High school’s starting weird. Herding us around, explaining lunch waves That don’t make sense yet. Why are they called waves? But that’s not why it’s weird. We take a concussion test on a computer “Just in case,” they say, “We need data to compare with if you blow your head away.” Why is the computer lab The only air conditioned room? But that’s not why it’s weird. My Spanish teacher says to call her “Miss” But last night I used her first name When we all had dinner at her house. My English teacher directed the play I starred in, in third grade, Now she’s asking for my essay Five pages long, on The Odyssey. Down the hall, a teacher sits She drives me to school when mom is sick And her kids would babysit me all the time So maybe that’s why it’s weird. At the end of the day, I wait In an empty classroom Until my mother walks in with her school bag She asks how it was And I tell her some older girls who I never met Asked me in the hallway “Are you my teacher’s daughter?” And I’ll admit, that was weird. *Based on a true story*