| The Class Assignment…. By Wayne Wallace
It’s the last week of school before the Christmas holidays and the air in the halls between classes at Northwest Classen High School is alive and electric with excitement. Only one more semester and the NWC Class of 1964 will walk across that stage and graduate! Semester tests are finished and the classes are mostly just parties and fun for the rest of the week. Terrye Newkirk swishes by in her pink sweater and gray tight skirt, on her way to English class. Her hair is in a double bubble and she is wearing white bobby sox and penny loafers. Every boy she passes cranes his neck to watch her walk down the hall….”Damn, she’s got a great ass!” a guy in a purple and gold letter jacket remarks to another “jock” as she walks by. “Yeah,” his friend replies, “and she looks great in that sweater, too!” The two boys watch her dreamily until she turns into her English classroom. Terrye, takes her seat in Mrs. Lanier’s English class, next to her friend Mary Jo Dakil. Mary Jo leans over to whisper to Terrye concerning the fact that a certain guy that she has been interested in for three years has finally asked her out. They’re going to dinner and a movie Friday night. She is soooooo, excited! Terrye is telling Mary Jo about her plans for Friday night with a certain someone when Mrs. Lanier, suddenly spoils the mood……. “Alright class, Mrs. Lanier, shouts over the excited voices, “Let’s quiet down. I want to read some of the papers from our last writing assignment. I hope that some will actually be quite good!” The class assignment was to write about what we thought the future would be like. Specifically, we were to write about the state of the country in December, 2000, some 37 years into the future. Mrs. Lanier picked up a hand written paper on blue lined notebook paper, adjusted her glasses and began to read: It is December 20, in the year 2000. The sex scandal plagued administration of president Bill Clinton is drawing to a close and president elect George Bush is naming his cabinet members. Mrs. Lanier’s reading is interrupted by a group of boys laughing about the absurdity, and sexual irony of a president named “Bush.” “That’s enough boys!” Mrs. Lanier scolds, and she continues. “The election that made George W. Bush president was a virtual tie and it took the Supreme Court of the United States to settle the election 5 weeks after the people voted.” This statement draws smirks and eye rolling from the group of high school seniors. Mrs. Lanier continues to read, a baseball player for the Texas Rangers, signed a 5 year contract today for $95 million.” Boisterous laughter erupts from the room. No baseball player could ever make more than General Motors!!! As the laughter begins to die down, the bespeckled English teacher reads on: “In America today, one in every 3 cars on our highways was manufactured in Japan and gasoline averages $1.59 per gallon”. The students gasp and then laugh at the ridiculous idea of gasoline being that expensive. Mrs. Lanier, laughing quite hard herself now, shushes the class and says, “Wait, there’s more!” She reads on, “Every Wednesday night, members of the NWC Class of 1964 get together in a chat room on computers in their individual homes and communicate instantaneously from spots literally all over the world. Mrs. Lanier pauses at this point, having read ahead and makes an editorial comment. Up to this point, this paper has been fun, witty and very comedic. However, our writer here becomes dark and very disturbing….She continues to read: ”In this week in December of the year 2000, Two 12 year old crack cocaine addicts in Tulsa, hold up a convenience store and shoot and kill the clerk.” Students in the class look at each other quizzingly, not knowing exactly what crack cocaine is. Reading on; “In Oklahoma City, this week a 9 year old boy is arrested for bringing a handgun to school. Schools all over the country are being especially careful after students at a Colorado High School recently shot and killed students in their own school with automatic weapons”. “Wayne”, Mrs. Lanier, looks at the writer of this very disturbing paper, I think you are very disturbed and that you need help. I will read no more of this! In fact, you come with me to Mr. Malone’s office right this minute! Mrs. Lanier, grabs Wayne’s arm and drags him out of the classroom… Donna Vaden, looks around at the other students and says, “He’s always been strange……”
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