The Street Festival: How A Wallflower Became The Hero

Chapter 1

Martin "Marty" Levinson; a sixteen year old, five foot five inch, 154 pound mass of lumpy, dumpy, stereotypically unimpressive, glasses-wearing nerdiness. A modestly overweight, book smart, effortless straight "A" student; the kid in class that always threw off the grading curve and everyone hated him for it. If he missed one question on an exam, he was having a bad day.

In true nerd fashion; in addition to the glasses and extra weight he needed to lose, his clothes were neither fashionable nor new. He had a squeaky voice, a goofy laugh, and was frequently picked on and laughed at by pretty much everyone else. No one took him serious or cared to get to know him.

Marty got his nerdiness from his grandfather on his mother's side. His grandfather was a real nerd and one of the most influential unknowns of the 20th century. If you polled two hundred people on the street you'd most likely not find a single person who knew his grandfather's name, yet virtually everyone's life is different because of him.

Way back in 1964, Marty's grandfather was the inventor of the first motion control device that allowed for smooth control of a graphical user interface; the computer input device better known simply as a mouse.

As a young child, Marty's grandmother had always impressed upon him that he was someone special, too. She would point to his granddad's accomplishment and tell Marty that greatness flowed in his blood and that it was in his genes to do something just as great as his grandfather, in some form or fashion.

Marty's grandfather had died several years ago and his grandmother six months later. He'd had a hard time dealing with their deaths and as a result, became even more introverted than he already was.

No longer having his grandmother around to constantly tell him how he was destined to do something wonderful in his life, he currently no longer believed this to be true.

Now, whenever he looks in the mirror or looks back on his poor, shy, nerdy, plain existence he doesn't see anything special, nor the potential to become anything more than the nobody he already is.

Yes, they always say that nerds grow up to rule the world; people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. But Marty believed those guys obviously had something he didn't.

He didn't believe he was destined to be anything other than a shy quiet wallflower, nor did he believe he and his mom's financial situation would allow him any opportunity to ever change his current destined menial life trajectory.

It also didn't help that when his father was drunk he would constantly tell Marty he'd never do anything significant or even accomplish anything like his grandfather did, so he already believed he was destined for anything but greatness.

That was before his parents split.

In February of his junior year of high school, Marty's mom, Amanda decided she'd had enough of his father's alcoholism and abuse, so she filed for divorce.

His father moved out and since Marty had just turned 16, the court allowed him to choose which parent to stay with. He wasn't close to his father, and in fact, frequently witnessed the abuse his mother received, or occasionally found himself on the receiving end when he tried to defend her, so chose to live with his mother.

At the time of their divorce, Marty's mother hadn't held a job outside the home since he was born. She now found herself in the position of having to reenter the workforce.

After having applied to many different job postings, Amanda was finally hired for a full-time office position in the front office of the elementary school in Lakeview.

Lakeview was a little town two hours from where they now lived, so they were going to have to move, but that job wouldn't start until the new school year in the fall.

Marty decided, since they had to move it would be the perfect time to try to change his image. No one knew him there so he hatched a plan to arrive in Lakeview looking and acting much less like a nerd.

He decided he'd try to improve his physical looks a bit by working out, eating better, wearing more stylish clothes,and maybe trading his nerdy glasses for contacts before the move. Show up in his new town as someone cooler, more likable, someone others would want to hang around, someone who wouldn't get picked on.

He had always had really short hair, but now he thought that maybe growing it longer would make him look cooler, like less of a nerd, so he hatched a plan to achieve all of this.

The first thing he did was to download a workout app on his phone and start exercising.

Every morning before school he did sit-ups, crunches, lunges, and alternately walked or jogging 1.5 miles to trying to get rid of the little bit of extra weight he had on his body.

He changed his diet, eating low-carb options and cutting out fast foods, all fried foods, and anything with sugar.

He stuck to his new routine religiously and before long he began to notice an added benefit, the persistent acne he had been plagued with since puberty, was starting to clear up.

Over the summer he watched all kinds of self-improvement videos on YouTube, studying how to become a better person, how to change your life, how to make friends, etc. He also did some fashion research and convinced his mom to buy him a couple of new outfits, designer brand jeans, shirts, and a fashionable pair of shoes.

A week before the move he went to the eye doctor, intent on getting rid of glasses which he had worn since he was in kindergarten. When he walked out with his new blue iris contact lenses in, he didn't realize just how different he now looked.

His only friend, Gerald, also a nerd, told Marty as soon as he saw him, that without glasses, and his new eye color, he kinda looked like a girl.

Marty's slimmer figure, clear skin, and un-muscular body didn't help, it just added to the illusion. Although Marty didn't actually believe his friend, he still upped his physical routine to twice a day. He wanted to make sure he looked good when school started.

A week later the move was upon them.

For the last time, Marty and his mother drove away from the house Marty had lived in since he was born. With a moving truck following behind them, they made the two-hour drive, relocating to a little house in Lakeview, on an old tree-lined street, just a couple blocks from a collection of old retail and business building that had been built in the late 1950s and made up the downtown area of their new home.