Familiar Faces in the Oddest Places

Mondays

Going back to school after the weekend sucks. Mondays usually all just suck. This Monday was proving no different as I was at my locker and I couldn’t get it open.

“Come on, please open,” I said under my breath. I put in the combination as precisely as I could and went to pull it open but it wouldn’t. I tugged on it with all my might and nothing, something in my locker must be preventing it from opening.

“Do you need help?” Alistar asked as he came up behind me.

“Yes, my stupid locker won’t open.” I kicked it just to show how stupid it was.

“Let me try.” Alistar moved me out of the way. “What’s your combination?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you that.”

“Then I guess you’ll never get your locker open.” He started to walk away before I grabbed him and pulled him back.

“No, it’s 32, 7, 25. But that’s not the problem. Something inside is making it stuck.”

“Okay so it’s 32,” he said while turning the dial.

“7,” I said. He turned it to 7.

“Then 25.” He put it in and went to open it but it was stuck. He yanked on it with all his might and boom my locker opened sending my stuff spilling out on to the floor.

“Thanks so much,” I said with a hint of sarcasm. “Mondays suck.” I bent down to pick up my notebooks and papers that went flying.

“Sorry, but at least I got it open.”

“Yeah, thanks.” This time it was totally sincere. Alistar helped me pick up all my shit and I just shoved it all back into the locker, grabbing the stuff I needed for today.

“You know this might not happen again if you cleaned your locker,” Alistar suggested.

“I try to but that takes so much time and then it gets all disorganized again. Besides I can still find everything I need this way.”

“Whatever works for you.” Alistar shrugged. “So I have something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay, what is it?” I closed my locker and turned to face him.

“Well…” Alistar trailed off and in that time before he started again a girl from my math class, Taylor, came up to us.

“Do you know what that quiz in math is on? I can’t remember what the teacher said it was on,” Taylor asked me.

“We have a quiz in math?” I forgot all about it. Just another sucky thing to add to this Monday.

“Yeah. So you don’t know what it’s on?”

“No, I didn’t even know we had a quiz,” I said frantically.

“Oh well. I have to go figure that out.” Taylor went off to wherever to try and figure out what the quiz was on.

“I have to go, too,” I said to Alistar. “I have to go study for that quiz next class period.”

“But you don’t know what it’s on.”

“It’s probably just on what we learned recently. Taylor doesn’t have too much common sense but I’m sure she’ll find someone to tell her exactly what’s on it.”

“Then I’ll see you later.” Alistar almost sounded deflated. I rushed to my homeroom to get some study time in so I didn’t totally flunk the quiz. It wasn’t until lunch time that I realized that Alistar wanted to ask me something and I had just run out of there.