You're My Hardest Project

I entered the Multimedia computer lab, expecting to be one of the last people to enter the room; I almost always made it to class just before the bell or arrived late, but that’s how I was. I looked at the many students sitting in the room then at my teacher, who didn’t even notice when the bell rang as I walked to my usual computer in the back row. I signed in before sitting back and spinning slowly in my twirling chair, waiting for Mr. H to make some move or another to talk to the class.
“Is he seriously that oblivious to the bell?” My friend Luna asked from the seat in front of me. I stopped spinning a moment to steal a glance at her.
“Yes, I believe so.” I responded with a slight grin as I went back to spinning. After another minute I let out a sigh and kicked the chair next to me where a boy sat, “Hey, go tell Mr. H class started.” The guy raised an eyebrow at me.
“Do it yourself, I have a project to work on.” He replied and turned back to his computer screen. I rolled my eyes and stood up, making my way toward the front desk.
“Mr. H, it’s time for you to stop watching lesbian internet porn and actually instruct the class.” I said loudly as I stood in front of him. A few students laughed at my comment as Mr. H looked up at me.
“One: I don’t appreciate those kind of comments in the classroom; two: I acknowledge that the bell has rung, I’m just choosing to finish my own work rather than give you yours.” He said with a smile. You see, Mr. H was one of the cooler teachers at this school that students could get along with; he could take (and give out) jokes and you could really talk to him about anything.
“Well… could you hurry?” I asked and tapped my foot. Mr. H tried to hide an eye roll as he started clicking on his computer.
“Just give me another minute and finish your last video project.” He replied. I pinched my lips to the side slightly.
“I finished that two days ago…” I replied then looked back at the class. I started walking to the very front and center of the room, “Today class, I would love for all of you to start making gore films with a great deal of blood and maybe a sex scene that will surely get me fired!” I yelled at everyone. There were multiple students who rolled their eyes at me and made side comments as a few awesome ones, which included Luna, either laughed or began talking to me.
“Thank you for that, Andi, now take a seat.” Mr. H finally stood up and walked toward me. I made my way back toward my seat and jumped the last few feet, landing in the chair that rolled backwards once I hit it. I laughed lightly before I looked back up at Mr. H, “Alright guys, I know that there are a lot of you who are still in the middle of one or more projects, so those of you who are in that situation can just go back to work.” I saw a handful of students look back at their computer screens, plug in headphones, or grab notebooks, ignoring the next thing that Mr. H had to say, “But for those who have completed all their projects and need a new assignment, I just decided on a new one yesterday afternoon. I talked to some of the other teachers at the school and they gave me the idea to have you observe other students.” I raised my eyebrow at this and looked around the room at the other students.
“What do you mean by ‘observe other students’?” someone in the front asked. Mr. H looked at them.
“I was just getting to that…” He replied before looking back out at the whole class, “What I mean is, for the next few weeks you will start to follow a student and make a project based on what you learned about them. You can make this presentation in any form you please, but you need to get to know these people; the project will help you with many communication skills and hopefully sharpen your technology skills even more.” I smirked slightly; Mr. H was basically asking us to be stalkers.
“You’re probably gonna do great with this project.” Luna said as she turned around to look at me once more. The smirk stayed on my face as I raised an eyebrow, “You’re a perfect stalker.” She joked.
“Oh, come on; don’t bring any of that up again.” I said, remembering some of the jokes my friends like to say about me.
“Andi, you are the only person I know who has looked someone up in the phonebook to find their address and basically follow them everywhere; this guy didn’t even know you.” I could feel a light blush on my cheeks as I saw the boy next to me look at me scared and confused.
“That was one time…” I said with shifty eyes, “It was years ago and no longer important.” Luna laughed at me and turned around.
“Mr. H,” She said as he looked at her, “how do we choose who we’ll be observing?”
“Well, I talked to a few other teachers and they have each given me two of their students; I asked them to tell me students of all personalities and they all talked to these students, or at least tried.” He replied with a smile.
“So… do we choose from the list?” I asked, still a little unclear.
“You can choose or I can choose for you, whichever you’d prefer.” I nodded; I was guessing those of us who would do the project would probably say we wanted to choose, or at least the majority of us, “So, whoever’s ready for this project, come to the front of the room.” There were about ten of us that stood up and followed him to his desk. Mr. H took a seat in his chair and opened a document with a list of students’ names, “Oh, and by the way, just to make things more fun you can’t observe someone you know very well.” I could hear a few of the people groan as I tried to look over everyone to see the screen; I really don’t understand why everyone was taller than me, I’m not even short yet everyone was a good few inches taller than me, even the girls.
People began choosing someone to observe based on the scarce amount of information about each student on the list; I knew a few people mentioned, not as a friend, but because everyone in school knew who they were. And some of these kids were choosing those well-known students, thinking that would make the project easier. After Luna chose some freshman girl to observe I stood next to Mr. H, being the last person to get a student to observe. I was about to open my mouth to say something but Mr. H beat me to it.
“Before you say anything, will you be the one person to except the challenge of me choosing the person you observe for you?” I shrugged slightly.
“Honestly, I don’t care, just choose whomever.” I replied and looked over his shoulder at the names left on the screen. Mr. H made a few ‘hmm’ sounds as he turned away from me and began looking at all the names.
“I’m guessing you might want a challenge?” He stole a glance at me a moment. I quickly nodded, “Then I’ve narrowed it down…” He continued to look at the screen, continuing to think, “And you said you didn’t care who I chose?” I gave another nod, “Alright then.” Mr. H turned in his seat to look at me, “You’ll be observing Mr. Rodrick Heffley; he’s a junior and his last period, which you will go to from time to time, is English.” I nodded.
“Why am I going to his last period?” I asked and looked at the screen a moment.
“So you can see his behaviour in class; seeing that this is a class project, you have the opportunity to miss this class a few times for your project, you just have to check in with me first on those days.” Mr. H replied with a slight smile. I nodded then pulled out my pen, writing this boy’s name on my hand.
“So… during the last few minutes of class can I head over there to talk to him and his teacher?” I asked and leaned on a table.
“That would be good; if you need to bring anything with you just let me know what you’re taking.” I gave Mr. H a nodded and walked back to my seat. Like she does many times within the period, Luna turned her chair to look at me. I plopped down in my chair, which moved back a few inches as I did so, and Luna gave me a smile.
“So, who are you observing?” She asked and leaned her elbows on the table, sticking her head between the computers to look at me. I looked back down at my hand.
“His name is… Rodrick Heffley.” I looked back up at her, “Do you know him?” Luna looked like she was thinking for a few moments.
“He sounds familiar… but no; I probably know someone that knows him though.” She said with a smile. I nodded slightly, “Do you know that chick I’m observing?” I gave her a look.
“Since when do I know anyone in this school?” I asked with a grin and Luna shook her head while she rolled her eyes, “Exactly.”