Where Everything Went Wrong

Intro
An innocent Redondo Beach man puts together pieces of a puzzle to discover where things took a wrong turn in his life. This is his story.

Story
It was February 21, 2008, Adams Middle School was in session. When Alexandros Martinez was walking to class, he saw Katin Powell talking to Mr. Pede. The following day, when Alex was getting ready to go to lunch with Raymond Gelsey, both boys saw Katin monitor the lunch line. It was revealed yesterday morning that Mr. Pede talked to Katin about being the lunch line monitor.

The next few months, everyone got used to their routines. Katin kept on monitoring the lunch lines, Ms. Beck has been giving checks to students, and Raymond and Alex eat lunch with Ms. Cawby's kids. One day, Alex felt heartsick about Ms. Rosadini, since she was moved up to 6th grade teacher. Alex was certain that Ms. Rosadini will be back to teaching Special Education Math and Science next year. The trouble was that he and his classmates will be in high school.

In summer school with Ms. Burbano, Ms. Albrecht announced that Rosadini would not teach SDC in 2007-08. She was offered to stand in for Ms. Semel-Deck, who fell ill and could not teach that year. As a result, Ms. Beck was hired as Rosadini's replacement. Knowing the direction that Ms. Beck's class went, he longed for Rosadini to return as SDC teacher. Alex was certain that Beck is not teaching at Adams School forever.

Years had gone by. It was Senior year. Christian Martinez's first year at Adams Middle School was also Alex's last year at Redondo Union High School. When Alex was looking at the middle school website, he wanted to see if he could pay a visit to his former teachers (i.e. Gearin, Rosadini). He found out that Beck is no longer the teacher at Adams. Kellie Ma now teaches Special Math and Science.

At one of the Friendship Circle meetings, Alex remembered Ms. Beck and brought her up in a hangman game. The hint was: "I was happy to hear that she no longer teaches at Adams Middle School". Students kept guessing letters until the answer was "Ms. Beck". Connie Atkins said that she saw Ms. Beck at the beach over the weekend. Alex told her that she is no longer teaching at Adams, which he is happy about. Raymond was concerned on why Alex doesn't like Beck. He responds that he brought Beck up, since Kellie Ma is now the teacher. Connie was familiar with Ms. Ma. Likewise, she adds that Beck was a nice teacher that Connie really liked. No one ever talks bad about Connie's favorite teachers.

The next time Alex played hangman with the club, he got the entire class to participate. It was the same as last time, but he added another hint; "this teacher was replaced with the real sweet Ms. Ma". Students kept guessing random letters. Even Mannal Haddad incorrectly guessed "Ms. Jost". Alex said that "it had to be a teacher from Adams Middle School".

Only two letters shy of getting the puzzle complete, Ms. Rhodes walked over to the board to see what Alex was writing. Rhodes yelled at Alex to "erase the hangman game" since "it was not nice to say that one is happy that someone is gone". Alex tried to reason that the new teacher was not as bright as Rosadini. Rhodes, however, kept the hangman game up under the condition that the next round was appropriate for the club.

This put Alex off so much that he wrote a letter to Ms. Rhodes once he left Redondo Union High for El Camino College. Angered at what Rhodes did in March 2012, Alex mentioned the hangman game and how Rhodes yelled at him about "being happy that Ms. Beck was finally gone". Alex said that he was going to make Rhodes feel bad about what she had done.

Days later when classes were back in session, Christian Martinez, an 8th grader at Adams, received a voicemail from Lori Shimkus from the Redondo Beach Police Department. Knocking was heard at the door, so Chris told Alex to answer it since it is probably the police.

Alex opened the door to a slim, tall, non-breasted female police officer. It was Lori Shimkus. She came to the Martinez house to talk to Alex about his problem with Ms. Rhodes. Shimkus gave Alex a copy of the email he wrote to Rhodes over Thanksgiving. According to Shimkus, this message caused "quite an uproar at the Redondo Beach Unified School District".

Alex had a clear explanation for this mess. When Alex was a senior at Redondo Union High, it was also Christian's first year of middle school since 6th grade now takes place at Adams. He heard that Ms. Carol Beck no longer teaches at Adams and that Kellie Ma was hired. Some people, including Chris' science teacher Ms. Behenna and the Hoyer's family-friend Grace Scotting, agree that Ms. Ma was really nice. Cue to Friendship Circle's RUHS School Meeting. Alex remembered Ms. Beck and how she was finally gone. He played a hangman game talking about how "Beck was finally gone". Rhodes walked over to the board to see what Alex was writing. Rhodes yelled at him to take down the hangman game, since it was not very nice to be happy that someone is retired.

For short, Rhodes yelled at Alex to take down the hangman game, which made him feel uncomfortable. In return, Alex intimidated Rhodes to see how she likes it. Friendship Circle did not matter to Alex anymore and that he and James Clark, whom introduced Alex to the FC in 10th grade with the Catalina trip in 2009, are through as both guys never talked since 2011. Shimkus peaced Alex out and told him to stay out of trouble. He had to inform his parents about Shimkus' visit to the Martinez house. They were not pleased about this.

Around Super Bowl Sunday and Chris' 8th Grade Science Camp trip, Shimkus sends an email to Lorna Martinez about what Alex did.