Just a quick short story I have to do for an English project. The theme for our short stories is misunderstanding and prejudice. Here's mine. Tell me what you think of it.
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So ended another rough day in school for Antonio. He and his family had come from Mexico because his father had to find a new job in America. ‘Mind of Mencia’ on Comedy Central has been a huge hit before he even moved here. While Antonio did watch the show a few times, he would just change the channel if he knew there was going to be a joke about Mexicans coming up. And as popularity for the show began to rise, so did the popularity of Mencia’s jokes around Antonio’s new school. A lot of the guys based Mencia’s jokes off of discriminating Antonio. Some jokes he could shake off whereas other jokes were too much for him.
Whenever he got home and his mother asked how his day was, he’d just claim it was a rough day due to rigorous lessons and/or lots of homework for the night. He felt that if his mother knew what was going on, she would snap and try too much to end the problem but fail to do so anyway. After one day of school of Mencia’s gimmicks coming from the students, Antonio decided to himself “I just need to see why these jokes are so funny at all.”
After being kicked off the bus by one of his schoolmates who was instantly pulled back into the bus after yelling “Be glad! I bet that didn’t hurt as much as that barb wire you jumped over to get here!”, he rushed home, brushing himself off. He opened the door and when his mom asked how his day was, he said “Alright,” and rushed upstairs.
“Hm,” his mother muttered. “Guess school’s getting easier for my boy.”
He turned on the TV to comedy central, but it wasn’t on yet. He remembered it’s later this night. Checking the TV schedule, he found out that there would be a rerun at 7:30. 7:30, he thought. That should be right after dinner. Guess I’d better eat fast and not talk too much about my day.
So when dinner came, which was the usual of steak and rice, Antonio knew he needed to chow down his food fast in order to find out why those Latin American jokes from Carlos Mencia were so funny. He ate fast but not too fast, which would keep his mother from wondering why he’s eating so fast and he wouldn’t have to bother thinking of an excuse. His dad got home from as he was half-way done with his dinner. His mother told him how today was different for Antonio. And when his father asked how it was different, Antonio just replied ‘I guess my classes are a bit easier for me. Or was it the lighter homework load? One of the two…”.
“Well, that’s nice to hear that school’s getting easier. Any new friends?” he asked.
“Well, I’m still looking to see what kind of group looks best for me. It’s always hard trying to adapt to a new school.”
“Alright then,” his father replied. After eating his dinner, Antonio quickly washed off his plate and ran upstairs to his room, leaving his father wondering as well why he was in such a rush.
Antonio instantly flipped on the TV in his room. It has just finished with the intro screen of Mind of Mencia. Minutes passed and still no joke referring to Mexicans yet. Right before he turned off the TV, he heard ‘Mexicans’ from the TV. But he dropped his remote before he could realize what the TV said before it was turned off. Worse yet, it fell into a pile of clothes, making it harder to find. He tried digging through but threw the clicker in another direction in the process. He found it again, but the show had just ended with Carlos saying goodnight to everyone. It then came to Antonio that it wasn’t worth it to go through all this trouble just to find out why Mexican jokes were so funny. He in fact rather lightly thanked the clicker for flying in another direction as he realized the joke would be of no point to listen to anyway. The only problem was that he would still have to face the issue of going to school again.
The next day, no one seemed to have bothered him about any jokes. Antonio found it rather odd that no one recited any Mexican jokes from last night. Getting home from school, he told his mother that it was even more different from yesterday, as everyone was quiet. Soon, the truth came out. Antonio’s mother took action and put a stop to the prejudice and misunderstanding. She explained that she was smarter than she looked and that Antonio should just ignore any single negative joke referring to Mexicans.
