Page 2 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

CHASE

i’ll explain everything when i see you tonight

you’re gonna be BLOWN AWAY

By sixth period, I realize I’m going to have to call the hospital. Their billing department closes at 3 p.m. on Fridays because of course they do, which leaves me a very narrow window. I survey the class and start compiling a to-do list in my head:

Buy groceries

Cook dinner for Mom

Grade tests

Email admin about heating (again)

Sleep (6 hours hopefully)

I mentally add “call the hospital.” Hopefully, I’ll have enough time on the drive over to the supermarket to make it past the automated phone tree and reach a real human being.

I’m halfway through reviewing my to-do list again—and cutting down the amount of sleep I get to have—when my first student turns in their test. A flurry of tests come in after that, which means everyoneeither aced it or gave up early.

A hand shoots up.

“Ms. Chen, can we do Rapid Fire Friday?”

It’s Theresa Ramirez, one of my other star students who could give Inez a run for her money. Theresa lives for extra credit, which I deeply relate to.

Rapid Fire Friday is a game I invented back in September after a lesson plan fell through. I bring it back whenever it’s too late to start a new assignment but too early to let the kids roam free in the halls. The game goes like this: One student volunteers to sit on the hot seat, aka my chair. Whoever’s on the hot seat has to answer rapid-fire questions posed by the rest of the class. To ask a question, you have to solve a math problem. And if you’re on the hot seat or if you ask a good question, you get extra credit—dispensed at my discretion, of course.

It originally started out as a way to kill time, but we ended up learning a lot about one another. We discovered that Kit Ahmad composes music, and Adrien Wooley is great at ballet, and Hailee Tanaka likes Oreos dipped in sriracha sauce.

“Sure, who’s in the hot seat today?” I ask.

“You are, Ms. Chen!” Theresa’s best friend, Adrienne, pipes up. “You said the point of Rapid Fire was to get to know everyone in the classroom, and you’re someone in the classroom.”

“I think you’re setting me up,” I say skeptically.

“Aw, come on, Ms. Chen! It’ll be fun!”

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