Core classes were, in a word, a joke - not that ‘joke’ was the word Taylor would use to describe Intro to Poetry, oh no, there were a plethora of words that occurred to her every time she sat down in that class, usually ranging from ‘torture’ to ‘bullshit,’ but she figured, if pressed, ‘joke’ would do the job for this PG-13 crowd of overly emotional whiners.
She’d been doodling on the side of her shoe when she heard the timid little “Um, hi, sorry?” that got her to look up; lo and behold, there was Front Row Girl, the one with the mousy features and the voice that made her sound like she was perpetually on the verge of breaking down into tears. “We’re, uh, supposed to share our assignment with someone else, and...it didn’t look like you had a partner, so I was wondering...oh, uh, but I mean, don’t feel pressured if - ”
Taylor dropped her foot from the chair beside her before the other girl could work herself into having a full-on panic attack, momentarily capping her Sharpie. “Yeah, totally, I just don’t think you’re going to be a fan of my work, is all,” she said, wondering whether she’d played up the sarcastic tone enough to cover the truth of the matter (Front Row Girl was, after all, something of a teacher’s pet, and whenever she shared her writing, there were usually ‘ooh’s and wordless looks of awe that rippled through the classroom), “I hate this classroom/I hate the people in it/Just kill me now please.”
There was a beat where she was sure - so absolutely, utterly sure - she was going to get a strange look in return...but then FRG plopped herself down into the seat beside her and shot a secretive smirk in her direction, giggling, “Probably the most emotionally resonant haiku I’ve ever heard,” before smoothing her own papers out onto the desk.