Monday September 4th 1996

---

Mort stood an the bus stop with his mother, It was a crisp September morning,

"Good luck today," she beamed, "just do your best, and that is all anyone will ever ask of you."
"I will, I promise," Mort replied.
The young fox hated to admit it, but he quite nervous.
It was the first day of school, and he was now in third grade and no longer one of the little kids. His thoughts were interrupted when the bus came roaring down the street.
He looked back, his mom was halfway back to the house. She paused , turned back and waved.
Mort returned the gesture solemnly and slowly climbed aboard.
"And so it begins," he whispered to himself. He found himself a seat near the back of the bus. The ride to school was short and uneventful.

---

His teacher was an old graying lioness by the name of Mrs. Briggs.
Mort looked around at his classmates. maybe it was just nerves, or a plain old case of the heebie jeebies, but he felt like they were scanning him, singling him out.
Not a word had been exchanged and he was already the weakest link, he could sense it. They lined up and walked inside to the classroom. They all chose desks, Mort's desk was in the middle of the class, he shoved his bag in the metal basket attach under his seat and sat down. Once they all were situated Mrs Briggs introduced herself.

When Mrs Briggs spoke, an icy chill went down his spine.
He had a feeling that she would be a tough customer.
She drowned on for a good 10 minutes about what she expected
"There will be a lot of homework and I know you will all to do your best," She finally said said.
They took turns introducing themselves.
A hyena a few desks stood up. She was wearing a white blouse with a sunflower design stitched into the sleeves and a denim skirt.
Her purple eyes gleamed radiantly in the mid morning light.
Mort was still at the age where most boys thought girls were icky and covered in cooties, so the thoughts and feelings that invaded his mind after noticing her were alien and unfamiliar.
He felt a twang of attraction, she was very cute. She said
"My name is Mira Dane" She said and sat back down
The gray tabby-cat behind him was Ray Young. . Mort stood up, and said
"hello my name is Morton Fredricson."

---

Mrs Briggs looked at the young Grey fox that stood before her.

Something told her that he would be a problem in the future, she had been teaching for over thirty years and she knew a problem student when she saw one.
Something about his demeanor displeased her, the notes he had been taking were smudged and barely legible, she could tell that he was disorganized. She had also noticed him eyeballing another student.
She would have to keep her eyes on this one.

---

Mort returned to his seat. Introductions went on for what seemed like an eternity.
After introductions Mrs Briggs said,
"I hope we can all be friends and work together because it is going to be a long school year."
Mort sighed, it was going to be a long year, his first impression was that Mrs. Briggs was a sour old grouch. He looked at the clock there was only fifteen minutes left to lunch.
He breathed a sigh of relief,
The next fifteen minutes passed quickly, they were given their books.
Mort nearly fainted when he noticed that the math textbook had a thousand pages and some of the problems at the back of the book contained letters.
How the heck did one add subtract and divide letters?...his mind reeled. The lunch bell rang

---

Their class sat together at a large table and ate. A strange feeling overcame Mort. Normally the lunchroom was full of laughter, chit chat and general banther,
things were oddly quiet today. Everyone sat quietly and ate.
He shrugged it off, it was the first day of school after all and tomorrow would be different.
There was a note in with his lunch that read,
"have a happy first day xoxoxoxoxoxxoxo mom & dad" Mort smiled and tucked the note in his shirt pocket

---

The bell rung for recess and the lunchroom emptied out into the playground.
The playground was a large arched structure that looked like a castle on one end and a tad bit like a ship on the other. Once everyone was outside everything seemed to liven up.
Suddenly someone tapped him on the shoulder and he nearly jumped out of his skin, he turned around and was overjoyed to see his friend Liam. The Bear was grinning from ear to ear, attached to his denim jacket was a "Hello my name is..." sticker.
"I began to worry when I didn't see you at lunch." he said "Who's class are you in?"
"Mrs. Briggs," Mort said.
"She is very strict, good luck." he said staring longingly at the field
"Thank you, who's class are you in Liam?"
"Mrs Keeley again."
"You are lucky she is so nice, best of luck to you too."
"oh and Mort I almost forgot the mot important thing."
"What's that?"
"Can't catch me!" he shouted and ran off into the field laughing like a madman.
Mort followed close behind, they chased one another through the field and ran back to the playground.
"To the top decks, capt'n!" Mort laughed, as they scaled the part of the playground that looked like a ship.
"Blimey she'za takin' in water!" Mort said "Man bilge pumps! hoist the mizzen mast! tighten the jib, swab the poop decks and all that rot!"
Liam laughed. "You can clean the bathrooms all you like, I say abandon ship!"
Then bell rung it was time to go back inside and get ready to go home.
"At least we get to see each other outside" Mort said solemnly looking up at the playground. They would have to finish their adventures tomorrow, the party was over it was time to leave.

---

Mort packed his belongings and boarded the school bus. Tomorrow the real test would begin he had a hunch that he would be doing a lot of homework over the next 180 days
he growled.

---

He walked home his mother was in the living room playing with his baby brother Allen.
Allen giggled playfully in her arms and pointed at Mort.
"It's your brother," his mother grinned.
Allen belched loudly.
"Hello to you to Allen," Mort laughed.

"How was your first day back at school?" she asked, they hugged.

"It was good I guess, I had a great time with Liam." Mort said.
"How is your teacher?"

"I don't know what to think about Mrs. Briggs yet, she seems OK." Mort lied, he thought that she was an old grouch, but that was besides the point, it was quite possible that she was grouchy because it had been her first day back in school too.
He figured he would give Mrs Briggs another chance.
"Why don't you go downstairs and say hello to your father, I'll make you a cup of hot chocolate, you have any homework yet?"
"not until tomorrow" Mort grinned. He walked downstairs to his fathers workshop.

---

Mort's father cleaned and repaired optical equipment for a living. The workshop was lined with disassembled instruments. The pieces littered the workbenches and in some places the floor. All of his friends though that his basement resembled a low budget-science fiction movie all that was missing were the bug eyed aliens.
Mort had always wanted to take some pieces his father didn't need and build a robot, how hard could it possibly be? An image of a robot crashing through the school and terrorizing Mrs Briggs invaded his mind. The robot could hang her from the top of the flagpole by her skirt like an ornament on a Christmas tree. He laughed at the idea,
He could name all of the equipment laying around, there were phoropters, tonometers, lensometers, keratometers and chart projectors. He could put a name to everything but didn't understand how any of the equipment functioned.
The acrid smell of solder invaded his nostrils. His dad was hard at fiddling with a circuit board with a lot of rainbow colored wires.
"Hey there, welcome home!" his father beamed, wiping his soldering iron off with a sponge,
there was a slight hiss and a small plume of smoke and steam.
"I want to show you something," his father grinned,
"An eye doctor in Peru shipped me this unit," he said pointing to a disassembled tonomiter on his work bench,
"he said it wouldn't operate correctly. So the first thing I noticed when I opened the unit and looked at the mother board was this," he reached under the desk and pulled out another large circuit board. Mort gasped there was a quarter sized hole burned right through it.
"no wonder it didn't work! Isn't the mother board sort of like its brain? How did that happen?" Mort asked.
"First of all yes, the mother board is sort of like the unit's brain," his father said.
"second of all, I am not really sure why it melted like that, most likely a short somewhere. Or it could have simply overheated...sometimes there is no explanation. Right now I took a board from another unit and I am going to try it in this unit to see if the rest of this junk heap works."
It was then that his mom called downstairs, dinner was ready.

---

Mort sat across from his father at the dinner table his mother had made breakfast for dinner there were huge heaps of pancakes , bacon and sausage. Allen was eating orange gooey baby-food his mother was feeding him from a jar.
Mort gagged "What is that goop?"
"sweet potato," his mom said.
Mort gagged a second time.
"You ate it as a baby too, and you LOVED it" his mom grinned.
Mort quick devoured a small stack of pancakes.
***********************************************************************After dinner they sat together and played several games of go fish together.
His mom looked over at the clock on the microwave, it was getting late
"You should probably get to bed at a decent hour, you need to rest up you have a long day tomorrow."
Mort remembered Mrs. Briggs and shuddered. He yawned, his mother was right he was exhausted

---

Mort took a quick shower, he closed his eyes and let the water cascade down his face. Some shampoo got in his eyes and they began to sting. He imagined that water was washing away all of his insecurities about the passing day, tomorrow would surly be different. Mrs. Briggs would be nicer and everything would go smoothly. He would find that everything he had sensed today was a product of his overactive imagination.

---

Mort curled up in bed, he was about to turn his light out when he noticed his father was standing at his door

"I almost forgot I bought you something while I was in the city today," His father said
he reached into his pocket and produced a tiny red box. The box had several buttons, a speaker and a key chain ring.
"It's a voice recorder, look" he said pressing a button, "Goodnight Mort sleep well," he said, he pushed a different button and the message he recorded belched from the speaker.
"Thank you" Mort said.
His father set the voice recorder on his nightstand.
"No problem," they hugged and Mort turned off his light.
Mort had never been much of a sleeper, so he was surprised at how quickly sleep came.

---

Suddenly Mort became aware of the fact that his classmates surrounded his bed, they were all smiling at him. Mort did not like the look they were giving him, there was hatred, malice and resentment behind those widening sneers. Suddenly Mrs. Briggs walked to the head of his bed.
"What do you want from me?" he snapped.
"Class is in session!" she laughed, it was a high witchy cackle.
His mom was knocking on his door,
"time to get up" she said. Mort quickly got himself ready and walked down to the bus stop.

---

His classmates demeanor had changed today, everyone seemed happier. Mort figured everyone had been nervous yesterday because it had been the first day of school.
Class seemed to go faster that day Although something happened that rubbed him the wrong way. Ray young kept glaring at him, he was a tad startled when the bell for lunch rang, he had assumed that it was much earlier in the day.

---

. He found Liam on the playground during recess and they ran around the field until it was time to go back inside. When they went back in and got told what their homework was Mort nearly fainted they had to the end of the week to write a 3 paragraph report on a topic of their choice (he had chosen tornadoes) and he had three pages worth of math to contend with tonight he suddenly felt overwhelmed.

---

That night he struggled with his math homework. Even though Mrs, Briggs had explained how to do it, math had never been his strong point. He did his best. He don't have enough brainpower to start the essay yet.

---

He turned in his homework the next morning and was appalled when it was returned with a slew-load of corrections written in red pen and a big 60% scrawled across the page, he had tried so hard.

---

It was a gray and overcast day, so they stayed inside during recess. Mort spent the majority of his time fiddling with some kind of magnetic model building kit he found on one of the shelves, he had slowly constructed an enormous star ship out of the pieces, it was a stunning rendition, he could almost see the laser flare from the blasters. Suddenly Ray Young shouted "catch," a bean bag flew out of nowhere and collided with his ship and it disintegrated in a shower of pieces.
The whole room suddenly froze, all eyes were on him.
"You mean jerk" Mort snapped.
"I said catch" Ray laughed.
"That's it both of you can write your names on the board," Mrs Briggs said,
"and if either one of you act out again you can put a check by your name after that it's the principal's office!"
Mort walked over to the board, half shaking with rage half shaking with fear, he had wanted to show Liam the spaceship, it figured, he wrote his name in all capitals on the board with a blue piece of chalk. MORTON FREDRICSON. He looked over and saw that Ray Young had done the same in lemon yellow. Mort returned to his desk and began to pick up the scattered pieces. There was a chunk that looked a tad bit like a fish, with a few adjustments it was a fish. Mort put the fish he had built on the chalk shelf under the blackboard. Ray was on the opposite end of the classroom sulking. Mort sighed, no need getting worked up over small stuff he figured, all was well, neither of them had ended up in the principal's office.

---

Mort sat alone on the bus, he was happy to be leaving school, he hoped that Ray wasn't too angry that he had snapped at him, it was an accident after all.

---

That night Mort started his report, he read through several books about weather he had taken from the school library. He was pleasantly surprised, tornadoes were fascinating, he had two of the three required paragraphs written within an hour. He decided to call it quits for the day. He had a cub scout meeting to attend later on anyways.
He spent the rest of the time before dinner fooling around with a metal puzzle someone had given him for his 7th birthday. It was a large series of interconnected and interwoven pieces of metal bound with chains There was a metal ring you were supposed to remove, and there was only one way to do so. The puzzle had come with no instructions, and four months later he still hadn't solved it yet,
there were several times where he felt that the ring was coming lose, so close and yet so far. His mom called him for dinner, she had ordered Chinese.
Mort ate a heaping plate of cashew chicken and lo mein.
"I am almost done with my report," Mort beamed.
"Good," his mother said, "don't want to turn it in late."
"Proud of you," his father said.

---

Mort practically ran to his room after dinner and got himself into his uniform. Tonight they were supposed to be learning how to use a compass. He had asked for a compass for his birthday, a real one not the crappy plastic toy imitations that one could walk into any toy store and buy. It had come with a leather carrying case that could be clipped on a belt. It was different from a toy compass because the degree measurements were etched into a rotating brass dial. He was quite excited. His mother drove him to the school were the meetings were held in the cafeteria. They spent the next hour learning how to use their compasses, Mort was surprised at how simple it was. They spent the second half of the meeting learning how to tie knots, Mort already had the square knot and two half hitches memorized but the bowline was still giving him trouble. His short section of rope was one big tangle. By the end of the night he was tying knots like a pro.

---

When Mort walked into class the next morning he laughed, the fish he had made from the magnetic building set had multiplied! There were several smaller fish someone had built overnight. He grinned and took his seat.

There was so much work , to be done today there were three separate tests in math English and science. Mort aced the Science and English tests, but he was not thrilled with the 75% he got on his math test, he had done slightly better, then on his homework. The lunch bell rang. The class lined up once again and walked to the lunchroom.
Mort devoured the excuse for barbecued chicken that the lunch ladies offered. It was bland, tasteless and the rice was slightly hard.
He decided then and there that he would never buy school food again.

Ray young kept glaring at him from the other end of the lunch table. Mort had a feeling that he was still angry about yesterday. The gray tabby bared his teeth silently and slid his plastic throw away knife under his throat, and said something that Mort couldn't make out over all the chatter. Several of his classmates stared at them.
Something told Mort that Ray had probably said something like

"I am going to kill you jerk!"
Mort sighed he suddenly felt very small. He looked at his food and realized that he had completely lost his appetite. He threw the tray and all its half eaten contents into nearby trashcan.

The bell rang for recess and all the classes lined up and walked outside to the playground.
It was a brisk afternoon and the leaves were beginning to fall. In a few short weeks
It would be time for overcoats, autumn bonfires, tasted marshmallows and apple cider.
A blood red leaf fluttered down from a nearby tree, Mort watched it descend wistfully. Liam was waiting for him on the swings.
"Looks like your fish had babies Mort," he laughed.
Mort smiled "Thank you."
"No problem" Liam grinned, he got off of the swing and they walked into the field again.

"I was stuck in latchkey with nothing else better to do with my time."
"It gave me a good laugh," Mort grinned.
There was a wooden wall in the middle of the field, that the older kinds used to play handball, they sat down in the shade it created
"So how is Mrs. Briggs treating you?" Laim asked.
"You were right she is a strict old grouch but I think I can take her."
Liam frowned, stood up and began walking back to the playground. Mort followed
The bell rung and everyone lined up and got ready to leave. Mort saw Ray Young in the distance he grinned maliciously back. Mort shuddered, he would be a problem in the future.