A Little Something Different

October (Inga - creative writing professor)

Inga- creative writing professor

I finish giving the assignment and I watch as Lea makes a note and Gabe stares at the back of her head. It’s perfect timing for them to finally become friends. I hope neither of them had a painful childhood. I find that this is the best assignment to get my couple of the semester to really engage with each other. There’s something about having to share childhood memories that always brings people closer.

And time is ticking for Gabe and Lea. I haven’t even seen them talk to each other yet. They spend plenty of time staring dreamily at each other, so there’s obviously an attraction there. It’s like they’ve formed a covert mutual admiration society, and now it’s time for them to share it with each other.

Lea looks up from her notebook and smiles at me. But then we both notice at the same moment that Gabe is talking to Hillary.

Dammit Hillary! You are cordially uninvited from the covert mutual admiration society. It’s like I can see all of my hopes and dreams of Gabe and Lea falling in love go out the window with each toss of Hillary’s long overly-highlighted mousy brown hair. I know that it’s mouse brown under those expensive shades of ash and honey. Not that I think Gabe is the kind of boy that’s particularly susceptible to hair tossing, but I don’t know him very well and therefore can not give him the benefit of the doubt.

I sigh so loudly that I feel like half the first row notices, so instead of actually wringing Hillary’s neck I smile and turn away for a moment, regaining my composure. Pam is going to hate hearing about this. In part because I’m pretty sure this truly highlights how emotionally invested I am in this non-relationship.

I turn back to check on Lea and she looks okay. The girl who was sitting on the other side of her seems to be engaging her. But I wanted Gabe and Lea to fall in love while talking about his tenth birthday party, or her using the quilt her grandmother made her to build the world’s best blanket fort. Or that time that Lea got her head stuck in between the rungs of a chair and Gabe fell off a roof because his older sister told him that he’d be able to fly. These are the kinds of stories that bond people together. These are all examples of actual essays that students have written in the past.

Now that’s never going to happen because of Hillary’s existence.

I didn’t know I could hate the name Hillary quite this much. I am seething with almost as much rage as Victor experiences in this classroom on a daily basis.

I look at Lea sympathetically and she smiles back, her usual smile. This is not over though between Hillary and I. She has poked the bear.