“Over here!”

“Pass it, Kate!”

“Ooh! Me! Me!”

I held the squishy rubber ball in my right hand, desperately trying to find someone through the crowd to throw it to. My best friend Amita came into view, waving her arms, clearly trying to persuade me to toss it to her. I grinned at her. The ball flew through the air and landed right in her hands. She squeezed it a few times before looking around the room to find a new recipient.

“This has got to be the most intense math class we’ve ever had,” I remarked to Christina, one of my classmates whom was sitting on top of the desk in front of me.

“I’ll say,” she replied while waving her hands in the air, trying to catch the attention of whoever had the ball.

I threw my head back and laughed. Our math teacher had recently been assigned a part-time physical education teaching position, and had received a bin full of gym equipment needed to teach the course. We had decided, as a class, that we needed to “test” the equipment, to “make sure it”s safe’. It being a Friday afternoon, Miss Wang conceded to our use of the materials. Our favourite so far: the rubber, inflatable “Fluffy Ball” (found in dollar stores near you).

The ball came flying towards me again. I snatched it out of the air and tossed it in the direction of the masses before turning back to Christina.

“So, did you study for the Geography test next period?”

“Kind of,” she replied, forcing a disinterested tone. “I was only up until 2:00am, so I don’t think I’m going to do very well. It might bring my average down.”

“Huh,” I grunted, wanting to end this conversation. Christina considered herself to be the best pupil in every subject, so any opportunity to brag was seized. I turned my attention back to the crazy, completely pointless game of catch. At that point, Damien had the ball, and was looking at his friend Zack with a devilish look in his eyes. I frowned; those two were never up to any good. With a smirk, Damien swivelled in my direction and whipped the ball at me. I dodged. The ball whizzed past me and slammed into the chalkboard across the room. My mouth formed a huge “O” as I came to realize the pain that ball could have caused me had my aversion skills not been up to par. The class went silent.