Damaged

Sometimes two students do not get along.

And sometimes, those two students are seated right next to each other.

I didn't notice Odessa and Xerxes the first week. Although, Odessa did stand out on that awful Friday in sixth period when, bored, Odessa decided to organize the colored pencils and markers that Mrs. B leaves out for them to use for projects and such. 

(She did an great job. I took a photo and texted it to Mrs. B. She loved what Odessa had done.) 

I'm not sure what set it off. But I was dealing with other issues when I heard their commotion. 

Odessa blamed Xerxes. Xerxes blamed Odessa. 

The headphones should be in one piece, not two. 

They had been throwing the headphones back and forth. I'm not sure why. We have a class set, so they could go and get another set. 

Who's to blame? In my book: both of them. 

(I took the headphones back to the library. I gave the library clerk both their names. We're not sure how it's going to work, but both of them will have a fine assessed.) 

But now the both of them are in a battle. Every little thing the other does is cause for anger and recriminations. 

What to do? Time to amend the seating chart. Those two need to be separated.

Of course, neither would budge. 

"No, she can move."

"No, he should move." 

If I had two open empty seats, I would have moved both of them. But, alas, I only had one.

And neither of them were going to take it. (And the boy next to that seat informed me the seat needed to remain empty. That's a battle for another time.) 

In the end, Austin (who's also an issue, but that's a whole other blog post) volunteered to switch with Xerxes. And for peace, I allowed it.

I think I'm going to regret letting Austin have that seat, but I'll worry about that next week.

(If you recall Austin from the chemistry class, no, this is not the same boy. But yes, he does have the same name. And Austin from the chemistry class is in my fourth period. So, I'm basically all about yelling at Austins for this class.)