I'm Fine

Chapter 3 Nora

My day looked something like this

Period 1 & 2: Pre-Calculus Block

Period 3: Chemistry (With Whitney, Reagan and Savannah)

Period 4: English

Period 5: Photography

Period 6: Lunch

Period 7: Business Education

Period 8: Physics

Period 9: Computer Science

I shared seven of those nine periods, including my lunch with Whitney the chatterbox. The only classes without Whitney were Business Education and Photography, then I had Chemistry with the whole group: Savannah, Reagan and Whitney, and finally there's Business Education with just Cori and I.

The morning offered nothing of interest, I heard the teachers as they taught, but I didn't listen. I looked at the projector, and the lesson they were dissecting on the board, but I didn't actually see it. Because there's a difference between hearing and listening and there's a difference between looking and seeing. I played several rounds of cup pong on Game Pigeon with Whitney, while the teachers weren't looking. As always I let her win, I was distracted from being distracted. I couldn't stop checking the clock to see how much time remained until photography. It was an oasis in the middle of the day when my ears could regenerate from her chitter chatter.

Unfortunately I was still in English getting my ear chiseled away by both the teacher and Whitney, rather than playing around with a camera. The remaining thirty minutes of class were always the longest, but in English, the whole hour was long. I didn't hate English, I actually would like it if Whitney wasn't in it and if it wasn't right before photography. Any class before Photography was prone to feel long, it was my one break in the day, there wasn't Whitney, or Savannah, or Cori or even Reagan, just me and my camera. I also liked the teacher, Mr. Rubio, He'd often take the class outside to take photos which on some days was all that I needed. But English still ticked on, and Whitney not daring to lose a minute of it, spoke on. When we were sitting together, I heard as she whisper-ranted about her boyfriend, Oliver. He had glasses and a clean hair cut, he was trying to make it as a musician, and Whitney would always complain about his musical rants about this or that. I have heard accounts so detailed I could've said I was on one of their dates. I think she's too busy complaining about him to realize, he's scraping together an extra hundred dollars to afford her tickets to nice concerts.

Adults tended to enjoy asking kids what they'd be when they grow up, to enforce that the kids hadn't yet. Even in high school I'd still been asked that question from time to time. Over the years my answers have changed: Physicist, Director, Screenwriter. Recently it's been answered by photography. Even though sometimes I can't imagine having much of a future or even one that looks bright. That's what my school counselor says, as well as adding a note about the poor pay. However, Mr. Rubio says that I could make it teaching photography, but I never enjoyed being around high schoolers even if my social status said otherwise.

Anyways, I haven't dropped English yet, because I've considered writing those travel guides you find in a bookstore or travel agency, and for that you need basic English skills. But if I knew Whitney was in my English, I'd be sitting in study hall right now.

The tragic thing about high school English is how much reading is required. I'm only there because I want to write better, I don't want to spend time realizing that Hamlet's clashes with King Claudius symbolizes his own internal struggles with himself. My favorite books never made their way onto the required reading list. I preferred books translated into English, or written by foreign authors. I'm fascinated by foreign archetypes. Of course I don't tell my friends this, they'll call me a nerd or make fun of me, certainly they'd never drop it. Instead I hear them moan about reading as if they were being burned alive. They have never read anything besides the required reading materials.