“A Silent Stare is Just Not Loud Enough”

This article in which you are about to read includes a random conversation between a teenage freshman named Emily Almeida and her friend in April 17, 2010, during their third period class at approximately 9:00 A.M. , at the New Milford High School. The day for Emily Almeida had started with a Biology class, a class that was rather challenging, and Emily held no interest on it. Emily couldn't wait to get into a class and actually talk about something that would wake her up from that dull Thursday morning. But did Emily deserve what she was going to get next period? Nothing did get better for Emily during second period, which was Health. Especially, because her class was watching a boring video on dating. ‘Why do they have to repeat saying all those things they taught us before?’ Emily wondered every day she took a step in that class. The sound of the video did not seem to reach Emily, for she was in the clouds, spacing out, waiting for the clock to tick faster.
Finally the bell rang. Since the class for second period and third period were the same, all Emily had to do was to leave her things on her desk and simply walk out of the classroom, to get in there again, waiting so at least during that tiring day the teacher would be there on time so she could sit again. For Emily’s surprise the teacher was there, walking down the hallway, waving so the student would go in the class. Once all the third period class had all settled they all started talking, because the teacher was still preparing himself as usual. Then the teacher started to talk with some students about things that had nothing to do with the class itself, so Emily thought that the class didn’t “officially start” as usual. So she turned to her friend that sat next to her and they started talking. “The conversation started with vanilla pudding and it went all the way to chocolate ice cream”. The conversation against those two teenage girls fired up and it seemed endless. “ The actual lesson always starts way off every day, and sometimes the conversation the teacher has with some student don’t interest the other students, so we start our conversation” says Emily trying to back herself up from the incident.

Emily had finally had something that would fire her up for the rest of the day. The conversation just seemed to connect everything else that it just kept going and going. But after a long while Emily and her friend sensed something strange in the class. Everybody seemed to have stopped what they were talking. Now the whole third period class was staring Emily and her friend. And then the whole third period class burst into laughter in unison. The two friends were confused and wondering what the class was laughing at. Emily’s other “friend” was also laughing, and she explained the situation to the confused freshmen, “ Mr. Gouraige was waiting for you guys to end your conversation but you just ignored him and kept going!”. ‘Yeah, what a good friend you are Hannah, you just had to not warn us that class was “officially” starting!’ was what Emily thought.

It was then that Emily realized that Mr. Gouraige, the history teacher, was there, silent just staring at the two teenage girls who simply ignored his silent stare. ‘I guess a silent stare is just not loud enough.’ And so, Emily got over it.