One Day in Public Speaking Class

The Message

As I walked into second period Public Speaking, I knew today was the day. I quickly located Cathy and took a seat next to her. I informed her of the plan,in detail because she often forgets the plan. We were going to take the public speaking class hostage and by the end of the day we will have taken over the whole school. That was the goal for the end of the day. If all goes right, I told her, we will have full control over the school and the classes by tomorrow. But we have to exercise this with precision. I was just about to inform her of the next step when the teacher calls me out and tells me to move to the other side of the row. Now all I had to do was tell Demetri; however, he was sitting two seats away from me and I was already on Mrs. Cagney’s notice list.

When Birhnam wood comes to Dunsinane

I practically ran to Public speaking class. It’s the best class of the day, I get to perform and show off my artistic skill. Unfortunately, I’d already performed yesterday; however, critiquing others helps me become an even better actress. I joined the crowd that was my class, walking into the black box theatre, which consisted of two rows of black stretchy chairs on each side of the stairs that were in the middle of the theatre and divided the theatre in two. The popular kids always sat on the right side and the unpopular kids sat on the left side. Then my mood changed; approaching me on the left was Percy Arnold, the well-known schizophrenic, known for being schizophrenic. In other words, unpopular. He came up to me and started talking about some crazy plan about taking over the public speaking class and then the world. Ya “when Birhnam wood comes to Dunsinane” will that happen. He followed me into the theatre and sat down next to me. NEXT. TO. ME, on the right side of the theatre. Luckily Mrs. Cagney, oh she’s an angel, she told him to move to the left side. And then class began, she picked out of the hat full of the names of the kids who never volunteered to perform and Demetri Mead’s name was read. 

The Moment

  Mrs. Cagney offered anybody who wanted a chance to volunteer to perform first. Unfortunately for Demetri, all of the vocal people in the class had gone the day before, so now it was the luck of the draw. Mrs. Cagney put her hand in the hat with all our names in it and rustled around. Time slowed down as she raised her hand from the hat. She removed her hand and it was Demetri; it was his turn. Demetri shakily rose from his seat and took his place in back of the podium. He lay the paper down on it, cleared his throat and began to speak. His voice came out funny at first. His knee shaking transferred into his whole body. Looking at all the people in the crowd, staring at him, everyone, the teacher, his crush, Cathy and…Oh no Percy was staring at him too. Percy never stares at anyone not even during performances. However, right now he was not looking, but staring at Demetri. He watched Percy, his lips began to move, he was mouthing something to him. Demetri began to sweat. Then Demetri’s speech stopped mid sentence; he was choking. He couldn’t speak, he was absolutely paralyzed in stage fright. Then Percy began rustling in his pocket for something, and took out. What was that? His vision was becoming blurry. No, Percy hadn’t taken out anything yet, but he was now. Out of his bag. Percy began unzipping his bag and he took out something that looked like a gun. Suddenly the doors to the black box (which had been closed before) were thrown open and in walked Trevor Mason. Demetri was startled and felt something wet run down his leg. 

Blazin’ because its Amazin’

Trevor Mason was in first period biology and he had the biggest craving for a drag of this new Marijuana he’d bought from his buddy down by E100. But he didn’t have anything to roll it in. He heard the myth about being able to roll with paper towels in the bathrooms. His teacher began talking about the plant family biosphere, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He shot his hand up and the next thing he knew he was walking down the hallway to the bathroom with his bag on his back. He burst into the bathroom, practically sweating from the anticipation. Some kid was using the urinal, and jumped when Trevor burst in. Trevor went for the paper towels took two rolls, took the stuff out of his pocket and began rolling the blunt. The bell rang just as he took the first drag; he had a long walk to Public Speaking but the blunt was so good. Trevor decided to finish it. The bell rang again; however, Trevor didn’t hear it for he was laying on the filth ridden ground of the high school bathroom, high and waving the blunt back and forth in front of him. He took his time in taking the last two drags and headed off to Public Speaking. He ran to the class, anybody who passed by Trevor saw him dragging his face against the wall. He was completely stoned. He threw the doors of the black box theatre open and half the class jumped. Trevor even saw the little nerd at the podium wet himself. The weirdo Percy was squatting over his chair, he wanted to sit far away from that dude, so he sat where Demetri had been sitting, surprisingly close to the teacher. The friggin kid at the podium was sweating all over the paper he had in front of him. 

The Teacher

The tired teacher picked up her coffee mug and took a swig of it as she awoke from her nap which had been interrupted by the bell signifying the end of 1st period. She looked at her phone, no response from her husband, they had had a fight the night before, he had slept on the couch and she hadn’t seen him since. And now she had to conduct her least favorite period of the day, 2nd period Public Speaking. 

Mrs. Cagney rose from her spinny chair, staggered a bit then proceeded to unlock her classroom door and unlock the black box theatre doors. Her class had crowded around the door and were waiting for her. She unlocked the doors and shuffled over, up to her seat behind the row at the front of the theatre. She set her mug down and plopped herself down. This class was going to suck. Everyone in the class who made her life easy had gone the day before, so she was going to have to listen to the terrible kids today. The last kid walked in and the door slammed behind them startling Mrs. Cagney from her trance. 

An annoying voice was speaking. She looked down and saw Percy rambling on and on to poor Cathy, and she didn’t deserve this. Mrs. Cagney called him out and moved him to the other side. She offered the remaining people to perform a chance to volunteer and as usual there were no takers; so she took out the hat. The hat had all of the non-performers' names in it. She stuck her hand in and pulled out the name Demetri. Demetri sprung up and speedily walked over to the podium and set down his paper. 

He began reading straight from the paper in his also annoying clogged nasally voice. Mrs. Cagney laid her head back and closed her eyes, preparing to return back to sleep. Unfortunately, it was then that the doors to the black box were thrown open, hitting the wall startling her awake, again. In walked Trevor Mason, the weed smoker. Yes, everyone knew it; she didn’t even bother telling him he was late. Surprisingly, he sat close to the center of the row, closer to her. Very peculiar of Trevor to do. Demetri continued his speech, would it ever stop? All of a sudden Percy rose to his feet and pulled something out of his bag. He charged Demetri, who turned and ran away from him, only to run right into the wall. Percy spoke.

“Alright this is a stick up! Nobody move or I’ll blow your head off!” 

Percy held a Nerf gun in his hand and pointed it at everyone as if it were an actual gun. Meanwhile in the back, Demetri slid to the floor. Mrs. Cagney was too tired and surprised to do anything but take another swig of her cold coffee. Cathy spoke next. 

“Percy sit down, nobody cares,” 

Percy stood in front of the podium surveying the room with his gun; Trevor slowly rose to his feet and approached Percy, observing the Nerf gun in his hand. 

“Stay Back! I WILL shoot!”

Trevor turned to everyone, looking stoned out of his mind, and began; Mrs. Cagney thought it was a good pretty good monologue for someone who was stoned. He swayed back and forth as he spoke. 

“Now everyone if you’ll just observe for one moment, this spectacle. Here we have a kid who is obviously out of his mind, threatening a public class with a simple Nerf Gun.”

Just then the sound of springs releasing was heard and a foam dart hit the back of Trevor’s head, landing somewhere off to his left. Trevor’s face turned red, he turned around furious and swung a punch at Percy hitting him in the face. Trevor staggered over onto Percy then unloaded his breakfast onto Percy’s shirt before collapsing to the ground. Percy sat on the ground and began to cry. 

Mrs. Cagney, after seeing, this grabbed her coffee and walked out of the black box. And headed to her classroom where she kept a bottle of wine, once there she would pour some of it into her coffee mug then walk down to the office to inform them of the situation. ‘Today might be the day she retired’ she thought to herself.