Life, Libertea, and the Pursuit of Happiness

rainy day

"And so that's essentially why no one should ever go on a fishing trip with Thomas Jefferson," Jones said. He started searching through some of the papers on his desk, trying to figure out what he wanted to cover with his class next. Jones constantly had papers absolutely everywhere, and in order to convince himself that it wasn't becoming a serious problem, he just told himself that the habit simply came with being a history teacher.

This class was a bit unusual in the sense that when Jones stopped talking and started doing something that didn't involve looking at his students, the sound of chatter didn't take over the room. In fact, the only sounds in the room were the shuffling of papers and the raindrops hitting the roof of the school. Jones looked up from the pile of papers he was rummaging through, instead directing his gaze to the window across the room. The sky was grey and a thick layer of fog hung over the White Rock river that bordered the Namlot High parking lot. It was pouring rain, as it had been pretty much all day, and the weather had apparently taken a toll on the students.

To be fair, normally by last period on a Friday no one was quite in the mood to do any work, anyway, but this was much more extreme than usual. The increasing amount of raindrops falling from the sky ensured that there was not a single drop of motivation in the classroom, and Jones could not, with a good conscious, try to force his class to do the worksheets he was sure he'd find eventually.

"Okay, let's scrap that," Jones decided with a sigh. "I wanted to get those done today, but I don't think it's going to happen."

Suddenly, there was a quiet knock on the door of the classroom. Jones went over to open it and was greeted by Sharma, who looked as happy and peaceful as ever.

"Good afternoon, Jones," the twelfth grade English teacher greeted. "I was just wondering if you wanted some coffee or anything. I'm going to stop by the teachers' lounge before I get to work on grading some essays."

Jones raised an eyebrow. "You're drinking coffee now?"

Sharma laughed, shaking his head. "No, I'm getting something to eat for myself, but I know you love coffee."

Jones smiled, because, really, sometimes it was impossible to not smile when it came to Sharma. The history teacher took another look at his students, who all looked completely dead inside, and then looked back at his friend. "I'm good for now, but thank you. I might get some later, but I'm not sure that any amount of coffee would be enough to motivate anyone today."

"Ah, is the rain getting everyone down? I have to say, I enjoy it, but I guess it isn't ideal when you combine it with the general stress of being a student," Sharma replied. "You know, the way a person handles a rainy day says a lot about them, I think." He shrugged, but still smiled. "I'll see you later."

As Sharma left and Jones returned his attention to his class, he sort of had an idea. Sure, they wouldn't be able to get any work done like he'd wanted to, but work wasn't always important. "Alright, yeah, no worksheets. Instead, we're going to take a walk."

No one really said anything, but there were a few confused looks among the students as Jones grabbed his keys and straightened out a few things on his otherwise messy desk.

"Well?" the history teacher said, looking at the class expectantly. "Let's go."

No one really moved until Jones actually left the classroom. It started with a few students hesitantly getting up and trailing behind the history teacher out into the third floor hallway, and only a moment later, the whole class was following him to wherever it was that he wanted to go.

"What are you doing?" a voice questioned, causing Jones and his students to stop walking and turn around. Grey was peeking out of his classroom, obviously confused, because Jones leaving his classroom with a group of students was not likely to be good news. Luckily, this was Grey's free period, so he had time to deal with it.