Chill

Colin Frizzell

Orca Soundings

Copyright © 2006 Colin Frizzell

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Frizzell, Colin, 1971-

Chill / Colin Frizzell.

(Orca soundings)

ISBN 1-55143-670-1 (bound) ISBN 1-55143-507-1 (pbk.)

I. Title. II. Series.

PS8611.R59C45 2006         jC813'.6    C2006-903258-0

Summary:
How far will Chill and Sean go to expose a teacher's deception?

First published in the United States, 2006

Library of Congress Control Number:
2006928469

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover design: Lynn O'Rourke

Cover photography: Getty Images

Orca Book Publishers               Orca Book Publishers
PO Box 5626, Station B        PO Box 468
Victoria, BC Canada        Custer, WA USA
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www.orcabook.com

Printed and bound in Canada

09  08  07  06  •  5  4  3  2  1

In memory of my dad, Art.

There are too many people to thank them all by name, so I'd like to give a blanket thanks to all my friends, family and the many teachers who encouraged and supported me along the way. Especially Dad (Art), who gave me a love of storytelling; Mum (Peggy), who gave me a love of words; and my sister, Trish, for her encouragement and endless proofreading.

Also I'd like to thank Andrew Wooldridge for taking a chance by giving me one.

Finally, and most importantly, thanks to my wife, Jordann, for her love, encouragement and patience.

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds,
Are immune to your consultations,
They're quite aware
of what they're going through.”
—David Bowie

Chill's foot dragged behind him like a murder victim being taken to a shallow grave by a killer too weak to do the job, but he still stood straighter than any other kid in school.

His presence far exceeded his wiry five-foot-nine, fifteen-year-old body. Chill's size didn't matter because he was fast, and the speed was made twice as powerful because no one expected it from a guy with a bum leg.

He held his head high and no one made fun of him. Well, except for that one kid.

It was back in grade five. He was a big guy, new to Glendale Elementary. Kids are like wolves when they arrive at a new school; they look for the weakest in the pack and try to take 'em down. This—they hope—will get them the much-needed acceptance of the pack. You can't survive in school on your own.

It was the first recess and the new kid, Shane or Wayne, something like that, spotted Chill. Once he saw Chill's leg, he made his move.

“Hey, hop-a-long,” he called out, though Chill didn't hop. Hopping would have meant he was trying to appear normal, and Chill didn't try to be anything but what he was, and what he was, was Chill.

“Hop-a-long,” the kid yelled out again.

Chill stopped. He shook his head like he'd been waiting for it. Like somehow he knew, from the moment he laid eyes on this kid, that it was going to come to this.

He sighed and turned but didn't say anything.

Chill wasn't much of a talker. He didn't have to be. His sharp eyes and multitude of expressions could speak volumes. On the other hand, I was a talker and often spoke for Chill.

“What do you want?” I said, sticking close to Chill's side.

“I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Hoppy here,” he said, nodding at Chill.

“I don't think he wants to talk to you,” I told him.

“What's the matter?” he said. “His tongue as dead as his leg?”

The kid laughed. He looked around, hoping others would join him. No one did. He turned back to Chill.

“So what happened? Your leg fall asleep in class and you couldn't wake it up?” he laughed again and looked around again—nothing.

The lameness of the attempted jokes aside, he should have picked up on the lack of reaction from the crowd. He should
have realized that no one appreciated what he was doing and that
this
wasn't going to gain him any friends.

Chill shook his head and turned to walk away.

“Where do you think you're going?” the kid asked. “Nowhere fast, that's for sure,” he added.

As Chill walked away, so did everyone else.

The new kid was losing his audience. He grabbed Chill by the shoulder and spun him around. Chill lost his balance.

I went to catch him, but he caught himself before I could and straightened up proudly. Chill stared at the kid with a warning glare that would have made anyone with a lick of sense back off. This kid was not good at picking up on subtleties.

“You shouldn't walk away when people are talking to you,” the kid threatened. “Didn't your mom teach you that? Or did she give up teaching you anything when she saw you couldn't even learn to walk?”

It took a lot for Chill to lose his cool, but it was definitely going. He turned away again. This time the kid swung Chill back around with all he had, determined to take him down.

But Chill was ready. He didn't so much spin as pirouette, with his bad leg swinging like a club.

Chill only meant to sweep his attacker's legs out from under him, but the kid had stiffened his leg so he could get the full momentum in his pull. When Chill's leg connected with the kid's knee, it gave a sickening pop that made everyone in the yard stiffen. The kid dropped like a gummy bear from the ceiling after the saliva dries.

Despite the pain, the kid tried to get to his feet to save face, but he could only move himself along the ground like a lame toad.

“Who's Hoppy now?” I yelled.

This got a laugh from everyone—except Chill.

When I turned to congratulate him on his victory, he'd already disappeared around the corner.

I found Chill tucked out of sight with his sketchpad in the far doorway of the school.

“That was cool!” I excitedly told Chill.

“No,” he told me, coldly and firmly, looking up at me from his drawings. “It wasn't.” He lowered his head, returning to his sketching. We never spoke of it again.

Well,
he
never spoke of it again. I told anyone who'd listen. I know violence is wrong, but that kid had it coming. Well, maybe not the six weeks on crutches and the endless teasing until he finally got a transfer—but still.

Chill got two weeks' suspension and was on probation when he got back, but that wasn't much of a problem. Chill never caused trouble, not real trouble, anyway.

The story—with as much help as I could give it—went through the school and the county, and by the time we got to high school it was told with the kid getting two broken legs—both broken in three places. Nobody bugged Chill about his leg again. That is, until the new teacher came. What
Chill did to that teacher would be a story to shadow the other one into obscurity.

It was the second year and the second semester of our four-year high school sentence, and we lucked out and got art for homeroom. I wasn't much of an artist, but it was an easy way to start your day if you didn't take it seriously and worry about things like color and contrast, light and shadow, lines and perspective—and I didn't. Chill did, though, so to get through I'd just mimic him as well as I could.

It's all right because in art it's not called cheating, it's called being heavily influenced by another artist. According to Chill, all the greats did it. It's like in film when everyone copied Tarantino after he copied the Hong Kong and Japanese directors. None of them were cheating or stealing. They were being “influenced by” filmmakers that they admired and respected. And I admired and respected Chill. (I also admired and
respected Susie Jenkins' math skills, but we'll keep that between us.)

The teacher, Ms. Surette, couldn't tell that I was copying anyway. My projects looked nothing like Chill's no matter how heavily he influenced me.

Ms. Surette was the other reason that art was a great way to start your day.

There are three types of teachers. First, there are the teachers who just want to do as little as they can and go home. These are the ones who give you an assignment at the beginning of class that will take you the whole class to complete. They sit and mark work from their other classes so that they will have their nights and weekends free. They're easy teachers to have. As long as you're quiet, you can do just about anything you want with that hour—after you get the assignment done, of course. We'll call them type A.

Then there's type B. They're the ones who
end up
teaching, who think themselves better than it and are bitter at everyone for having to do this job that's so obviously beneath them. These teachers pick their
favorites, who are always the students who are most easily controlled, and grind the rest down, crushing every dream you've ever had before the “real world” does it.

Type Bs are the ones who sparked the stereotype “Those who can't do, teach.” They're not the majority, but they do the most damage, sticking with you as a little voice that cuts you down every time you dare think yourself worthy.

Finally, type C. Ms. Surette. A teacher who loves teaching.

A teacher who talks to you, not at you. A teacher who tells you that you can do whatever you want to if you put your mind to it. A teacher who understands that the “real world,” which we're supposed to be frightened of, doesn't have wedgies, swirlies, people threatening to beat you up, constant put-downs and unbearable pressure from all sides to conform.

“If you can survive until university with just a little bit of yourself still intact, the ‘real world' will be a much better place than the one you're in now,” Ms. Surette said.

Ms. Surette was big on the “staying true to yourself” thing, which is why she liked Chill so much because Chill was Chill. She also liked him because he was a heck of an artist.

“Chill,” she said, looking at his rendition of the bowl of fruit that she'd had us painting all class, “I want you to work on something else this semester.”

“Sure,” Chill said.

“You haven't heard what it is yet.”

“That's okay,” he said.

This made Ms. Surette smile. She had told us that when opportunities and challenges arise, saying yes opens doors; saying no closes them.

“Does that go for drugs too, Ms. Surette?” Pete Moss had asked. We had called him Pete since the time, for a dollar, he drank the water we rinsed our brushes in. It turned his teeth and tongue green for a week. His drugs comment got a small laugh from everyone.

“Yes,” Ms. Surette replied, silencing Pete and the class. “The challenge and opportunity there is for you to show your
willpower, your ability to think for yourself and not give in to the pressures around you. And to keep all your brain cells intact. And you should say yes to all those things.”

“Yeah, Pete Moss, you don't have any brain cells to spare,” I had said. The class laughed. Pete Moss showed me his iq score by holding up a middle finger in my direction.

Ever since that day, Chill agreed to do whatever Ms. Surette asked of him, often before she could finish asking.

“Because,” Chill said, “if she's asking it, it's going to be a challenge or an opportunity.”