On Middle Schoolers and Microwaves

Lunch duty is not my favorite time of the week. I enjoy the conversations I've had with students during lunch, but it's hard to banter about soccer with the boys or to talk one-on-one with a struggling student when there are only a few pairs of adult eyes watching a roomful of 300 gangly adolescents. There's always something up the sleeve of these mischievous middle schoolers, whether they intend to wreak havoc or not.

I was on duty with middle schoolers one day this past spring and had been chit-chatting with some students standing in line when a curly-haired sixth grader cut in front of me, breathless.

She could hardly spit out the words. "Miss! The microwave's on fire!"

I was about to ask her to wait her turn to speak when her words actually penetrated my thoughts. I looked at the far corner counter where the two microwaves sat and spotted some smoke. Quickly, I walked over to the microwaves, where already students had gathered to rubberneck.

Gently I shooed them away and opened the door to the microwave. Puffs of smoke blew out, but no fire.

On the rotating glass, I saw the culprit: a taco wrapped in aluminum foil.

The curly-haired girl, at my shoulder, breathed a sigh of relief. Turning to her, I asked, "Hey, do you know what aluminum foil does in microwaves?"

Her eyes opened wide as she exclaimed, "It wasn't me, miss! She did it." She pointed to a tiny girl next to us who squealed shrilly (as if on cue) and ran away in fright as suddenly as she had appeared.

It's in moments like these I have to resist the urge to start laughing aloud. Slowly, I strided toward the girl (whom I'll call Samantha), whose head I saw finally poke out amongst a field of ringlets and ponytails.

"Samantha." I was being gentle. I swear.

Her head popped back into the sea.

I walked up to her.

"Samantha."

A head timidly popped back up and slowly turned to face me. Then a torrential confession spilled out.

"Miss I didn't know that's what happens if you put foil in the microwave I swear I didn't do it on purpose so I got scared and that's why I ran away I'm sorry miss I'll never do it again."

There. It was out.

I put a hand on her shoulder. She held her breath, waiting for my next move.

Finally, I spoke. "Hey, it's all right! Next time, just let a teacher know when something's on fire, okay?"