Labour Day, the one day you get an off day with your family and have fun. Well, that wasn't the case for me. Our school, even despite restrictions, decided to hold a special assembly on Labor day. Even though we didn't have any school. Bummer. What made it even worse was that it was mandatory, and they emailed all the parents about it. Dad was none of the less, downright angry. I put on the mask, and pick my spot. The district had strict social distancing measures, so everyone had to be apart. This was challenging for the few hundred kids still going to a physical school. The red bleachers were set on both sides of a rectangular gym, with a giant go owls custom paint job that was on the waxed hardwood floor. The rows were dirty and filled with trash, and the walls graffitied. Everyone looked as sad as I was as if they never wanted to come back to this living heck of a school. The place was known to have a nasty reputation of fights, sometimes even gangs. Locker room conversations gossiped about what they were planning, with who's getting who adding to the tensions. The teachers are pretty nice, and so are some of the kids I see as friends. But when it comes to the older kids, there's always a scandal or two. Person a cheats on person b, person a gets back at person b, and so on.
So now, we're all crammed into the tiny gym, which was also under repairs after someone flooded the boy's locker room. We tried distancing, and some had to sit on the floor. 10 minutes in, and the principal of the school, Delores vera, walked up to the podium. No one made eye contact. The principal was notorius for her entitled behavior, and everyone hated her. But no one had the guts to speak up. She starts a mic check and begins speaking. Her shrill voice made us wince, but luckily, a few friends of mine brought some earbuds just in case. They charged everyone 2 owl bucks apiece. (It was our school currency for stuff.) I put my hand into a bulging messy black pouch filled with multicolored paper and threw it at them. They tossed back a pair of small yellow plugs back at me. It wasn't much, but it'll have to do. Surprisingly, they blocked out noise pretty well, and they must've prepared weeks before. They also passed around ponchos for some reason, and I asked them why. They winked and glanced towards the sprinklers. I turn my head in horror to spot one of them just inches away from the sprinklers. "Ponchos are 5 owlbucks." They replied. " Are you crazy?! You're gonna get caught and suspended!" "I expected worse, but just one last prank oughta do 'em good." He replied. I sigh and throw the cash at them and snatch the thin plastic. "When he has that face of sheer determination, there's no changing his mind," I mumbled. Nobody noticed, and everyone had a poncho behind their back. By the time the witch finished talking, they were ready. they give them the signal, and everyone pulls out their ponchos. I hurriedly put mine on, and the Principal and teachers around her looked at us in confusion. Bert, the history teacher, spots the kid at the sprinkler, but doesn't do anything. He did have something in his pocket though. On three, he also puts on his poncho, and the fire alarm blares. The water pours down from the ceiling, and everyone scattered. Luckily, we all had our stuff placed under our seats, so no wet Chromebooks or books. Afterwards, the culprits were, of course, never caught, no matter how much they interrogated us. I throw away the poncho and walk out unscathed, being the good kid who never got in trouble. This'll be quite the story.
