Journal 4

Fredrick Benson: First school day mentioned

For the past week, I have gathered more and more evidence that Marcus Yallow is indeed this “W1n5t0n” character. The only problem was, that this kid was easily the most annoying, stubborn, and pesky kid in the school, even I must praise him for keeping his face straight and calm when I try to crack him. Today I had decided to try to crack him into either admitting he was “W1n5t0n” again, or at least so he would tell me who this character was, because I was sure he was related to this person.  A lot of my staff has asked me what my proof was, especially that teacher of his, Ms. Galvez, who keeps covering for that runt. No one ever understands the way kids think, they thing that they can get away with online crimes by making second accounts, and trying to be anonymous. This kind of stuff doesn't work with me though, I've learned my share of social psychology to know there are patterns in the way people talk, and I've noticed specific patterns between “W1n5t0n” and Marcus.

This time was no different from all the other times I called him down, I pester him, try staring him down, he keeps completely calm, this time, I had to get him for sure, so I resorted to bluffing, and made the biggest bluff I could without making it seem I’m a military general, I threatened to call the cops. I swear I saw him flinch, but he kept his overall posture and straight face, telling me to call the police and his parents. He provoked me! He actually urged me to call the authorities! I was hoping that I’d break him, but since he called my bluff, I had no choice but to let him free. The rest of the day was as boring as normal, I know I shouldn't be saying this kind of thing because I’m supposed to set an example for the kids, but I just can’t help it. I was just about to walk out the door when I remembered to check on something, I quickly turned around to check on the runt, Marcus’ class. It was as I expected, that runt had ran off again.

I was still pretty steamed when I got on the bus, and was really tempted to actually call the police for an investigation. Suddenly, the bus pulled to an abrupt stop, and almost rolled over to one side, it was a while before I registered that this was because of a shock that seemed to be really close to us. People were screaming like bloody murder outside and passengers began to clear out of the bus. I barely managed to get out onto and open area before my body was torn to shreds by the force of the crowd, and heard the loud speakers telling us what had happened and to ‘report’ to the nearest shelter. I didn't want to get pushed along with the crowd but who was I to argue? I could barely stay on my feet and I knew tripping and falling would mean certain death.  The only way to survive this disaster was to go with the flow, which was still pretty hard.

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I picked Frederick Benson for this entry because he is one of the key characters that were used to introduce the story, and he is also one of the antagonists. And is one of the main obstacles between Marcus and his Favorite game, “Harajuku Fun Madness”, which makes him seem like the ultimate evil to teens who have tried to sneak out of school for a game, like Marcus.

I chose this section in the book because it is where Benson is introduced, as well as where a description of his character is given by the main character, Marcus.