You're Not Enough

Chapter 42

 When I open the door to my classroom, the class quiets down at my presence; I walk over to Mr. Brooks desk and hand him the papers. He takes them out of my hand. "Thank you." He says.

I turn away from his desk, and my eyes go to Ryder, who is sitting in the seat in front of mine. I search the class trying to find another seat, but all of them are taken; of course, everyone came to class today. I walk down the aisle to my desk and sit. The class begins to whisper. The cheerleaders are seated in front of the class, and most of the football players are in the back with me. They aren't mixed together like they usually are. They are divided like I said they would be. Ashely is sitting in the front row; her hair is pulled into a high ponytail. Her blonde curls touch the back of her neck. Monica sits on her right; her long bronze legs are stretched out under the desk. She is on her phone, typing, tweeting most likely.

"Okay. So today is the day I get to hear all of the lovely poems! You guys had a week to write them," Mr. Brooks says. "So, who wants to go first?" No one raises their hand. I didn't do the assignment; even if I did, I wouldn't get in front of the class and share it. I don't think sharing it is a part of the grade, or maybe it is? It doesn't matter, though Mr. Brooks excused me from the assignment because of my whole panic attack breakdown on Monday. "Really, no one wants to share?" he asks. A boy in front of the class raises his hand. I think his name is Jin. "Ah, Mr. Yang, it looks like you'll get A for participation today,"

"Actually, I wasn't raising my hand for that; I was raising my hand because I have a question." the boy states.

Mr. Brooks sighs. "Okay."

"Why suddenly did we have to have permission slips to rewrite Romeo and Juliet? I mean, we all worked so hard on it, and now, we can't do it without our parents' permission," he asks. The class murmurs agreeing with him.

"You know I agree with Asian over there," Eric yells from across the room, another boy also on the football team.

"Mr. Brown. That is not his name." Mr. Brooks corrects him.

"Wang, Lang, Jin. Whatever." Logan mockingly. Mr. Brooks rolls his eyes. Logan continues. "I had no idea what I was going to do for my project, and then you gave us that project, which I actually was doing. Just to find out a week later, we can't do it without getting permission from our parents." He says.

"Your parents said no?" Mr. Brooks asks him.

"Yeah, they said something about how my senior project needs to have meaning, and rewriting a fictional love story was meaningless," he answers.

"Is that how you felt?"

"No. I mean, yeah, but I liked it because it was easy. I mean, the ladies love me, so it's not hard to write down how much they love me on paper." The class laughs at Logan's dumb response Mr.Brooks shakes his head at Eric's remark.

"Speak for yourself. I'm glad I don't have to do that dumbass project even though I will miss spending my days with Monica." Zach says.

"Shut up!" Monica says.

"By a show of hands, how many of you did get permission from your parents to continue with the assignment?" Brooks asks.

About half of the class raises their hands. "And how many of you, even though now it's not mandatory, will complete the assignment?" Everyone puts the hand down except for James, Violet, and surprisingly Ryder. "I'm glad you guys are going to stick with it," Mr.Brooks says proudly. "So again, who wants to share?"

Ryder leans back in the chair and slouches. He taps his pen on the side of the desk; it's irritating me; he's doing it on purpose, I know he is. He did the same thing when he was at my house; I told him I hated it.