"Prem!" I exclaimed.
"You could have gotten hit by a car!"
"I don't care...." he replied in his subversive whisper, his face filled with joy.
"What happened to your eye?" I asked Soe, after picking her up from her classroom. A sizeable scab was resting right below her lower eyelashes.
"My mom got mad and threw her phone at me." she responded, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
Kaw shot out of his classroom.
"Ms. Wagner, yesterday Paw Ku cried." he whispered furtively.
"Yes, she cried." Bway Pa seconded, a concerned look on her face.
Paw Ku nodded.
"I'll tell you in the trailer."
"So, yesterday that sub we had started asking us questions after you brought us back. Questions about where we are from.....I told him the soldiers were chasing us and that we ran....we ran to the Americans and they told my parents $2000 each for them and that I could come for free."
I stared back.
"It is still happening." Bway Pa added.
"The are killing people again."
The Myanmar coup has been going on for a while now. I always wonder how both my Burmese and Karen students are taking it, but don't want to prod them to discuss it. But, it happens anyway.
Career day was quickly approaching.
"Me," Mashia said in response, "I just want to be a socialite."
"Look, Aniyah, this is not an episode of Cribs! Stop giving everyone a tour of your house!"
I stared into the computer screen at my second grade class. Their homeroom teacher was unraveling a bit. We all are.
I stood on the corner watching the kids walk the rest of the way home. The school buses roared by, but one of them was filled with screams. The bus screeched to a halt and I saw two girls in the aisle, fist fighting. Mya peered through the window of the bus, smiled, and held up her award for being the best music student. The girls continued fighting behind her.
"I am going to Indiana this summer!" Soe exclaimed.
"Wow, that's far! Why are you going to Indiana?" I asked.
"We are going to see the cops." she responded.
"My dad is going to build me a bamboo house." Paw Ku said, a big smile on her face. We looked at various pictures of bamboo huts and commented on which was the coolest.
"He can build them really fast. After the army would burn ours down, he would just build it again."
"I like any politician that supports LGBTQ rights." Bway Pa announced definitively.
"That's great, Bway Pa, you are an ally." I answered.
"Nah, I'm not an ally. I'm pan." she responded, a satisfied look on her face.
"And, on Sunday, blood was on my pants. I was wearing white. I tried to make it go away but it just kept coming." she continued.
"Oh god, Bway Pa, I am so sorry."
"I didn't know what was happening...." she responded, and then told the ESOL class the horrors of her first period. The boys, Kaw and Jorge, listened attentively, but were clearly baffled by what she was talking about.
"I am VERY UNCOMFORTABLE." she announced at the end.
"These pads suck."
"And this thing is going to happen to Paw Ku, too."
Paw Ku looked back at me, blankly.
"Okay, so we'll start with the electric slide and then do a Soul Train."
I was confused, but knew that this end of the school year video involved dancing, which I don't do. I was only there because our principal wanted us to do it.
The line dance started and I was lost. I kept getting where no one was in front of me and I had no idea what to do. It was humiliating. I finally caught sight of one of the lunch ladies, watching me with amusement.
"I need guidance!" I scream-whispered.
"Don't worry," she responded.
"I got you."
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