Senior Trip
Senior Trip
The fourteen hour bus ride was slowly coming to an end. The wasteland of the
Nevada desert was far behind them. The weary group of high school seniors was
drawing near to their destination: Disneyland. However, the chaos of the Southern
California freeways could not distract them from a debate that had begun somewhere
around Las Vegas.
“I totally disagree with you,” rang out Brian, the most outgoing person in the
school.
“And why is that?” asked Roger, the school nerd. He felt more comfortable with
computers than people. In fact, the only reason he was on the trip was to check out the
animatronic puppets.
“Because, if you always do the same thing, without ever changing the routine,
you’ll slowly drive yourself insane,” Brian responded confidently, obviously knowing
what he was talking about.
“Whatever,” answered a skeptical Roger. He required logical proof.
“Seriously,” Brian said. “Back in Chicago I had a friend , Paul, who had his day
scheduled down to the very second. He scheduled everything a certain amount of time,
and once the schedule was set, nothing could change it. The guy didn’t have a
spontaneous cell in his body.
“Well, one day, no one is quite sure how, but Paul managed to over schedule
himself. So he ended up staying awake until four in the morning. The next day he was a
disaster!
“First, Paul overslept and missed first period; the first absence he had ever gotten
in his life. Then he kept getting his classes mixed up and he even forgot his homework
for one class. The teachers were all shocked to see him like that. But, the thing that
really pushed him over the edge was when he couldn’t figure out the square root of nine.
‘Any fourth grader could tell you the square root of nine’ was all he kept repeating to
himself as he walked out the door. No one saw him for the rest of the day.
“Until after school. That’s when they caught him. Paul was on the roof of the
gym with an arsenal of water balloons. He was throwing them at people as they came out
of the school. And Every time he hit someone, he would just scream ‘3.’
“After that day, Paul never came back to school. He was home taught until he
stopped chanting the number three, and then he went to a school on the other side of
town.”
People could not help but laugh as Brian finished his story. Roger, on the other
hand, kept a straight face.
“You call an idiot with a chemical imbalance proof? All that proves is that you
had some pretty nutty friends in Chicago,” Roger said coldly.
“Okay,” Brian said in a challenging tone. “Prove me wrong.”
“I will,” Roger began. “Anyone with half a brain can tell you that spur of the
moment decisions only lead to trouble. My old friend Herman illustrates that point rather
well. He never thought things through. He had no kind of schedule or routine
whatsoever. So, in his freshman year of high school, when his brother asked him to hang
out with his older friends, Herman happily said yes. He had totally forgotten he had
finals the next day. Needless to say, he failed them all.
“But, after a lot of begging for make-up exams, and a lot of tutoring by yours
truly, Herman passed his tests on the second try, barely. Now, he is a proud third year
sophomore because he had no schedule; no routine.”
Everyone was inclined to laugh at the stupidity of one of Roger’s friends. Then
something unusual happened. Something that made them all gasp in total shock.
“I know a story that would prove you both wrong.”
After fourteen hours of silent observation, Todd, the school loser had said
something. Todd was notorious for never having a friend. An anxious hush fell over the
bus.
But, no sooner was his statement complete did the bus stop. They had arrived at
Disneyland. Everyone scrambled off the bus, forgetting all about the loner’s only
comment.
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