Our classes were kind of weird. We had our core classes, lunch, and recess at regular times, of course. But, I'm not sure if your school had this, but right before and after lunch, we had two different non-core classes. These classes specialized in teaching kids different activities they could pursue in the future. The classes could also be called electives. Wait, those are normal things- why did I say they were weird?
We had four elective classes. P.E., Art, Fine Arts (Basically Theater and Choir mixed together), and Library. Every day we had a different elective. Besides P.E., as we had P.E. every day of the week, but it switched between being before and after lunch. P.E. was also different because you had it with more than one class. Normally, you have the elective with just your class, so the people you do math with you'd also do art and theater with, but for P.E. they had us do it with 2 other classes. I'm assuming they did that to balance it out, but as children, we believed it was for sport and competition- obviously, the best class wins.
So if we have 2 core classes, each taking about 2 and a half hours, plus 2 electives, which are each an hour-long, and an hour long lunch and recess period, that would equal 8 hours. There's five school days a week, so if we multiple 8 by 5, we'd get 40 hours of school a week. That means seeing Caitlyn for 40 hours a week.
Yes!
I mean, dang, I'd have to see her 40 hours a week? That's worse than a... job. Yeah I got nothing
Hmmm... it's getting kinda boring just explaining how my classes were designed in elementary... uhhh...
Oh! Here's a story! One time, I touched my willy and it-
Okay, for real. One day we were having Art class, which was pretty fun. I've always been fond of my artistic ability, and if I'm being honest, I liked showing it off. Of course, I didn't do it often, because that would make me look like a prideful, snot-nosed brat, and no one wants to be a prideful, snot-nosed brat.
For Art that day, we were assigned groups, and guess what? I was grouped with Caitlyn. How'd you guess I was gonna say her? Anyway, lucky me, I guess.
We finished the assignment quickly (my abilities carried our group) and we were given free time to do whatever we wanted, such as free draw. I, of course, was one of the people that free drawed, unlike the kids who would run around in the kiln area daring each other to touch the stove part (it was never on, but we would made jokes that it would burn you if you touched it anyway). Losers.
I grabbed a couple of pieces of paper and walked back to my seat, then realizing that Caitlyn hadn't grabbed any paper. So, being the awesome chivalrous spot I am, I sat down and... didn't give her any of my paper.
It's MY paper, I don't have to give it to anyone! Especially not girls! What, you think I'm a ladies man? Are you joking? PFFFT im not that cool
I had grabbed 4 pieces of paper, and Caitlyn had none. Haha, beating her by 4 points! She was still looking over the group project we had done (the one where I did all of the work) and didn't look up at me. Not like I was expecting her to, of course. I shrugged and started drawing some animals on one of my papers before looking back at Caitlyn. No movement.
I kept drawing, but kept looking up. She still hadn't moved.
I groaned.
"Aren't you gonna grab a piece of paper?"
"Yeah, later..."
I made a pressed face and decided, well, whatever. She's being lazy? That's her own problem.
"Flippin'... lazy..."
She looked up. There we go.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"What'd you just say?"
"I didn't say anything, what're you talking about?"
She made the little 'shut up, liar' face and returned to staring at the project. Why's she so obsessed with that anyway? Oh, must be analyzing my incredible artwork.
*sighs* fine. If you're so reluctant to stand up and walk over to the paper cubby, I'll just give you one of my papers. I inched a paper onto her desk, pretending not to look, and slid it onto her desk. I moved it on top of the group assignment, covering up everything she was looking at. She got mad.
"Wow, thanks for that."
"You should be happy I gave you one of my valuable pieces of paper."
"Yeah, right."
So rude. I went through all of the trouble of giving her one of my pieces of paper, and even tried to give her encouragement by placing it right in front of her eyes so she could imagine something to draw, and she doesn't even thank me properly. Wow.
I think I'm a little messed up sometimes
Uhh... second story! I've got another one to tell about our classes. So, you know what math is, right? If you don't, it's something involving numbers and symbols and lines and shapes and a ton of useless stuff. Got it? Alright, cool. So it was math class, and the teacher was writing problems up on the board, asking us to come up and answer them.
What problems, exactly? Multiplication, that's what. I say that like I'm the kind of person that isn't very good at math. But I've been saying for a while that I'm pretty smart, so of course I'm good at math. Do I seem like the kind of person to be dumb?
Don't answer that question
So there may or may not have been some smart people besides me in my class. Such as Caitlyn.
She wasn't AS smart as me was the thing- no one was. Of course not. People would always ask me for help on homework, but have I seen Caitlyn get asked for help? Nope. I'm just smarter than her, I guess. Ha.
"Can anyone solve this?"
The math teacher pointed to the newly written problem on the whiteboard. I looked up, and recognized that it was an easy question. No one moved.
C'mon. It's really easy. Don't make me solve the question again, I don't wanna be the 'nerd' of the class (I already was the 'nerd' of the class). Please.
I dropped my head as soon as I realized no one was going to let me be happy. I started to raise my hand. At the same time, using my insane peripheral vision, I noticed that someone else rose their hand. I dropped my hand down like a hammer, hoping the teacher would call on whoever the other unfortunate (and, frankly, probably stupid (ironic, isn't it?)) soul had risen their hand.
"Okay, Caitlyn, come up and solve the question."
What?
I looked over and saw that she was the one raising her hand. What was she thinking? Everyone knew how awkward it was to walk up to the board and write out your entire thought process- and how even more awkward it was if you got it wrong!
For example, one time, we were supposed to memorize a song that had the lyrics of the 50 states, called the 'states song', and the teacher announced that if you recited the entire song perfectly, you would get candy. Ooh. I tried and failed miserably.
Okay, I got through half the states and then forgot about Maryland, it's not my fault. Anyway, I was so, so embarrassed for the following 5 minutes that I... didn't really do anything, just sat there looking sad.
Back... to the important stuff, everyone was watching as she walked up to the whiteboard, taking the dry erase marker form the teacher's hands, and looked at the equation. It was basic multiplication.
559 times 657 was what it read on the whiteboard.
Easy. We didn't have calculators in 4th grade, so we had to use a method that was easy to figure out. If you used the method and didn't get the question right, then you were just... not smart.
Caitlyn started her process. What you're supposed to do is go one by one on each place (the one's place, the ten's place, the hundred's place, etc.) of the first number and multiply that number by each place on the second number. Some extra stuff too, but that's basically it. See how easy it was?
So for this equation, you would start with 9 times 7. 63.
What Caitlyn actually wrote was...
63. She got it right.
I sighed. No one heard me, probably.
Using my fingers as an air marker, I wrote out the problem in my head. The answer was 367,263. Yes, that's correct, don't look it up, I'm right, you're wrong.
She solved the equation. It became...
I don't even remember. She got it so horribly wrong that I couldn't even comprehend how badly she messed up. It was terrible. I accidentally started laughing out loud so loudly that the other students were dragged into laughing too. She was crying and it was hilarious and she looked miserable
Yeah, no, she got it right.
I slammed my fist onto my desk. Everyone diverted their attention towards me. I widened my eyes, looking around, pretending like I wasn't the one who tried to vandalize my own table. Caitlyn looked at me, and I caught her smirk. She was challenging me.
The teacher wrote a new equation. It was harder than the last one. She asked again for someone to come up and answer it.
"I'll do it,"
I said, raising my hand high. No one else did. Wimps.
I fiercely swiped the marker from Caitlyn's hand as she walked back to her desk. Okay, it wasn't that dramatic. I just wanted to emphasize that I had accepted Caitlyn's challenge. I did the process. Faster. Quicker. Swifter. Speedier (I ran out of synonyms for fast) than how fast she answered the question. I could do the math faster than her. I was smarter. I was better.
"You messed up,"
I heard someone say behind me. I sound around, and I figured out Caitlyn had said it. I scrunched up my eyebrows and looked at my work.
Oh, my god. I wrote that 5 times 7 was 12. I added them together instead of multiplying.
She snickered. I glared back at her, trying to intimidate her. She stuck her tongue out. I don't think she was intimidated all too well.
"I- ugh, whatever."
Great. I solved a question wrong. So smart. Remember how I said I was the smartest in the class?
That was a lie.
I'm so mad at myself. I lost to her. I lost. To HER. Wow.
Now, normally messing up in a math problem would make me just slightly mad, but this time, I was left so enraged that I... I...
I didn't do anything. I just sat back down, slamming my head on the desk. Maybe rocking my brain will strengthen it.
AUGH WHY
Guess what the worst part was? Anna and Caitlyn started having their snickerfest after I sat back down (they sat at the same table, of course) and I swear, I completely swear, I heard Anna mention something along the lines of 'You followed it perfectly.' I know she's up to something.
So... turns out they were planning something after all. Wait, I haven't explained what they did yet.
I walked into class one day, and I saw the teacher being cornered by a certain person. Anna was talking with the teacher, and I overheard a bit of their conversation.
"So, since she got it right, we can change spots now?"
"Yes, Anna."
woah, Woah, WOAH- WHAT? DID SHE BARGAIN WITH THE TEACHER TO CHANGE
Pfft, no, I'm just exaggerating. Of course the teacher wouldn't be out seating arrangement over a math problem.
See now that's what I'd like to say, but of course the teacher announced as soon as class started that we were having a new seating arrangement. Literally, shut up.
Hold on- hold on, I need to retrace. Before the seating arrangement. See, a week prior, the teacher randomly asked me to change spots with another kid. Something about the kid needing to sit next to the sunlit window so they could 'get a tan' (I don't remember if that was the actual reason), and I was moved to the other end of the room. Now I wasn't near the window at all (YES!).
Okay end of flashback here's what the teacher said today
"Okay, everyone, you can go and sit wherever you want for the next couple of days. I'm only letting you do this if you can behave. Got it? Oh, and one more thing-"
Huh?
"Alan, don't change spots- you already changed spots last week, so just stay put."
Oh, okay. Single me out here. That's cool. But... that wasn't the bad thing. Oh, god. The bad thing was who moved to my table.
"Why are you sitting here?"
"Because we're allowed to sit wherever we want, and I think I want to sit right here."
Anna. Dang. Carols. She put her stuff down in the seat diagonal to mine. That left two spots. One was taken by a tall girl, who seemed to be friends with Anna. Didn't know who she was, but maybe she'll become important later on (Hint: She will). Alright, cool. One more spot. Directly across from mine. Caitlyn hadn't found her spot in the classroom yet.
She actually sat down at a different table with other
Yeah she sat down in the seat facing mine.
Oh. Okay. Great. She's now 3 feet away from me, and would be for at least 6 more months. I... don't think I have the mental capacity to handle such a feat. Oh, wait, I don't. I can't even solve math problems around her.
I think talking to Caitlyn is making me dumber195Please respect copyright.PENANAhNWLj6LDiH