Sagacious Teens: The Wisdom of Today's Teenagers

Sagacious Teens: The Wisdom of Today's Teenagers

by J Thompson
Sagacious Teens: The Wisdom of Today's Teenagers

Sagacious Teens: The Wisdom of Today's Teenagers

by J Thompson

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Overview

Adolescents are wiser than we believe. Today's youth face multiple challenges-many of which are portrayed in the adolescent drama, Sagacious Teens, that shares a multicultural glimpse into the lives of more than a dozen teenagers from diverse backgrounds.

From Carlos who shares a far-fetched story of a weekend gone awry with his friend Ernesto to Richard who is having trouble balancing his girlfriend's demands with his own needs. Seasoned teacher J. Thompson provides eye-opening insight into how teenagers face problems and learn to deal with them, either on their own or with the help of friends. Carmelita loves two boys - one who is a compulsive liar and another who connects with her soul. Aretha is frustrated with the police and her community's lack of involvement. Artie and Rich are concerned about a school administrator who claims the students are his responsibility. Rob is upset when a well-liked teacher picks on him for wearing a hoody.

Sagacious Teens offers a look into the compelling experiences of a group of teenagers that helps bring awareness to parents, other adolescents, and teachers about the lives, interests, and challenges of today's youth.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781491743669
Publisher: iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date: 08/29/2014
Pages: 208
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.44(d)

Read an Excerpt

Sagacious Teens

The Wisdom of Today's Teenagers


By J. Thompson

iUniverse LLC

Copyright © 2014 J. Thompson
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4917-4366-9


CHAPTER 1

Haunted House


[Act 1: Scene 1 – Booth at a neighborhood fast-food restaurant. Time – directly after school around 4pm. Carlos and Ernesto are sipping drinks.]

Carlos – We had so much fun in Ms. Alcorn's class the other day.

Ernesto – Man, I love her class. I think that I love her too. She makes everything so interesting.

Carlos – Yep. She told us to write a story for English class. It could have been something that really happened or something imaginary.

Ernesto – What did you write about that was so much fun?

Carlos – She told us that we could work in pairs or work alone. I chose Antonio for my partner because he is a great artist and I could use him for my illustrations. Plus he's got a great imagination so he could add tidbits to my story.

Ernesto – So what was story about?

Carlos – It was about a stoned-out party last Saturday.

Ernesto – Where was it?

Carlos – Hey, you know you're my homie but this kind of happened spontaneously. It happened so fast, like a SST jet, no, more like warp speed in a Star Trek movie. [pause] I was walking my dog....

Ernesto – You mean that ugly pug.

Carlos – Hey, my pug is valuable. That dog is worth over a grand.

Ernesto – More like a grand of pennies.

Carlos – Whatever! My dog had to take a leak. He got away from me and ran to the back of this old, abandoned house. The house was boarded up; it was one those HUD foreclosure homes. It had all of its windows and doors boarded up. As I walked around the back of the house, looking for Skip, I noticed one window with a loose board. I pried the board loose and there was an open window, no glass or anything. I looked in. My dog looked in too. I told him to sit down while I jumped in the window.

Ernesto – Man, you entered a broken-down house. Isn't that against the law?

Carlos – What do you mean? Nobody lived there.

Ernesto – Dude, that's called criminal trespassing. That house was boarded up by the police or the sheriff. That house is owned by HUD; that's the government authority of Housing and Urban Development. You were trespassing on federal property and you could have been arrested and got five years in prison.

Carlos – Where do you get this stuff?

Ernesto – Hey, I look at TV. I look at cop shows, FBI shows, and other reality shows.

Carlos – Well, I was caught up in the zone. I saw this house. I peeked in. I went in the basement window and walked around. Man, it was so clean! I mean it was totally cleaned out. There was nothing there. No junk. No furnace. No furniture. Nothing! There wasn't even any dirt or dust.

Ernesto – I see why you were intrigued. It's like when Sherlock Holmes gets bit by an investigative bug. It's like curiosity was getting the best of you.

Carlos – Yeah, and an idea occurred to me. I called a couple of folks. Then they called a couple of folks. I called you but your phone was zonked out.

Ernesto – My money must have been funny that month.

Carlos – I feel you. I told folks that we needed four boom-boxes with plenty of fresh batteries. My mom has one of those emergency flashing lanterns. I asked others to bring some type of emergency lighting that runs on batteries. I didn't want to mess around with candles. I told everybody to bring the chicks, the chips, the chug-a-lug, and some cush. This wasn't planned in advance. It was automatic. Man, we had a jukin' session in about an hour that was out of this world. We partied like there was no tomorrow. Like that song, we partied like it was 1999.

Ernesto – Doggone it. I missed out.

Carlos – Yep. Well, time passed. We had fun. But when the drinks were running low or when they were all gone, somebody said that we better split. Somebody then went to the window, but it was all boarded up. It didn't make any sense. I looked at all the windows and they were boarded up too. I was stoned out but I remember where the window was when we first entered the building. I couldn't figure out how it got closed off. Like, we entered through here, yet it didn't make sense. People started to freak out. They said, "What's going on? Are we going to be buried alive?" I said, "No way, this is just some fluke. Maybe the wind blew some lumber over the window. All we need to do is knock the wood away and get out."

Ernesto – But if the wind blew the lumber over the window, why didn't your dog just bark? He must really be a good-for-nothing mutt.

Carlos – Skip wasn't there. I dropped him off home because some of the girls were scared of him and I had to pick up the lantern and other things from the house. I told the guys that all we needed to do was kick the boarded up window out. I then realized that the window was about four feet above the ground. So I couldn't just kick my way out. I tried to push it out and then hit it with my fist. My God, lumber hurts when you hit it with your bare hands. As I was pounding on the wood, a voice said in a deep, baritone type of way, "Cease!" [pause] I stopped and looked around. [pause] I again hit on the wood. Again a voice said "Cease!" I told everybody to stop playing around. This was no joking matter. All the chicks and dudes looked at me weird. I punched on the wood over the window, over and over again, and then the voice said "Cease! Cease!"

I looked at my crew and they said, "Hey man, nobody over here said anything." People were getting freaked out. They admitted to hearing the voice also. Somebody said, "Are we going to be buried alive?" I said, "No way. We are just going to have to take turns pounding away." One chick said that she was going to call her boyfriend. That was funny because she was real friendly with two different hard-legs at the party earlier. She pulled out her phone but the call didn't go through.

Other people got worried and pulled out their cell phones. Another chick said that she was going to call her dad. He was a cop. We tried to talk her out of it because that would incriminate all of us. She said that she didn't care. She said, "What's going to happen? They might send us up to juevie for a year or do some community service in the hood. I just don't want to die. I don't want to be buried alive."

Well her phone didn't work either. It was like we were in a dead zone; you know those places on earth where there is no cell phone reception. It was like being at the tip of the North Pole or at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Everybody tried to call and not one phone worked.

Other guys tried to pry the window boards open, and when they pounded and pried the boards or made any kind of noise, the voice said, "Cease! Cease!" I was so scared. It was like a nightmare. Chicks were shivering and whimpering. Heck, some dudes were shaking and crying too. Nobody knew what to do. We kept looking at each other for answers and everyone's faces were blank.

Some people tried to blame me, but I threw that right back in their own faces. I told them that no one forced them to come along. It's a free country. This is America. They all freely and willingly came on a voluntary basis.

That got them off my back for a while. Then people started to fall asleep. First, it was just one or two people dozing off. Then I noticed a couple more sleeping. One guy was snoring. I think that there was a shortage of oxygen. The air was getting thin. The heavier people were the first to fall asleep.

I feared that we would all suffocate and die in our sleep. I was determined not to go out like this. I was frantic. I needed to figure out a way out. Then all of a sudden, I remembered. When Skip was a puppy, he would always explore the neighborhood. He couldn't jump over the fence so he would dig in a spot every day until he could scoot up under the fencing. His motto must be, "If you can't jump over it, or go through it, then go around it or under it". I remembered that little puppy scooting under the fence and running away from home. He would always come back but I learned a lot from him.

I told the remaining healthy people that we needed to dig or our lives would cease to exist. We had to find a spot where there was loose foundation. We needed to dig first to get some fresh air. Then we needed to dig deep enough so that at least one of us could scoot out and get help for the rest of us.

Ernesto – So you are telling me that you actually tried to dig your way out?

Carlos – It wasn't at all easy. First, we had to find some dirt or a loose brick. The lower parts of a building are where the foundation lies. The foundation is usually made of concrete, sometimes concrete blocks or just slabs of cement. There is usually no dirt. But I didn't realize that until I realized we were trapped. The door leading up to the upper level, probably the kitchen of the house, was securely boarded. I searched the basement for a way out. Fortunately, I couldn't believe it, but there was some type of door. It was like a trap door about 4 X 4 feet. I opened the door and there was a dirt floor. Perhaps this was where there was once a coal bin years ago.

Ernesto – A coal bin?

Carlos – Yeah, about a hundred years ago people would heat their houses with coal. Today, we mainly heat our houses up with natural gas. Back then, a coal truck would drop chunks of coal off at the house by means of a chute. Today, we have natural gas pipelines. Well, I opened this small door. I felt a dirt floor beneath me. It was dark, ugly, and stinking. I think that there were dead snakes and rats in there. I didn't care. All I thought about was escaping. Digging wasn't easy. Digging on your hands and knees with bare hands is no joke. We had no other choice; no other alternative. Like I said earlier, the entire basement of the house was a concrete slab. This was our only hope. Digging with your hands is tedious. A shovel or even a spoon would have helped. I got others to take turns. After we dug for about an hour, I felt some type of breeze, a little fresh air, seeping in. I was so relieved. I literally placed my head in the dirt so I could breathe in some fresh air for a few seconds. I immediately called out for help. I didn't care about the police. I didn't care about juvie. I just did not want to die. [pause] (Carlos catches his breath)

And guess who came to our rescue?

Ernesto – I can't imagine. Who?

Carlos – Skip. My pug. I had taken him home, but he must have used his psychic animal powers or instincts to realize my misfortune. I left him at the house, but somehow he knew something was wrong and came looking for me. He probably got out of the house the way he normally does. When I called out for help, Skip started barking. When we first started partying, he didn't sense any real danger then. I mean, we were just having fun. But hours later, when I started banging on the wood at the window, Skip must have sensed danger, left home, and decided to come to my rescue. Well, he just kept yapping until a neighbor came by, wondering what all the noise was about. The neighbor heard my calls for help and notified the police. When the police arrived, they pried the boards away from the windows, helped us to exit the building, and I confessed to my wrongdoings. The sick went in the ambulance and went directly to the hospital. The rest of us had to answer questions first before the police took us in a paddy wagon to the hospital for a checkup. The police officers didn't believe in the haunted house story and the mysterious voice.

Ernesto – What did the police believe in then?

Carlos – Their theory was that someone must have noticed that we entered the house; then probably an hour after we entered, realizing that we were getting high and having fun, they secretly boarded up the window that we had first entered. They had to do it slowly and stealthily, not to arouse suspicion. Perhaps they were rival gangbangers. Perhaps it was a crazy adult. Anyway, the police said they were dusting the area for prints and other incriminating evidence. Whoever boarded up the window can be charged with attempted murder. This was no simple prank.

Ernesto – Wow! That was something else.

Carlos – And I'm sorry that I did it. I was only sentenced to one year of community service, but I now have a lifetime sentence related to a fear of basements and claustrophobia.

Ernesto – Man, was this story real or made up?

Carlos – You decide for yourself. Keep in mind that Ms. Alcorn's writing assignment could have been from something real or imaginary.


Bad Boys

[Act I: Scene 2. The same afternoon in the restaurant at another booth. Richard and Robert are sharing French fries.]

Richard – Man my girl is sweating me.

Robert – What's up?

Rich – She says I don't listen to her. She wants me to stop hanging out with my boys and to spend quality time with her.

Rob – What does she mean by "quality time'? That sounds like a divorced couple deciding on how much time each parent should spend with each child. [pause. Robert is munching on some fries.] She just wants to drive a wedge between you and your boys. She's selfish. She wants you all to herself. She wants a chump to go shopping with her, talk on the phone all day, go for long walks, have romantic dinners, wash and wax her car, and then maybe give up a little sex.

Rich – I guess that I didn't see it totally that way, but deep down I did get that feeling. I do all I can for her, but I need time to myself, for myself, to regroup and reenergize.

Rob – Well you can't let a girl drain you. They will drain you both physically and emotionally if you let them. I think you know what I mean about a physical drain. Remember, they are on the receiving end.

Rich – I get you.

Rob – Emotionally, you have to make a stand. You have to stand up for yourself. You can't be whipped. You know what I mean by "whipped", right?

Rich – Heck, I'm not sex-whipped. I mean she is good, probably the best, but I have self-confidence. I, too, am the best she ever had.

Rob – That's exactly what I'm talking about. So why should you give in to her every wish. She snaps her finger and you are supposed to jump. If you ask how high, she's ready to put you down or berate you for asking. You aren't supposed to ask how high, just keep jumping until she is satisfied. Why should you be the super-chump? Be a man. Make a stand. If she can't deal with it, then cool, move on, find another chick. They're plenty at school and hundreds in the hood.

Rich – Yeah, you remind me of Slim.

Rob – You mean the 350lb football player on the varsity team.

Rich – Yeah, I'm referring to him. He told me once that women are a dime a dozen. Don't sweat them. If one doesn't act right, there are eleven more itching to roll in the hay with you if you have the right stuff.

Rob – Yeah, but if you do find the right woman, don't mess around. Stick with that one like super glue. But in this case you need to tell your woman that you need some space. You need to relax and regroup. Tell her that you plan to be a better man after that.

Rich – I like that 'better man pitch', but what if she doesn't buy it? What if she thinks that it is just a ruse to break off the relationship?


(Continues...)

Excerpted from Sagacious Teens by J. Thompson. Copyright © 2014 J. Thompson. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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