One day at School, where normal things happen, a little bit of a time calculation mistake (and a clear misuse of the alarm clock) made me stay at the entrance office. Sitting near one of the windows, but far from the door, I was waiting some time, reading some book I had inside my backpack. The place was quiet; the secretaries were doing their own job. They seem not to notice me sitting, neither have they asked me for some paper that they give to you when you’re late to class, so you can go inside the classroom.
I was still reading, the wonders of a squirrel over a single armored person were an intriguing situation to see. I was in a way hooked to the story. Besides, it was only 30 minutes before the start of the next period of class. I didn’t care a lot to stay here, even if it was the first time I was late, event that made me a little frustrated. I don’t know…, getting late to School was unexpected. I could tell I was almost caught once because I was a little late, but for some reason didn’t get that attention remark. But this time I wasn’t too lucky.
There was a little movement outside the playground. Lots of students were playing basketball, Physical Education class, I guess. I just didn’t want to enter to class, because I know I’ll be blamed for getting late, and my classmate probably will be surprised about it. I can imagine it all their faces and thoughts, and what they’re going to say: “That’s not possible, Henry getting late? Unbelievable!”, and “Look, here comes Henry, how can he arrive this late at School?” sort of that. I simply don’t want to be the center of attention because of a simple thing like this.
Of course I arrived late at School, but I just wanted to wait until the next period, so when the teacher leaves the classroom I would enter unnoticed by everyone. I’m not popular anyways, so they wouldn’t care if I enter without someone’s presentation….
Someone was calling my name. And I stopped reading and looked up. A blonde girl approached to me, smiling.
“Ah, Hello Tiffany!”
“Hello. Oh, what are you doing here?”
“Waiting”
“Waiting? For what?”
“The next Period.”
“Oh, have you arrived late?”
“Maybe, I guess…” I let out a little smile. She wasn’t on the same class as me, although we were both on 7th grade.
“I see. I was just delivering some papers here, if you were trying to ask. And then I saw you. I thought you were sent here because of something bad…”
“Eh? No, no, no… I wouldn’t do something stupid to make me sent here.” I stated, because it would be a dumb thing to make it happen. “I’m just didn’t entered class.”
“So, you’re skipping classes then.”
I blushed.
“W-what? I-I don’t consider it as “skipping classes”. It’s just that I don’t want to hear someone saying I’m late.”
She smiled at me.
“Ok, ok, it’s understandable, I think”, she said. “We have our next class in a few minutes.”
“Yeah, that’s right…”
We looked at each other for a little while, as if we were waiting for the other to tell something. And then Tiffany told me:
“I have to return to the classroom. See you then.”
“Okay” I answered. And then she left the office.
I first looked at my watch, just 5 minutes before the next class. So I put my book in my backpack and prepared to leave the entrance office. This time I won’t make the mistake of time miscalculation. When the time seemed right, I left.
Some minutes passed, and the ring for the next class was heard. I looked far away from my classroom as the teacher from first period was leaving. I just hurried and, without the notice of the teacher, I entered. As I expected, my classmates were talking each other. Very occupied they were, so I just took a seat and got out my notebook, waiting for the next class.
Of course they wondered of me that I skipped first period, but that was forgotten. Tiffany would remind me later on of me that skipped a class, and then I would then act awkward about it....
