My high school, like most others, has closed campus: you can't leave the building or grounds without a pass. My frind Jenny and I are on Options, where we go to college and the school district pays for it. Because of this, we are allowed to leave campus during the time that we are not in high school classes. Our classes aren't during the school day, but we are still allowed to leave. Neither of us have a car, so it's hard to go away.
The second or third week of school, I was eating lunch with my friends, and complaining because the hour that I have off is lunch hour. At the time, the library wasn't open, so I was supposed to spend my college time in the lunchroom, doing my work. Not likely, when there are three hundred other people in there all the time! Needless to say, I didn't get a lot done.
When I realized that Jenny had the same hour off, we decided to go to my locker until one of the hall monitors told
us to go back to the cafeteria. We went after 'A' lunch, and sat there all of 'B' lunch, before anyone noticed us. Suddenly, there appears a woman, dressed in pink, with a VERY pissed off look in her face.
"What are you girls doing?" she demanded.
"Nothing," we answered, quite honestly.
"Where are you supposed to be?"
"Nowhere." Again, true.
"Well, you have to be in class"
"We don't have class now"
Then you should have been assigned a study hall"
"We're on options"
"OH! Then just show me your passes."
Jenny produced hers, but I didn't have one.
"Then you have to get one, NOW," she said, implying that we could sit in the hall if I had a pass, too.
Fine, I went and got a pass, and then it was time for class.
Again, Jenny and I eat 'A' lunch, and decide to escape for 'B' lunch, then plan to come back for 'C' lunch with Ann. With passes at the ready, we again wait by my locker. About 15 minutes pass, and a different hall monitor accosts us. "What are you doing? Where are you supposed to be?" Before we have a chance to answer, the hall moniter from the previous encounter appears.
"You again? Didn't I find you here yesterday?"
Well, not really, but she didn't let us tell her that.
"You girls have to leave!"
"But we both have passes..."
"Even if you ARE on Options, we don't want you here. Haven't your classes started yet?"
"We don't have class right now "
"you still have to leave the building."
We get up, and she follows us to the door.
"So we can't be in the building ever, unless we have class or are in the cafetria?"
"Right"
We are going toward the door slowly, and she is herding us, like cattle. It's a bit disconcerting.
"What do we do when it gets cold?" we ask her.
"Sit in your car."
"We don't drive..."
"Well, I can't help you, maybe the Media Center will be open by then."
We leave, showing the parking lot attendant our passes on the way out. We take a long walk, then come back in time for 'C' lunch to talk to Ann. The evil hall monitor is STILL AT THE DOOR!
"I thought you two left."
"We have class next hour, and we're going to the lunch room."
She followed us down there anyways, and stayed until we sat down and looked like we were going to stay put.
For a while, we kept hidden. We told Ann about it, and just went wandering outside for a while. the Ann quit French to take Latin on Options: she has fourth hour off, too!
One day, it rained. It was cold and windy, so we decided to stay inside and not die of hypothermia. We were headed to the office, when we spotted the hall monitor, now permanantly dubbed "The Roving Death Squad." We didn't want to get accosted again, so we ducked into the library, and went to the CRC, where Jenny knows the people behind the desk. We watched the Roving Death Squad run around to the entrance we had used, look in to find us, then run aroud the entire library to come in the door next to the CRC. We thought we were safe, because the CRC is made for students to use, and we were using it. Ha ha ha.
The Roving Death Squad ran in: "You three, stay right there!" She approached the desk, and told the ladies, "These three have been playing hide and seek with me since the beginning of school."
My counselor arranged for us to have access to a small office (meant for one, holding all three of us) untill the media center opened. Now we can go into the library, but still, the Roving Death Squad watches...
We were being nice and unobtrusive, heading for the media center one day, directly from the lunch room. About 15 feet away from the door, she stopped us.
"Where are you ladies going?"
OK, she's at least being polite, so we told her.
"Where are your passes"
We told her that she'd already seen our Options passes.
"No, your Media passes."Our WHAT???
"You're not allowed in the Media Canter without a pass from the teacher you're doing research for."
Uh, well, we've been in the media center every day now for two months, I think they would have told us if we needed passes...
"Well, I'll let you in, but don't be suprised if they ask to see your passes."
So we went in, and, as usual, we were ignored by the library staff. We asked what the Roving Death Squad was talking about, with those references to mysterious "media passes," and they didn't know what she was talking about either! VERY interesting.
January 3,1997
Fourth hour, Jenny and I eat lunch, then go to the library, like usual. Horror of horrors, our library has been invaded by people!!! Traumatized, we decide that it would be good to go outside and take a walk (It's 34º F, 1º C: beautiful). We head towards the door.
Are you two going to Options now?
No, we're going for a walk.
You can't do that.
OK, we wander off despondently. After lengthy consideration (about 5 minutes) we decided to appeal to higher powers: administrators.
We went into the office, and asked who we should talk to. We were given a name, and told that he was in the lunchroom. We went off, grimly, hunting for him. After cornering him, we described the situation, and he said it was OK as long as it wasn't something we expected to do all the time. We assured him that it was not our normal routine, then departed for our excursion.
We left by the side door, because it was close. Coincidentally, we also avoided the Roving Death Squad. After a nice walk, we returned for the rest of our classes, so we wouldn't be skipping. About 30 feet from the door, the Roving Death Squad marches out:
OK, ladies, to the office.
We explained that the administrator let us out, but she wouldn't listen. She dragged us into the office, and made us sit on the side where they put *bad* people, like the ones that get kicked out of class. The attendance lady/guard didn't believe that we had permission, either.
After half an hour waiting, the administrator returned to the office, recognizing us as he came in. The guard repeated what we had told her had happened with disbelief coloring her voice. When he confirmed our story, she was aghast. He seemed sort of apologetic, but not enough to help us over our humiliation. We made sure that he told the Roving Death Squad though.
You'd think, with all the crap she's given us, she would realize that we are hurt and paranoid, and would have the humanity to apologize, but the atrocities just continue unabated.
January 10, 1997
After 'A' lunch, Jenny wants to show me this sort of hidden spot that should keep us safe from the Roving Death Squad. There are people in the library, so it's a good time to go. We walk less than 10 feet behind the Roving Death Squad en route to our place. This hallway is behind the auditorim. There are only two classrooms back there, and no one who walks by looks down there. There are benches, so you'd think that people could sit there. We wander the general area for about 20 minutes, being quiet and generally good. Suddenly, ther appears the Roving Death Squad!
OK, get your bags and lets go.
We gather our stuff, expecting to be stuck in the office again.
Go sit in the C.R.C. and talk quietly. I let you be here 'A' lunch, but I can only cut you so much slack.
Um...We we weren't here 'A' lunch, so I don't know how you let us be here then...OK, we go to the library to play on the computers, mystified at why she let us go. The best explanation is that last time she brought us in, she was wrong, and they teased her for it. So, instead of being humiliated again, she just told us to be off. (Although that nook is out of the way, and we can't bug anyone.) You'd think that she'd spend her time on the people that leave to smoke, not us: we're "good" kids. Oh well. No one can tell what goes on in the depths of her mind. Probably not much.
January 27,1997
Lunch hour, Jenny and I hide in the library. OK, all good. We go tho 5th hour (now both of us have class then, and 6th hour off). We meet for sixth hour and decide to find a window with sun and sit by it, because it's fun. I'm worried about runing into the roving death squad, but Jenny convinces me that she goes home after 4th hour (because neither of us have seen her after then) and she never goes up to third floor (because we've never seen her up there either). So up we go, looking for a window. We walk to the locker banks, when I spy pink off to the left. Jenny sees her too, and we stop dead and start to unobtrusively back into the hallway.
Alright, girls, you know better than that. Go down to the library.
We go downstairs quickly, then hide in the back hallway. It's not a popular hallway, and not many people use it. We sit quietly behind a door. Every time anyone walkes through, we can hear them well in advance. And, of course, we assume that it is the roving death squad and get all scared and tense up. We realize what we are doing, but can't stop. She really has traumatized us, to affect us so much.
January 31,1997
Today, we were going to be good. We ate 'A' lunch, then we decided to go to the band room, because there's no class there 4th hour. If we are in a room, we are safe. She's not supposed to get kids in classrooms. We're walking purposefully into the music wing, when she sees us.
Girls, where are you going-you can't wander the building, you know.
Yeah, we'd noticed. "Band room," we tell her: the truth. We go in and are safe. (The band director came saw us, and came in at the end of the hour. He was suprized to find us still there, and was more suprized when we told him that it was the safest place for us to be.) While we were there, we heard the static from a walkie-talkie, like the roving death squad carries. Did she follow us? We didn't look, but considering how closely she's been tracking us already...
February 5, 1997
Oh, shoot me now! We thought that you were safe if you were alone. B.S. Here I am, walking down to the library to study. I really was. She sees me on the stairs.
I'm sure you're going somewhere she says, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"I'm going to the library..."
I'm sure you were
Uh, well, I really was. She sauunters off with a superior smirk on her face, confidant she foiled me and forced me to take refuge in the library, which was where I was going anyways. But now, instead of studying, I'm just adding on this little tidbit to the list of atrocities she has committed...
February 7, 1997
We are not allowed in the music wing anymore. We were going to the band room, because it was safe before. We told her that the director said we could be there, but she insisted that she see passes from him. Yes, even though we have passes for that hour, we still need one to get into tha music wing. That makes tons of sense. When we said that it was redundant to have 2 passes for the same time, she spent 5 minutes convincing us that the band director wasn't even in the buidling. (Because she hadn't seen him come in, even though she was in the lunchroom for half an hour, not at the door. Thwarted, instead of spending a day in constructive music practice, we playd on the library computers again. Forced to a path of not-allowed by somebody supposed to keep kids from being bad. Does that seem wrong to anyone else?
February 14, 1997
This week is spirit week for school, and today is the pep fest. There is a weird schedual because of that, and lunch isn't during 4th hour. Fine, we just won't go to the lunch room then. We walk upstairs and spy sunlight! Wow! What a good place to sit for 45 minutes and finish homework and OM forms! We had just gotten settled, when she appeared.
Ok, girls. Go down to the media center.
But they're taping TV stuff down there...
I don't care. Go-now!
OK, whatever. We wander off, desprately trying not to go into the library, because of the cameras. They were interviewing people, and might have tried to talk to us. So we sat, the rest of the hour, in the lunchroom, jumping at every noise. We decided that, instead of being stalked 6th hour, we'd escape, and so we took a long walk when she wasn't guarding the door. Whew... We got away once at least...
February 24,1997
OK, innocently waiting to talk to a teacher, lots of other teachers walk by, smile or ignore us... sitting in the hall. No roving death squad. We breath a sigh of relief and go to class. Next free period, sitting by my locker, doing homework for half an hour, administrative people wander by, ignore us. Finally, she comes.
Ladies, you know better than that. Can't be sitting in the hall.
We wander off despondantly. she is the only one who cares if we're in the hall. All she did is scare us in here to write this down. That seems a little self-defeating. Oh well... her life when we publish this (end of the year, when we're gone from this prison...)
New Additions to the Squad
All of the sudden, new hall monitors are appearing in the halls. Jenny spied the Roving Death Squad talking to one of these new people, insrtucing her on "policies." As far as I can tell, the new ones are the same as the old ones: they don't care about Jenny and me. But if the Roving Death Squad has taken one as her apprentice, then we could be in trouble. The apprentice will no doubt be trained to hunt us down and have the same silly prejudice against the two of us as her mentor. This poses a new threat, as they can split up to stalk us now. We shall be extra vigilant.
March 3, 1997
We're done with school, so we decide to go to Jenny's house, because it's close enough to walk to. As we approach the door, one of the new squad stops us and demands passes. I have mine, I know where it is, so out it comes. He nods approvingly. Jenny, meanwhile, has been digging through her bag for five minutes, and has found nothing. Bad Jenny. So he sends us to the office for a temporary pass for Jenny. After we show him that, he says to remember our passes and expect to show them every day, for the rest of the year, because he doesn't know who we are. The school newspaper a few months ago quotes the Roving Death Squad as saying "I have to know the names, or at least the faces, of every student at this school. It's part of my job." Interesting.
March 13, 1997
We haven't seen the Roving Death Squad (the worst one) for quite a while. Jenny is gone, so I have 75 minutes to myself. I decide to see if the Roving Death Squad is still around. Theory: every time I'm up on third floor, she finds me; if I go up now, she'll find me if she is still here. Test: I wander the halls for about ten minutes, slowly, waiting for the vioce. Nothing. Eventually, I was tense enough that if anyone had said my name, I would have jumpped through the ceiling, so I gave up on my quest, and bolted into the avowed haven of the media center. No sign of her. This page may soon become less scary!
April 15, 1997
Today our off hour was in the middle of the day, so we wandered outside. Our (high) school has a playground. being mature, inquisitive people, we decided to go play. While we were playing on the bouncy-thing (impossible to describe if you haven't seen it), we saw this administrator/hall monitor appear out the door and walk towards us. "What are you two doing?" I gave a rather unintelligible response. "Where are you supposed to be?" Um... We're on Options, but we don't have class right now. "OK, Just wondered where you came from." And he just walked away!
The Final Entry in this log-book
At least it better be: I'm on full-time options next year, so I won't even go to the school except to get forms and graduate....
The last day for seniors, the administration was really paraniod about there being "problems." Not having many senior friends this year, it wasn't a big deal for me. Jenny and I went ot her house, like usual. I had to come back to school for the regional track meet, so I walked back in the rain, getting very ammusingly wet. As I walk in, the principle grabs my arm! Why are you coming back into the school?!? Track. Why did you leave? I'm like, the bell has rung, you can't keep me from coming back into the school. The hall monitors are even fine with it as long as school's out for the day. "Options." Oh, OK. I'm not even a senior, I told her, and walked off. I was rather indignant at my treatment. I do NOT like to be touched!
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