I sat down next to this girl named Jahlisa. She was a short black girl with short hair and a tattoo of “Hope” in Chinese on her neck. She had on her grey sweatpants with a white t-shirt with a giraffe on it and some strange paint design of a building on it.
She scoffed at me as I sat down. “Why are you here?” She asked me. I was used to her rude and harsh comments by now, she was very sarcastic.
“Get out my face ugly. Nutty shirt you wearing, that ugly giraffe that jawn neck look like its bout to snap off.” I replied to her. She fell back and burst out laughing. I was commenting on the white shirt she was wearing. The giraffe on it did look like it’s neck was going to fall off, the stature of its entire upper body looked very uncomfortable, it looked as if it was drunk or unbalanced by the way it stood.
She gripped her stomach and continued to laugh. “THIS MY MOM SHIRT HAHA, you drawn.” Jahlisa said to me in reply.
“I don’t give a damn if that’s your dead grandmother’s uncle shirt, it’s hideous.” I quickly jeered to Jahlisa. She fell back and started to laugh out loud again, I could see the inside of her mouth as she was laughing. Her mouth wasn’t really horrifying to look at, it’s just that her teeth was not necessarily white. It was like a color mixture of white, red and yellow. One had to have a very strong stomach to stare at it and not vomit.
“Alright kids, everybody please sit.” Mr. Bulk said out loud. “Let’s get started.”
“You get that sweater for your daughter?” Shawn shouted out to Mr. Bulk from the other side of the gym. He was in the same gym class as me but him and his group was seated on the other side of the gym. There were five rows in total, Shawn was seated at the first row all the way on the other side of the gym. Shawn was asking Mr. Bulk if he got for his daughter the sweater that he told the class he was going to buy for her.
“Unfortunately not Mr. Schemer.” Mr. Bulk said in reply, Schemer was Shawn’s last name. “I had to work this weekend so I couldn’t take her over there to buy it. I should be able to do it this weekend, I’m not working or anything so I should be able to get it for her God willingly.”
“Yeah and get her that new iPhone, she definitely gonna ask for it.”
“She already did, time and time again, and time and time again I told her no.” Mr. Bulk said contemptuously. The entire class erupted in laughter. Mr. Bulk’s sarcastic comments and nonchalant attitude towards everything was comically refreshing to everybody in the class, including me.
“She start talking to boys yet?” Shawn asked Mr. Bulk aloud so the whole class could hear.
“No, she’s only ten she damn sure better not be thinking about no boys. But she’s really into this reality TV show called Bad Girls Club, I have no clue what it’s about but she watches it all the time in her room.”
Jahlisa shouted “It’s about different females getting into altercations with one another and fighting.”
“Oh, sounds boring.” Mr. Bulk said.
I leaned over to Jahlissa and whispered “you’re ugly.”
She smiled and whispered to me back “your mother.”
“DON’T BRING MY MOTHER INTO THIS WOMAN!” I quickly stood and remarked to Jahlisa as I pointed towards her. The entire class fell silent and all eyes were gazed upon me. There were a few soft chuckles while everyone was starring.
“She talked about my mama.” I said as I scratched the back of my head out of embarrassment, though I wasn’t really embarrassed, I loved whenever all the attention was on me. One girl seated in the same row as Shawn laughed out loud as Mr. Bulk starred at me dully and shook his head from side to side. “Please sit down Mr. Jason.” He said as he dropped his attendance sheet on the floor.
I was in a happy mood already since I had gotten Christy’s number and I felt like being silly or funny. I randomly started to snap my fingers and dance. I stuck my tongue out and started to move my waist in a repeated motion then I started to rapidly tap my chest and chant out some African tribal dance words I learned from me and my father watching Nigerian films together.
The whole class erupted in total laughter. Even Mr. Bulk and Jahlisa smiled faintly and laughed a little, mostly everybody was on the floor rolling around in laughter.
“Sike naw, I’ma sit down though.” I abruptly dropped to the cold gym floor and sat down. Everybody was still laughing uncontrollably. “So what are we doing today Bulk!” I hollered to Mr. Bulk so he could hear me over the laughter of all the kids.