it started as a rumor in the hallways, whispered among the kids in hushed excitement. "desking," they called it. the whole point of the trend was to jump from desk to desk without touching the floor—a challenge that spread through abbott elementary like wildfire.
janine was oblivious at first. she had just finished explaining a math problem to her class when she noticed the kids whispering to each other. "okay, who's next to solve this one on the board?" she asked cheerfully.
no one responded. instead, she noticed one kid eyeing the desks like they were hurdles in a race.
"uh, are you okay, malik?" janine asked.
malik grinned but said nothing. before janine could figure out what was going on, he leaped from his seat onto the next desk, hopping from one to another like a gazelle, barely touching the surface. the other kids cheered him on in low whispers.
"malik! no jumping on the desks!" janine shouted, rushing toward him. but before she could grab him, he'd made it across the room, landed on the last desk, and slid into his seat like nothing had happened.
"it's called desking, miss teag—i mean, miss teagues," another student explained with a shrug, as if this was totally normal behavior.
janine blinked, bewildered. "desking? is this some kind of tiktok thing?"
the kids nodded enthusiastically, and janine groaned. "oh, no."
meanwhile, in gregory's classroom, he was having a much more difficult time. "alright, class, please open your books to page 42," he said, writing on the board with his back to the students.
the second he turned away, the sound of feet hitting desks filled the room. gregory spun around just in time to see three students making their way across the room, hopping from desk to desk like it was a parkour course.
"what the—" gregory froze, watching in disbelief as they made it back to their seats and sat down like nothing had happened.
"mr. eddie, we're desking," one kid said with a proud grin.
gregory rubbed his temples. "desking? seriously? who came up with this?"
"tiktok," the entire class said in unison.
gregory muttered under his breath. "i'm too young to feel this old."
over in melissa's class, desking didn't stand a chance. one kid tried to hop onto a desk, but melissa's instincts were too sharp. she grabbed the kid by the back of his hoodie mid-jump and plopped him back into his seat.
"you wanna try that again, joey?" she said with a raised eyebrow, daring him to make another move.
joey gulped and shook his head. "n-no, miss schemmenti."
"good answer." melissa returned to her lesson, muttering, "desking... these kids'll try anything these days."
in barbara's class, things were calm as usual—until one of her students attempted to leap onto a desk. barbara, without even looking up from the book she was reading to the class, simply said, "don't you dare."
the student froze mid-air, then slunk back to their seat, defeated. barbara continued reading like nothing had happened. "honestly," she sighed, "these trends get sillier every year."
but the real chaos unfolded when word got to ava. she had been in her office, feet up on her desk, shopping on shein, when janine stormed in.
"ava, have you heard about this 'desking' thing?"
ava looked up lazily, her sunglasses still on despite being indoors. "oh, that thing where the kids hop across the desks? yeah, i've seen it. what about it?"
