Going Crazy

Standing in the halls between periods is a big mess. For some strange reason, the entire school population loses their civility. They push and shove and generally misbehave. All the noise and ruckus usually give me a horrible headache. Today was no exception. The noise of senseless adolescent clamor seemed to set my brain on fire, causing me to walk through the hall with my fingers to my temples. As you can guess, that’s a rather difficult way for someone to walk around a crowded hall. My books and backpack were knocked down several times before I was able to reach my locker. A sharp pain seared through my head as I put in the combination to my lock, almost causing me to lose my balance. “Mmmm. Looking good today aren’t we?” Came Drake’s voice through the hallway din. That was it! I was fed up with this kid! “Drake, if you’ve got something to say to me, say it to my face!” My immediate surroundings instantly became quiet. The crowd parted, revealing a scared and bewildered looking Drake, standing all the way across the hall. Drake gave me a weird look, stuffed his books into his bag and hurried off to his next class. The awkward silence ended and noise flooded the hallway once again. I stood confused for a second. How exactly did I hear Drake from way across the hall especially in all this noise? Another sharp pain struck me. “Alex…we co…Alex…Al…now t…Alex…Alex…This is…” I heard Erica say. I turned around to see her standing next to me putting her books into her locker, wear a big goofy grin on her face. “Wow.” I said. “You missed him that much huh?” Erica looked at me, with a confused look on her face. “Missed who?”
“Alex, of course. Who else would I be talking about?” I replied, “He’s all you’ve been mumbling about.”
“I have?” she asked. Her cheeks turned scarlet. “I…I’ve got to get to class.” She grabbed the books she needed and hurried off. I sighed. “Yup.” I said to myself. “She’s got it baaad.”
I took my math book out of my locker and walked to class. For some reason, the noise today was different. Everyone was louder, and most of them didn’t seem to be talking in complete sentences. Their voices kept overlapping each other in the most annoying of ways. I felt nauseated and confused. Maybe I had to go get my ears checked too. I stumbled down the hall to the classroom. Today just wasn’t my day.
I took my seat and got ready to start. My eyes fell on Alex’s empty seat. It had been a couple of weeks since Alex was found and the doctors had said that he needed time to recover from such a ‘traumatic experience’. I sighed. High school was a traumatic experience, but none of us ever got time off. Mr. Victor, the math teacher walked into the classroom, disturbing my train of thought. ‘Ah. Pop quiz time.” I heard him say. I placed my head on the desk and groaned loudly. “Do you have a problem Ms. Dagger?” I heard him ask. I looked up to see him and the rest of the class staring at me.
“Um nothing.” I said shamefacedly. “I’m just not that big a fan of pop quizzes.” A surprised mumble rippled through the class. Mr. Victor looked surprised himself.
“Pop quiz, Ms. Dagger? Who said anything about a pop quiz?” he asked.
“Didn’t you just…” I looked at him confused.
He turned back to address the rest of the class. “As I was about to say class, we were supposed to be having a pop quiz today. But since Ms. Dagger let the proverbial cat out of the bag, we will now be having a quiz that’s worth 15% of your term mark. Everyone turned around and gave me harsh looks. “That bitch...”
“I so hate her now…”
“I so wish she’d disappear next…”
The insults were coming fast and furious. I raised my arms in defense. “Ok, ok. I sorry!!” I shouted. Everyone’s eyebrows shot up. Mr. Victor looked at me gravely.
“There is absolutely no reason to shout Ms. Dagger.”

“What?!” I asked him. “They were just insulting me!” Mr. Victor gave me a strange look and began sharing out papers. I was genuinely confused. Mr. Victor had just announced to the class that hey were going to have a pop quiz and then chewed me out for repeating it. Then half the class calls me names that they dare not say in front of their mothers and he lets them get away with it. Maybe I was caught up in one of those conspiracy thingies that Alex keeps talking about. I sighed and took out my stationery.
This quiz was definitely wasn’t one of your usual quizzes. Everyone was so noisy, saying their working and answers out loud. For a test worth 15% of your exam mark, there was a lot of liberal cheating going around. I looked at Mr. Victor. He didn’t seem slightly fazed by any of the chitchat. What exactly was going on there?

“What’s the differential of cosine?” The girl next to me, Annie, asked.
“Negative sine.” I replied.
“What was that Ms. Dagger?” Mr. Victor asked.
“Oh.” I replied. “Annie had just asked me a question and I answered her.”
“Cheating and honest about it. A very contradictory mix Ms. Dagger.” He turned to Annie. “You chose the wrong person to cheat with Ms. Smith”
“No sir!” Annie replied quickly. “I didn’t ask her anything!”
Now, I was over my head in confusion. “Sir, isn’t this an open book exam?” The entire class giggled. Mr. Victor looked at me as if I was crazy. “I mean, the entire class been talking.”
“Ms. Dagger, this class has been extremely quiet for the last 15 minutes. The only noise we’ve had is your little episode.”
“What!?” I shot up out of my seat. “They’ve been talking loudly, all the time!”
Mr. Victor’s face became extremely serious. “Ms. Dagger, please sit down or you’ll have to have a little chat with the principal.” He said gravely
“Don’t…Don’t you hear them?” I looked around the class worriedly, trying to find support to my claims. All I was met with were blank stares.

I must be losing my mind!!!
“She’s crazy…crazy…crazy…She’s nuts…crazy…” The voices poured furiously over me. I covered my ears and cried out “No!! No!!”
“Crazy…crazy…crazy…” They wouldn’t stop. I dropped my hands and screamed out to the top of my voice. “I AM NOT CRAZY! I AM NOT CRAZY!!” I turned around and dashed out of the classroom. I ran the hall sobbing hard. The voices followed me. “Crazy…crazy…crazy…”
“No…no…no…” I kept repeating to myself, “I’m not crazy, I’m not crazy, I’m not crazy.” But the thing that scared me the most is that I didn’t believe what I was saying. I felt, somewhere deep inside that I was crazy.