Too loud
Too disruptive
It wasn’t even my fault
But I was sent into the hall anyway
With my friend
It was totally her fault
You need friends like this
in your life
in elementary school
in your neighborhood
Someone who always ups the ante
brings an edge to the plain
spice to the salt

Too loud
Too disruptive
Continues in the hallway
It was becoming my fault
the balance of blame shifting
quickly becoming more than I can control
The other grade five teacher
comes into the hallway to turn red
to yell
at us
at me
when it wasn’t my fault,
but it is now.

“You’re acting like you’re this big.”
he screams in my face.
finger and thumb an inch apart
tomato red face that reaches into thinning blond hair
“So what?” I scream back at him
teeth barred
uncaring of the disrespect
the fun disintegrates on the hallway floor.

My friend freezes,
somehow makes herself smaller.
I will never convince
any of them
this wasn’t my fault.