Have you ever gone through a day expecting the normal – normal teachers, normal classes, normal students, and normal events – but instead you got this overload of insanity thrown at you from all directions? Monday was one of those days.
I entered homeroom thinking of all me and Simone had planned for the next week. She would come over today to ‘keep me company’ as her mom had put it, for three nights, until I got used to my parents being away for the next two weeks. No one was supposed to know about it, for my own safety, but Simone and her parents obviously didn’t count. 7
It’s not like I’ve never spent a night at home alone – I think the legal age for that is 13, or maybe 14 – but it still felt like a big step. Nobody but me in this huge house for two whole weeks, it was a lot of responsibility. I have got to stop opening doors for strangers, now.
As soon as I step in the Essential Skills classroom, I could tell something was different. Then I noticed how the seating arrangement had changed. I saw a name on the board, ‘Ms. Golicci’. The name probably accompanied the skinny looking woman who was looking through a bunch of notes at the teacher’s desk. I saw the surprised expressions on all my classmates as they stood awkwardly at the front of the classroom waiting to be told where to sit down. Except for him.
He just strode in there like he owned the place, and sat down at the front row, and winked at Ms. Golicci His dark hair shone in the sunlight and he shifted his eyes over to me. That caught the teacher’s attention, and she looked at me too. Suddenly, I felt like I was in the center of the spotlight, on display for everyone. So I pulled on Simone’s arm, and we both sat down in the middle of the classroom.
Soon the entire class followed, and Ms Golicci strode to the front of the room, and looked at each of us, one by one, as if inspecting her new bunch of misfits.
“I will let you sit wherever you have chosen to for the day. Tomorrow, however, will be different. A lot will be changing. I understand your previous teacher allowed chitchat. No more of that. You will speak when you are spoken to.” Why did this remind me of misfit boarding schools? “And you will pay attention. I want all eyes on me, always.” She stretched the ‘always’ with a lot of emphasis. “We have a new assignment that is important, one that will take up your time, all day, and every day for an entire week. I must see full participation and commitment. Is that understood?” She peered at us over her half brimmed glasses.
“Yes.” I heard a few brave students utter.
“You will be given a partner, whom I will choose. This assignment is for the purpose of learning how to cooperate in difficult situations with strangers. Learning how to trust people; who to trust and who not to trust. Of course, in this class, you might think, who is there not to trust. But this assignment will show you that one must never simply trust anyone, trust must be earned. The only help I willing to give to you on this assignment is this one sentence: Keep your guard up. And so here it is.”
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Simone’s mad at me. It’s not even my fault. I tried everything, I swear. I don’t know what it is about her, Ms. Golicci, but I don’t like her. She’s a fake. That’s it. She isn’t real, and there’s nothing I hate more than a liar.
“Simone,” I saw her look up from her book. She always reads before class. “You are with Jane.” After writing something down on a piece of paper, she looked at them and laughed. “Would you care to move young ladies?” She said, almost spitefully, stopping the laughter abruptly.
I hated her.
“Lyna,” Pause. “You are with Nilou.” I looked around the class until I spotted her, she had fair hair, long and straight. She had brown eyes, just like me. I liked her. This was good. I got up and sat down beside her.
