1/8/01, early morning
The return to school from Winter Vacation was thankfully routine. GC was able to get up out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get ready for school without much trouble. She said goodbye to her mom, and walked the long way to the C-Building, and up the four flights of stairs to her locker. Opening her locker for the first time in 2001 she deposited her unneeded notebooks into the dark, beige space. Then GC continued on her way to her first period and the day.
1/8/01, later that day
GC grinned at her chemistry teacher, Mr. Kent, as she entered his classroom. He grinned back knowingly and stepped back in mock fear. “Oh, God, not you again.”
GC laughed. “Yep. I’m back, Mr. Kent.” GC dropped her backpack and binder on her desk and, acting on a whim, decided to pay Mr. Kent a visit before fifth period began. She stepped outside again, grinning innocently. “Hey, Mr. Kent, didja get more Zen for 2001?”
Mr. Kent shook his head. “Nope, not this year. I got something else.”
GC blinked and cocked her head. “Oh? What’dja get for this year?”
“It’s the Best of 14,000 Things to be Happy About.”
“Nobody got you Zen?”
“Nope, nobody did.”
GC contemplated this interesting event. “I think I’ll try and get you Zen.” GC checked her watch, then said, “I’ll stop bugging you now. See you in class, Mr. Kent!”
Since GC entered Mr. Kent’s fifth period Chemistry class on the first day of school, Mr. Kent would read to the class the daily Zen; a number of quotes pertaining to Zen Buddhism. Some sayings made the class think, others were too warped to even try to understand. But GC enjoyed hearing the sayings, so the lack of them made her sad.
The bell rang, and Mr. Kent closed his door on the way into the classroom. He walked to his desk and began the daily tradition of reading what his desk calendar had to say. “Five things to be happy about for today, January Eighth, Two-thousand-and-one . . .”
GC listened to the five things to be happy about, and almost gagged. Soft light? Churned butter? The warm feeling you get when you wrap your fingers around a coffee mug? Getting back on track? The smell of unpasteurized milk? Who in the world came up with this stuff?
That settled it. GC had to do something about this sudden lack of ‘intellectuality.’ To make sure she would be supported in her crusade, GC looked around. Good, the other classmates share her reaction. GC grinned. Mr. Kent was going to get his Zen.
Finals week, the last week of January, (and the beginning of February) crept close. Each night GC would check the website; each night she would be disappointed.
One night GC almost forgot to check. Before entering Unreality she checked out the website just one more time. After ten minutes of searching, she found the page where the Zen calendar was listed. GC scrolled down to the bottom, fully expecting the red, capitalized ‘OUT OF STOCK’ message to appear under the picture. To her surprise and relief, the mocking red letters were nonexistent under the pictures of the Zen desk calendar. There was not question as to if GC would buy it. Immediately she clicked the ‘Buy’ link and called for her mom; she would need her credit card.
Minutes passed while GC and her mother entered the required information into the computer. Soon, GC was a member of calendarclub.com, and now she could purchase the life-saving Zen desk calendar. GC sighed in relief. Her crusade was over; she would get Mr. Kent his Zen.
That happened on a Tuesday night. The next day GC couldn’t wait to get to Chemistry and tell Me. Kent the good news.
Mr. Kent was, as usual, very unhappy to see GC. However, his attitude changed when he heard his student’s good news. “Do you know when it will come?” he asked.
“About five to eight business days. Either way, I’m pretty sure it’ll be here before finals; get our brains workin’ and thinkin’ again.”
For the rest of the week GC would go online and check the status of her order each night, and each day following she would tell Mr. Kent what was going on.
The weekend came; GC would be at her dad’s house. She didn’t think much about the Zen; there was so much to do at her dad’s house. She never expected a call from her mom, either.
“A package came for you today,” her mom said on her new cell phone.
“Oh, really? Is it what I think it is?”
“It says it’s from calendarclub.com.”
“That’s it, then.”
They talked for a bit more about the new cell phone, and then GC handed the phone to her brother.
Late Sunday GC returned from her dad’s house to find the box on her bed. She opened the box to make sure it contained what she ordered. Sure enough, it was the Zen desk calendar. Mr. Ken’s Chemistry classes would be saved from the dreaded five things to be happy about.
1/29/01, early morning
As usual, GC said goodbye to her mother and walked towards the C-Building. This time, however, she did not go to her locker; she paid and early visit to Mr. Kent, whose room happened to be on the way to her locker. Mr. Kent’s door was open, and she stepped inside.
“I have a surprise for you, Mr. Kent,” GC said happily.
“You do?” Mr. Kent asked.
GC put her backpack on her desk, opened it, and fished out the box. “It’s your Zen, Mr. Kent,” she said as she handed the box to her Chemistry teacher.
“Oh my gosh . . .”Mr. Kent opened the box, “Oh, this is so awesome. This is so cool. Thank you so much.”
“See you in fifth period, Mr. Kent.” GC grinned, packed her bags, and left for her locker.
1/29/01, later that day
GC grinned as she passed her Chemistry teacher and entered his room. She dropped her backpack and binder on her desk and walked back outside. “So what did your other classes think about your Zen, Mr. Kent?” GC asked.
Mr. Kent nodded. “Everybody’s so happy.”
One of GC’s friends, Mark, stopped to say hi before he entered the classroom. GC grinned at him. “I got it.”
Mark looked at GC incredulously. “Got what . . .?” He stood there for a few seconds, trying to determine what GC was tali g about. Then his eyes widened. “You got Zen?”
GC nodded, and snapped a thumbs-up sign to him. “That’s right.”
“Oh you are so cool.” Marks went into the classroom. GC followed him inside, as the bell would ring soon.
Mr. Kent sat at his desk before he had to teach. Arianna, another of GC’s class friends, stopped to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at Mr. Kent’s pictures of his son. She saw the new calendar and asked, “Did you get Zen?”
“Yes I did. GC bought it for the class,” Mr. Kent answered.
Arianna turned to GC. “I applaud you, GC. Thank you.”
The bell rang. GC’s fellow classmates took to their seats; Mr. Kent took his place at his lab desk. “I have some good news, some very good news, and some really, really good news. First off, I will still read five things to be happy about.”
The class groaned.
“The very good news is that someone bought me a Far Side calendar so I will be reading that too.
“The really, really good news is that GC, who was so fed up with the five things to be happy abut, went online and fond me Zen. So every day you’ll get five things to be happy about, Far Side, and Zen.”
GC was happy; the class was happy. Mr. Kent’s Zen was back, even in time for finals. Things were good.
He grinned back. “Hello, GC.”
GC laughed and passed by his lab desk on the way to her new desk. She noticed a change in the number of calendars on his desk. Now there were five. GC dropped her backpack and binder and rushed outside to find out the reason to the increase in calendars.
“Aaron Rosenberck gave it to me,” Mr. Kent stated. “It’s like Zen, but a little different.”
“But nothing is better than the Zen I got you, right Mr. Kent?” GC laughed before her Chemistry teacher could answer, and walked back into the classroom, and the tardy bell would ring soon.
As Mr. Kent read the new ‘Zen,’ GC knew for sure that hers was better. This new calendar was even worse than the five things to be happy about! GC had a nice new name for this calendar:
Zen for Dummies.
Sure enough, GC counted six calendars. This new one had hardware tips and facts for its daily page. GC groaned inside her mind. Had she created a trend, or had Mr. Kent’s lack of Zen at the beginning triggered everyone to buy something to lessen the pain of the ridiculous five things to be happy about? GC walked back outside to try and obtain information from Mr. Kent about this interesting event. “Who keeps giving you these calendars, Mr. Kent?” GC asked.
“It was another student from another period, and more could be coming. Supposedly another of my students got me a Harry Potter desk calendar . . .”
GC laughed. Would there ever be an end? Mr. Kent’s lab desk had more calendars than workspace on it!
Two other people were outside talking to him; they each had visitors’ passes, so GC assumed that they were former students of her Chemistry teacher’s. Once she was given attention GC held up the Harry Potter calendar. “Did I create a trend with the Zen?” she asked.
Mr. Kent nodded. “I think you did.”
“Oh, wonderful.”
One of the visitors spoke. “So you got Mr. Kent the Zen?”
GC nodded. “Yep.” She offered her hand to the speaker. “GC.”
They shook hands. “Jack,” the other said.
Mr. Kent ushered everyone inside, as the tardy bell would ring and a lockout would follow. After the bell Mr. Kent walked to his lab desk and prepared to read from his calendars. “I have a new calendar. It’s a Harry Potter one. I’d read it to you, but there’s nothing to read . . .” GC’s Chemistry teacher flipped through the pages. “It’s just word searches and mazes . . .”
“It’s individual interaction, not good for a class,” GC added. And to herself, she said, “Even worse than the Zen for Dummies; if you don’t offer anything, you’re not worth it.”
As she tucked the pens under Mr. Kent’s teachers’ edition of the class textbook she noticed something very alarming. The calendars on Mr. Kent’s lab desk were no more; they were gone. Zen, Stupid Quotes, Zen for Dummies, Happy Things, Tool Tips, Harry Potter, and Far Side, all gone. This was bad; this was very bad. As soon as she was finished fixing the dry-erase pen caps GC rushed outside. “Where’d all the calendars go, Mr. Kent?” she asked.
“They’re hiding,” Mr. Kent answered cryptically.
“Hiding!? Why are they hiding?”
“Students aren’t keeping quiet during the ‘Calendar Hour,’ so I’m not reading them for a while; they’re resting, taking an early vacation.”
GC paused while she contemplated Mr. Kent’s decision. He was right; with the new semester, new students came in droves, students that were louder and more disrespectful then last semester. “I’m traumatized now, Mr. Kent. I got that Zen for a reason,” she said plaintively, following her teacher into the classroom. “Well, if I find them, I’ll read them myself,” GC thought to herself. Simple as that; she’ll get her daily Zen, if the calendar was still in the classroom, and the unruly other students didn’t have to.
