Peek-a-Boo

It was the passing period between 1st and 2nd period. I was standing at the door (I like to watch the crowd).

Oh, I should mention that these were 7th graders.

James (not his real name) stumbled up to the room. He was holding a gray hoodie sweatshirt over his eyes. Two other students helped guide him up the three steps that led to the doorway, and then they helped him inside.

I tried to discern the reason for this. I asked James what he was doing. I asked the other students what was going on. I got no answers. I even told James to take the silly sweatshirt off of his face, but this was also ignored.

The two other students helped James to his seat. His chair was on the table. He took the chair off the table and put it on the floor. He had to do this one-handed as the other hand was still holding the sweatshirt over his eyes. It turned out that he had put down the wrong chair, so he had to repeat this procedure for the chair next to it.

James then sat down. He was at the back of the room, and I'm going to assume that he couldn't hear me, otherwise he was just being deliberately defiant, as I again told him to remove that sweatshirt.

I tried to catch James' eye. He let the sweatshirt slip so that one eye could see, but when I looked at him, he hid behind the student in front of him. Then he peeked out of the sweatshirt--holding the thing over his nose and mouth leaving his eyes free. And again he hid behind the student in front of him.

Then the bell rang, and I stopped paying attention while I got class started. By the time we had done the Pledge, the moment of silence, and the announcements, James had forgotten his little...game? I don't know what else to call it.

7th graders. Still very much children. Still playing silly games.