Mr. Harrison has a phone-call in the middle of class at 09:18am.
Mrs. Daunton has a history test on the Declaration of Independence. Jake does not get it right.
Jake woke up to the sound of his alarm as usual. He wasn't unused to dreaming; that's why he had the crystal ball on his desk and the dream-catcher above his bed. Normally however, he couldn't remember as much of them as with this one. Thinking nothing further of it, Jake got dressed and grabbed his backpack. He was up a little later than normal, so he had to hurry his breakfast before leaving for the bus that would take him to school.
The morning otherwise proceeded as usual. He met Earl while waiting for the school-bus and munching on a sandwich. They had the usual early-morning chatter. Any stories about their families, talk about homework or tests for school. Alice stepped onto the bus at a later stop and sat next to them but said nothing which was not unusual. It was quite standard that Earl and Jake carried the conversation and Alice chipped in if she felt like it. After first bell they piled into the math's room along with the rest of their class to find a small pile of papers sat on every desk, math's questions filling the pages. The words - "If I am not there start these - Mr. Harrison" were written on the blackboard in large chalk letters. That made Jake wonder; typically Mr. Harrison was always there on time. He and Earl shrugged off the mystery and went to work. They weren't overly fond of mathematics, but they had thoroughly exhausted their conversational topics anyways. By the time the clock edged towards 08:15, Mr. Harrison walked into class.
"Sorry I'm late, everyone," His eyes could be seen scanning the classroom through the prescription glasses, "Good to see most of you followed my instructions. Mr. Worceister sit down please."
So, the lesson continued, the class going through the pages of mathematics as best they could. It wasn't a test, so occasionally Mr. Harrison would help struggling students or answer broader questions. In the middle of an explanation about Pythagoras the sounds of a Nokia phone interrupted the mathematics teacher. Fishing the device out of his pocket as the class looked around for the perp, Mr. Harrison checked the little display. "So sorry, I need to take this."
Cupping his hands around the mouthpiece, the mathematics teacher turned away from the class. Jake had definitely not seen this before. Mr. Harrison usually ran a strict classroom. He wanted to say as much to Earl, but the teacher would probably still hear him. How much time is left before the break? The wall-clock read 09:18, so some 40 minutes. 42 minutes, to be precise. It was mathematics class after all.
The phone-call was brief; barely a minute had passed before Mr. Harrison hung up, looking relieved and much happier than a moment ago. "Ah, apologies about that. Now, where were we?" He nodded at a raised hand in front of Jake, "Ah Sylvia, Pythagoras was it?"
Mr. Harrison collected the papers when the bell rung, reminding them about another piece of homework and then leaving in a hurry. History class was next with Mrs. Daunton in the same room. As his classmates scattered to do their own stuff during break, Jake found himself simply listening to Earl and Alice's conversation with half an ear. Something was bugging him, but he couldn't quite place it.
Unlike her colleague, Mrs. Daunton did not surprise anyone when she showed up a few minutes past the bell. "Everyone to your seats now." A superfluous order really, as Mrs. Daunton's heels could be heard clacking towards the classroom before anyone could see her, so even Greg was already planting his butt on his seat by the time she entered the door. The day she would quietly arrive on time there would be a scrambling to behold. "As you all know, we have a short test today. Speaking is not permitted. If you need to use the bathroom, signal for it." The history teacher began handing out the tests, leaving a small pile of paper on each desk. Their last class was another History lesson. 2 in 1 day would be so boring.
The test turned out to not be terribly difficult and Jake blazed through it. Eventually he arrived at the second-to-last page.
"Multiple Choice – Who of these signed the Declaration of Independence?"
• John Hancock. Obviously.
• John Hart. Yeah.
• Patrick Henry. I think I heard that somewhere, yeah.
• Arthur Middleton. He's on the wall at home.
He started ticking off the choice boxes but as he hovered over Patrick Henry, the odd dream from last night came back to him.
Mrs. Daunton held up a bunch of test papers in front of the class. The date showed the 21st of May, the clock arms just ticking past 2pm.
"Some of you did it right, but some of you got some elementary stuff wrong," She pointed her red marking pen at a place on the papers in hand, "For example, Patrick Henry did not sign the Declaration, saying that he "smelt a rat in Philadelphia, tending toward the monarchy."."
She put the papers in one of the boxes on her desk. Mrs. Daunton picked up another pile from her left and began leafing through them, rattling off names. One by one, the mentioned students got up from their seats and received their test papers. Jake wasn't one of them.
"Everyone that got their test back, you can leave for today. Everyone else, we're gonna go over the common errors one more time."