Seating Arrangements

After having a week off from my English class (Labor Day), I found myself in the basement of Cherry Hall again on Monday night.

Things are always very quiet in the room until Nicole arrives. Nicole sits in front of me and my first impression of her was not very good. The first impression was one of a blond, ditsy, gushy kind of girl that thought she was cute and was sure everyone else would too. My appreciation of her has come from the fact that she does talk and doesn’t mind voicing her opinion. She seems to have a more conservative view on certain issues for which I'm grateful.

Well, Nicole arrived and if I hadn’t heard her speak, I wouldn’t have recognized her for who she is. In the two weeks since I had seen her, she had gone from a blond to a brunette.

There seems to be a certain phenomenon in which people sit where they sat for the first class every time that they come to class. As the class got started, Mr. C was discussing this particular trait in people and was telling us that it happens not only with young students but when teachers have classes for continuing education, they also sit in the same place every time. He said that you can almost always tell if someone is sitting in someone else’s seat by their expression when they walk into the room. Mr. C pointed out the few people that weren’t in their normal spots and had just stopped to take a breath, when Sheila arrived, late for class. (Sheila was the “You Amish?” girl.) Now it just so happens that Sheila is a very hefty girl and she always sits at one of the three tables in the room. The rest of the room is filled with the traditional individual desks. It just so happens that on this particular day, another girl had sat at Sheila’s place at the table and as Sheila entered the room, she stopped short, looked at the girl in her chair and said, “Well, damn!” We all started laughing and Sheila, oblivious to everything, plopped down at the table with her back to the front of the room.

It didn’t take Mr. C long to tell Sheila that she would have to move to the back table because he just can’t teach someone that has their back to him. Somewhat unimpressed, she came and sat at the table, right next to my desk. And so started a very long night.

Now I always try to be a very good student and pay attention to what the teacher is saying. You never know, they might say something that you need to know for the test. Well, right away, Sheila whispers to me, “Do I stink?” Now, what kind of question is that?!? I tried to pretend that I hadn’t heard, but she whispered it again, a bit louder this time.

“Um, I don’t smell anything,” I said, trying hard not to sniff too deeply. Who wants to tell someone that they stink?

“I don’t stink?” she said.

“I don’t smell anything,” I said…again. By this time I was almost afraid to breathe for fear that I would smell something.

“I don’t mean my arms,” she said. “Do I stink like smoke?”

Again. “I don’t smell anything,” I whispered and quickly faced the front of the room, hoping to stop the discussion.

Ahead of us, Nicole got some candy out and pulled a piece out for herself. “Can I get one?” Sheila asked in a loud whisper. Nicole didn’t hear her and put it away without hearing her the second time she asked.

Sheila wanted to get Nicole’s attention for some reason a bit later. Nicole was wearing a t-shirt that had a number on the back and the name Trey above the number, sort of like a football jersey. “Trey!” Sheila whispered loudly. No response. “Trey!!” Again, no response. I was highly amused by this time but didn’t bother to tell her that Nicole’s name is not Trey and several more times still didn’t get her attention. I’m sure that Nicole had long forgotten what was on the back of her t-shirt. Sheila finally gave up, probably assuming that Nicole was half deaf.

We were reviewing run-on sentences and sentence fragments. In our previous class, we had been given five different ways to correct run-on sentences. Our homework assignment was to choose five out of ten sentences to correct. We had to use a different rule for each sentence resulting in a total of five rewritten sentences. Mr. C stressed the instructions twice that we didn’t have to do all ten sentences five ways each, just five sentences using a different rule per sentence.

Well, Evan was the lucky guy that wasn’t listening when Mr. C stressed his instructions the second time. At the beginning of class, Mr. C gave us a paper to read while he went around to check and make sure that we had all done our homework correctly. He got to Evan and Evan said, “Um, I couldn’t quite come up with five different sentences for each sentence.” Mr. C was highly amused, as were the rest of us. “And where were you when I gave the instructions?” he asked Evan. “Uh, probably talking,” Evan said sheepishly. (Evan sits across the aisle from Nicole and they have a tendency to talk when they shouldn’t.) Needless to say, Evan got picked on more than once during the class.

We went into reviewing the use of colons and semicolons. Mr. C gave us some sentences and told us that, rather than taking the time to rewrite the whole sentence, we should just write the word that the semicolon or colon comes after and then we would go over it. I started into it and knew immediately that I had a problem just to my right. I could feel Sheila staring at me. She knew something was up because Mr. C had quit talking and everyone seemed to be busy. After staring at me for a full 30 seconds, “What are we supposed to be doing?” came my way. I quickly told her what I was doing and resumed my work. She went to work and quickly finished and then looked at me and said, “You ain’t done yet?” Hello!?! I like to actually be correct if I’m called upon!! I need to comprehend what I read!! I just shook my head and finished up in short order.

Mr. C went around the room calling on various people to give their answers. Some of them chose to read the whole sentence while others just said the word. Mr. C asked some of them to read theirs and others he did not. Well, when he called on me, I chose to just say the word. I could feel her eyes upon me again. Sigh! “You don’t like to read out loud, do you?” was the loudly whispered pronouncement. Excuse me!! I don’t need people to sit around analyzing me!! I can be introverted if I want to. I quickly shook my head and went back to trying to pay attention. The Eyes stayed upon me for a bit longer before they returned to the front of the room. The thing that made the Eyes upon me even worse was that she was wearing this pair of sunglasses that are basically clear but have a mirror finish to them. Who likes to try to meet The Eyes, only to get a glimpse of themselves instead?

I discovered that Sheila has the ability to attach herself to other people’s opinions. As we discussed the various sentences and the reading assignments that had been given, if someone made a statement that she liked, she’d say, “That’s what I think.” Never did I hear an original statement come out of her mouth and yet she talks all of the time. As we were going over some of the rewritten sentences, she wildly waved her hand, wanting to share one of her sentences. Mr. C finally called upon her for a particular sentence and she wanted to give an example that we had gone over three sentences back. Mr. C stopped her and told her that when we finished the sentence we were on, he’d come back to her and let her share. She finally got her opportunity and, poor girl, the sentence she wanted so desperately to share, was wrong.

I’m hoping that Sheila gets to class on time next week and reclaims her seat.