Being a proud anti-locker student, I am forever juggling all my textbooks, exercise books, and lunch in my bag – forever, and ever. My mother tells me it causes me back pain, and will make me look like a fifty-year-old office worker. But the truth is, returning my books into my locker and out feels as if I’m about to play memory cards. I feel no need to flare my neurons and make my entire brain explode while trying to actively recall what class I have next. This is especially the worst during the end of lunch. It’s even worse if my class is on the other side of the school.
I juggle over like a snail-paced hare with hallucinations, dizzied from the heat from above. It would get colder, they say. Instead, I regret not taking off my mauled and deformed jumper with little specks of wool bursting out like a pimple. My eyes would feel so much better if they were closed – to be honest, I couldn’t even keep them open.
There is no shade available. Anywhere. The only thing providing shelter is glass, and this only intensifies the heat. My eyes are about to close. There is not even a slight hint of a breeze. There is no greater misery than being in a scorching heat whilst carrying what feels like a twenty-kilogram bag. On a supposedly hot autumn’s day.
I walk into the class, and as normal, I hear the same systematically performed speech from my teachers. Book open, copy down the slides, copy down the notes… I would do that, all the time. Except for Period 4. My eyes hurdle their eyelids down, my neck swings backwards, my eyes open back up again, and everyone’s almost finished writing down the current slide. I seem to have lost the ability to even pick up a pen. The teacher leaves the room, and I can finally, albeit uncomfortably lay my head down on the desk, and feel the sensation of serenity run through my body.
In my head I think of somewhere peaceful. Somewhere innocent. Somewhere I don’t have to deal with a line that has the equation 2x + y = 20 and a curve has equation y = a + 18/x-3 where a is a constant, find the set of values for which it does not intersect the curve. I think of a happy little kitty, who does not have a single thought in its head. A feeling of bliss laying out in the sun, having the sun pet and snuggle you with its warmth, instead of beating your back in rays of spikes. A happy little kitty playing with yarn under the sun… with no reminiscent of venn diagrams, Rf ratio, Hooke’s law, or encoding.
“Can I borrow your book?”
“What?”
“I forgot my pure textbook.”
Writer – Emma Li
Editor – Olivia Hautler
Artist – Bailey Young
–April 2025–
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