Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“God, Mom, calm down, I’ll go talk to her,” I discard the yearbook and huff past her into Gracie’s room.
SEPTEMBER 11
By the following Monday, I'm thankful to not only have survived the first couple of days, but the first weekend too. It wasn't nearly as hard as it usually is, and oddly, I didn't dread its end. In fact, I was looking forward to it with an unnatural excitement. I'm clearly going to far surpass everyone in these non-honors classes, I already received 100 on my first Spanish quiz, and today, I'm so prepared for the chemistry periodic table quiz that it’s not even funny. Bring on your stupid daily quizzes, Mr. Harrington, because I’m ready.
I try not to think about the strange desire I have to be good at science this year. Nor do I think about my teacher. Well, I try not to at least. I’ve downgraded my crazy first day reaction to nothing more than being surprised and shocked by his age. I mean, how many young and good-looking teachers do you find? I know I’ve never had the pleasure of staring at any eye candy during lectures in my school career thus far. It's a nice change that clearly caught me by surprise, and that’s all.
His hotness has nothing to do with the fact that I really look forward to his class.
Nothing at all.
Everything in life got put in perspective the following day. Not only for me personally, but also for the entire world.
On September 11, New York City, which is located a mere hour or so from here, faced... I don’t even know how to describe it… devastation?
I remember everything from that day, down to what I was wearing. I don't think anyone will ever, can ever, forget.
I was in third period Spanish when I first heard. Someone came in and told Mr. Pearl, who in turn told us. We all thought for sure the pilot must have had a heart attack. Who flies into a building in the middle of New York City? We didn't know much more and went on with the day’s lesson.
By next period, in social studies, rumor had it a second plane had hit.
This was no accident.
I don't know what my face looked like, but I'll never forget the faces of those around me. Suddenly, an announcement came over the loudspeaker: All those whose parents work in Manhattan, please report to the attendance office.
My dad doesn’t make a lot in his small store, but I’ve never been happier that he doesn’t work in the City, like so many of my peer’s parents do.
Lunch that day was oddly silent, with so many people missing. I didn’t even get halfway through next period lab before another announcement came over the loudspeaker: We are all to report to one of the two gyms based on our last name. The school, the Country, is on lockdown, and we have to wait for a parent or guardian to pick us up.
Mr. Harrington stopped his lesson as we all gathered our things to leave.
“Luci,” I meet his unusually warm gaze, so different than the typical annoyed looks I get. I’ve never seen him look so gentle, especially at me. “Are you okay?”
I nod, even though I'm not. None of us are.
I'd only later come to realize why he asked only me this. Why, despite everyone else also wearing frightened and sad looks, he only noticed mine.
I was so relieved when I ran into Gracie in the gym. Even though we haven’t been getting along lately, her hug feels comforting and familiar.
Dad closed the store early and came home to sit with us. We all watched the news until Mom made us turn it off.
"Enough," we're the first words we heard from her since we got home.
This all feels like a nightmare.
There was school the following day, even though I was so sure they would cancel. I mean, how can we go to school? How can we go about doing something so normal and ordinary after something so bad and tragic happened?
No one cared about anyone's lack of having homework done. It was obvious no one did anything last night except watch the news. Some teachers tried to take yesterday’s events off our minds by continuing with their normal lessons, while others wanted nothing more than to talk about it.
We all couldn’t help but notice the empty seats, where it was obvious a parent worked in the city. How many were actually in the World Trade Center? How many loved ones were lost?
To this day, I don't understand how some teachers moved past 9/11 so quickly. At the time, I was furious at them for being so uncaring. How can one go about life after this? After so much has changed? What's the point? Does your silly lesson mean anything when bigger things are going on?