On my way to the infirmary, I spot Marie grading papers through a crack in her doorway and screech to a halt, my plastic chair running over my toes. I wince, the absence of a cigarette allowing me to grit my teeth. Marie won't let me smoke anymore. Fortunately the absence of smoke makes it hard for her to know I'm nearby.
A hand curls around her pen and she scribbles angrily. I guess she hasn't noticed me though her frustration. I smirk. Good. This will only make it easier.
I lift my chair over the bottom of the doorframe. This time, I will not let it conquer me; its days of tripping me are over. Marie doesn't even notice the door moving on its hinges; she still hasn't turned this way.
I suppress a giggle, biting my lower lip to keep it from escaping. I feel my lungs trying to betray me. It's now or never. I have to do it before I lose it.
Too late! The laughs scream out of me as my chair careens forward, my legs straddling the neck like some kind of cubicle cowboy traveling past her desk at the angle I expected. I reach for her pen, grinning madly, but my chair wheels over a pencil probably left by another failing student. I'm sent sprawling, my back scraping against the tiled floor. I find myself looking through my gray bangs, craning my neck to peer up at her from an odd, upside-down viewpoint. My glasses have fallen somewhere, but I don't really need them, using them more for fooling enemies into a false security than for any kind of vision correction. Marie comes towards me, the spectacles in her hand. She gets down on her knees and looks quizzically towards me.
"Well…" I drawl slowly, not bothering to reposition myself. She starts to smile, her lips ghosting towards her forming dimples. I seem to have her, her humor a mere punch line from erupting into prominence. Her happiness within my reach, I finish the joke, my eyes wandering absent-mindedly as I say,
"This wasn't exactly what I was planning."
She bursts out laughing, howling at the top of her lungs. I guess she was more stressed than I thought.
She covers her mouth, charmed by my antics. "You idiot."
I smile back. "I know."
And suddenly our spirits are just a little lighter.