Eighth grade Algebra was a breeze. I was often the first one in class to complete a pop quiz. One day, I finished so far ahead of everyone else, I jumped right up to turn my paper in. I didn’t even bother to check my work; I’d been looking forward to spending the rest of the class sneaking looks at my biggest crush from across the room.

So there I stood with my paper in hand. I slid my pencil in my back pocket as I turned towards the front of the class. I realized a little late that the back of my shirt was also being stuffed into my pocket with the pencil, so I yanked on the shirt.

And out fell the pencil. *Sigh*

I bent to retrieve the pencil without really stopping my forward movement. Big mistake. I ended up losing my balance, tripping just a little, and stumbling on someone’s big book bag.

“Oof,” I managed to say. But silly me, I wouldn’t let a tiny obstacle like that stop my momentum. I kept moving forward anyway, hunched over with my head at waist level, figuring I’d gain my balance again and therefore be able to blow the whole thing off as a fluke in my usually graceful ways (yeah, right).

But I will never understand how a sheet music stand ever came to be in a math class. Perhaps it was a wannabe podium, except that it was far too skinny and light. In any case, I was headed straight for it, head first.

I know what you’re thinking, but I managed not to crash into it. My feet were headed in a direct line towards it, but my body veered a little to the left. Grabbing onto the stand, I swung around it while somehow keeping the darn thing upright. My momentum then carried me past it and away from it, and I continued in the swinging motion, turning and turning until I ran smack dab into the chalkboard, face first.

By this time, the relative silence of the pop quiz environment had been disturbed by my brief journey to the teacher’s desk, and the next thing I heard was the class clown exclaiming, “She’s drunk!”

Laughter from all corners of the room followed.

There was no way I could play it cool after that. I smiled, blushed with embarrassment, and stole a glance at my biggest crush, who was smiling at me in a way that made me drop my gaze and blush even more. Then I gave my completed quiz to an amused math teacher and carefully made my way to the back of the room to get the extra credit assignment. Nothing happened, thank God, and I was relieved to see everyone’s attention already back on the quiz.

But on the way back to my seat, I tripped on someone’s clipboard.

*Sigh* Never fails.

Share this post: