Somewhere in the Back of the Class

Way in the back, she must have been sitting—

the girl.

I couldn’t just turn around.

Trees can’t do that.

But someone tapped me on the shoulder,

handed me a note.

Little folded up piece of lined paper

that made no sense at first. On top it said this:

Loser

On the back it said: Welcome to Hell.

But when I opened it,

Someone with beautiful handwriting had written:

Don’t let the bastards get to you.

And then a name:

Caitlan.

The girl had passed the note to me.

The other messages were just a couple of my

warm and fuzzy classmates

Adding their regards.

The bastards didn’t matter, though.

I finally turned and ignored the sea of ugly faces

and tuned in to her smile.

Would have just kept locked onto that smile too

but Old Man was reminding me

if I kept staring at the sun

well, you know.