I started out at Stewart Middle School, and I was back in my eighth grade science class, but it was either before school or between classes. Mr. Kendall, my science teacher, was telling me about how I needed to clean out the aquariums that were in his classroom. I didn't feel much like it, but I figured I might as well.
Phil, a supervisor from Mercedes, was there, too. I was supposed to be working with him in order to get the aquariums cleaned out. We started out at this pretty large aquarium (three feet deep, two feet wide, and four feet long), and we had a metal blade window scraper with a long handle that we were supposed to use.
Phil started out scraping the left end of the aquarium glass from the inside, scraping off all the green algae. I was talking with him, and we were joking around a bit. Even though the scraper had a long handle, it was JUST long enough to reach the bottom and leave about three inches of handle above the water. It was just enough to hold on to, but whenever Phil or I tried to use it, we managed to get our hands a little wet. We traded off a couple of times before we finally got the aquarium scraped down.
Then we went to another classroom, which was still Mr. Kendall's room, and Leon (stoner guy from Mercedes) was there and trying to get a couple of smaller aquariums cleaned out, but he was having a lot of trouble doing it. The main problem was that because the handle of the scraper was short enough that your hand had to touch the water, Leon kept getting stabbed by these little black fish that had half inch needles sticking out from the tops of their heads. When he got too close, they'd swim up quickly and attack him, trying to stab his hand.
Phil, Leon and I stood around talking about it for a moment. Then Leon somehow equated it to ducks. He said that when a duck dies in the swamps, other ducks will eat it to stay alive. I thought that was really strange because I hadn't ever heard that before, but after he said it, I was watching it happen in my head. I saw a dead white duck that looked like it had been there for a while just laying in a bit of green marsh land. It was almost as if I were watching it on TV. Then another duck, which was mostly brown, came up to it and nibbled on a couple of the dead duck's feathers. It pulled them out and let go of them, letting blow off to the left in the breeze.
Then I was back in the first room with Phil. We were cleaning out the first aquarium again. Since we had just cleaned it out, it wasn't very dirty again yet, but it had already started to go all green within just a couple of minutes that we'd been gone. Phil, mostly, was working on scraping it down again. Then a bell rang or something, and it was time for class.
I was sitting in Mr. Kendall's class. Rather than desks, we were sitting at black topped tables. The were situated end to end for the most part, but they formed a "U" shaped layout. I was at the end, and the tables went off to my right, and then turned and went forward, and then turned again and the rest of the tables were in front of me.
Mr. Kendall came into class and told us all to get into our seats. I was already sitting, but there were a number of jocks that were up and running around on the far side of the class room, and they didn't have their shirts on. Mr. Kendall told them to get their shirts back on. The goofed around for a bit and then finally did what they were supposed to. Something about them having to put their shirts back on caused me to have to change my shirts with one of them. So I was there for a moment without my shirt while I was trading with someone.
Mr. Kendall came over from my right, which was where the door to the classroom was, and smacked me on the back of the head. Not hard, but just in a way that was kind of joking around, but also meaning to hurry up and get my shirt on. I did so, and as he turned his back, I picked my open book up from my desk and acted like I threw it over my shoulder at him. Other people in the class giggled a bit as I sat my book back down. I was laughing a little, too.
Then I noticed it was really quiet, and people were looking at me with a grin on their faces. I wondered what was going on, and then all of a sudden it occurred to me that Mr. Kendall had turned around in time to see me act like I was throwing my book over my shoulder at him, and he was standing right behind me as long as it took for me to notice him there. As I started to turn around, I think he had a hand out to the side of my head or something so that when I turned left, his finger jabbed my cheek. Everyone, including us, laughed about it.
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