Called On In Class

With fear and trepidation, Trent DeWhite wanders down the hall to his next class. He knows today is the day (horror of horrors) that he will be called on to give his oral report!

When he reaches the class, his dread is heightened by Brenda Frazier, who makes it very clear how excited she is to give her report. Brenda thinks her family heritage has destined her to do well on her report. This sends Trent on a series of daydreams dealing with a particular member of his own family tree - Abel McAlister. It seems that Trent's great-great grandfather was so afraid to speak in front of people that an entire city was wiped away by a flood. His fear had made him so unable to communicate, that he couldn’t warn them of the danger before it was too late.

Trent makes an excuse to go the bathroom and has a daydream about digging through the bathroom wall in order to escape his impending doom. He finally returns to class, after a small amount of concern from his teacher, and is promptly chosen to give his report. (He is the last one, after all.) As he hesitantly heads toward the front of the class, everything goes into slow motion. Will he truly be able to give this report?! But he begins, he tells the class a joke and they laugh. Suddenly, the report doesn't seem so scary. So, he starts into the rest of his report and...the bell rings! The report is moved to the following Monday.

Trent is reminded of what happened at the end of his great- great-grandfather’s story. Abel was able to overcome his fears, and actually ended up running for mayor. Trent used this as the greater part of his speech, and was able to successfully overcome his fear and give a great oral report.