Lima Loser.

Last period was English class. Mine and Puck’s video assignment was due, so I hoped to God that he had it with him. Knowing Puck, he probably forgot it. He wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box. He wasn’t even a darker color. He was just… never mind.

I took my usual seat in the back. Puck came in shortly after, and sat next to me. The teacher wasn’t in the classroom yet, so we had some chatting time.

“Got the project?” I asked, grumpily. I was not in a good mood.

“Yep, it’s in my book bag,” he told me, pointing to his book bag on the floor. “What crawled up your ass and died?”

“Quinn’s pissing me off again,” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just say I have an idea for our remix.”

“Oh, yeah?” he laughed. “Tell me.”

I was about to tell him, when Miss Monty walked in. “Okay, class! We only have an hour, so hurry and get out your projects.”

People began shuffling around to get their video projects, and Puck reached into his book bag and hauled out the video.

“Is it edited?” I simply asked.

“No,” he told me.

I just looked at him. “Well, it’s not being played.”

“Come on, it’s not that bad. It’s just a bit…out there. Plus, if I edited it, it would be like, three minutes long. It has to be five,” he explained.

“I don’t care. I’m not being humiliated,” I snapped.

“Well, if we don’t play it, we’re going to fail,” Puck shrugged.

“Who wants to go first?” Miss Monty spoke up. Nobody budged. “Alright, then. I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.”

She looked around the classroom. Puck and I tried to hide ourselves a little, but she noticed. “Courtney and Noah are the lucky firsts.”

Puck looked at me and gave me a look that said sorry.

“Screw you, Puck,” I hissed. I grabbed the video from his hand and rushed up to the front. I popped it into the video player, and ran back to my seat. I could feel my cheeks growing hot as Miss Monty played the video.

“When you think of racism, you usually think of someone putting down other races except for their own. And yes, that’s basically what it is. Racism is prejudice against other races. But it also can be the belief that one race is more superior than the other.” I put my head down, not wanting to see where the manly voice was coming from, even though it was coming from me.

“Yeah, like, if I were to go up to Courtney and punch her and be like ‘You’re white. You smell’. That’s racism.” The class laughed, and I buried my face deeper into my shirt. How mortifying.

I didn’t look up until the video was over, and when my head was risen, all I saw was the amused looks on my classmate’s faces. I looked at Miss Monty, who had “What the fuck?” all over her face.

“Well, that was odd,” she took the video out of the player and laid it on her desk. “Highly inappropriate, but…okay.”

Puck raised his hand. “I’m sorry, Miss. Courtney and I were just being silly, and I was supposed to edit it, but I didn’t really get the chance to.”

“Right. Well, you were given lots of time. But anyway, moving on. Devon and Kasey, your turn.”

Devon, a scrawny preppy guy, and Kasey, his girlfriend, a cheerleader, made their way to the front with a video. Kasey pushed it into the player, and they both went back to their seats.

The video began to play, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I was still embarrassed from my own. All I knew was that their video was much more rehearsed and well, better than mine and Puck’s video.

A few more people went after Devon and Kasey were done, and when the bell rang, I was more than happy to get out of there.

I couldn’t leave right away, though, because Miss Monty asked Puck and I to stay behind. When everybody was gone, she’d called us to the front.

“Is there a problem, Miss?” I asked, even though I was quite aware of the problem.

“I’m just going to come out with it,” she began. Puck and I just looked at each other. “I’m sorry, you guys, but you’ve flunked this project.”