"ICE!" Before I can turn around, I feel someone jump on my back. I almost fall, but manage to catch before I do.
The culprit gets off my back. I turn around and see my best friend Naj smiling at me.
We start walking toward the guidance office. "Hey, you should sign out of study and come to guidance today," I say. Naj and I have almost every class together except for two: Latin and Modern Foreign Language. We have the same Latin teacher, but when I have Latin, she has French and vice versa, except I take Spanish. There are times where I wish I took French because of all the field trips they take, but then Naj has to tell me it's not worth it.
"Yeah, sure," she responds. We continue toward the guidance office. As we reach the guidance office, we say our goodbyes, although she's coming right back. She starts to head off toward her study, then suddenly turns around as if she just remembered something major. "Remind me to tell you about the Latin test!" she yells out across the hall. She then glances at her watch and sprints off, no doubt in an effort not to be late.
Crap! I totally forgot about the test today! I'm so not looking forward to it, but, then again, who is? Our Latin teacher gives the worst tests. He adds stuff we're not scheduled to learn MONTHS, then says when we all fail and he's passing back the tests, "If you guys really are the good students you say you are, you would've went ahead and learned this stuff ahead of time instead of waiting for me to feed it to you." God, he's worse than Mr. Griffin in that Lois Lowry book we read in English. It's a miracle no one's plotted his death yet.
Why do I instantly go to the negative when it comes to Latin and tests? I just realized that? True, those tests are near impossible and I would be an A student without them, but it could be anything. He might not be here. Wait, no, I saw him come in today. The test could be super easy for once. I hope so, at least. The wait is killing me. God, I need Naj to tell me!
"Isis, would you mind bringing this to room 114?" one of the guidance counselors ask.
"Oh, sure, no problem." I work in the guidance office at my school. In order to do this, I had to give up three of my studies. I only have one now. But it's worth it. There's usually never much to do, so I basically get volunteer hours just to sit around and do homework. I grab one of the guidance passes and head down the hall. I reach 114 and hand the envelope over to the teacher. I quickly and quietly leave the room and head back to guidance, praying that Naj is finally there.
I turn the corner and see my best friend smiling at me.
"Ok, spill. Tell me everything there is to know on this test."
"It was so hard. Half the stuff that's on the test, we're not supposed to learn until next year. The other half is all on stuff we learn next month."
"No! You're lying. You have to be lying to me. Why does Mr. Starvin do this to us? What did we ever do to him?"
"I heard he used to be super easy and would hand out As like it was wholesale, but there was this one class who really took advantage of that, and he realized that he was just letting students get off the hook and passing them without having them really learn anything, so he changed his ways and this is the outcome."
"Yeah, but now he's flunking everyone without really teaching us. How does he expect us to know what it is that we're gonna learn next year? God, I hate him!"
"I wonder what he would be like if he taught AP."
"No! Don't you dare jinx it!"
