Jinxed

I've been wracking my brains to come up with a good subbing story for today. It seems like I've now covered all the good stories from my pre-blogging days. Probably not, but for now I'm coming up empty.  

So, that means it's time for a repost Tuesday. This one, originally posted on July 25, 2009, is kind of apropos. Last week, my 7th period roll sheet showed seven names. Not a one of them showed up. (It was a buyout Friday, and six of the seven had bought out, so actually, I only had one absence. But when one student is all that's expected...)

Yesterday just after I finished writing the last entry, the assistant principal stuck her head in the classroom. It was 5th period, my prep, so the room was empty of all but me. The AP was taking a head count of students on campus.

Things had been pretty light in the afternoons. The school was like a ghost town. Empty. Quiet. Sure, a few students were there, but not very many.

"No one came to class, or is this his prep?" the AP asked.

I told her it was a prep period. Because of course I would have students in the periods that had classes. Right?

The next period was 6th. There were three on the roll sheet. Two had shown up on Thursday. One of the boys explained that he had been the only student in class all week. The second boy was there for the first time (but then he went to see his counselor and did not return to class--probably because he switched classes). So I expected that the first boy would be back.

The bell rang. I opened the door. I waited. And waited. The bell rang to begin class. And the room was still empty.

Now, this sort of thing has happened to me before, but it's always a shock. Suddenly I had an hour to myself.

I kept looking up, hoping that the boy was just late. He never showed.

I realized that the AP had jinxed me. If she hadn't said anything about a no show class...

Then I had two show up for 7th period. One transferred out. Well, at least the "class" was well-behaved. One student usually works and keeps to himself. Especially if he's still showing up to his afternoon classes.