Approbation

Approval (n)

They called Tom the everything boy. He played every sport. He played the piano and sang in the Christmas show. He got high grades in math and science and won essay contests. He painted landscapes with mountains that they hung in the display cases at the entrance of the school. He was chosen for several state and regional debate competitions. His locker was pristine. He always got A's on Mr. Romley's essays, which were known school-wide as the hardest writing assignments in the entire universe. He had perfect attendance. He made Jenna Nabern, the prettiest girl in the 8th grade, laugh hysterically. He spoke affably with teachers, even Ms. Bartoli, the jaded, mean, and dark-eyed algebra teacher that was only happy, she grumbled to her students at least once a day, when she was running marathons. He played Dungeons and Dragons with the geeks and dweebs. Jocks and cool kids invited him to hang out with them on the weekends. He was an institution.
The first and only day he was absent from school, Principal Spiel caught himself asking "Where's Tom?" over the loudspeaker during morning announcements. The nurses were concerned that he had a virus. The geeks thought a goblin had gotten to him. The jocks thought he pulled a hammy or broke his leg sliding into second. The girls began to draft Get Well cards with hearts and "Come Back Soon!" written in pink ink. Everyone looked at each other nervously and shrugged, hoping that their everything boy would be in school the next day unscathed.
He did come back the next day. But he wouldn't tell anyone where he had been. He just said he hadn't been feeling well and that he was fine now. Jenna Nabern whispered cryptically to her clique that Tom wouldn't take his hands out of his pockets.
That day happened to be the day that Tom's short story was due in Mr. Romley's 5th period class. Mr. Romley, a very unusual 8th grade English teacher, spent an entire quarter doing a creative writing workshop with his students. Each student submitted an original short story, which was copied and distributed to the class and then read aloud by Mr. Romley who lead a short critical discussion about it.
Tom handed his story in to Mr. Romley first thing that morning. Mr. Romley asked Tom if everything was alright. Tom just shrugged and said that he hadn't been feeling well and that he was fine now.
5th period came and everyone shuffled into class. They took their seats with an unusual urgency. Tom sat down with his hands in his pockets and waited. Jenna Nabern whispered something a friend. Mr. Romley welcomed everyone, looked nervously at Tom, and passed out copies of the short story and sat down at his desk. He brought his reading glasses down to the tip of his nose and started reading.

"There once was a boy named Infinity. Everybody loved him. Everybody congratulated him about everything he did. If he painted something, people loved the painting. If he sang something, people smiled when he was singing it and clapped a lot afterwards. If he took a test, he got a good grade on it.
Everyone knew Infinity, especially because of his name. But it wasn't his real name. He had just told people that it was his name since he was little, and people just accepted it because it seemed like he had everything. Only one person knew Infinity's real name and that person was his dad, who was also the only person that never congratulated Infinity, the only person that didn't smile when he sang, the only person that didn't shake hands with him when he got a good grade. Infinity's dad had been sad since before Infinity could remember. Infinity thought it was because his mother died after he was born, but he couldn't be sure. That was the only explanation Infinity could come up with for why his dad didn't do anything except sit on the couch and look at the television or at the wall, and maybe go to the bathroom.
Infinity would sing him songs but they didn't cheer him up. Infinity would do long division problems in front of him with real big numbers. But it didn't impress him. Infinity would bring his friends home and his dad wouldn't even say hello. One week, Infinity brought home a different trophy every day and lined them up on the coffee table in between his dad and the television. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday. When he brought the last one home, Infinity's dad just leaned forward and pushed it with his hand so it didn't block the television.
Then one morning Infinity woke up and decided to stop doing stuff. He decided to do exactly what his dad did. He didn't want to go to school anymore. He didn't want to sing anymore, or play spots or do science fairs or talk to his friends. He just wanted to sit like his dad on the couch and stare. So he did. He didn't even brush his teeth. He went downstairs in his pajamas and sat down on the couch.
An hour went by. Two hours went by. After five hours, Infinity started to cry. He felt really small and didn't feel strong enough to handle sitting there. Then something wonderful happened. Infinity's dad turned towards him and said,
"Why didn't you go to school today?"
"Cuz I wanted to sit here," Infinity said.
Then Infinity's dad shook his head.
"You shouldn't do that. You're too good at stuff to do that," Infinity's dad said.
Infinity was crying. He looked up at his dad.
"I am?" Infinity asked.
"Oh yeah. Tomorrow you gotta go to school. I'll write you a note or something."
Then Infinity's dad smiled at him. It was the first time he had seen his dad smile. Infinity kept crying, but not because he was sad.
When Infinity woke up the next morning he got ready for school and went downstairs and he passed by his dad, who was sleeping on the couch. He was holding a folded piece of paper with Infinity's real name on it. Infinity carefully took it out of his dad's hand and ran to the bus stop to read it. It said:
"To whom it may concern: Please excuse ----- from school yesterday. He wasn't feeling well, but he's feeling fine now. I'm sure he'll make up the work he missed. He's a very good boy. Sincerely, -----"
Infinity folded it up and put the note in his pocket and held it in his hand for the whole bus ride to school and wouldn't let it go. Then he got to school and people asked him where he was. He said that he wasn't feeling well, but that he was fine now, and that Infinity wasn't his real name.
He never gave the note to anyone, not even the people in the attendance office. He kept it in his pocket and held it in his hand for the rest of his life."

THE END

There was a short moment of silence. Then Mr. Romley looked up from the paper and smiled underneath his glasses.
"Where were you yesterday, Tom?"
Everybody in the class turned to see the everything boy, whose hand was in his pocket. He said,
"I wasn't feeling well, Mr. Romley, but I'm better now."