Tootie took a deep breath and sighed as Mr. Crocker talked in that annoying voice of his. If Tootie heard any words that came out of his mouth, either she wasn't interested, or they made no sense to her. Or both. Either way, however, Tootie really didn't want to be a part of this lesson.
Mr. Crocker pointed to things that he had up on the chalkboard as he gave his lesson. He didn't care if the students were listening to him or not. He was most likely going to give them all an F on their upcoming assignment, anyway.
Tootie took a quick glance out the window close to her, then back to her talking teacher. She hadn't looked outside for three seconds, and she had already seen the clear blue sky, the birds singing, the playground waiting for her to play on it. The problem was that recess wouldn't start for ten more minutes. Why couldn't Mr. Crocker start recess early and save this lesson for later? Was he just THAT much of a jerk? Tootie just didn't understand.
Tootie's mind wandered as she waited for the lesson to finish. She thought about all of the things she wanted to do in her life. She wanted to pass Mr. Crocker's lessons (despite that she didn't want to listen to them), make her parents proud, get revenge on Vicky, find a way to make Timmy fall in love with her...
Suddenly, Tootie's nose tickled - a sensation that snapped her straight out of her thoughts. She looked down at her nose, which had begun to twitch. She sniffled a little, trying to stop her nose from itching, but it continued to itch. She felt like she was going to sneeze sometime soon. Something she was deathly afraid of doing in front of Mr. Crocker.
Tootie reached her hand up to her face and rubbed underneath her nose with her forefinger. But despite her attempts to fight back against the tickle in her nose, it became clear that it wasn't working. She could feel her nostrils flaring up as she rubbed her nose. She could feel her breath beginning to hitch a little, but she tried to hold it in.
What was making her so sneezy? Tootie hadn't been outside that much this morning, only going out to the bus right when it arrived and entering the school as soon as she got off. Maybe it was the smell of the chalk dust that arose whenever Mr. Crocker erased something off the chalkboard. Or perhaps the pollen count was a little higher than usual, even with the few seconds she spent getting on and off the bus. As Tootie thought about the possible causes of her incoming sneeze, her nose continued to tickle. It was like it was reading her mind and responding to it. She couldn't focus on the reason for too long, though - she needed to sneeze.
"Aaaah..." Tootie inhaled as she tilted her neck back. The inhale was quiet, but still slightly audible. She didn't know if Mr. Crocker heard the gasp, but she didn't care. She didn't want to sneeze, not now.
Tootie continued to keep her forefinger underneath her nose, trying her best to stop the tickle in her nose from getting any worse. But a couple more hitched gasps emerged from her mouth, a sign that her attempts weren't working. "Aaaah, haaaah..."
"Please, don't..." Tootie thought to herself as she rubbed her nose again, a bit harder this time. She was hoping that her own denying thoughts such as this would help her hold back her sneeze, but they didn't. They just reminded her of how much her nose tickled, how much she needed to sneeze.
"Heh... Haaaaaaah..." Tootie tilted her neck back some more, still having her forefinger underneath her nose. "Ehh-haaaaaaaaahhhh..."
"Come on, Tootie... you can do this..." Tootie thought, but her nose still didn't think so. It was still twitching and tickling like crazy. What would it take to get rid of this itch?
Tootie stopped rubbing her nose with her forefinger for a second, only to begin rubbing her nose with her hand instead. It wasn't much help, however, so she paused, then switched to rubbing her nose with her arm. Her nose just tickled more. And she continued to inhale.
"Heeeeh, aaaaah... Aaaaaaaaah... Haaaaah... aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHH..."
How had Mr. Crocker not heard these inhales already? Tootie wanted to think about that, but due to her upcoming sneeze, she just couldn't. After a few more seconds of holding back her sneeze, she finally pulled her arm away from her nose. She had finally realized that she couldn't stop her sneeze. It was going to come out, whether she liked it or not.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah... Heeeeeehhhhhhhh-AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..." Tootie raised both of her hands up to cover her mouth, and took a particularly loud, climactic inhale. "HaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-!"
Mr. Crocker finally heard Tootie's inhales and turned around to look at her. And there she was, tilting her upper body as far back as she could, still having her hands over her mouth. All the students were looking at her, the girls covering their eyes, the boys covering their ears. Before Mr. Crocker could say a word, however...
Tootie released the sneeze.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"
The mere sound of Tootie's sneeze echoed through the classroom as she doubled over, directly into her hands. All of the students and Mr. Crocker cringed from hearing the sneeze. None of them had ever heard such an earsplitting sneeze before, and it was highly unlikely that they ever would. But to make things worse, Tootie needed to sneeze again. With no time to recover and no strength left to hold it back, she tilted her neck back and gave another massive inhale.
"HaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"
Tootie was lucky that she was still able to keep her hands over her mouth with this next sneeze. The students and Mr. Crocker cringed again, with their eyes wide and pupils shrunken in complete, utter disbelief and shock. This sneeze had been just as bad as the one before it.
After a few seconds, Tootie finally recovered her breath and pulled her hands away from her mouth. Her hands were probably soaked with her spit, but she didn't realize just yet. As she always would after she sneezed, she began to rub her pink nose adorably with her forefinger. Her nose wasn't pink because she was sick, but because those two sneezed had really done a number on it. She was blushing a bright red, her face a mixture of embarrassment and sadness. She was sad because she couldn't stop her sneeze no matter how hard she tried, and embarrassed because everybody in her class had heard the sneeze. Suddenly, she heard the voice of her teacher.
"OH, MY GOSH!"
Tootie looked up at Mr. Crocker, still rubbing her nose. Knowing his attitude and the way he talked, she feared the absolute worst possible thing he would say. Instead, however, he said this.
"Holy cow, Tootie! Where the heck did THAT come from?!" Mr. Crocker asked, referring to her sneeze.
"Oh, my..." Tootie blushed even more as she sweated a little. She was pretty sure that she was in big trouble. The only thing she could do was apologize with all of her heart. She almost sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "Oh, Mr. Crocker, I am so sorry! I really had to sneeze, I just HAD to! I didn't want to do it, but I couldn't stop it! My nose was so tickly... I... I'm really sorry!"
Surprisingly enough, Mr. Crocker heard her every word. Tootie expected him to respond, but he didn't... at first. But then he took something - Tootie couldn't see what it was at first - and walked over to Tootie. He stopped when he was right in front of her. He eyed her, and she gulped nervously, still having her forefinger underneath her nose. Was he going to give her an F for sneezing and interrupting the class?
Just as she finished thinking that, Mr. Crocker placed the object that he had taken right in front of her desk. This was the point where Tootie finally got to see what it was. It wasn't an F. It was a box of tissues.
"Gesundheit," said Mr. Crocker.
Once she had heard his response, a wave of miraculous realization engulfed Tootie. He wasn't mad at her. He had saved at least one of these tissue boxes for any moment where someone sneezed as loud as they did. And he wasn't going to give them an F just for a massive sneeze. Tootie smiled, sighed with relief and thanked Mr. Crocker. Even after all of this time after her two sneezes, she still had her forefinger underneath her nose.
"Thank you," Tootie replied, politely.
Mr. Crocker went back to the chalkboard, but before he could pick up his pointer, he turned to look at Tootie one more time.
"Next time, just let your sneezes out," Mr. Crocker advised.
Tootie nodded in understanding. It was unlike him to say things like that, but she didn't mind. She just removed her forefinger, took a couple of tissues from the box and blew her nose. She was almost surprised at how good the blowing felt, almost as good as the sneezes she had released. Tootie sighed quietly in relief as she wiped her nose with the tissues.
When the bell finally rang, most of the students got up and went outside for recess. Tootie, however, threw away her used tissues and went up to Mr. Crocker. She wanted to ask him for something.
"Um, Mr. Crocker?" Tootie asked. Mr. Crocker turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow in curiosity that looked more like suspicion. "Do you have anything I can clean my hands with before I go to recess?"
Mr. Crocker pointed to a bottle on his desk. "Yeah, use the hand sanitizer."
Tootie went over to the bottle, squirted some hand sanitizer onto her hand, and then began rubbing her hands together until they were dry. The sanitizer killed every single pathogen that had been on her hands, from the moment she sneezed into them up to now. Her hands much cleaner, Tootie finally walked out of the classroom and headed out onto the playground to enjoy her recess.
And that was the day that Tootie learned not to hold back her sneezes. She now knew that it was much better to let them out than hold them in, as she had done in class that day. Someday, Tootie wanted to teach other schoolkids not to hold back their sneezes.
"If you feel like you're gonna sneeze, don't stop it. Just let it all go," she wanted to tell them. "It feels much better that way. Trust me, I've had it happen to me before..."