Chunkie
I was an absolute mess today. My dry shampoo filled, brown hair was in a bun because there is no way in hell I was brushing it today. My dark under eyes really stood out today against my pale skin. My head was pounding, and today I wore jeans on a day teachers should NOT be wearing jeans. Oh, and my black shirt really showed that my favorite fashion trend is cat hair. Just take my advice, okay? Don’t go out drinking when you have work the next morning. Okay? Okay. I’m glad we’re on the same page.
Before the kids got in the class I graded some papers and emailed back some ignorant parents with even more ignorant responses. I fed the class pet. Chunkie. Chunkie is the pet turtle. I hate him because he does absolutely nothing, but if I gave him away the kids would go insane. I straighten up the classroom and waited for the kids to arrive.
“Hello my third grade friends!” I exclaimed to the class, trying to forget about my hang over. “I need everyone to pass their homework from last night to the front of the class for me.”
“Alright, thank you guys.” I walked over to my desk to put the papers down. “Let’s start with some math today.”
The day was going somewhat well. The kids were behaving. It was until we got towards the end of the day. A student raised their hand. I pointed at her.
“Yes, Carmen.”
“Can we play with Chunkie? Since we’re going to pack up soon?”, she asked.
See, in my head I was like “okay this is fine. this is an easy end to the day.”
“I think that should be okay. Everyone sit in a circle on the carpet.”
Everyone ran to the carpet to sit down. I went over to Chunkie’s cage and realized he never ate his food. I picked him up. He was stiff.
“Uhm, hold on guys.”, I said, looking over my shoulder and laughing nervously.
How the hell do I tell these kids that Chunkie died? First I’m hung over and now I have to deal with this?
“Guys..” I said turning around.
The kids looked at me with such excitement.
Shit.
“I think it’s time to say bye to Chunkie” I nervously told them.
The kids faces went from a smile to a frown, to very ugly crying faces. All of the kids started crying and screaming.
“You guys!”, I yelled. “We can get another turtle!”
“No! It won’t be the same!”, a student screamed.
I couldn’t understand why these kids were so upset about a turtle, but when the bell rang, they refused to leave the classroom. The principle had to get them out, and even then they didn’t want to get on the bus. So the school had to call their parents and their parents had to get them. I guess it was a bad day for everyone.
