From the Viewpoint of Betty Knight

Hello Mrs. Bronson. My name is Beatrice. Beatrice Knight. But everybody calls me Betty. I really didn’t see much but as long as nobody else is listening, I can tell you what I do know.

I was trying to get to class early. I don’t like walking into a room full of people. I really hate feeling like all eyes are on me. That’s why I sit in the back of the room. Before walking into any room, I always try to look through the window on the door to see how many people are inside. It was only Qwan and Johnny. I took a deep breath and was just about to walk in when I saw Johnny take a marker and write on Mr. Gates’ face. He was taking a nap and Johnny took full advantage of it.

I walked in and saw the nasty words Johnny wrote, and I was appalled. I couldn’t believe it. Qwan wanted to laugh but didn’t. I could tell by the look on his face. I don’t know how the 2 of them can be friends. Qwan is so smart and sweet and cute and funny. Johnny on the other hand, well, look at what he did to Mr. Gates. I pretended to be turning in my homework, but I was really handing him a note with Johnny’s name on it.

Shortly before the bell rang, Mr. Gates woke up and looked at his face in the mirror. He always keeps a mirror on his desk. He didn’t even look at my note. He knew who did it. Only one person would do something like that. I believe he was the cause of everything that happened that day. I’ve seen Johnny do a lot of things. But I don’t normally speak up. I don’t like to make a scene. I don’t like to be the center of attention. It makes me nervous.

Mr. Gates kicked him out of the class. At first, he refused to leave. He swore that he didn’t do it. He even said that his face looked like that when he walked into the classroom. Johnny was still standing at his desk when Mr. Gates started talking about the assignment. He insisted that he leave right away. Johnny claimed that he had to use the bathroom anyway. Like that was true!

The assignment was to use water that we distilled and an electrolyzer to split the molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. We would then recreate the water by using a spark to ignite the hydrogen. I knew that there would cause a slight explosion, but nothing strong enough to do any damage.

Johnny came back into the class. This irritated Mr. Gates greatly. Johnny handed him a note. It did not calm him down, but he let Johnny stay in the class. I believe that he added something to Mr. Gates’ trail mix while he was reading the note. I couldn’t tell what it was. Just another practical joke in a long list of things that HE thought was funny but wasn’t.

Johnny didn’t participate in the project. He took his water off the burner before leaving class. So, he didn’t have any distilled water to work with. He complained that it was hot in the room and asked if he could open the window. I raised my hand to get his attention. I told him that it was hot. I think that it shocked the class that I spoke. This made me shrink back and I didn’t say anything else.

When the window opened, the breeze blew a bunch of papers around. It may have blown out some of the burners also. I’m not sure. When class ended, some of us stayed behind. I needed help with another assignment. But Mr. Gates had to leave in a hurry. He said that he would be right back. I waited a little while, but I did have another class to go to. Before leaving, I closed the window. The other 5 students in the room left about the same time. Johnny was the last one out, I think. Soon after, there was a loud explosion. You see, it had to be Johnny. One of his practical jokes backfired. But don’t tell him that I said anything. I don’t normally speak up. I don’t like to make a scene. I don’t like to be the center of attention. It makes me nervous.