Shaped Me

Snowball Fight

Chapter Eleven: Manny

"Okay everyone take out a piece of paper." Henderson all but yelled. Dropping the tattered brown briefcase on his desk. His teal pocket square is impeccable as always. His usual smirk is missing as his unnaturally white teeth said hello.

"Someone had a good night." The unfamiliar voice spoke up next to me. In the two weeks of school, we have done nothing with our advisory partners so I had no reason to speak to the quiet boy next to me. Not that he seemed to care. Each day a book was clenched firmly in hand and he was often too engulfed to talk. I didn't mind.

"Now I want you to write two interesting facts about yourself. Once you are done crumble the paper up." Taking a long pull from his travel mug Henderson sat back looking exceptionally pleased with himself. 

I have always hated icebreakers especially the ones that require you to list interesting facts about yourself. What does one consider interesting? These exercises always make me feel as though I am the most uninteresting person on the face of the earth. I'm an only child and my hobbies include blending in and watching reality television.  I thought the point of icebreakers are to get to know other people not make me feel as though I needed to get a life. Oh, I can eat a  double cheeseburger in less than two minutes, does that count as an interesting fact? Probably not.

Settling on two completely random facts I crumble the paper and wait for a still humming Henderson to give us further instructions. Writing his name on the board he underlined it three times before drawing an exclamation point next to it. Touching his dark hair he faces the class still smiling brightly.

"Let's move these desks out of the way! Leave enough room in the center." It is too early for all of this. Doing as we are told we all stand in the center of the classroom pieces of paper in hand. "When I say launch you're all going to throw your papers into the center."

"Ready. Set. Launch!" The pieces of paper landed in the center as Henderson cheered loudly. This man has to be missing out on something in life. There is no way this is making him as happy as it seems to be.

"Snowball fight!" He screams as the last view papers hit the floor. "Now grab a paper and we'll go around the circle reading them. We'll guess who is who."

I don't think Henderson thought this through. We knew nothing about each other and reading random facts about each other is not going to change that. Four pieces of paper in and all of our guesses are wrong. Some of these people actually have really interesting facts. One girl's interesting fact was that she's a triplet. One of the guys has broken five bones in the last eight months all on separate occasions. Although the game started out terrible it is actually intriguing.
    Henderson asked questions whenever he found a fact very impressive. It often resulted in a story and I hate to admit it but I'm actually enjoying homeroom today.

"Okay, the last one before class ends. Manuela I believe it your turn the read." Unraveling the crumpled paper I try to smooth it out. Black ink and connecting words scribbled haphazardly across the paper.

" I have different colored eyes and I have read more than two hundred books in the last year." I read. Everyone looks around trying to see who had different colored eyes. That's a trait that should be easy to spot. Yelling out guesses everyone points to the various people. Each shaking their heads.

"Anymore guesses before we have the person reveal themselves?" Henderson asks. Looking around the circle eyes connecting with my advisory partner I try to get a good look at his eyes. He's too far for me to notice them completely.

"I think it's him." I point. Folding his arms he looks at me the corner of his mouth turned up softly. He's still holding his book so it just makes sense.