Skye Made Time Fly

What amazed P. Martin most about Skye was that nothing flustered him, not the girls’ giggling, not The Gang, not the drudgery of seatwork or having to seat still – not even The Changing of the Seats, which had become a daily occurrence.

“View it as shifting currents,” Mrs. Whimbrel said, on Skye’s second day.  She clicked her stopwatch, and before P. Martin could warn him about Jaeger and Kestrel, Skye was off, skipping around the room and whistling.  Within seconds, he’d claimed his seat.

“Over here, P. Martin,” he chimed out and tapped the desk in front of him.  “You’re right here.”

P. Martin couldn’t believe it!  As small as Skye was, he’d outmaneuvered Jaeger and Kestrel and had sat down, before they’d taken a step.  He laughed, flew to his seat, and before sitting down, ran a circle around it.  “Thanks,” he said, turning to Skye.

From that day on, Skye made time fly.


  

Vocabulary

Nonchalant => acting as if nothing bothers you; remaining cool and appearing unconcerned

Act As If They Didn't Exist

On the way to school the next morning, P. Martin couldn’t shake off his mother’s words. Act as if they didn’t even exist.

Act as if they didn’t even exist, he repeated, then caught himself, swallowing the words mid-sentence.  Quickly, he glanced in both directions, hoping no one was in earshot and hunched up his shoulders to readjust his backpack.  

It’d be just his luck that a someone from school would have heard him and spread the word. A match tossed into grass.  P. Martin talks to himself!  P. Martin talks to himself! He imagined his classmates buzzing around him like a swarm of mosquitoes, chanting Sp-ham, Sp-ham, the Repertory Man.  Just the thought of it made him shutter.  

And, then, he thought of Skye Bunting.  New to the class,  small, and didn’t even flinch when Jaeger hovered over him.  Just whistled like he had all the time in the day.  P. Martin wondered how he could be so -- so nonchalant, as his mother would say.  Probably never felt an itch in his life, he thought and hiked his backpack onto his shoulders again.  

Another Allusion

When P. Martin's mother has dubbed Jaeger and his friends as Jaeger and The Jets, she is referring to one of the two gangs in Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story, which is based on Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.  The other gang was The Sharks.  These NYC west side teenage gangs represented the rivalry between two ethnic groups, the white blue collar workers (The Jets) and the Puerto Ricans (The Sharks).  

Like Romeo and Juliet, Tony from The Jets (representing Romeo from Shakespeare's Capulet family) falls in love with Bernardo's sister Maria (Juliet from Shakespeare's Montague family).  Bernardo is the head of The Sharks.  Because these two "families" are at war with each other, Tony and Maria's love and dream of living a wedded life together are doomed to end in tragedy, which is what happened in Romeo and Juliet.

West Side Story takes place in New York City during the 1950's, and the original Broadway production was in 1957.  The lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim, and it was this musical that launched his career.

Vocabulary

Sentinel  => someone who guards a post

Think about how Skye Bunting refused to be shoved around by Jaeger and Kestrel; by holding his ground he was acting like a guard -- or sentinel.  Another word for sentinel is sentry.

Just Whistled

P. Martin liked Skye. Despite his being short, he wasn't intimated by Jaeger and the Jets, as his mother had dubbed them a while back, something Skye proved on his first day.  After Mrs. Whimbrel had lined up the class outside the cafeteria, Jaeger and Kestrel came from behind and tried shoving him, but Skye held his ground like some sentinel guarding his post and whistled.  P. Martin couldn't believe it.  

"Whistled?" P. Martin's mother repeated when he'd told her the story while setting the table for dinner.

"That's what I said -- whistled.  Didn't say a thing, didn't turn his head, or cower.  He just whistled, as if they weren't even there."  

"Smart kid," she'd said, "ignoring them like that, acting as if they didn't even exist."

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/indigo_bunting/id