At the front of the room, Ms. Trepky folded her long, elegant fingers together.

“It’s time to start discussing your semester projects,” she said.

Groans from the back row. Dustin Pierce, the loudest groaner, said, “But it’s the beginning of the school year.”

Ms. Trepky stood still until the groans stopped. “I am aware of that fact, Mr. Pierce,” she said. “However, these are not last-minute throw-together projects. You will have to work on these consistently throughout the first half of the year if you’re going to get the grade you want.”

More groans. Ms. Trepky folded her long fingers together again and the scuffling and whispering stopped quickly.

“For your semester projects, you will each select a figure from our textbook. A person you find more than merely interesting. This will be someone you relate to, or admire. Someone you hope to emulate. For your final project you will write an essay and give an in-depth presentation on this person, giving us much more information than you have in your textbook. You will present this person to us in such a way that when we leave the classroom, we feel this person has become our friend.”

“Hey, Abe Lincoln, wanna share your lunch?” said Dustin. The back rows burst into snickers again, but not for too long. This was Ms. Trepky’s class, after all.

I could picture Abe Lincoln, at some afterlife podium, giving Dustin a sad and stern frown. And then probably half of his sandwich, too, since he was a nice guy.

“Your presentation can have, if you choose, a creative component,” Ms. Trepky continued. “This could be a poem, song, piece of art, a dance, whatever you choose. This creative component, or however you choose to present your chosen historical figure, will demonstrate what important things you feel you have learned by spending the semester researching this individual.”

Dustin Pierce raised his hand. A rare occurrence. “Can we make a movie?”

“Yes, you may,” said Ms. Trepky. Dustin high-fived the pudgy boys on either side of him.

Then it was my turn to raise my hand. I like to know about each assignment as far in advance as possible, so I can plan and prepare, and so I know how much time it’s going to take. “What will next semester’s project be?”

Ms. Trepky looked down at her hands and there was a flicker at the corner of her mouth that might have been a smile, although I didn’t think I’d said something funny. Then I heard the whispers behind me, and even though I couldn’t quite hear what they were saying because I don’t hear so great, they reminded me that probably nobody else cared about next semester’s project already. I thought I maybe heard Dustin mumbling something that started with an F, which is the first letter of the name he used to call me. Or maybe they weren’t talking about my question at all. It didn’t matter. I looked back at Ms. Trepky.