A rustle of papers, the low and high hum of zippers as backpacks are stuffed with the day’s work and the squeaking of chairs pushed back all drowned out Ms. Juniper’s parting words about our new assignment. I swear they pay these teachers to assign pointless assignments to chain us to our rooms and the library.
School is nothing but a scam. It was pointless; a place where about eighty percent of what you learn, you will never apply to the real world and what is taught serves as a foundation to the lessons of another pointless and useless class. I have heard an adult confess that most of school is worthless once before, but then he had to amend his statement and comment on how the educational system was making the upcoming generation too smart for their own good. School is pointless and yet here I sit wasting away. My life is a joke in this washed up town with nothing to do.
I just want… well what do I want? I want out of here that is for sure…
Ms. Juniper’s words projected above the noises of students anxious to leave class and halted my brooding thoughts, “Now class please remember to write about something you know about! Make it personal!” She beamed at us with that silly grin of hers that fails to hide her true disgust for our lack of focus and intelligence. She knows, as well as anyone else in the class room, that no one will take this assignment seriously or put any amount of effort into it. In the end she will be disappointed, staying up late losing sleep, grading terrible papers and regretting her decision to honor the National Novel Writing Month with this paper.
BRRRRRIIIIIINNNNGGGG! The bell cut my thoughts and suddenly the room was empty, the classroom door thrown ajar. I stood up, plugged in one of my headphones and made my way out of the class room into the hall, only to overhear a small voice behind me ask, “Could I come to your office later and get some advice on my paper topic?”
Ms. Juniper’s voice was overly excited as she vigorously agreed to the student’s request. My curiosity got the best of me, but when I turned to see who had the audacity to even pretend to care about the assignment, a crowd of girls intently focused on giggling and gossiping pushed past me, knocking my ipod from my hand to clatter against the lithium floor.
Shit. Fucking mother fuckers, I hope you all choke on your hairspray and get cancer from your fake ass tans. More vicious thoughts flew through my mind as I spun around to angrily stare at the rude bithces who didn’t even bother to say sorry.
I turned back around to pick up my ipod, but it wasn’t there. What the… And there he stood.
I couldn’t help but smile and then reality set in and a scowl took the smile’s warmth from my face. He leaned coolly against the wall with an arm across his chest and the other holding my ipod and inspecting its contents. His sandy blonde hair perpetually fell into his honest brown eyes; it was what I noticed first about him on our first encounter. He looked up at me from under that shag of hair and said, “You know you have some sucky music on this thing. I mean really the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Come on, get real.” His face broke into a teasing smile then. I looked around stunned.
Had he really just talked to me? Spoken to ME?! I must be going crazy!
I again looked around and checked for anyone who had witnessed this. We were alone in the hallway. The school day was over and everyone had fled the premises in an attempt to forget the day had even happened. I swallowed hard and reached forward with my hand. My heart pounded ferociously in my chest. I was sure I was going to make a fool of myself, and I wanted nothing else but to get my ipod back and go home.
His face dropped the smile and became blank in a flash. Pushing off of the wall, he dropped the ipod into my outstretched hand and strode past me. I took a deep breath and waited a moment before turning around to watch him go. However he was gone from the hallway, and there was no other sound other than my uneven breathing echoing about the walls covered in inspirational posters and advertisements.
The lonely sounds of my squeaking sneakers accompanied me out of the building that Tuesday afternoon.
