May 4 Massacre Lulls Lee to Sleep

         History: possibly the most useless and uninspired subject in any school. Those were Lee's thoughts as the teacher lectured on why the Kent State Shootings were right. Lee thought the teacher was an opinionated creep, ultra-conservative with a goal in life to brainwash his students.

         All night she'd stayed up writing her English II College Prep paper on politics in Russian literature, and she didn't want to hear anything the history teacher was saying. "Maybe it would be more interesting if the schools let you read a novel on history by a marvelous writer, but a textbook? I don't even remember what we covered last chapter," Lee thought as she slid her head down onto her arms, which were covered in a soft, black turtleneck that served well as a pillow. The teacher, a very short man with ginger hair and the face of George W. Bush, paid the act of boredom no mind. At least five other kids in the classroom were doing the same thing.

         "Those kids…It was just hippie bashing!" he said with a wave of his arm and a grin, hoping to get some enthusiasm. He'd won; a few of the kids had nodded vigorously in agreement. Lee, however, couldn't take it anymore. She closed her eyes, convincing herself she would simply listen.

         That plan failed miserably.

         She felt very relaxed, and then heard her name called repeatedly, with annoyance accelerating at an alarming quick rate.

         Lee opened her eyes groggily.

         "Hm? What?" The teacher looked extremely annoyed.

         "You haven't been listening all day, but I never thought you'd be so disrespectful as to sleep in my class." He said with faux-disappointment that made Lee feel annoyed herself. "As if he really cared," she thought.

         "Well, answer my question." He said with an air of self satisfaction. Lee hated him, for he knew very well that she hadn't heard it. For the first time, she looked at the students, all grinning at her, moving their hands in front of their faces and whispering so she'd know they were talking about her. Some of them were pretending to drool in her face, others were (very slightly, in Lee's opinion) moving their faces to create a look of pure stupidity.

         Lee looked back at the teacher, starting to blush slightly. She'd never answered incorrectly before in any class, even history.

         "Can you repeat the question?"

         The teacher turned to the class and smiled, as if to say, "See? A commie left liberal in the works. See how stupid she looks? Listen to me and you'll never stray so far." He turned back to Lee and said,

         "If you'd been paying any attention at all, if you were even awake, you'd know the answer to this."

         Lee saw the eyes of every student in the room on her, waiting for a dull remark. She hated attention, and had always tried to avoid it, and couldn't help being embarrassed. It was hard to think of something witty—usually quite easy for Lee—when there were twenty-seven eyes glazing into her face.

         "Yes, but I wasn't, so if you want me to answer the question, you're going to have to ask it again."

         The teacher had no reply to this, so he obliged.

         "What reasons did the Ohio National Guard have for shooting the students?"

         Just then the bell rang. The students were now free to say whatever they felt like to Lee. There were calls of "loser," of "Not so brainy now, Mao," "You drool like a baby, moron," and loud, obnoxious snoring noises.

         Heat rose to her face. Anger as well humiliation rose in her. If the teacher hadn't been so public about it, she wouldn't have to hear about this for the rest of the day in school—a considerable annoyance considering this was period two out of eight, not including lunch.

         She turned her whole body directly to the teacher.

         "They didn't have any. They were just kids, and hippies don't deserve a separate Holocaust." She rushed out of the room before he could say anything in reply.

         She didn't feel much better, and she still heard snoring noises whenever she walked by for the rest of the day.