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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