First Magic

I let the classroom empty before I stood to relieve my stiff joints. Because of my delay, I caught Mr. Yazzie contorting his body into what looked like a dance position—elbows bent, hands outstretched. He shuffled his feet a few times before finally thrusting his hips forward and leaving the room. I felt confident he wouldn’t have made such an uncharacteristic move if he had realized I was still in the room, but I often went unnoticed. Being invisible is, after all, my priority. I gathered my books and followed Mr. Yazzie out the door. He didn’t attempt the awkward jig again, but I wondered what caused this sudden character break. Perhaps he had a hot date tonight, a lady friend he had met on the Internet. Walking in front of me, Mr. Yazzie reached behind his back and tugged at invisible material stuck deep inside his butt crack.

Okay, so maybe it is not a hot date. Perhaps it was the season premiere of some new sci-fi series involving flagella and protozoa battling one another to the death. This theory made much more sense. I veered to the left and down a long hallway to my locker, where I dropped off my books. I considered skipping the morning assembly. It was just a mini pep rally put on by the principal to get us excited for the new school year. Behind me, other seniors had the same idea, but they bravely acted upon their desire and disappeared out a nearby door. I decided not to follow in case someone saw me. I might be considered “cool” if caught and thereby labelled. I was comfortable with my current label of “weird girl” or “who?” and I didn’t want that to change.