The Water Gun Incident

 

The Water Gun Incident

                             By Collette

I did not get into trouble at school when I was growing up. I believed my parents when they said, “You get into trouble at school, and you are in trouble at home.” There was one time when I got sent to the principal’s office, however. I was a freshman in high school, and we had a foreign language teacher who barely spoke enough English to teach us Spanish. He had very poor discipline in the classroom, and many took advantage of him on a daily basis.

If I remember right, the trouble started outside in front of the school with some bushes that grew berries. Some of the boys brought them to class and started lobbing berries at each other when the Spanish teacher had his back to the class. Of course, girls were getting hit in the process. The next thing I knew people were bringing water guns to school to use in retaliation. On the way home my friends and I stopped by a grocery store, and there was a display with little pistol water guns.

I sure wish I could remember what my thinking process was, but at my friends’ urging, I bought a pistol. This was out of character because I was a mouse about getting into trouble. The next day I stuck it in my purse and carried it to school. I never loaded it with water, but… I did have my purse in Spanish class. Well, a water fight ensued shortly after the bell rang to start class. The boys got caught and were sent to the office.

The parting shot from one of the guys as he left for the punishment was to check the girls’ purses for water guns. Three of us girls were armed, so we were sent to the office. I remember one of the guys told the teacher he wanted to go to see what would happen to us, and he chose to go see the principal, as well. The interest was because one of the girls was the principal’s daughter. I was pretty sure my parents would be getting a phone call before I got home. Of course, we girls cried as soon as we hit the office door.

Today, we would have been expelled from school, but then the sentence was pretty light. We were to write a theme (I don’t remember how many words it was to be) explaining why we thought we were privileged enough to carry water guns when no one else could. Because I wasn’t sure if my parents were called, I decided to fess up to the fact I was a felon. Of course, the principal had not called, and I shared my guilt for nothing. I am quite sure the principal had a good laugh, and because he had the best memory for names of any human being I have ever met, it would probably still make him chuckle.