Down With The Queen

Aaron Felt

      Christened Aaron Nathaniel Felt, the boy was the first offspring of the third generation Felt family. As a Felt First (that was the name given to the first child of every Felt family), Aaron was expected to be of good behavior, talented, and smart enough to represent the family internally and externally, if need be. He was also expected to carry on with the family’s very successful automobile business which had been in the family ever since great-grandfather Nat-who he was named after-had migrated to Knox from the West and had started up the first of its kind car dealership in the then sleepy town of Knox. It was there that great-grandfather Nat met the woman he would fall in love with and marry, thus planting his feet firmly on Knox soil.

Aaron found out early enough that he didn’t care much for cars, and would rather be playing football with his school team or going on road trips than shutting himself up tinkering with cars and polishing them till they shone like the sun. He liked the cars though, and would often be seen taking different models out for a spin.

Aaron was a brilliant child, his father always said, much to the annoyance of Aaron’s younger brother Cole. Cole was the second and last child of the Felts, and often times Mr. and Mrs. Felt seemed to forget that they had another child asides Aaron. Cole felt that (Ha! See what I did there? Or not. Anyway, back to the story) no one could be so perfect that they didn’t have faults, and was constantly trying to set up Aaron in front of their parents. But be that as it may, it seemed that there was no wrong that Aaron could do in the eyes of his parents; after all, whatever was deemed right or wrong was in the eye of the beholder.

Aaron loved his brother Cole, and did not take all his schemes and shenanigans to heart. One could even say that Aaron was the Thor to Cole’s Loki. Rather, he found ways to outsmart the poor boy, further proving his father right about him being smart.

His only flaws though, were the fact that he didn’t seem willing to carry on his family’s business legacy, and the girl called Jennifer Simon.

Aaron was yet to officially let his folks know that he wasn’t interested in becoming a car dealer like his dad, and would often use football practice as an excuse to avoid going to the sales garage and auto shop, where the cars were stored and worked on. His dad did not mind him playing football as it would look good on his college application, but also had no idea that his son was boycotting his legacy.

      At Knox High though, Aaron was a star. He was the most popular boy, a talented quarterback on the Football team, and also happened to be dating the Queen Bee of Knox High, Jennifer Simon. What was more fulfilling to a thirteen year old ninth grader than that?

The only problem was, Jennifer was mean. And since Aaron really liked Jennifer, he was his weakness at that point, which also meant that he would do anything to make her happy or satisfy her.  But Jennifer was rarely satisfied, and making her happy was a herculean task. But after the Great Humiliation (which was what he called that very tragic incident- in which he’d had a hand in), he had sobered up and decided to do away with the social hierarchy. He had tried to talk sense into Jennifer, but Jennifer felt the Humiliated deserved what came to them, and would not dream of relinquishing her crown for law and order. After all, she said, society would be in shambles if it had no leaders.

Since his beloved Jennifer wasn’t going to do away with her crown nor with the social hierarchy, he’d tried to do it himself. He made an attempt to break up with Jennifer during lunch break, at a place where all and sundry could witness the divide-the Cafeteria. The Cafeteria was the physical structure the pioneers had used to determine social classes, maintain social order, or in a worst case scenario, blow the social order to smithereens-like Aaron had tried to do. But somehow, Jennifer thwarted his plan and turned it against him, declaring him an enemy of the state. Weeks later, when Aaron would sit in his room pondering on the events of that early afternoon, he would wonder why he had ever underestimated Jennifer when curating his stupid and albeit dramatic break up speech, for he knew that she was very smart, and it was one of the reasons why he liked her and dated her. Well, he liked her for who she was and dated her because her being the most popular girl at Knox High pushed him to the top of the social ladder, which at that time, had seemed important to him.

     But not to the emotional and physical detriment of other people, who were humans too. He had realized that they were all just being badly behaved children at the Great Humiliation, and worst of all bullies to those who had never really done anything to them except belong to the bottom of the hierarchy. And so, Aaron Felt received his humiliation at the Cafeteria a fortnight after the Great Humiliation, and thus, became a social outcast.

He was still a jock and star quarterback though, but just not as relevant as he used to be. And since then, he’d tried to avoid Jennifer who had recently started paying him more attention and tried to get him back.

But ever since Vi McCain stepped out of her car that sunny afternoon, he swore he wanted everything to do with Vi, especially as he felt some kind of weird déjà vu whenever he was with her.