Stars In Their Eyes

(While my best friend in this class is a year younger than all of us because she skipped a grade, I am a little older, because my birthday is exactly one day after the date that determines if children allowed to start school. My best friend is one of the teacher’s favourites and a really good student, but, like me, somewhat of a s***head sometimes. I’m behaving myself and taking notes while my friend is next to me drawing incredibly intricate stars with faces. However, my ink runs out, and I change the cartridge and make a few scribbles on a scrap piece of paper to get it running again.)

Teacher: “[MY NAME]! STOP DRAWING AND PAY ATTENTION RIGHT NOW!”

Me: “But I’m not drawing; my ink just ran out and I—”

Teacher: “YOU NEVER PAY ATTENTION! LET ME SEE YOUR BINDER!”

(He stomps over to the desk my friend and I share and grabs my binder. Since I did take notes, he instead berates me for my handwriting and “doodling” — the scribbles and half-visible words I wrote after changing my ink cartridge. All the time, my friend calmly continues to draw her smiling stars, in plain sight, and really obviously spreads out the coloured markers she’s using. Her whole binder is covered in smiling rainbow stars.)

Teacher: *finishing his rant* “…and I really wish you would take [Friend] as an example; her work is always beautifully done! Look at her writing!”

(We look at the multitude of stars.)

Teacher: “And from now on, PAY ATTENTION!”

(Needless to say, I didn’t give a single flying coitus about his opinion after that, anymore. My friend drew stars for the rest of the lesson.)