Devonne Brown

Testing

“She’s not here, we might not have to have to take the test,” said Helen, the redhead who never brought her glasses and was always the smartest person in the room. “I hope she forgets about it and doesn’t even give it. I’m so glad that old bitch is out today. I have one more day of not being on the F honor roll. That test is going to put me right at the bottom of the barrell. And we have a paper due as well. Jackpot.”

Jeremiah didn’t believe Helen’s pronouncements for a second. “Shhhh…be quiet or they’ll realize somebody’s in here now.” The other teachers are busy, just be quiet so they don’t call anybody up here and we won’t have to do jackshit.” As much as Ms. Park screws up, nobody will be here to check on us. 

Aaron looked at Helen, he was “crushin’ on her bad.” Since when did she get to be so smart? She was one of those true gingers, as well as big and loud. Yeah, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He had to show off for her as well as Jeremiah. It was a vicious triangle of ricochet shots fired.  She made good points about being quiet so no one would notice Mrs. Lewis was gone though. She was probably out with her new husband again. Since she got married, nothing had been the same. She was nicer, but had lots more meetings to go to, and missed a lot of school. He was glad she was gone too, but more skeptical,  “They’re going to send in a sub and we’ll have to take the test one way or another. They don’t just let classes sit by themselves. Somebody’ll find us.” He got up and shut the door, it locked when it closed. “Now, ya’ll get on your iPads and do something quiet. If they ain’t no noise coming out of here, there won’t be nobody coming in here.”

Buster raised his hand. “Dude, what do you want?” asked Aaron. Buster Double-Dutched jumped on everybody’s last nerve the minute he was born, then he got annoying as he blossomed into the ugly swan he was born to be. He had the best curls, longest lashes, and bluest eyes  of anybody in the whole school, and he cried when anything vexed him. He made noises in class, weird noises, not to mention the conversations he had with himself, as well as the bloody confrontations, usually his blood, he was compelled to initiate over nothing. Regardless of his good looks and charm, he was not a class favorite. 

“Should we work on Math or Reading on CleverSchool?” Buster was on the spectrum and required specifics. He couldn’t just hang, he had to have an assignment from an official of some sort, Aaron designated himself Buster’s official so he wouldn’t climb the walls or eat the curtains. Mr. Wandling caught him chewing on his curtains Tuesday. “I’m lost, I don’t know how to do this. My teacher is missing.”

“Dude, I’m the teacher today. You’re fine. Work on Roblox,” said Aaron gently.

“Dude!!! Roblox isn’t an assignment, it’s a game!” said Helen. Helen was big on doing the right thing. She got on people’s  nerves with her unwavering integrity. 

The lock rattled. Everyone jumped into their seats. The principal and the school cop walked in to survey the situation. Students were seated and silent with their heads bowed to their iPads in supplication. It looked pretty sketchy. No class behaved that well without adult supervision unless they were up to something. 

The cop walked around the back of the room, the principal took the front half. iPads clicked softly. “Wow, she has you guys trained.”

Aaron looked up over his glasses and grinned, head still down. 

“Mrs. Lewis left lots of work to do. I have to write a report on Roblox,” said Buster. The class erupted. 

“Buster!” screeched Helen.

Mrs. Lewis put her head down to squelch her laughter.” Go to the officer, Buster, you too, Helen.” 

Helen’s orange face turned more orange with red tips around the edges. Her hair blazed, the blue rings around her eyes were electrified. She was so angry she turned white and blue at the same time. Normally a quiet child, she made a lot of racket leaving the room. 

These are moments teachers live for. 

Helen was too big for her britches.

Buster was removed for his own protection.