A Box of Kleenex

Anna sat in class wishing she had taken the box of Kleenex that her mother tried to force on her as she was getting out of the car. She'd had an armload of books, binders and bags to carry as it was, and besides...what kind of loser carries in their own Kleenex? Anyway, every classroom had a box...or so she thought. She had plopped down in Health class needing desperately to blow her nose, but there was no Kleenex in sight. She would have settled for the hard, brown, scratchy Corbin "towels" from the girls bathroom, but not even that was available at this point. Great...she thought...HELLOOOO...Health class...of all the rooms in school, this one should be promoting the prevention of germ spreading by offering every desk a box of Kleenex, and anti-bacterial hand wipes!! Anna knew that Mr. Hall wouldn't allow her to run to the bathroom...he never even let anybody leave the classroom to pee, much less to blow their nose. She thought about raising her hand to ask for a Kleenex, but then everyone would turn to look at her and she might die of embarrassment from the snot bubble that had formed in her left nostril. She was anxious at this point...no panicked was more like it...

Mr. Hall began calling roll. Anna's mind began a silent dialog...when he gets to my name what if people look at me when I say "here"....even worse...what if Matt notices?? He is the most beautiful boy in the whole school....God, I love hiiiiim...I want him to notice me...but not like this...UGH! What should I do? What should I do? Crap...he's gonna call my name any second...Think, Anna...think! Just then Mr. Hall called her name, and Anna, in one fluid motion, raised her left hand, wiped her snotty nose on the sleeve of her shirt and said "here." Fortunately, no one bothered to look her direction. She had successfully taken care of her snot bubble issue, but now had an entirely new dilemma....how to hide the massive snot wad on the left shoulder of her navy blue shirt....If I had just taken the box of Kleenex from momma...she thought...shook her head...rolled her eyes...smiled, and turned her attention to Mr. Hall's anti-tobacco lesson of the day.