Today I met a young woman who was already cynical at 15. She was in the large hallway near the cafeteria and the gyms, which we call the strip. She was standing with two of her friends, and I always ask non-moving students where they are going. They showed me a bunch of fliers they were going to hang up for the SO, or something.
"Have fun," I said.
"I'm not having fun," she replied.
"Well, have fun later then," I told her.
"I won't," she said.
I was a little upset by this. After all, I figure I've earned the right to have a bad outlook if I want to, but by my reckoning, she hasn't. A few minutes later, I saw her laughing with her friends while they were hanging up Whatever It Was they were hanging up.
"You lied to me. You're definitely having fun," I told her.
She nodded.
My next adventure wasn't so great. I was walking down the hallway in the second floor when I saw a young woman rushing down the hall. Where are you going, I asked. To the bathroom, she said. I asked why she didn't have a pass and she started lecturing me about how I always hassle her when she's just trying to do her thing, and then became rapidly less complimentary. I asked for ID and she made a great show of refusing. I followed her, but she ducked into the bathroom. I actually waited for her. I decided to be very clever and tricky.
So when she came out, I decided to follow her to class. She must've been going there, because she kept telling me she was, and why didn't I leave her alone, and a lot of things I won't write here. She then walked downstairs, and then out the building. I saw her approaching my beloved trailers and thought I had her. I went to the last one, but she wasn't there. I then noticed the trailers were no longer fenced in, and the young woman had run into the field to places unknown. I gave up.
Later I met a young man who was standing on the strip, doing nothing, not even looking at his phone. I asked him where he was going.
"No English," he said.
This was very surprising to me. Anyone who really had no English should've been in my classes. The young man was very surprised when I asked him the same question in Spanish. In Spanish, he told me he was finished with school and going home. I was a little jealous, but I asked him who his English teacher was.
"Ms. C." he said.
I happened to know that Ms. C. teaches the higher level kids. I told him that, and then I told him that if he really didn't know English, he'd be in my class. Then I said, in English, "You speak English, brother."
By then he'd had enough of me and my nonsense. He left the building and went home. Soon thereafter, the bell rang and I did the same.
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