“I don’t want it to be morning…”

 

The sun was shining brightly through the window and roused me from my sleep. I rolled over to try and ignore it as I didn’t want to get up yet. I wasn’t feeling myself and I had to deal with Mrs. Natsume today. That was a bad combination.

 

“Fine, I’ll get up.”

 

After arguing with myself for several minutes on whether to get up or not, I reach for my clothes, which were scattered about, deciding I've been in bed long enough. It didn’t take long to get ready, grab my project, and grab my papers. I also grabbed my gloves; the irritable mood I fell asleep in gave me quite a few nightmares.

Once done, I headed to the living room and decided to sit down on the couch. It wasn’t time to leave yet so I just starred at the clock, waiting for a knock on the door from Cocoa. However, 20 minutes passed by and still I heard nothing.

 

“Where is she? It’s Thursday and she knows I turn in my project today. I thought I’d be able to tell her more about it on the way to school as I didn’t get much of a chance yesterday, but I guess she’s busy with her project,” I sigh as I get up.

 

I guess it didn’t matter; we did have our own things to do this year. It did make me a little sad though, as Cocoa and I have walked to school together for the past 3 years. Her not being here just made me feel worse. On top of that, I hadn’t seen Tipsy anywhere since I woke up. It’s like the whole world is mad at me. But I didn’t continue to let it bother me and left. But I didn’t get far before I was stopped by my neighbor, Mrs. Webly.

 

“Good morning, Random,” she calls out. “Where’s your friend, Cocoa is it?”

 

I always forget she doesn’t really know Cocoa, as they don’t talk much. At least she remembers the nickname for her.

 

“Yes, that’s her,” I wave. “I don’t know where she is. Have you seen her?”

 

“Not since she left your house yesterday. Are you two fighting?” she asks concerned.

 

“No, it’s nothing like that,” I tell her in a low whisper. I didn’t want to be here right now; I wanted to be on my way to school and the constant head turning was not helping. “Well, thanks anyway, Mrs. Webly, but I got to get to school. I’ll talk to you another day,” I tell her as I begin to leave.

 

“All right dear, you take care of yourself.”

 

“I will, you too,” I tell her with a wave goodbye.

 

When I left her, I thought the rest of the walk to school would be quieter. It wasn’t. I don’t know if it was because of the mood I was in or not, but it felt like everyone could see what was wrong with me with how often I got a, “Are you feeling okay, Random?” or “Is life treating you well?” I felt like the center of attention and I didn’t prefer it. Once I was passed the bakery, I began to walk more quickly. The sooner I got to school, the better.

 

“Finally,” I sigh in front of my locker. “Class starts soon.”

 

As I shuffle my things together, I overhear Cocoa and Jasmine talking a couple lockers down. They were talking about their project and how well it was going. They were also giggling quite a bit, so I decided to stay and listen in on what they were saying.

 

“Did you get what I asked for yesterday, Cocoa?”

 

“Yep, it’s right here.” I couldn’t see what it was exactly that she handed her, but it looked like a stack of papers.

 

“Great, thanks a lot. I finished photo shopping everything else last night and I just needed what you had. I think we’re almost ready.”

 

She proceeds to then look over the papers Cocoa gave her.

 

“You really photo shopped everything already? You’re amazing, Jasmine.”

 

“What can I say; I do what I like well.”

 

They continue giggling and I took that as my queue to walk away. It was slowly starting to bug me and I was going to be late if I didn’t leave soon.

 

I was one of the first people in the classroom along with 3 others and Mrs. Natsume by the time I got there. It was quiet and it gave me time to get my things sorted out and get to my seat on the side near the back. Mrs. Natsume stared the whole time, which was rather awkward.

 

While waiting for the rest of class to shuffle in, Mrs. Natsume continued to stare at me. Even as the classroom filled more and more, her gaze never broke off from me. It’s like she was expecting something from me. After a while I just shook off the feeling. Not too long after, the last of us finally came in and the door was closed.

 

“Now that everyone is here, I hope you’re prepared to turn in your project that I gave to you Monday for today. I don’t expect to see much failure.”

 

After her announcement, she turned around, got up, and began to right names in a list on the board. She scribbled from top to bottom, left to right, the names of each student in the classroom. The list went on and on till it hit 25; the number of students in this class. From the list, I was number 20.

 

“Well begin from the top and work or way down through the numbers,” she announces as she resumes sitting. “Jake, you’re up first.”

 

The list was slowly crossed off as I sat there and watched one student after another bring up their projects to the table. Each project was more or less effective than the last and it was an entertaining sight.

 

Jake’s was a green and yellow parakeet that only did two of the three things Mrs. Natsume asked for. Its voice, despite it greeting her, was annoyingly hi-pitched, and it could barely pick up the pencil. The funny part was when it started to count, but not to ten. It went from 1 to 5, then started mixing letters in.

 

As Mrs. Natsume was crossing off her board, he grabbed his things and returned to his seat, embarrassed.

The rest of the projects were very similar, except the animals they took shape of. Some were monkeys, some were rabbits and others were cats. A lot of them miscounted or didn’t count at all; others bit or broke the pencil in half after picking it up. The most comical part of it all were the greetings Mrs. Natsume got. The whole class burst out in laughter after, “Goud moning teacher lady, your day will go?” Since it still greeted her, they got partial credit. Others got sent directly back to their seat for foul language or malfunctions. By the time my turn came up, the rest of the class was shoving their projects away in embarrassment. It cheered me up a little, and it was a good thing to because Mrs. Natsume was about to call on me next.

 

“Random, please come up here.”

 

Without hesitation I grabbed my backpack and walked up to the front of the classroom. Unzipping it, I pull out a small, robotic ferret. It scurry’s up my arm to my shoulder and greets Mrs. Natsume in a perfect voice.

 

“Good morning, Mrs. Natsume. How are you feeling today?”

 

Not surprised, Mrs. Natsume crossed off her list and continued to wait as my ferret continued her task.

Up next was picking up a simple pencil, which she did very easily. To her surprise, and a little of mine, not only did she say the numbers in order, she also wrote them on a piece of my notebook paper she pulled out from my backpack. Once she was done, she ran back into my backpack, leaving the pencil and notebook behind. Afterwards, I picked up everything and returned to my seat.

 

There was a pause after I went back and she called no one else up to the desk. She was busy looking over her list and looking at me like I didn’t meet her expectations. I don’t see why I wouldn’t, especially since it did more than what she expected.

 

“Random, that was worth a C.”

 

“A C?!” I exclaim, slamming my hands on the desk, startling the whole class. However, Mrs. Natsume was not.

 

“It did more than what you wanted while still doing exactly what you wanted.”

 

“Yes, but I gave you three things to do. Writing down the numbers was not part of what I asked. Now sit down,” she retorts.

 

“You can’t do this. I should have gotten an A+ for that. Please reconsider and raise the grade to something-“

 

“Random Dadalian!” she exclaims in a stern but kind voice.“I will not have you make a mockery of this classroom. Now. Sit. Down.”

 

After she finished, she resumed sitting and placed her elbows on the desk.

I was so outraged I didn’t know what to say. Since the class was almost over, I grabbed my stuff and stormed out of the classroom. I thought I’d get detention for it, but I didn’t care. She gave me an unfair grade, and I wasn’t going to stand for it, especially since it took me so long to get it ready to present for the class and her.