The blackboard was now full of white crayon. Names, places, instructions and babble that Mrs. Peterson has a tendency to scrabble down, maybe just to cause confusion for the students. I had my own babble written onto a little note, but that was the place for the party Michael was throwing tonight.
"Mr. Irwin, are you listening?" I nodded my head without looking up at her. I knew very well the amount of annoyance it would cause and that was kind of my point. Hopefully she'd get so annoyed that she'd send me out. "Then will you please retell whatever I just told the class?"
"Well I can't" I answered her, dying to get out of there. I knew what the assignment was. We were supposed to take a picture of "the most admirable thing we could find" and then write a little motivation of why this was so admirable, but I just didn't want to please Mrs. Peterson by showing that I actually paid attention.
"So listen now then" she said, more calm than ever before. I was expecting some sort of eruption, just as if she was a volcano that wasn't anything but on the verge to explode, which would lead to me getting out of there with a phone call waiting for my parents but that was it. And without parents, that wasn't as threatening as it was supposed to be.
"You have twenty two days, from today, to find the most admirable thing you can possibly find. Then whatever it is, I need a picture of it in these environments, so you can't choose a view or anything like that. Together with that a little motivation. Okay?" I noticed my classmates taking notes, nodding in agreement and looking like they were excited for real. I on the other hand was the opposite. It was four weeks left until I finished high school and a task like this wasn't to prefer, but it was the most important of them all so failing this would mean failing this class which would mean failing high school. The stakes were high, but fortunately I was the one getting high tonight. "Then I need you to work in pairs, sort of. We have people from second grade that needs to learn how to give feedback and you have been paired up with one of them. I'll tell you who you're with now but you won't meet them until tomorrow, sounds fair?" She turned around, showing us her bony back and skinny body, and started to write even more on the blackboard but this time the pairs. I noticed how I got paired up together with a girl, Beatrice, and maybe that would make this whole thing a little more fun.
"What are we supposed to do with the co-workers?" I asked Mrs. Peterson. I heard a few of the boys groan in the same wonder but I didn't bother to look and see whoever it was.
"You meet every other day" she said as she kept on scrabbling across the board, "and your partner is supposed to keep you going and focused. Also he or she will be criticizing you, trying to get the best picture of them all. I can tell you that there's a big price for the winner, but you all just consider passing the class as an award enough. You're dismissed." As soon as she said it I was standing up and leaving the room.
I could hear the music from down the street, pounding through the speakers just as Michael liked it. People were still coming and going, mostly coming, and I was surprised to see this many people even though it was a Wednesday. "It's like preparation, for college" he had said when he invited me, but I know that he just wants a reason to throw a party.
"Hey Irwin!" a familiar voice spoke from the driveway to Michaels house. I looked up, only to see that it was Luke.
"You came here for this party? Then it has got to be a big one!" As soon as I had walked up to him he grabbed me in for a hug, wrapping my entire body into his huge one. "You have to stop doing that" I stated, thinking about his future with girls if he was going to hug me like this forever. Luke was the kind of guy that everyone loved. No matter how much you would look, he would be flawless, literally.
"I will never stop doing that" he said, handing me an already lit cigarette. I enjoyed just the look of it. It had been quite some time since I smoke one and what were the downs coming with? Only problems in the future and there isn't even a guarantee that we will live that long and that was the reason that I enjoyed living this way. I put it to my lips, slowly inhaling the disgusting taste but the amazing feeling. Someone other placed a cup in my free hand, filled with whatever liquid but at least booze. I looked up to see whoever it was but the person had already disappeared into the crowd. There were people grinding at each other, people making out and people on the edge to tip over from make out to sex. All over the place there were waitresses dressed like these cute little ponies with short skirts and t-shirts not covering more than their breasts.
