“Middle School Mayhem” by Samuel K., age 12/Grade 6
The sound of misery, the sound of cries.
This dreaded vault will not open before my eyes.
I bang, I hit, I twist the lock.
It will not open, no matter how hard I’ve fought.
Oh, the agony! The woe!
This locker is my sworn and forever foe!
Then I remember in the locker this day
there’s something scary, something chilling, something haunting locked away…
Within the locked chamber is my library book; it’s centuries overdue.
If I keep it any longer, I will definitely be sued!
Banned forever from the library,
like all those words trapped in the dictionary.
Oh, so scary! I may have a coronary!
My stomach starts to rumble like an earthquake and a tsunami too.
Then I remember what else I forgot! My food!
My lunch! The feast of kings.
A sandwich that would make the angels sing. Unable to escape, it will decay, putrefy, and rot!
My cherished sandwich will soon smell worse than zombie feet, I thought.
I’ll die of hunger, starvation pains, seeing nauseating spots as
my stomach fills with venomous snakes that writhe and twist into knots.
Oh, my mother! The fearsome beast! She will be scarier than an angry ox!
She’ll kill me for abandoning my lunch box.
I left my tuba in there too.
In band today, I’ll be stuck playing the kazoo.
Then there is my diorama of the moon
that I must bring to class very very soon.
It’s half my grade. If I fail that class, I’ll be hopeless the rest of my days.
My heart races, I begin to sweat.
I never thought I’d be this deep in debt.
My gym shorts, eyeglasses, backpack forever lost!
My retainer, cell phone, stuck in this impenetrable safe, the staggering cost!
I begin to sweat, shake, shiver, and cry.
The bell rings and people stare as they pass by.
Donggggg! Dongggg! DONGGGGGG!
The bell rings like a gong.
A stampede, crushing me against the walls
as tweens and teens fill the halls.
What happens next should not be taken lightly.
I cannot describe it quite precisely.
My peers look at me upon the ground
and wonder what is causing me to be unwound.
Then my worst fear comes to be,
someone draws out their phone and takes pictures of me!
Moving pictures with sound
will be texted all around!
I know now what I must do.
Time to transfer to another school.
I’ll move to Australia, China, Russia, or France.
I shoulda gotten tickets in advance!
I’m panicking and out of breath.
Soon the bell rang again, and the monsters left.
So, now I’m there late for class,
shivering on the ground like an, an, an…. outcast.
(Listen now, I’m in school!
Cussing is against the rules.)
I’m curled into a ball, wishing to die,
my hands in tight fists covering my eyes.
I hear thudding in my in head.
I hope it isn’t what I dread.
Footsteps of my executioner coming for the kill.
A shadow looms over me and I feel ill.
I hear a combination lock scraping,
And the click of the lock releasing.
Then the creaking hinges of the locker door
And I look up from the floor.
I see a vision through my tears.
The vault swings open for one of my peers.
What witchcraft did this girl perform?
I realize I’ve been misinformed.
This locker is hers, number 989.
One row over, locker 898 is mine.
I shout, “That’s why the lock wouldn’t work!”
She looks at me, shakes her head, and mutters “what a jerk.”