Lonnie let out a low, long suffering sigh as she slumped against her desk, her students cackling to themselves as they practically sprinted out of the classroom, leaving dropped pencils and overdue homework in their wake. She couldn't exactly blame them, class today had been... less than amazing, to say the least.

It was supposed to be an easy day. The students would finish the last three chapters of 1984, and start working on a group project analyzing the differences between utopian and dystopian societies. Lonnie had even let them pick their own groups this time. It should've been fine.

It was, of course, not fine.

One student tried sticking pencil lead inside their computer and had to get sent to the principal's office before they could start a fire, another girl started crying because her ex was in class, and some boy sitting in the back turned out to be from an entirely different school. To cap it all off, she even got an email from some random parent saying that Lonnie was a horrible teacher because their son was failing Lonnie's class. That kid hadn't even been taking her class since last semester!

Gosh, why did I ever switch to this school? Kindergartners are so much easier to deal with...

Her head snapped up at the sound of the door creaking open, expecting some student complaining about missing grades or Mrs. Rosen coming back to give another one of her 'inspirational' speeches. Instead, all she saw was a fellow teacher standing in the doorway. Oh thank goodness...

"Hello. What's going on?" She asked, her lips curling into a tired little smile. She sat up just a bit straighter, running her hand through her hair in a vain attempt to comb out the near-permanent tangles. "I hate to say it, but my students were feral today. Is it a full moon or something?"

Her rickety old chair creaked underneath her as she shifted, the sound jarringly loud now that the chatter of dozens of teenagers was missing. "How were your classes? I hope better than mine?" Her fingers tapped an idle little rhythm against the top of her desk, nails clicking gently on the wood. "You wanna head out for after work drinks or something? I think that little dive bar down by the park does some sort of weird deals on Fridays."

A sharp bang echoed from down the hall and drew Lonnie's attention, a door slamming shut as the rest of the faculty started to pack up. A janitor's bucket clacked as it rolled down the linoleum floors, tuneless whistling floating down the corridors and drowning out the buzzing of fluorescent lights.

Her eyes darted back up to her coworker's, and suddenly her cheeks felt hot. "I m-mean, if you want to of course. No pressure or anything! I get it if you're busy grading or whatever." Gosh, does that sound lame? I hope she doesn't think I sound lame... do people still say lame nowadays? Or is it 'cringe'? God, even my internal monologue sounds stupid. "Just, doesn't that sound fun? I can pay, if you want? We could gossip about the other teachers?"