There are some things teachers don't know. Things that are common knowledge to all students. I know, I know school is important, learning things that will get me through high school and into college. But I don't think teachers understand that we have things outside of school, friends, sports, hobbies, and having time to relax. But we always have tests and homework that eats up all our time. I shuffled to my locker taking off my jacket. Still a little groggy because school starts way too early for a light owl like myself.  

“You know what,” Lillian practically shouted as she opened her locker. “ I think teachers are all just giving tons of homework on the same nights on purpose”. It's true, there are those days where each teacher gives a weeks worth of homework out of the blue. You might as well clear your entire schedule and give up all your friendships and do your homework.

“I know what I will be doing for the next twelve hours.” I snapped.  

“Mrs. Speltzer told us are math semi-final test is on Thursday” Lillian replied.

“But she always says she tells us at least a week in advance” I questioned

“It's all lies” Lillian answered giggling. “See ya Veronica” she giggled as she slammed her locker shut. Of course, we have huge tests this week. Teachers always say that they will tell you in advance, and talk to other teachers to make sure you don't have big tests close to each other. Which I find odd because I have three cumulative this week. Plus mountains of homework in every other class. And an Italian quiz today. I walked to science with a group of other students. I stood outside of the classroom with all the other kids. I think science is one of my better classes, not just because I'm good at it. There are many friends of mine in my science class.

“Okay everyone” my science teacher Ms. Glass announced to all of us. “You all know about the test tomorrow” we all nodded. “So study tonight, and you have time today”

Mrs. Glass announced. Almost everyone felt a wave of release. I looked over at my good friend Mia with a stressed smile.

“Study with a partner if you want, but stay on task.” Mrs. glass pronounced. There was some light talking between the other students. But mia and I who have every class together have agreed to be in class partners in most classes. We moved quickly to some desks in the back of the room.

“So Ellie made a quizlet study guide.” as she opened her laptop to the study guide. I quickly opened my laptop making sure to not waste time like some of the other students. The rest of class whizzed by. It feels as if every class I have to study or work on homework it always feels like three minutes. This feeling also applies to tests. It can't be just me that feels like this. School days have moments where one minute feels like one hour. Then all of a sudden it feels like the whole world is on fast forward. I was walking mindlessly through the hall. I walked into the art room. Sometimes my mind goes on auto piolet. I'm just mindlessly thinking while my legs take the path they know to take. I sit down at a table with three other girls. We all dropped our books on a ledge by the window and flopped on my chair.

“Here you go” a girl Alise mumbled as she handed me my canvas.

“Thanks” I replied. I opened the little lifting part of the table, locked it and placed my canvas on the lifted section of the table.
“Can I have the blue paint?” Mia asked. In art class, my table has a few unspoken rules. The most important is don't talk about school. Such as we don't talk about, homework, classwork or tests. It sort of relives stress and let's some of the stress melt away.

“Okay, so the funniest and weirdest thing happened last night.” Lillian laughed. She started talking about her cousins and her dog. It's a crazy and long story.

“Oh, there was this one time that Thanksgiving at my house went haywire.” I always have liked art. Portraits, landscapes, shadows, it all comes easily to me. I'm working on a forest scene with a deer running through the trees.

“So painting is always great, but working with oil paints...it has its pros and cons.” I blurted out

“I mean it's great, the paint doesn't dry to fast so you can go back and change things, you can make texture” I explain. I paused then I announced jokingly “but they just have the strongest smell. Whenever I use them I have to open every window in the building and turn on seventy fans, and it's cold outside.” I laughed.  

“Truer words were never spoken” Alise whispered wisely, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter with the rest of us. I love art because it's great, and the class always feels like time freezes and I just have a great time with my friends for eternity. I looked up at the clock, we all started to clean up the table and our hands. Beeeeeeeep, the bell rung. Sometimes it just catches me off guard. I started to walk quickly down the hall to my Italian class. I also feel like schools decide to make you walk from one end of the school to the other for every class.                

    “Chow” the Italian teacher Mr. Russo said. He is a great teaching style. He is everyone's favorite teacher and actually makes most students want to learn. Other teachers might want to take notes.

“Estrarre una penna” Mr. Russo announced. It means: take out a pen. He handed thick packets to each of us. I took a deep breath. I carefully started the test. It wasn't very hard. I am very good at learning new languages. I breezed through most of the test but the last page was the most dreaded section of tests. Open-ended questions. As soon as I finished I let out a sigh of release. I handed it in.

“You can work on homework,” said Mr. Russo with a smile. That was good to hear, more time in school to work on homework. I sat down and finished my math homework. If no one could see already, many students like myself feel very overwhelmed by school. Trying to keep good grades, and get work done. As the bell rung everyone slowly got their books and left the room. The second I got to my locker I heard something.

“Veronica!” Macy yelled while stomping down the hall.

“Oh, the Kraken has been released” Lillian whispered to me.

“You didn't do your work” Macy growled at me.

“What are you talking about” I replied.

“You were supposed to read chapters one, three, seven, nine, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and twenty-one,” Macy explained to me like I was a three-year-old.

“You were going to do nine,” Lillian questioned.

“There were twenty-one questions and three of us. You expect me to do eight.” I announced angerly. Lillian and I pulled out the sheets with the chapters.  

“Yeah, here” Lillian showed Macy the sheet. Each chapter was highlighted in a different color. Her chapters were neatly highlighted in pink marker.  

“Two, five, nine, eleven, thirteen, eighteen, twenty,” I said, an annoyed tone showing.

“Whatever,” groaned Macy. Lillian and I looked at each other with a look, that said ‘I know right’. We both walked to the lunch room. And sat at a table with Alise and Mia. we usually sit inside during recess when it's cold. Lillian and I explained the story while trying to study for math. After the blur that was lunch and recess. I went to social studies with mia and Lillian.

“So, unlike every other class, there are no tests this week.” Mrs. Miller announced jokingly. “We will have a test in a week from today on the declaration, continental congress, revolutionary war” I hear Mrs. Miller announced before my mind drifted off thinking about all the tests tomorrow and through the next weeks. The rest of social studies was sort of boring. We watched a video on the continental congress and the declaration of independence. Math went by fast, it was us doing classwork and studying.  Then came English.