It was mostly high school kids like me and we pretty much all got along.
From there I went to Gap and Macaroni Grill, this cute little boutique... I kept a job because I wanted my own money. I bought a lot of CDs, a lot of Sonic chili cheese fries, and a lot of clothes from Wet Seal. In college, I think all of my money went to my sorority and books.
Anyway, I've always worked. I like to feel like I'm pulling my weight.
Last week, my mom and I went to visit one of her dearest friends. We got to talking about what I'm going to do next year. As of now, I really have no idea.
Then she paused and looked at me-- really looked at me. I knew she was going to ask something good. She is very, very deep this friend of Mama's. Deep and intelligent.
She said, "Carrie, if you could do anything ...anything in the whole world, what would you do?"
I thought for a minute, and said, "I would write."
"Then, why don't you?"
"I don't know..."
I was thinking about all of the real reasons. One of them being I need money and insurance, and the other being that I am actually not a great writer at all (I'm not begging for compliments. I read enough books to know good writing.)
..but then I started thinking again. Why not? I love books and I love stories. Some of the books I adore aren't revered as classics; they're just good stories about men and women, Nantucket, and life.
So, I'm going to randomly write little scenes here on my blog. I think maybe 6 people read it, not including my mother and husband, so why not?
If you get all the way through to the "end," thank you.
She walked around encouraging the 2/3rds to get busy and then quickly checked her email, just a quick check.
She never wanted to be like the other teachers who stared at their computers instead of their kids right in front of them. Kids that needed attention.
Email from admin. Again??
Immediately her body got very cold. Her stomach dropped like she had just eaten some very scary seafood. The hair on her arms stood up straight.
What did I do this time?
---
Mrs. Law,
I need to speak with you; please come at your earliest convenience;
thank you.
---
For a moment, she snickered at the semi-colons, but that truly only lasted a second. Then she started to obsess. What could it be? Did I say anything to anyone weird this morning? When I left the faculty meeting yesterday everything seemed fine.
Yesterday's classes went fine. Any emails or calls from parents? No..
Lesson plans in on time? Yes...
Did I say anything inappropriate in front of a kid? No...
Then she started thinking about who she sat with at the meeting. She couldn't think of anything.
She quickly went over the bell-ringer, then introduced the poem they would be annotating, asking for volunteers to read, but her heart wasn't in it.
Her day was ruined and it wasn't even 8:15 am.
When this group left, she stood by the door and told them all to have a good day. Some met her and and returned the sentiment. Some didn't.
One or two gave her a high five.
As usual, Alice stayed after and gave her an update on the book she had asked her to read. Alice was so far ahead of everyone else and so bored that she had asked for extra work. Rare in a sophomore these days.
When Alice left, she ran to the bathroom. She only had four minutes until the next crew came in and she didn't ever want them in there without her. Crazy stuff could happen. She once returned from a really fast bathroom break to find two kids mid-fight, blood spurting everywhere. Never again..
She waved to kids who were coming into the bathroom as she was running out. No time to walk all the way to the teacher bathroom. As she grabbed a paper towel, she heard some girl call Trisha a freak.
She heard a snippet of a conversation about a really hard history test.
She heard a girl say, "Dude, he's hot.." and her friend make a gagging noise.
Then it all began again. The bell-ringer, the poem, the annotations, the exit slip, all the while feeling like she was going to pass out or throw up.
What could admin want this time?!
She shot a quick text to her friend.
hey, admin email again. She wants to meet.
Don't stress. Probably nothing.
Easy for for you to say. You're never in trouble.
...