The alarm sounds at exactly 6:20 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; 7:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today is a Friday, and without fail my alarm begins its daily ritual of singing at me at 6:20. The song that is attempting to wake me up is one from my middle school years, transforming the last few minutes of my dreams into some memory from those days and thus easing me into the school mindset. I work up enough energy to kick off my warm covers and sit up in my bed. I walk to my bathroom and look in the mirror: my hair is wildly messy and there is an attractive drool mark on my cheek. I splash some water on my face and brush my teeth, then proceed to dress myself and fix my hair. It is now 6:45 and I do not need to leave until 7:00; this is a record. I contemplate what it is that I will do for the next fifteen minutes and finally decide that I will take this time to indulge in the riveting task that is making my bed.
Fridays are all about the countdown to the end of the day. Every class ends up feeling endless.
The first couple classes of the day are a never-ending blur of boringness. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that soon it will be lunch, and I will be faced with the always exciting mission of choosing where it is that I will eat on this fine day. Lunch approaches and we decide on AJ’s. I am disappointed. Half of the time we decide on AJ’s and I was hoping today would be one of those rare days where we decide to go somewhere new and exhilarating. On the bright side, the company of my friends always makes up for it.
It is now 12:10 and an inescapable dread swoops over us all. In a measly five minutes we will have to put away our phones and go back to the reality that is learning.
It’s the last class of the day. I can’t help but count the seconds until the class is over. How can I describe the last class of the day on a Friday? It is like watching the grass grow for fifty minutes. There is an air of restlessness among the students. On rare occasions, the topic of the day is enthralling enough to prevent me from keeping my eyes glued to the clock. Today is not one of those days. The last five minutes are the most painful. You find that you are so close to the end of the day that it ends up feeling like someone tampered with the clock and now one clock minute equals five real life minutes.
Finally, the bell rings and a stampede of students rush out to the quad. Clusters of students discuss the plans for that Friday afternoon. Me? I am just glad I will have two whole days of relaxation until next week’s routine starts.
Laura--your story has a distinctly Laura-esque sense of humor. Things like 12:15 being the time when "we will have to put away our phones and go back to the reality that is learning." You might have given your character a name and narrated in 3rd person as Solzhenitsyn did, but your story is well told and amusing regardless.
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