Keianna

Sitting with my teacher at her desk and watching one of my classmates throw water on another, then do a trick with his fidget spinner as he walks away basically sums up my week, if not my entire life.

The internet went down during fourth period, which is apparently the worst thing that could happen to our school. It was pretty annoying, because I had to actually listen to my Econ teacher instead of hiding my earphones with my hair and catching up on the Rookie podcast. But what was an inconvenience for me was a downright catastrophe for the teachers. We couldn’t work on our final presentation for English that’s due VERY soon, we couldn’t edit for video production, and we couldn’t finish our documentary in Psychology. Most of our classes are based online, so there was a lot of just sitting and waiting for the internet to come back. With nothing else to keep us occupied sat in groups and took turns playing with fidget spinners.

The admin was stressed, to say the very least, and my math teacher was no exception. When we got to class and opened our laptops only to remember that they aren’t working, we looked to our strict teacher who always has a plan. She just shrugged. The silence lasted for a minute tops before everyone started playing around. I decided this would be a great time to go and talk to her about my grade and then go sit with a friend who sometimes sits in on our class.

My teacher didn’t look up from grading tests, but informed me that I only had nine more days in the class before I had to take my final. I was taken aback: I knew that the school year was coming to an end soon, but I hadn’t understood how soon until she’d told me that. Nine days until life as I was used to it was over.

I understood why she wasn’t worried about the internet being down. I understood why the junior in my class didn’t even accept the test when she handed it out last week. He told me after class that even if he got a perfect score on everything else for the rest of the year he’d still fail the class. I get why my friend who has dressed up every single day since we were in elementary school comes to school in pajamas now without caring.

Things I thought were earth-shattering and life-breaking really aren’t that big of a deal. At this point in the school year it’s too late to worry about what’s going to happen; there’s no changing it.

That day, I learned that my math teacher is really funny. Not in a stand-up comedy kind of way, but more sarcastic humor. She pretended to cry while grading our test, saying, “I just don’t understand why you guys are like this?!” When I asked if she’s going to come see me graduate, she said, “Well, all teachers have to come to graduation, but if you want to pretend I came for you that’s fine.”

The best part of the class, though, was when we stopped talking just in time to see the cap burst on a bottle that two boys were throwing back in forth and drench one of them. To avoid getting in trouble, his friend nonchalantly got up and walked away while doing this weird trick with his fidget spinner. In true meme fashion I said, “Tag yourself. I’m the fidget spinner.”

My teacher turned back to grading: “I’m the kid ignoring what happened. School’s out in four minutes, it doesn’t matter.”

For the record the kid drenched in water found the entire situation hilarious. ♦