole Parker]

It's really important to have good teachers in the middle years, grades 6-9. Those are the years of significant changes in the students, and also the years when basic educational foundations are set and some very important building blocks put in place. This is especially true in English.

I was lucky in that I had some excellent jr. high teachers, ones who related to the kids and whom the kids liked and wanted to please. I learned to like English in those years, leaned to like its inconsistencies and conundrums. I've tacitly thanked those men and women ever since.

Never had one whose odor I remember, however. Too bad, I guess.

C

[Guest Dabeagle]

As usual, I'm the odd man out on this. As I read it I was thinking - what if this teacher has some skin problem and for the last, what, 20ish years has been hearing these brats calling her names and generally being rude. I don't think I'd last a year without being grumpier than I am. She was wrong, no doubt, but the kids - with the exception of how the initial confrontation happened - were rotten. Using his father's position to cow someone who is supposed to be in charge of him? Yes, in that context, I get it - but he seemed pretty comfortable telling anyone - don't screw with me, my Dad is higher on the food chain than you are.

[Cole Parker]

I noted that, too, but was hoping he'd mainly use his superpowers for good, not evil.

C

[colinian]

As usual, I'm the odd man out on this. As I read it I was thinking - what if this teacher has some skin problem and for the last, what, 20ish years has been hearing these brats calling her names and generally being rude. I don't think I'd last a year without being grumpier than I am. She was wrong, no doubt, but the kids - with the exception of how the initial confrontation happened - were rotten. Using his father's position to cow someone who is supposed to be in charge of him? Yes, in that context, I get it - but he seemed pretty comfortable telling anyone - don't screw with me, my Dad is higher on the food chain than you are.

Bingo! You understand Jeremy and his personality. Kids can be really mean, to their peers, their teachers, and their siblings, and use their parent's and older siblings positions in the community to their advantage. Of course, all present here on AD are super nice and are excluded from this definition of "kids" — right?

Colin

[Merkin]

Most kids are defenseless and without recourse from parental and custodial decisions, including the adults in their schools. They depend upon those adults to be fair and evenhanded. As we all know, this is hardly ever the case since adults are convinced of the rightness of their decisions and actions.

When the balance of power is shifted, as it is in this story, the kid who is empowered cannot be expected to get it right cleanly and consistently, but he is doing his best to work with his new tool for the good of his own peer group. It will be tough going and a steep learning curve, I'll bet. He would be a very wise boy if he realized right away that power can corrupt.

[Guest Dabeagle]

Of course, all present here on AD are super nice and are excluded from this definition of "kids" — right?

Colin

I'm not sure how to take that.

[Lugnutz]

You still sit at the kids table.

[colinian]

I'm not sure how to take that.

Umm... the definition is:

Kids can be really mean, to their peers, their teachers, and their siblings, and use their parent's and older siblings positions in the community to their advantage.

Doesn't apply to anyone here.

Colin