I love the end of the school year. Everyone is comfortable, the food no longer makes you vomit, and the teachers are content with letting you slide.
It was fifth period, right after lunch. Half of my science class was sleeping, the other talking amongst themselves as the teacher droned on and on, attempting to fill our heads to capacity with the oh so fascinating subject of oceanography.
My pink socks and I sat near the back. I let my head rest on my left fist, and my notebook lay open in front of my, the blinding white cleanness of the page staring up at me, making little dots dance in front of my face.
And as my teacher began to lecture us on the unrelated subject of foreign oil, I picked up my pen and began to doodle on the page in front of me.
My pink socks don't normally let me doodle. I normally just draw random swirls and squiggles across my paper.
But here I was, doodling a gnome's head anyway. I gave him a little beard and 'stach. I drew a little Snow White and the Seven Dwarves cap. I made his mouth open in an 'O'.
Then I followed an impulse and drew him a little body, way out of proportion with his head, and gave him a little Jedi robe.
A smile worked its way across my lips as I stared down at my labors. To quote a great man, it was "flipp'n sweet."
My head jerked up though as I heard an odd variation of my name called out. While my female teachers referred to me by my given name, my male teachers had dozens of little endearing terms to refer to me as.
My teacher gestured towards the board, expecting an answer to the question he had just asked. I put on my sweetest smile, and said 'Um...' and pursed my lips, as though considering the answer. After a seconds pause, I replied to question on the board, my answer perfect. My teacher responds with an 'Atta girl', and moves on.
From the corner of my eyes, I see my classmates roll their eyes. I knew that after band camp, most of them saw straight through my confidence lacking, sweet, polite, charming school girl routine that I put on for my 'A'.
My mind had began to wander again towards what I would like to do the moment I get out of this mini hell for the day, when I here a voice whisper to me, 'Hey kid!'
I look around. The girl sitting next to me is dozing into her English homework, and on the other side of me, there is nothing but a sink unusable because of the many books stacked in it. Seeing no one waving me down, I blame it on the five pounds of sugar I have consumed in the last hour and try to return my attention to my teacher's latest lecture on the brilliant subject of the also unrelated subject of the revolution of rock-n-roll.
Then something catches my eye. No, not literally.
I stare down at my notebook. The Jedi Gnome is no longer in the corner I drew him. Instead he has moved to the center of the page. A speech-bubble reading 'Hey kid!' is beside him.
At this point, I'll admit that I was a bit freaked out. So, listening to my ninja instincts, I close my notebook, and place a copy of the 4oo page book I am reading on top of it, and try to absorb myself in the lecture.
In only a few moments, the cry of 'Hey kid!' comes again, and I will myself not to look down. I fail miserably though, and stare down and the wonder in front of me.
The Jedi Gnome's body position has changed. He is no longer standing still, but frozen in the act of stepping forward. He has pulled out his light saber, and new words have appeared in his speech-bubble.
'Hey kid,' I read, 'you want to know a secret.'
***
It is at this point where my dad yells that school starts in a half hour, and I wake up.
