Save Me a Seat

Ravi puts out his carefully-labeled, covered math notebook, which his mother believes will impress his teacher, as well as the rest of his supplies, excited about the prospect of demonstrating to his teacher what a smart student he is: “I keep looking over at Mrs. Beam, but I don’t think that she has noticed yet how well prepared I am” (50). Ravi also wants to impress Dillon, who almost shows up late. Mrs. Beam announces they will do a review, and Ravi feels confident. He looks back at Joe, who is groaning in his seat, and compares Joe’s unkempt look to how Ravi was required to dress professionally for school in India. Ravi volunteers to demonstrate the first problem on the whiteboard.

Joe pleads internally that Mrs. Beam will not call on him to demonstrate math problems on the board. He remembers back to kindergarten, when he was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder and began to go to Miss Frost to help him concentrate. Joe feels like Miss Frost is the only person who understands how hard it is for him to block out ambient noise and how much he hates being put on the spot; even when he knows what he’s doing, he gets nervous and makes mistakes.