The Unteachables

Two weeks have passed since Kiana started at Greenwich. Stepmonster never properly registered her with school, but Kiana sees no reason to fix that since she’ll be leaving soon anyway. She doesn’t feel like she belongs with the Unteachables, but she also kind of likes the class. The kids are different, and she doesn’t understand why they “can’t be with everybody else” (60). She also thinks there’s more to Mr. Kermit than he lets on.

One day, room 117 joins Ms. Fountain’s class for Circle Time. Ms. Fountain’s room looks like kindergarten, complete with bright-colored pictures and a pet gecko. Ms. Fountain asks if anyone has a compliment to offer. Aldo can’t manage to say anything nice, but Elaine surprises everyone by saying she likes Ms. Fountain’s shirt. A bit later, Barnstorm returns from a meeting with the football team. As he joins the circle, one of his crutches hits Aldo’s head. Aldo swats the crutch across the room, knocking the lid off the gecko’s terrarium. The gecko escapes, and Mr. Kermit takes his class back to room 117, where he resumes ignoring them.

The next day, Mr. Kermit heads to school after realizing he has no food in his apartment. On the way, he passes a billboard for Terranova Motors, the third-largest car dealership in the state. Years ago when Mr. Kermit was a new teacher, Jake Terranova (now owner of Terranova Motors) sold students the answers to a Greenwich-wide standardized aptitude test, resulting in nearly perfect scores. Mr. Kermit took the fall for the scandal.

At school, Mr. Kermit hunts through his car for his lunch and finds it torn up, along with Ms. Fountain’s escaped gecko. On his way to return the lizard, he overhears Ms. Fountain telling her mom on the phone that Mr. Kermit is “barely even alive” (73). Mr. Kermit squeezes the gecko, which lets out a squeak that gets Ms. Fountain’s attention. She takes the gecko, and Mr. Kermit leaves without saying anything.