“You never
told us we had to have this done today.”
“Yes I did
Landon. And it’s right there on the Homework
Board too.” I swept my hand towards the
whiteboard. It was empty.
“Well, the janitor must have erased it when he cleaned last night.”
Across the
room Caitlyn argued with Mrs. Alvarez.
“I’m going
to finish this at home. I want to clean
out my binder right now.”
Mrs.
Alvarez spoke slow and low. “Caitlyn, this
review sheet is due tomorrow. I noticed
in math you didn’t get any of it done. Now
do you remember how to calculate percents?”
“I can do
these. I don’t need any help. And I don’t want you talking to me in math
class. It’s embarrassing.”
Mrs.
Alvarez sucked in a shaky breath. Her voice
was pinched. “Caitlyn, I’m helping
everyone in that class. But when I walk
by your desk and you haven’t even started working and everyone else is almost
done, it’s hard not to say something.”
“It’s
embarrassing,” Caitlyn shouted. “You’re
embarrassing me. I’m telling my
mom. She’ll get me out of here!”
Mrs.
Alvarez looked at me pleadingly. I
started walking towards Caitlyn, but stopped. Landon was panting hard and making a low
growling sound. He tore the sheet of paper
he had been writing on out of his spiral and crumpled it into a ball.
“I hate this. This is so stupid. Why do I have to do this? I hate school!”
I turned
back to Landon, but before I got there, he grabbed his binder and threw it
across the room. As I watched it sail
past me, papers flew from it and gently floated to the floor. My room was raining old and incomplete
assignments.
The binder clattered
to the floor at the feet of the school principal. She was standing in the doorway writing on a
clipboard, sadly shaking her head.
Across the
room Caitlyn screamed, “My mom will get you in trouble!”
I gasped in
a breath and opened my eyes. The red numbers
on the clock glowed 5:09. It was just a
school dream. It wasn’t good.
School
dreams before spring break are never good.