Mondays - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Even though the librarian hawked over us, we still managed to communicate in bits and pieces. We were able to split up the work between us; we would each do twelve problems and pass the answers around when the librarian wasn’t looking. We were done within a half-hour, and tried to look busy for the rest of the time. Ironically, it’s not as easy as it looks.

After Algebra was over, the librarian sent us back to our room to switch to History. Mrs. Lancaster assigned us a one-page essay on slavery due tomorrow. She said the same thing as Mr. Higgins: “Principal’s orders, not mine.” It didn’t matter much. We had spent the whole of seventh grade learning to write essays. They were pretty easy; they just took time. By the time the period was done, I had finished my rough draft and was ready to start typing. We helped each other out and were able to finish our rough drafts by the time that the bell rang.

When it did, Mrs. Higgins told us to stay in to try to finish our work. So the eight of us all set to work typing up our History essays. By helping each other, we were all about a third done when the students came back in.

The next subject was language. We were assigned the whole unit’s problems in vocabulary, which we all managed to finish before the class ended.

Next was Lunch. We had to eat separated, but all of us could deal with that. As I ate in one of the halls, I saw Mrs. Dameson walk down the hall. She recognized me as the troublemaker who had started the fight and glared at me. She asked a few sarcastic questions such as “Enjoying your day?” I couldn’t think of anything to do but to not say anything.

During second recess, we again stayed in and worked on our essays. Most of us had it finished when the bell rang.

After that was Literature. We had to read the rest of the book and take the test tomorrow, when it would normally be next week. We had already read the whole book.

Following that was Science. The due date for the big science project was moved from next week to tomorrow. Again, no problem, we’d all done it in groups and finished it the week before.

And then we had P.E. We weren’t allowed to participate, so we stayed in and finished whatever work we hadn’t finished. We finished our essays and y the end of the day, virtually none of us had any homework at all.

Before dismissal, Mrs. Dameson called us down to her office. We entered her office nervously, trying to predict what would happen. We had all silently agreed to act repentant. “So,” she started, “I’m guessing you’ve noticed a difference in your assignments.”

We all muttered and nodded in agreement, trying hard to keep a convincing, straight face. “That was your punishment for your behavior yesterday. We can’t have these things happening here. They reflect badly on the school. Now I don’t want this to happen again, or your assignments will be even bigger. Understand? Good, now scram.”

We exited her office and stepped into our homeroom. We all laughed over our good luck. And the rest of the class didn’t have any assignments; it was just supposed to be us with homework. But even with their ridiculous work they had us do, we’d all finished it. The dismissal bell rang, and we all left school with smiles on our faces.



Since I had no homework, I had to answer a question: what do I do now? I didn’t have much to do until six or so, so I decided that I would go biking. I left a note and readied my bike.

It was a sunny day, so I rode to Camelsback. I climbed up the hill with my bike and then rode down a couple of times, but I soon left and went to Hyde’s park.

I stopped at Goody’s, a candy store, to buy some candy with the money I brought. I bought some sour strips and some jawbreakers. I was halfway through with my sweets when I saw Mrs. Dameson pull up. What is she doing here? Doesn’t she have stuff to do? My confusion soon gave way to panic, as I realized what would happen if she found that I dodged her punishment. I probably overstressed it, but I hate to think that she’d give me extra assignments.

I quickly got up from my seat and started walking toward the back door, trying to keep out of sight from the main door. I dodged her sight by ducking below the windows, working my way toward my bike. When she sat down facing the opposite direction, I dashed to my bike and unlocked it. I hid the bike behind the building next door, and then went in through the back. I had to see what she was doing here.

She walked out of the candy shop with one of the huge lollipops that they sell. It must be for her niece or daughter or something. Before getting into her car, she crossed the street and walked into a bookshop. I could see that she only bought one book, and then got into her car and drove off.

I waited for a couple of minutes, and then rode to the bookshop. I asked the clerk, “The lady who just walked in, what did she buy?” Remembering her first name I added “Maria’s a good friend of mine, I wanted to see what she’s reading these days.”

The clerk looked like he couldn’t care less. “What? Oh, yeah. She bought The Screwtape Letters. I forget who the author was.”

“Thanks.” I said, and resolved to try to check out the book at the library. I rode home, tired from biking Camelsback.

Mom greeted me and asked me how my day was. I decided to tell her about the whole fight scene at school, and how we were able to slide by Mrs. Dameson’s punishment. She smiled and nodded the whole way through, thoroughly entertained. She laughed at it and said it was okay with her.

“Where’s Dad?”

“He’s on call in Meridian.”

“Okay.” This happened maybe once a week, that Dad would be out the whole night in the hospital. This didn’t bother me too much, since it didn’t happen very often, but I had wanted to ask him about the book.

“Hey Mom, can I go to this airsoft thing on Friday?”

“Get the specifics, and I’ll take you.”

Mom always had to know the specifics. I had dinner and watched TV, and the rest of the day pretty much passed without me knowing it. It was a good day over all, I thought, as I climbed into bed. I remembered what Luke said about the airsoft party. I soon fantasized about airsoft battles and wars. I finally fell into sleep.


I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock, blaring incessantly, tearing me away from sleep. I slammed the snooze button, hoping it would leave me better rested. It didn’t of course, and it rang again in a few minutes. I turned the alarm off and tore myself away from the warm sheets and pillows to meet the tough morning.

I climbed into the shower, thinking normal Wednesday thoughts. I’m tired. I can’t wait until Friday. I wonder if we’ll win the airsoft battle.

I got dressed and walked downstairs to scavenge my breakfast. I had spare time, so I prepared Andy and me a bagel. Andy came down, and we shared the bagels. “Go to school without me,” Andy said, “I need to finish some work.” I laughed and got ready for school.

It was not too cold of a morning, and I arrived at school with my fingers mostly intact. I again had the tremendous temptation to turn and ride away from school, but there was a part of me that resisted with all its strength. I felt like it was another voice telling me I had to go to school. At any rate I listened, and again walked into the gymnasium.

The heads that turned was only a bit more than the usual turnout, and it seemed like the fight was fading already. Luke, Mark, and John greeted me as usual. “I got news.” Luke said.

“Yeah, what?”

“I was calling some of my friends the other night, and there’s been the same thing going on in a bunch of the other schools.”

“What, you mean the fight?”

“Yeah! They all want to come- eight and seventh.”

“Wait, you mean that we’re going to be fighting along North kids and stuff like that?”

“Yeah! I got the final count in. It’s us and three other schools. All eigths versus all sevies.”

I was stunned. This wasn’t an airsoft battle. It was war. “Listen,” he said, “It’s Friday right after school at my place. I’ll take you if you need. Oh, and bring money tomorrow, at least twenty dollars. I’m gonna buy some airsoft grenades and stuff.”

“Alright.” Two grades from four schools? There could be as many as eighty people fighting. This was going to be insane. Luke was planning the battle carefully. He was getting people to bring walkie-talkies, flashlights; everything. He told me to go out and buy a good gun with a flashlight if I could.

I was considering it when Mrs. Dameson walked into the gymnasium and stepped in front of us. All discussion of airsoft ceased immediately as she cleared her throat to speak. “I assume we learned our lesson yesterday?” We nodded. “And it won’t happen again?” We nodded again. “Good. I think you all are mature enough to recover this quickly, so I’m going to let you play football today.” She threw a football at Nick and walked out.

Nick and some of the others cheered, and I just chuckled. She had hardly punished us at all, and she was already giving back our privileges. “Weird week, huh?” John asked.

“No kidding. You don’t even know the half of it.”

“Yeah, what’s the half of it?”

I knew I could tell John. “You do remember the fight?”

“I think I do...” he said sarcastically.

“Yeah, well I looked up at one of the teachers when we were fighting, and even though he was looking straight at the fight, he was smiling. A really smug smile.”

“Yeah, but he was probably just laughing at us. It would’ve seemed funny to me.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I considered telling him about the psychology book, but I knew that it both was and would seem paranoid or just stupid.

“Dude just relax. Within a week or two and a couple of detentions later, this’ll all blow over. It was just an incident.” He said with newfound confidence.

“Yeah, you’re right man. It’ll be fine....” But in my heart of hearts, I wanted there to be more to it.