Why is it that school days seem to drag on as if there’s no end? I swear the clock slows down once it realizes that millions of teenagers are entrapped inside a brick building full of authority.
Ms. Aldridge is rambling on about our submitted rough drafts for our senior papers and how they are less than extraordinary. Moments before this she made it a point to announce how the use of diction would never impress her if we didn’t know how to write a proper thesis. Then she proceeded to glare at me for a full twenty seconds so that everyone was sure that I was the cause of her complaint.
I swear she hates me. Every time she passes back our assignments she always has to comment out loud about my work.
“Average at best,” or “Effort would have been nice,” and then she goes on to silently distribute everyone else’s paper.
Apparently I have become her bipolar symptom relieving target for reasons that remain unknown. What I do know is that she supports my misery.
Every day seems grey. Even if the sun is shining it’s like I’m oblivious to its rays.
I gaze out the classroom window to escape for a moment. Luckily the view is full of lush green trees and mountains in the distance with no man-made obstructions to block their glory. The most beautiful things in this world are those of nature.
Suddenly, as if Mother Nature knew I was admiring, it begins to sprinkle rain drops outside while the sun is still shining brightly. Odd. There isn’t even a hint of rain clouds today. The rain starts falling harder and the sun gleams through each raindrop. It looks like diamonds are falling from the sky as the drops twinkle and make their way to hit the ground. I can’t take my eyes away from the window.
For a moment I feel like I’m going crazy, because now it seems that time has been altered. The rain drops begin to pause in mid-air and then continue to the ground in slow motion.
Am I about to faint? Has one of my classmates slipped something in my lunch from their infinite drug stash as a joke?
I close my eyes for a second and open them again to see that everything is still moving slowly, but now as I look through the window I can see the reflection of a face sitting right behind me. It’s the face of my brother Nathan.