"So, Margaret, what do you think about the stories you just heard?" Mrs. Salsipuedes asked.
What do I think? What the hell do you think I think?! she yelled in her head. She wanted to yell it at the teacher, but she held herself back. She didn't want to make a scene. Outside the school, maybe. But she needed to get a good grade in this class. And making a scene might jeopardize that.
"Well?" the teacher asked.
"It's terrible," Margaret finally said.
"That's true of a lot of news. Can you be more specific?"
Margaret looked around the class. Everyone was looking directly at her. Sure, she was the student that the teacher picked to answer a question, but she felt like she was more in the spotlight than normal. The news story was about Al Gore, her idol. This was very personal for her.
"Tipper still loves him. I'm sure of it," she said.
"Excuse me?" the teacher asked.
"They still love each other. I know it."
Mrs. Salsipuedes looked irritated at her. "Margaret, I want your opinion of the world news stories you just witnessed, not the celebrity news. That stuff isn't important."
"Not important?! How could you say that?!" Margaret shouted.
"Miss Wood, please lower your voice!" the teacher nearly yelled. She took a short breath, then turned towards another student. "It seems that Margaret wasn't paying attention. What did you think of the stories, Brad?"
As the other student gave his opinion of the news stories, Margaret began to curse herself. She said she wouldn't make a scene, but she just couldn't believe that the teacher didn't think the Gore divorce was important. Al Gore was more than a celebrity. He was a man that could change the world. And wasn't that what this class was about? Right now, they were living in an historic time. What Al Gore was doing was ...
"Margaret," a voice said, breaking her out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw the teacher looking at her. "Please pay more attention, or I'll have to send you to detention."
"Please don't," she said, almost pleading.
"This is your only warning," the teacher said, before walking up to the front of the classroom.
Margaret sighed, feeling that she dodged a bullet, but then returned her thoughts to Al Gore and his divorce. She just couldn't stop thinking about it. In fact, it spawned a new desire within her, one that maybe existed in some form before, but was now amplified because of what she just saw. And it was this desire that would be the one that would be lived out by the last person Margaret talked to before she read that sticky note.
As she sat in her classroom, Margaret's deepest desire was spelled out in her head, and it was ...
