Hated

Quotes

Writing class. When I walk in, the first thing I see on the board is "Quotes." Images, I'm assuming. Looking at quotes is one of my favorite things to do when my depressed thoughts break open for a little sunlight here and there. It doesn't happen often but when it does, I refuse to let it slip through my fingers.
"Quotes. What are quotes? Yes, they are words said by people, but what do they mean? Why are they important to us, to our society?" Ms. Sadowski asks the class. We all sit in silence, waiting for her to tell us the impossible answer.
"There is no answer. It's a trick question. Quotes themselves don't have meaning. Each one has it's own language, but very few are the same." She paced across the room as she spoke. Ms. Sadowski stopped in the middle of the room to look at us, inspecting what we were doing.
Half the class was staring at their desks like a shiny trophy while the others drooled on their binders in a wakeless sleep. Ms. S. isn't one to get mad at students, let alone yell, but I could see what was coming.
She walked across the room a little more and stopped once again in the middle. She took a deep breath and looked at what seemed like the chalkboard in the back of the room.
"ENOUGH." Shuffles of papers and screeches of desks moving filled the room. All of the students sat straight up and stared as Ms. Sadowski, scared she was going to scream again.
"I understand it is the beginning of the school year, but this is unacceptable." She turned around and looked at the clock above the whiteboard. "There is nearly thirty-five minutes left of class, and I'm not letting you little munchkins get away without any work!" There's the teacher we know. She doesn't like being mean, so she's back to trying to making jokes.
"I want each one of you to find ten quotes AND their authors, and put them in a Google doc. Any quotes. They could be ones you love, ones you hate, or just ones you found on Google," she looks around the room. "Or we can skip the break from bullying and double the time spent on it." Heads shake no and Ms. S. seems pleased with the answer.
"Then get to work."