For the rest of the week, Jeffrey decided to try to get comfortable with the French speaking kids. He went to the library and borrowed a French to English dictionary and prepare a sort of script.
Jeffrey was probably going to have to do a similar thing with the rest of the school groups and cliques. The French kids were a lot nicer than the 8th graders as a whole.
Jeffrey's bad habit also started to emerge, he was dreaming a little with his head stuck in the clouds when he should really be back down on earth focusing on his math classes.
"Jeffrey", his math teacher Mr. Moreno called on him.
"Jeffrey can you hear me?"
Jeffrey realized he was sitting back in the second row of desks of algebra class.
"Jeffrey pay attention, I need you to stop day dreaming and tell me the answer to the question on the board"
The rest of the students were staring at him.
Jeffrey would usually be embarrassed and ashamed, but he was getting a little bit big headed and his ego brushed it off easily.
Jeffrey said with a little to much confidence and spunk for his own good, "I don't know, I was a little lost."
Jeffrey was about 2 inches away from being sent to the principal's office. If he did it would be put on his permanent record. Supposedly there was a filing cabinet with folders that recorded school infractions and it carried consequences since those files would follow him to high school and beyond.
"Jeffrey are you going to pay attention now?", Mr. Moreno asked with a sharp tone.
Jeffrey recovering his sensibility, apologized and continue listening.
"Sorry Mr. Moreno. I'll pay attention to class"
The math class continued on finding x and balancing equations.
The sudden urge to brag about his accomplishments disappeared. Often times what Jeffrey thought in his head was not as cool as when he said it out loud.
Many of the times he went up to his parents or his friends he'd usually get dismissed with an, "Oh, that's cool. Anyway..."
Even if they did pay attention, it always felt awkward to Jeffrey. Their praises always felt unearned and all it seemed to do was maybe relieve his sense of insecurity and vanity.
"Vanity, vanity, all is vanity", Jeffrey recalled a quote from a book he read somewhere.
However like an idiot he'd keep making the same mistakes, he wanted to be recognized and when he received it he always felt like a fool.
Jeffrey kept his head down, taking notes on the textbook. Jeffrey needed some constructive way to let out some steam and cool off his huge ego. Unfortunately Jeffrey knew what he needed to do even if he didn't like it.