"Okay, everyone!" Our teacher called, giving me, Alex and Ben a look that said he thought we were crazy.
"I have a movie for us today.
I handed out the question sheets last class, so take those out and pay attention."
I snorted.
"Like anyone'll actually listen to the movie except when the answer is given."
"But to find the answer, they need to listen to the movie." Joanna observed.
"That's beside the point." I replied automatically.
"No, it is the point." Ben intervened.
"Quiet Ben!" I mock-snapped, looking at him.
"Or I'll eat your next project."
He grinned.
"It won't be edible next time.
I learned my lesson."
"What? That making your sand dune project out of sugar makes you get a lower mark than moi?" I teased.
"No, that giving you sugar makes you go crazy." He answered.
"And she isn't already?" Hillary asked, grinning.
"I'm part Viking!" I announced proudly.
They looked at me and rolled their eyes.
"We knew that already, Shailey." Hillary said.
"So?
I'm part Viking!" I answered.
The movie began and everyone lowered their voices.
Somewhat.
The movie was rather boring, talking about Canada's earliest immigrants.
However, it did mention Vikings and the French.
I grinned evilly at the mention of both and Hillary, Joanna and Ben laughed at my expression.
I smirked, History was a much better waste of time than Geography.
I boredly filled in my answers.
Then, my teacher explained the video.
"Now, the new settlers were given land," he explained, drawing a box on the board.
"under a rich landlord," he drew a big house to the side of the square,
"where they could have their little farms with their little houses," he drew small houses, dividing the box into parts,
"and their cows." He drew stick-figure that was supposed to be a cow.
The entire class laughed at my teacher's pitiful rendition.
He was well known for his lack of artistic skills.
However, he had spent an entire period trying to teach us how to color.
The sad thing is, he nearly suceeded.
My teacher was one of the best teachers at my school.
He taught Geography to the enriched French grade nine students.
He was in his early thirties and had played soccer in high school.
He was so good at it he was offered a scholarship to Florida.
And he turned it down!
We all thought him crazy then.
It did not really help his reputation when his son was born.
It turns out he had been seeing another Geography teacher at our school.
When he told us he named his son Guilome, he looked so proud of himself.
Little did he know that all the people who did not know the name thought it was Guimauve, or marshmallow.
So, I had had to explain to many that it was the French name for William.
Go French-people like me!
Either way, his diagram got to the point and when the bell rang we all understood.
However, my thoughts were now on French.
"Hey, Ben!" I called needlessly, since he was right beside me.
"What?" He asked, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder.
"Did you do the French homework?" I asked, following Hillary and Joanna.
"Yeah." He answered, following.
"Did you understand the French homework?" I teased, smirking.
"She only asks me when I don't have the answer!" He protested.
Hillary rolled her eyes.
"Sure she does." She said sarcastically.
"You just so happen to have it wrong every time." Joanna added.
Ben grumbled incoherently to himself and I laughed.
"A-I-S, A-I-S, A-I-T, I-O-N-S, I-E-Z, A-I-E-N-T." I recited perfectly.
He glared at me.
"You're French!" He protested, still denying the fact that he was bad at French.
We stood in clump outside the French classroom.
No orderly rows in our school...
Nope, we were clumps.
Why walk one behind the other when we could fill up the hallway?
"Excuse me!" An innocent passer-by said, shoving past Phil.
"Yeesh, Phil, you're always in the way!" I said amiably, grinning.
At the beginning of the school year, I had been walking with my friends down a hallway.
We stopped in a corner and blocked it up.
I was nearest to the inside wall, so I was the most in the way.
One of my friends pulled me closer to the group so we would not block the entire hallway.
So, Phil - who was walking down the hall - tried to get past me.
However, I did not notice.
I informed my friend that I knew when people were walking by and that they did not need to move me.
So, I backed up.
Right into Phil.
The grade tens vacated the classroom and we all flooded in.
Again, not walked or streamed.
Flooded.
I mean, a clump of people cannot exactly orderly walk into a room.
So, we flooded in.
I walked to the space between the farthest two rows and glumly walked up them to my 'new' seat.
So what if I was moved there in early November?
I still called the spot way up at the front 'my' seat.
I walked back down the row and sat in my seat.
"So, Ben, how do you conjugate 'aller' with 'il' in imparfait?" I asked, smirking.
"A-L-L-A-I-E-N-T." He answered hesitantly.
"URRN! Wrong, sit down!" I responded loudly.
"It's A-L-L-A-I-T."
"I thought it was plural!" He protested - poor Ben, always on the defensive.
"If it was plural I would've said so!" I answered.
"If what was plural?" Our friend, Sarah, asked, sitting in front of me.
Well, technically, it was behind me but I was turned around.
Either way, she sat in her proper seat between me and Ben.
"Il." We both answered.
She laughed.
"Okay." She responded warily.
Just then the teacher walked in.
I sighed loudly.
"Guess I better go back to my spot..." I muttered and trudged up the row to my spot - second last in the second row.
My other friend, Paulina, smiled as I sat down.
"Have fun in gym?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah, the self-defense guy is really funny.
Creepy, but funny." She answered, then we had to shut up as the teacher was glaring at us.
Earlier that year I had assigned an animal to each of my teachers.
My geography teacher was a skunk - from Bugs Bunny and Tweety, the French one.
My French teacher was a rat losing her fur.
My gym teacher was a gecko on its hindlegs.
My science teacher was a chicken.
My math teacher was a small gray bird.
My tech teacher was a rabbit with a big gray mustache.
My English teacher was a... well, I had not thought of her yet.
And my Art teacher was undecided as well.
I had drawn my teachers in my art book after all...
French was probably my most boring class.
I sat through the miserable period.
The highlight of it was Ivan and Phil trying to 'fix' the television.
What they were really doing was making it buzz in the first place.
Other than that, it was boring.
I know I was not the only one to sigh with relief when the bell rang.
So, I got up and put my things away.
I then walked down the row with high spirits.
Lunch was next!
A whole fifty-five minutes with no teacher!
I would use that time to finish my homework, probably.
