Hope looked at the blackboard, boringly. The math problems on it were beginning to make her fall asleep. Mr. Snyder’s voice was so relaxing and soothing. Her head fell forward but she caught it, jerking awake. She leaned her head back on her hand. Her head began to fall forward when somebody called her name.
“You awake, Hope?” the teacher asked.
“Yeah.” Hope’s eyes looked at the teacher trying to focus in on him.
Eve Morris raised her hand. “Mr. Snyder, when do we get to use this stuff? I mean, really, in real life.”
“Your job that you will be doing might require you to do some of this stuff.”
“Graphing, equations? Come on, Mr. Snyder.”
“If you want to be a couch potato all of your life. Well, then…”Mr. Snyder said.
Hope lifted her head off of her hand, “Hey, there is nothing wrong being a couch potato.”
“I don’t know but maybe one day math will come back up to haunt you,” Mr. Snyder turned toward the board to continue the lesson.
Everybody got quiet again. “I see math problems.” Hope whispered, imitating the movie ‘Sixth Sense.’ The whole classroom burst out laughing, hysterically. The person sitting next to her fell out of their seat holding his stomach. Mr. Snyder turned back around to the class, smiling.
“Ok, class, settle down.” Mr. Snyder continued his lesson.
Hope laid her head on her notebook and fell asleep. Her eyes covered by her right arm. Mr. Snyder turned around to see one of his smartest students asleep. He walked over to his desk and pulled out a small foghorn. The class giggled softly as he walked over to hope. He placed the horn far from her ear. The loud horn startled Hope so much she slid right out of her seat. Everybody laughed loudly.
Mr. Snyder helped her up. “That’s the 3rd time this week you fell asleep in my class, Hope. The next time I’m going to send you to the office and call your parents.”
“Sorry, Mr. Snyder, it won’t happen again.”
“That’s what you said the last time.”
“I really mean it this time.” Hope reassured her teacher.
Hope sat down in her desk. She waited until Mr. Snyder turned his back before placing her arms on the desk and dipped her head onto her arms. Her eyes closed slowly once more. Hope knew her teacher was a lot of talk and not enough of action. She also knew he wasn’t the kind to send somebody to the office. Mr. Snyder turned back around and shook his head.
“Hope, would you like to do this problem?” the teacher asked letting the white chalk slid in the palm of his hand.
Hope looked up at the board and squinted her eyes at the problem on the board. She dropped her head back on her arms. “Not really,” her arms muffled her reply.
“Sure you do. Come on up.”
Hope’s blue eyes looked back up at the board. She sighed and got up from her desk. Grabbing the chalk out of the teacher’s hand she smiled at him. “Explain what you’ll be doing, Hope,” he added.
She started writing on the board explaining it while she wrote. “Since the base of the triangle is 5 inches…” Hope continues on and on until she was all finished with the problem and turned around to hand the chalk back to the teacher. She smiled slyly. Mr. Snyder was still looking for problems when Hope opened up his hand and placed the chalk in his palm and sat down. He tilted his head to the side and rubbed his shaven chin. He looked at the problem a moment later before switching his weight to his other foot. After another moment he nodded in satisfaction.
“Good job.” The young teacher smiled at her. “You know more than I thought.”
“Of course I do. What do you expect from a smart family.”
“Smart family?”
“Yeah. My mom was number 1 in her collage class at Harvard.”
“Really?” Mr. Snyder asked seemingly impressed.
“No.” Hope smiled at her teacher’s fallen face. The loud bell rang to signify that school was over for the day. Everybody got up when Mr. Snyder told the class that the final test was tomorrow. Not everybody cared.
Hope caught up with Eve at their lockers. Blonde hair fell in Hope’s face as she dropped her books in the small blue locker.
“You studying for that math test tomorrow?” Eve asked her as they walked out of the school.
“No, I already have an A in math. One failing grade won’t hurt anything.”
“I wish I was like you. I mean you have the looks, the personality, and the grades.” Eve told her.
Hope thought about that for a moment. She moved her book-bag higher on her shoulder. “I also don’t have the sweetest guy in 10th grade. Somebody already has him.” Her smile brightened as she nudged her friend’s shoulder.
Eve smiled. “I don’t have him. He just likes me. We’re not officially going out yet. Besides you’re picky.”
“Officially? Oh, but you were thinking about it weren’t you. Go ahead you can tell me. I won’t tell.” Hope told Eve smiling.
“Ok, he is supposed to call me later today to ask me out.”
“And who found that out?” Hope hinted.
Eve smiled.“You did.”
“Who found out he liked you in the first place?”
Eve sighed and smiled to her friend. “You did.”
“Thank you, thank you.”
Eve looked up at her. “What? You want a ‘Matchmaker of the Year Award’?”
Hope looked up at Eve amazed. “They have those?”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“Oh.” Hope smiled and looked down at the gray sidewalk.
“Sometimes I really wonder about you.” Eve told her shaking her head.
“Speaking about wonder. You know how the Great Salt Lake is the saltiest thing on earth right? Somebody told me that nothing could sink it just floats. Now if you throw a rock in the water, will it sink or float? That always wondered me. I just can’t get an answer for that. What do you think?” Hope looked up at Eve confused.
“I think you lost it.” Eve told her.
Hope laughed. “No, seriously. I can never figure that out.”
“Sometimes I can’t figure you out.” Eve said.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.” They both looked at each other and started laughing.
copyright © 2001 AngelH