Ray groaned inwardly; it felt like Mr. Dart had been going on for hours, his voice droning on endlessly. It went something like this: Enter cliché moral about trying to live life to the fullest. Follow your dreams. Try to die without any regrets. Blah, blah, blah. Then Mr. Dart would go on an outlandishly long tangent trying to relate a personal experience to one of the lessons. Ray thought he was lying about most of them and couldn’t figure out how a story about sledding while intoxicated related to the importance of forgiving. Most, OK all, of the class wasn’t paying attention anymore. Some boys in the back were sleeping, heads on their desks and drool dribbling from their half-opened mouths. A couple of girls in the class – including the bubblegum chewer – were flagrantly texting, phones out and screens glowing in their hands. Roy was working on his math homework. Mr. Dart didn’t notice at all; he was too lost up in his own stories. His eyes were shining and his arms were careening through the air in wild gestures. Mr. Dart could only relive the old memories now; there wasn’t any time to make new ones.

Bang.

The sound echoed through the classroom, followed by a muffled groan of pain. One of the sleeping boys had somehow fallen out of his chair and took a quick tumble onto the carpeted – but not soft – floor. The kid let out a slight groan as he rubbed the back of his head. The noise was enough to snap Mr.Dart out of his history-driven stupor. He looked at the boy, eyes glinting, before turning to scan the rest of the class. A few kids tried to quickly shove their cell phones back into their pockets or shake awake the remaining nappers, the effort was futile.

“Was anyone paying attention to what I was saying?” Mr. Dart asked, his jaw clenched and his voice tight and clipped. Bubblegum-girl spoke up, her hands fluttering in nervousness.

“Well, yeah of course we –“ Mr. Dart interrupted her with a slash of his arm, a small, sick smile growing on his face.

“Then what was the last thing I said?” Bubblegum-girl’s eyes widened and her voice shook a little as she fumbled around for words.

:Well … you … obviously …” Mr. Dart cut her off again, shaking his head.

“What’s obvious is that you weren’t listening.”  He looked slowly around the room, eyes beginning to smolder. “None of you were.”