When Studying Animal Behavior

Grace schlett

I saw you walking down 100th street 

after school yesterday says a kid who

sits across from me in psychology

class who’s never sought me out

to chat before now. And the teacher

who’s name is Doctor Desbit but who

we all call Doctor Desperate babbles

on about Skinner boxes so I give him

a look that says be a little louder why don’t

you. I was walking down 100th street 

yesterday. There were kids everywhere—

kids who considered themselves

too important to ride the bus and whose

houses were close enough to get away 

with it but I slow-walked on purpose 

because I hated being at that painful pace

where you had to decide whether or not

you should talk to someone. And after

a while everyone and their friend groups

had run off, shouting and singing into

the distance until they looked like the Pop Tart

crumbs that nosy-psychology-class-kid was now

grinding into the carpet. They left me to walk 

in peace, paces behind them. Behind me, 

there was a soft honk. A little girl in a hot pink dress 

in a matching hot pink kiddie truck. Somehow 

she made the color look sophisticated, with

star-shaped glasses pushed high up on her

nose and that Dum-Dum sucker dangling

from her lips. I wished I could have looked

that cool at that age. Or maybe it’s something

else. She slowed down when she passed me, 

so that I’d have to slow down too to avoid

stubbing my toes against the wheels of her

car. Hey kid I said. Mind speeding up a bit, 

you're in my way. She turned to look over 

her shoulder, pushed her sunglasses down,

and said would you mind not talking to me

and sped away. And as she drifted into the

distance she threw her Dum-Dum sucker

behind her. It fell into the snow stick-side-up

and it was also pink. I stared for a second. 

Picked it up. I thought maybe confidence 

was transferable and shoved it into my mouth. 

The snow melted on my tongue. The pink shell

dissolved. I look at nosy-psychology-class-kid 

and flick my hair behind my shoulder and say

did you like what you saw? Meanwhile, 

on the screen in the front of the room, 

Doctor Desperate shows us rats

feeding at the ring of a bell.

Grace Schlett is a creative writing major at Interlochen Arts Academy. She received an award from YoungArts, as well as a gold key and four silver keys from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She has triplet sisters and enjoys writing about them. Her favorite form of poetry is narrative verse.