The Return of Candy-sensei

Every morning, students trickle into the staffroom after the second bell has rung. They come into the staffroom, because they need to get a late slip. The teachers are never happy about this, so sometimes when I'm the only one in the staffroom, the kids look excited that I'll be the one to sign their late slip, because I'll surely spare them the lecture. Well, I sympathize with the students, because I was often late in high school, but there's nothing that I can do, but turn them over to the next teacher that returns to the staffroom. I don't think I have the permission to sign their slips.

This morning in particular, the teachers were especially annoyed at the tardy students. All students were taking a test during first period, so you can imagine the frustration of teachers when students walked in late, because it would interrupt the testing in the classroom. Most of the tardy students were late by minutes, so when a student walked in three hours late, you could practically hear all of the first year teachers mumble to themselves in disbelief. The student was no other than the leader of the talker pack from my former seventh period class on Tuesday.

As soon as the student spotted me, a light bulb turned on in his head. He caught me looking at him, and so he "informed" me, "my name is Nagano." I answered with an "I know." He looked delighted at this and asked me, as he reached into the drawer for a tardy slip, "what is your name?" Although he had asked me a question, he proceeded to fill out the tardy slip. Therefore, I thought our little conversation was over, but I heard him ask again, "what is your name?" I looked up. I knew where this was going. I gave him my best shot at sounding exasperated, and said, "you know my name!" He had this knowing smile on his face, and I had a good guess as to what I was about to hear. Sure enough, he said, "your name is Candy!" A bit anti-climatic, but it still made me laugh. I shook my head and humored him, "no no no... my name is Kelly!" He laughed at his own joke. At this point, he had finished filling out the slip, so he approached me with it and asked, "Candy, please sign." I shook my head again and said, "Sorry, I can't," and I motioned to the teacher sitting two desks over. He took the slip over to him. As the teacher checked that the form had been properly filled out, an English teacher walked into the staffroom. He pointed at me, and told her in Japanese, "she isn't Candy!" The teacher frowned and starting scolding him, probably because he had been three hours late. I hope it wasn't because he had called me "Candy." It became evident that the student was further stalling from having to go to class, so the teacher started to show him out. When he wouldn't move, she started to gently move him along. His last words as he was pushed out of the staffroom were, "Candy, help me!" Sorry kid, you're on your own.

The school term is over, but "Candy" lives on.