I remember like it was yesterday, the grey skies, the cloudy fog, winds so cold, it would make you bones jump out of your skin if you weren’t bundled up in a handmade sweater. The year of 1999, I was only but a child. I barely had hit my 14th birthday; it was a gloomy yet beautiful type of day. I had just been dropped off in front of my school for it was my first day of starting the ninth grade. Golden Empire High school in Sacramento California; I was a somewhat of a straight A student. I had just the right amount of friends, and the just the right amount of intelligence. I had a bright future ahead of me. Of course until, the school dance.
“Okay class, does everyone have their permission slip for the Autumn Fest Dance?” Ms. Gloria shouted as if she were announcing at a big time rally.
It was back to school, and of course the administration thought it would be a great idea to schedule one of our dances a bit early since the district had to cut our summer short..
I was excited at the time; I couldn’t wait for the dance, as I already had my eye on a particular brown haired, gorgeous girl.
Her name was Lynn. Lynn Johnson, was a beautiful girl, with a gorgeous smile, amazing tan brownish eyes, that makes me weak if I stare in them for even a second. My heart burst every moment, she would walk past my sight, and I would always catch her scent with my nose. The scent of angelic tulip, bursting with a spring smell to them.
I had my permission slip and my allowance for the week, just aching to get the school day over with. Now, I’m sure your wondering why we had permission slips; well, our school’s auditorium was getting remodeled, so the district requested we use the Hilton hotel’s club house for our dance. Our principle spared no expense to try to make our autumn dance spectacular in every way possible. I didn’t argue, I was more than happy to know that we were going to be in luxury, especially when I take the hand of my darling Lynn to a night she wouldn’t forget.
The bell rang. The clock struck 8:30am, and I was lingering to my seat, hoping I’d be able to catch Lynn at the door. To no avail, Lynn was nowhere to be found. Her seat was 2 desks to left from mine and the blonde girl who sat in between us, almost never shows, so it feels like we were sitting right next to each other.
I removed my old navy reddish-brown plaid jacket and hung it up on the back of my chair, as well with my hand made scarf passed down to me from my late grandmother. My mother gave me strict orders on keeping my belongings with me, seeing as how I lost my 40 dollar Adidas Hoodie my dad bought me last year. I sat down the nicest desk in a fuss, because due to my lingering in the early morning, I had forgotten that we were able to choose new places to sit down and my arch enemy, Randy Switzer, got the best seat in the whole classroom, RIGHT BEHIND LYNN! I was more than pissed off, well, what’s beyond pissed off?
Ms. Gloria was our 9th grade english teacher, she was about 32 years old, reddish hair, librarian looking glasses, and green dull stressed looking eyes, that even a all of us look into and can tell she needs to use some of her vacation time. Non the less she was my favorite teacher, she would be strict but also understanding at times.
Ms. Gloria pointed to me and I knew right away what was happening, part of our morning ritual was for me to collect all the homework from the summer, which was our summer journals we had to right in all summer. I didn’t want to give mine up, because I had drew a glorious picture of Lynn in the back of the book. I had no time to rip it out too, so I was pretty much screwed.
“What a year it’s going to be,” I thought.
I walked near towards the other side of the classroom, starting with the class retard Tyler, all the way to the “rich kid” Max. They all handed in their journals, all the covers were different from the last, one had glitter, the other had animal stickers, and I found one that was covered in what I was hoping to be glue or something of that nature.
Then last but not least I had to collect mine, It was like slow motion handing in the journals, my entire reputation was going to be shattered. All I was hoping for was that Ms. Gloria wasn’t much of a secret spiller for that matter.
As the journals finally made it to her hands, she grabbed them and pulled them to her desk, and as I saw here hauling them away in my own little slow motion pace, I prayed for a distraction or at least for her to get an emergency page over the intercom, to go see the principle about a serious problem, but then I had realized the PA system was on the fritz as well as the auditorium, so shit out of luck I was.
Just then I heard the classroom door open, as it creaks whenever you open it from the outside.
A small skinny and petite yet tall brown haired girl emerged from the cold gray weather from outside. Slowly taking off her red chili pepper colored sunglasses, as her sparkling tan eyes became visible to mine. She took off her white Eskimo jacket only to reveal her slim slender gorgeous white body. Yes, it was Lynn; she had missed the bus in the morning and had to walk alone. Oh why did I set my alarm?!
“Miss Johnson, thank you for deciding to join us, did you enjoy your extra hour of sleep, I hope you have your tardy slip or you can take a trip to principle Franklin, Hmmm?” Ms. Gloria exclaimed.
She was always fashionably late, I didn't think Lynn thought it'd be cool to be late, thats just how she was. Lazy at times.
Lynn slowly walked towards the teacher’s desk, right as I was going back to my seat, I was able to catch her scent again, angelic tulips.
My nose tickled with excitement, as well as my manhood, but it was soon after I returned to my desk where no one could noticed, not that anyone was interested to look at me anyways. I didn’t have that many friends in this class; all my friends were in different classes, so I was pretty much alone.
“And where’s your journal at Missy?” Miss Gloria asked
Lynn reached in her bag and pulled out a punked out journal with a million stickers and tattered pages, and plopped it on Miss Gloria’s desk.
“Well, I am very anxious to read your journal Miss Johnson,” Ms. Gloria smirked.
Lynn walked over to her new seat she picked, which was right next to a girl named Samantha Bean, a total tomboy type. She was only one desk away from me this time, my heart was warm and filled with happiness.
Ms. Gloria was famous for making us do some pop quiz on the first of day of school, says my older friends. I used to have Ms. Gloria for 6th grade, but due to her pace at teaching, Ms. Franklin, our principle, made her a High School English teacher. We all thought we had gotten rid of her, even Lynn thought that I'm sure.
“Now everyone take a look on your desk, and start this pop quiz on how summer is important to you.” Ms. Gloria
As the morning went on, and so did the assignments, my leg started to shake as I knew at the stroke of 9:15am, we have to start sharing at least one page of our journal and one page of my journal, well, it would deeply kill my reputation and then that would ruin the whole night where I was going to tell Lynn myself.
I had to do something.
I raised my hand, to go use the bathroom, Ms. Gloria signaled me to take the pass. I scurried out the door, thinking of what I can do to interrupt what could be my least fine moment. Just then, I saw the fire alarm. My gears in my brain started to turn.
Saamuel Dotson
