History Rewritten
| February 22, 2017
"H ey Malky” I said turning my chair around to face my best friend. “Guess what theme my family is doing for Purim this year.”
“Purim” Malky drawled lazily. “Who’s up to Purim already? We haven’t even put away the menorahs from Chanukah yet.”
“Oh come on. Chanukah’s been over for weeks already.”
“So what’s the grand theme?” Malky said still busy with the daily doodling on her notebook.
“Chocolate” I whispered not because I cared about disturbing the lesson but because I didn’t want the whole class to hear. Apparently I wasn’t as quiet as I thought though.
“Who’s got chocolate?” Rikki asked. The mere mention of chocolate was enough to get her salivating.
“Sorry no such luck” I called back at the same time a large chocolate bar from Gila another chocolate lover came sailing over my head landing on Rikki’s desk.
“Hey no eating in class” I said sarcastically and we burst into boisterous laughter. Mrs. Braun paused her lesson to see what the extra disturbance was all about. I noticed a flicker of something — pain? — cross her face before she resumed her lesson and I felt a slight twinge of guilt I quickly suppressed.
It’s not like we were purposely being mean to her I reassured myself. It was just the most convenient class for us to let loose. Though Mrs. Braun had tried to discipline us at the beginning of the year she’d given up when she saw it wasn’t working. Nowadays she just kept on teaching despite all the disturbances so it couldn’t have disturbed her too much.
Mrs. Braun had it coming to her from the very first day. Taking in her frazzled appearance — the sheitel slightly askew; her creased skirt and the suspicious red marks on her face (blush or ketchup?) — we’d decided she was the perfect scapegoat. High school was pressurizing enough. We needed some classes just to chill and Mrs. Braun was the sort of teacher we could take advantage of. She taught us Jewish History three periods a week. Her lessons might have been interesting but we never even gave her a chance. Besides a few conscientious girls sitting at the front of the classroom listening and taking notes the rest of us kept busy with our own things.
Things probably would have continued in this vein for the rest of the year if not for what happened a few weeks later. We had been learning about great women from Jewish history and Mrs. Braun wanted us to interview a Jewish woman who made a difference in today’s day and age. Knowing that most of us would probably treat this assignment like the ones preceding it (simply not bothering to do it at all) she added that anybody who didn’t hand in a completed assignment on time would have to hand it in to our principal.
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