08/1/School Tradition

by Gabriella in Math Class, Doodling

We were sitting on the middle row desks in our sixth grade classroom on the last day of school. It was a sad, yet happy day. No school for the next few months, no seeing friends every day for the next few months.
I hugged my friends Tori and Nina. “I’ll miss you guys!” I exclaimed.
“We’ll miss you too,” Nina said. She smiled and hugged me.
“Well, we still have three hours of school! I don’t even know why we had to come today,” she said. She stared up at the clock. It read 8:30. She was right. Three more hours to go.
“Well, there kinda is a purpose,” Nina said. “The last day of school mass!”
“Yeah. I’ve gotta sing for that,” I said, looking up at the clock. “When does it start?”
“Nine o’clock,” Nina replied. “I just asked Mrs. Brimmer. Also, can you ask Cole to do a count down?”
Cole Richards was another one of our friends. He was just a year older than us. One of the eighth graders left him the job of afternoon announcements at their awards ceremony. Cole was also singing for the mass.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll try to remember,” I reassured. Something whistled past my ear.
Tori was wide eyed. “What the HECK was that?”
Nina pointed to the back. “It came from back there.” She turned around to face the back of the room. “Oh!” she groaned.
“What? Wait, lemme guess. It was Evan and Caleb again, right?” Tori asked.
Evan and Caleb were best friends and cousins. They were the jokers in the class, and two of the most annoying when heir jokes went out of hand.
“Which one threw it?” I called to the two boys.
They both pointed at each other.
I sighed. “I hope our class matures over the summer,” I said.
Tori crossed her legs. “Yeah. If they don’t, we’ll be lost in the seventh grade! It was really bad this year!”
Nina nodded. “Yeah. Sister Rosemarie had to come in and talk to us five times this year!” Sister Rosemarie was our principal.
Evan ran up to us to retrieve what he had thrown. It was a stuffed polar bear.
I grabbed the head of the polar bear just as Evan was about to run back to Caleb. “Gimme that! I want to tazer and strangle it!” I tried yanking it our of his hands.
“No way! His name is Chubby!” Evan laughed.
Caleb ran up to the scene of the strangle. “I thought his name was Plumpy!”
Nina and Tori giggled in the background.
I finally yanked the polar bear from Evan’s hands. I started tazering it by poking its hips. “It’s not working!” I joked.
Evan grabbed its sides. I tazered the polar bear again. Evan made seem as if it was electrocuted. Tori, Nina, Caleb, Evan, and I laughed.
“Now, I’ll strangle it!” I proclaimed.
“No! Don’t kill Pudgy!” Caleb laughed.
Evan looked at his cousin curiously. “First it was Chubby, then it was Plumpy, now it’s PUDGY?! Dude, when will we ever find a fit name for it?”
“Well, I’m sticking with Pudgy,” Caleb said.
“Fine,” Evan agreed.
I took Pudgy from Evan’s grasp and pretended to strangle it. Tori and Nina cracked up some more. I then slammed Pudgy, face down, onto the desk I was sitting on. I put my hand on top of him like in a wrestling match.
Caleb laughed. “Get ready for the countdown ladies and gentlemen…”
Nina, Tori, Caleb, Evan, and I exclaimed, “Three…Two…One…!”
Caleb raised his arms. “And it’s good!”
Mrs. Brimmer cleared her throat. All heads turned towards her. “Sarah Jenkins, you can go down to the mass. Miss Kim just called for you.”
I nodded and left the classroom still smiling.
The mass was great. All the kids were clapping to the beat of some of the songs. On the last song, “Lord I Lift Your Name On High,” some of the kids waved their arms in the air. Brielle Jameson in my class told me that during the song, one of the choir members, Jacob Drumming, pretended to light a candle and waved it in the air.
When the mass was over the boys had to help Miss Kim put the piano back to the side of the multi-purpose room. Brielle and I watched them. “They are so weak,” she said, shaking her head.
I laughed.
“Come on guys!” Miss Kim said. The boys and Miss Kim each took one side of the piano. “On the count of three. One…two…lift!”
The boys and Miss Kim lifted the piano and dragged it clumsily to the side about five footsteps away.
“They had to carry it that far?” Brielle asked in amazement. “They should’ve just pushed it!”
I shook my head. “Hey, you can go back to the classroom. I’ll catch you later.”
Brielle nodded. “See ‘ya.” She left.
“Hey, Cole!” I called.
“Yeah?” he replied, walking towards me.
“Hey, could you do a countdown later today…”

“Did you ask him?” Nina asked when I came back to the classroom.
“Yes!” I replied.
“Well,” Tori said, “what did he say?”
I smiled. “You’ll see…er…hear…”

At eleven fourteen, thirty-five seconds until school was out, there was an announcement.
“Good morning students, teachers, and staff.” Cole’s voice boomed through the classroom. Everyone became silent. “Everyone ready for summer?”
“YEAH!” we called. I heard it come from the other classes in the school, too.
“Well,” Cole began, “let’s end our school year the proper way. With a countdown!”
The whole school cheered. “He did say yes!” Nina called to me.
I smiled and nodded.
The boys started clapping and slamming their desks. They began to sing “We Will Rock You”.
“Okay…fifteen seconds to go…” Cole said.
The beating and clapping got louder.
I looked up at the clock. Ten seconds to go.
We began to chant with Cole. “TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! …ONE!!!!!”
The school cheered and the bell rang.
“Have a great summer everyone!” Cole said. “Now, will the safeties please report to their posts. Will the safeties please report to their posts.”
“Okay, go get your bags,” Mrs. Brimmer ordered. “Have a good summer!”
The class cheered as we ran to the back to get out bags. We started hugging and high fiving each other. Some of the boys ran around the classroom getting last minute signatures in their yearbooks.
“I’ll miss you guys!” I said. I hugged Nina and Tori.
“Don’t worry, we’ll still email and text you,” Tori promised.
“And call too!” Nina added.
“Line up everyone!” Mrs. Brimmer said.
Everyone lined up to go home.
“Cars are now dismissed,” Cole said. “Cars are now dismissed.”
Some of the kids dashed out of the room.
After ten minutes, Cole finally called, “Sixth grade buses are now dismissed. Sixth grade buses are now dismissed. Have a great summer!”
“Have a great summer, Mrs. Brimmer,” I said as I walked out the door.
When we reached the lobby, I saw Cole at his post holding the microphone.
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
He nodded in response.
The next two months were fun. I went to the beach, visited California, and went to camp for a few weeks. Then the next year, Cole left me the job of afternoon announcements. So on the last day of school, I did the countdown. It became a St. Katherine School tradition.