Janice Lance Book 1: Monday Blues (Revised Edition)

Chapter 5

 I managed to make it to my English class before the bell rang, and saw Sandy Smith already there, drawing something in her sketchbook as usual. And unsurprisingly, Mrs. Dot wasn't there.

Sandy looked up at me and smiled, "Hey, Janice."

"Hey Sandy," I said as I took my seat next to her.

Sandy didn't live in my neighborhood and probably lived somewhere on the better side of town. Not like she's rich or something, but she's definitely better off than I am. And probably lots of people in our grade.

Sandy's nice though–from what I've seen of her. We don't talk all that much, but I don't have a problem with her. She likes to draw and stuff, and she gets good grades.

Since I sat closest to Mrs. Dot's desk, I didn't have to look hard to see our usual warm-up papers there. I grabbed one and quickly sat back down. Ms. Dot came to class about 15 minutes late. No surprise there. But she acted like she was on time. After strolling through the door, she approached her desk, looked at the class, and calmly greeted us.

Nobody ever thinks twice about how or why she's always late. At least not out loud. I've never thought about it either. We've just kinda accepted it since the beginning of the year.

Everyone always complains about the assignments she gives us, but I don't think they are that bad. They just don't like writing and books and stuff. Even I don't like her that much, to be honest. She's no Ms. Ronette. But, she's not as bad as everyone says she is.

After she finished going over our warm-ups with us she started shuffling some papers. They were likely the poems we wrote on Friday. My stomach tightened.

She told us to write a short poem–no more than two stanzas about something personal to us that we wouldn't want to say out loud.

I wrote about Danny. I didn't want to. But, I decided it was the only thing I could write about, but not tell anyone about. Besides, I would rather be a little uncomfortable than to get a bad grade.

Mrs. Dot spoke up. "Listen up everyone, I'm going to call someone up to read one of the poems you all wrote yesterday."

Everyone groaned. Including me. I definitely didn't want to read mine out loud. Everyone was gonna think I'm soft or something. Besides, it's too personal to say out loud anyway. Oh well. It's not the end of the world. Just my world.

Mrs. Dot continued, "It may be your poem, it may not be. I'm only going to call a random person up to read the poem I give you. Understood?"

We all nodded our heads and continued groaning, "Yesss, Mrs. Dottt."

She started with Kimberly Wilson. Probably the biggest suck-up in the entire school. I don't think she realizes that Mrs. Dot doesn't like her. I'm guessing most of the teachers don't.

Mrs. Dot handed her a paper and Kimberly gave her a bright, fake smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Dot."

Mrs. Dot didn't care if she saw her roll her eyes. "You're welcome, Kimberly. Please read the poem."'

Kimberly didn't even hesitate.

Once there was a road,

And then there was a toad.

Then there was a tree,

That wanted to be free.

She stopped reading.

I wanted to stop myself from laughing with the rest of the class, but I couldn't help it. I have to admit though, Kimberly's got a lot of self-control not to burst out laughing while reading that—out loud for all the class to hear.