The Tardy Cart

The bell rings at LHS and students have five minutes to get to their next class.  Teachers post themselves in the hallways outside their classrooms to make sure students don't get into fights, or at least to make sure they are witness to it if they do, so that the students are sure to get in the maximum amount of trouble.  When the bell rings again, teachers must immediately rush into their classrooms and lock their doors.

LeVon is sprinting to get to class but the bell rings a few seconds before, and he essentially gets the door slammed in his face.

"Please, Miss," he begs.  "Just let me in."

"You must go to the Tardy Cart," the teacher shouts through the door.

LeVon sighs, hangs his head, and shuffles slowly off.  The tardy cart is down two flights of stairs, down the corridor, and into the lobby.  By the time he gets there, a long line of students is already waiting.  Ten minutes later, he reaches the front of the line.  The Dean swipes his student ID and hands him a ticket with a time stamp on it.

"But this says I'm twelve minutes late," LeVon protests.  "I was only five seconds late.  If the teacher hadn't slammed the door in my face I could be in class already."

"That will teach you to get there faster next time, won't it?"  the Dean says.  "Next, please."

LeVon walks back down the corridor, climbs two flights of stairs, and knocks on his classroom door.  The teacher pauses in the middle of her lecture on the slope of a line, crosses the room, and opens the door.

"Do you have your tardy slip?"

LeVon hands it to her.  She checks the time and date stamp, then says, "OK, please take your seat."

"What up, LeVon?" J.C. calls out.  LeVon slaps hands and bumps fists with a couple of his friends on his way to his seat.

"Quickly, please, LeVon," the teacher calls out.  "Now, where were we?  Oh yes, slope of a line is rise over run..."

Knock knock knock.  Chandra is at the door.  The teacher walks over and opens it.

"Sorry, Miss, here's my tardy slip," Chandra says.  Her eyes are red and she's clearly been crying.

"Chandra, girl, you OK?" Damion stands up and gives her a quick hug.  "What up?"

"Later," Chandra mutters.

"Chandra!  Damion!" the teacher's voice has become loud and stern.  "That is enough interruption.  Sit down or I will send you to the office."

Chandra bursts into tears.

"Yo, why don't I send your fat ass to the office?" Damion shouts.

"Damion, no!" Chandra cries through her tears.  "Come on, come with me into the hall."  She tugs on his arm.

"Both of you will be getting referrals!" the teacher exclaims.  "Nobody is going into the hall!  Now sit down, before I call security!"

"Why's Chandra getting a referral?  She didn't do nothing!" Alishia pipes up.  "Can't you see she's upset?  Have a little sympathy!"

"Alishia, you can have an office referral as well," the teacher says.  At this point, the class erupts.  Students get up out of their seats.  The teacher gets on the phone and calls security.  Mr. Mason, the security guard, well-respected and liked by most of the students because of the time he takes to build relationships with them, shows up several minutes later.  The class is in chaos, shouting at the teacher and at each other, and the teacher is standing wide-eyed by her desk, still on the phone with the secretary in case something worse happens.  Mr. Mason talks to the whole class for a few minutes and gets everyone calmed down and back in their seats.  Damion, Chandra, Alishia, and two other students leave the classroom with him to go to the Dean's office.

"Now," the teacher says, clearly flustered.  "What were we learning about?  Oh yes, slope.  Slope is defined as rise over run..."

LeVon had sat quietly in the back while all the commotion had been going on.  He had been late because he had stayed behind in his English class to ask that teacher if he could come in after school for help on his essay.  On his way to class, the hallway had been virtually impassable because of a group of girls clustering around Chandra and harassing her about something somebody had posted on Facebook about her messing around with all their boyfriends.  Chandra was a good friend of his, and he knew that stuff wasn't true, just another girl starting vicious rumors.  He thought about stepping in, but he was afraid of getting caught up in their drama, and he didn't want to be late to class.  Once he got around the crowd, he looked at his watch and realized he had only twenty seconds to the bell.  He began sprinting down the hall but dropped his notebook.  By the time he picked it up, the bell had already rung, and by the time he reached the classroom a few seconds later, the door was already locked.  Now he feels guilty about what happened to Chandra as well as annoyed that he has more demerits on his ID.

LeVon sighs and tries to put all of this out of his mind.  He opens his notebook and begins to write down the stuff on the board about slope.  He has no idea what the teacher is talking about but he doesn't dare raise his hand because she's clearly already mad about him being late.

A few minutes later, the teacher says, "Well, we are still having a test on this tomorrow.  It's not my fault that you guys can't behave long enough for me to teach you this stuff."

LeVon looks at the clock and realizes there's only a minute left in class.  He feels panicky because he hasn't learned anything about slope and now he has to take a test on it tomorrow.  He thinks maybe after he gets English tutoring he'll call Chandra, who is the smartest girl in the class, and ask her if she will study with him.  Maybe he'll also ask her to Homecoming, and tell her to forget those girls and that stupid stuff on Facebook... then he realizes this latest tardy probably gives him too many demerits to go to Homecoming.

The bell rings and LeVon grabs his notebook and pencil and heads towards the door.

"A moment, please, LeVon," the teacher calls.  Reluctantly, he turns back.

"LeVon, you know you are already failing this class.  If you can't make school a priority, you're never going to graduate on time," the teacher says in a stern but concerned voice.

LeVon just stares at her.

"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"

LeVon thinks about the extra time it took to talk to his English teacher, which is what made him late in the first place.  He thinks about Chandra and how he should have stuck up for her, especially since he ended up being late to class anyway.  He thinks about pointing out that if she had just let him in, he would have missed only five seconds instead of fifteen minutes.  He thinks about how if she hadn't been so mean to Chandra, the class wouldn't have gotten so out of control and she wouldn't have had to waste all their learning time calling security.  He thinks about all the things he would like to say for himself, and opens his mouth.

"No, ma'am," he mumbles.

"Well, you can still pull your grade up, but you're going to have to pass this test tomorrow and begin putting in a little more effort, including getting here on time."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now hurry to your next class.  You don't want to be late again."

LeVon walks into the hallway and checks his watch.  His Biology class is on the far side of the school in the basement, a three minute trip on a good day, and he has less than four minutes to get there.  He also has to go to the bathroom.  Badly.  He didn't go in the last passing period so he could talk to his English teacher.

LeVon shrugs and sighs.  He goes to the bathroom, then goes directly to the line at the Tardy Cart.