“Have you all read Dante’s Inferno?” I asked the students the next day. I saw the majority of heads nod. “When I was in graduate school, my techer had us write our own Divine Comedy.” I saw a few faces light up at this idea. “I figured since it’s only my second day and you guys would officially hate me if I had you write a paper already, we could discuss it in class.” The students seemed enlightened by this.

“Mrs. C would be in hell, for sure.” Jackson was the first to respond.

“Yeah? Well, I would put Annie in heaven.” The young man sitting next to Annie, Zach finally spoke again.

“How about Mr. Temple in limbo, because of all those essays about the Civil War we had to write?” A tall girl, Margaret suggested.

“And Ms. Zwelberg in heaven, she is bangin’!” Tom, sitting in the back, spoke up.

“Yeah! She sure is!” A few of the boy’s in the class agreed.

“Mr. B, besides putting you in heaven, you should meet Ms. Zwelberg. You two would get along.”

“Thank you, Sean, I already have.”

“Well, you are both in heaven!” Sean shouted again.

“Jackson, you would be in limbo, ‘cause I can’t decide if I like you or not. As a person.”

“Gee, thanks Tonya.”

“Let’s stick to teachers and people outside of the classroom, okay?” A few heads nodded. “Let’s hear from you two in the back, Cassie and Jordan?”

“They don’t talk.” Zach remarked.

“Yeah, they are like on a vow of silence.” Kaley turned around staring at Cassie. Cassie had long blonde hair with beads strung through it. She kind of reminded me of my first girlfriend, back in the sixties. Jordan had tinted sunglasses on and a leather beret.

“Well, what would get you too talking?”

“We need to end this war!” Jordan slammed his fist on the desk and crossed his arms. Cassie nodded in agreement. They were something out of a Vietnam protestors video.

“In Iraq?” Tom said, annoyed.

“Yeah, man.” Cassie leaned forward in her chair.

“Okay, not quite what I was looking for. This sort of topic creates major problems in the classroom.” I absolutely could not let them talk about Iraq. It was way too dangerous. “How about something like, um, religion. How religion affects your school and the world around you.”

“Like how Zach is Jewish and everyone else is Christian?” Tom said ignorantly.

“Well, sort of. Not quite so harshly worded though. Zach, since Tom has pointed this out to us, why don’t we examine it a little closer?”

“Fine with me.” Zach turned around to glare at Tom. Something told me they did not get along.

“Do you feel any Anti-Semitism at school?”

“No, well, I mean, not really. Sometimes when people ask why we get off for holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur I kind of feel like they don’t care unless its Christian.”

“That’s no true, Zach. I care!” Annie hugged him.

“I’m Jewish.” Jordan still had his arms crossed. “Everyone at this school hates me, but that’s not why.”

“Oh yeah? Then why do we hate you?” I could start to tell Kat liked a little drama.

“Because me and Cas are different from all of you. We don’t pop our collars or where expensive clothes. We don’t listen to your music or drive nice cars. We don’t shop where you shop and we don’t look like you do.”

“Jordan’s right, you know. You guys treat us like we are inhuman just because of the way we look, act, and dress. I am just as smart as you, Annie. I am just as friendly as Margeret, just as outspoken as Kaley and just as ‘hip’ as Tonya. Just because I look the way I do, doesn’t make me different.”

“So this is kind of like that diversity conversation we had briefly, yesterday? Do you guys think you treat Jordan and Cassie different?”

“I don’t think I do. I actually admire their individuality.” Tonya smiled, seemingly sarcastically.

“Oh, that’s bullshit, Tonya. You told me to my face that you hated everything about me just a few weeks ago.”

“Not true!”

“I remember that, actually.” Sean remembered.

“I like you guys. Really, Cassie. I have never had a reason to hve anything against either of you.” Kaley smiled back at them.

“Thanks, Kaley.” They both said.

“It’s like how black people are treated sometimes.” Kat reminded the class. The bell rang just as she finished and everyone packed up.

“We will continue this tomorrow, have a good lunch!”

As I left the classroom, I bumped into Sarah again. “Hey, there!” She smiled.

“Hi, how’s it going?”

“Pretty good, second day of class a success?”

“Seems like it. They were all so engaged in the discussion.”

“That’s always a good thing in a debate class.” She smiled up at me as we walked into the cafeteria. I noticed Kaley walking over to a table with Jordan and Cassie and pointing for them to sit down.

“Check it out.” I pointed over to them.

“Wow! You did that? Jordan and Cassie never sit with anyone!” She seemed impressed with my work. I was beginning to like her, a lot. As a friend, of course.