Noteworthy

Strangely, I didn’t have much litter on my floor at the end of seventh period yesterday. Usually it looks like the remains of a ticker tape parade. If I had to guess it was because we’re approaching the end of the semester, and they’ve just plum run out of trash to throw on the floor. Now they are reduced to scattering the stuff I give them that day. It’s just study material for a final worth twenty percent of their grade. Who needs that?

Since there was less debris than usual, I guess one scrap by my foot stood out. I bent over to pick it up and deciphered the message written in what seemed like a two year old’s penmanship (using the opposite hand). It said, “Will you go out with me?” I flipped it over to see that there was an option for the recipient to check a box for either yes or no.

At first, for a half of a second, I thought, “Oh Lord, was this meant for me?!” Like I said, it was for a half of a second. I mean, you read the Internet. There’s some creepy stuff that goes on in schools. But I decided to stay positive and assume that the message was created by some young man who was experiencing love for the first time. Sweaty palms kept him from talking to that girl he had grown up with, but had not truly noticed until now. Desperate to calm his heart he sought answers through secret communication. That sounds sweet, doesn’t it? Sometimes I need to have wholesome thought to soften the grind of this job.

And I’ll be honest. I can’t always craft such touching scenario with the notes I discovered on the floor. The last one I found said, “I’m late. When did we last do it?”

I told you—creepy stuff.