The-Girl-With-The-Wasted-Jokes

Izzy Phan

World Lit H

Oliver – 2

The-Girl-With-The-Wasted-Jokes

        -“Oh and just letting you know, we are mad at Matt again.”

        When Adri is mad, it's not enough for just her to be mad, everyone in our group has to be mad too. The only problem is, the hate list is constantly changing. Like right now, if were Matt try to walk up and sit with us, we are supposed to block his way. But tomorrow, he could have done something sweet and boyfriend-y to Adri and she won't be upset anymore. So then if someone were to try to block Matt at the lunch table, they be the one not allowed to sit with us. Your time on the hate list also depends on your crime. Once, there was this unlucky girl who wore the same dress as Adri to a dance, and so naturally she will not be able to sit with us until next year. Last week there was a girl who wore crocs to school, she won't be able to sit with us for a week, just long enough for people to forget her hideous fashion faux pas.

        -“What did he do this time?”

        He spoke to Caroline, but obviously we aren't talking to her right now. I am so bored of hearing Adri talk about how she is upset with Matt, isn't she bored of talking about him? It's kind of funny that Adri thinks she can tell Matt who he can and can't talk to. Whenever she is talking to him he always seems to be rolling his eyes; Adri complains that he “yes babe”s her a lot, like he doesn't really know what he is agreeing to, he just agrees to get her to stop talking. I wonder why Matt puts up with her, he's actually a decent guy.

        -“I mean Matt and Caroline sit next to each other in English, they can't just not talk.”

        I'm searching people's faces, looking for someone as bored as I am. Sometimes girl-who-only-wears-leggings is bearable. She usually has similar opinions as me; she laughs at the right times and she's really smart, she likes to pretend she, but sometimes she just can't suppress a eye roll when these girls ask questions like, “is butter a carb”. Those are the moments when we make eye-contact from across the lunch room table and fake choking ourselves to death. But there are also moments like this, when she is mimicking the appalled face all the girls are making at me for defending Matt and Caroline.

        -“Wait, are you on Caroline's side? Do I need to remind you what horrible things she said to Danielle?”

        Do I really care what Caroline said to Danielle? It doesn't affect me at all. It doesn't affect anyone at this table here really, only Caroline and Danielle. These girls like to make everything their business, even with the “losers”. Adri told me once that she likes it when she is the only person who knows something because it makes her feel good about herself, like she is the smartest and most connected. And then when she gets to tell people, she has control over all of them. Adri has really opened up to me once or twice, and it almost makes her seem like a person. But then she also does things like this, picking sides in a fight that has nothing to do with her because that puts her in the center of attention. I guess if it's attention that Adri wants, she sure is successful. People always look to her to find out more information, and right now these girls are looking to her to know who they are supporting, Caroline or Danielle. Personally, if I were to chose a side, I actually would chose Caroline's side. Maybe Caroline only said something rude to Danielle because she is tired of dealing with the horrible person Danielle is.

        -“I think you do. I didn't really hear it when you told me the first three times, and I definitely did not                pick up on what was happening when you were gossiping about it for the last few days.”

        Sometimes sarcasm will throw these girls off; it becomes too much for their limited, close-minded brains to compute. They are all looking at Adri frantically trying to find out if I was joking or not. I can see Adri thinking it through, her eyebrows get squished so close together it looks like she has one hideous unibrow and she is focusing off on some far away spot as if that helps her think it through. I'm almost positive that if she had a beard she would be absentmindedly stroking it too. She already seems to be developing confused face wrinkles. Oh, wait, I think I just saw the gears click in. Maybe she will get it this time.

       -“Was that supposed to be a joke?”

        My jokes are really just lost on these girls. I like having Matt around because he usually laughs at stuff like that. That-girl-who-only-wears-leggings laughed a bit too, she tried to pass it off as a cough, but I definitely saw her enjoying it. Even though that wasn't my best joke ever, I at least want to surround myself with people who will fake a laugh to humor me. It decide it's not even worth it to reply with another sarcastic comment, I'm just wasting my material on these girls.

        -“Yeah, sorry, don't worry about it.”

        And I really hope she won't. Because my goal is not to embarrass or confuse Adri, I really have nothing against her. Adri is allowed to live the life that she wants or needs to. Just because I'm done getting involved with these petty fights doesn't mean she needs to be.

        A few of them are going to the movies tonight and Adri wants me to go too. I want to tell her that I will go if we can talk about something other than Caroline and Danielle, but instead I just say sure and ask her what time I should be there.

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Analysis

My flash fiction story, The-Girl-With-The-Wasted-Jokes, and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch are similar because they both deal with surviving in a negative situation. While my narrator’s situation is not as severe as Shukov's, it can feel that way for many high schoolers. The feeling of loneliness and of not belonging can be fatal, but neither my narrator or Shukov let it get to them. They both make the decision to compromise parts of themselves to survive, but still have a clear idea of who they are. My narrator does this by not sacrificing her humor. Although the girls don't appreciate it because “it becomes too much for their little, close-minded brains to compute,” she continues to make the jokes. She even recognizes that she is just “wasting her material”, she realizes this is her situation and she has to make it work for herself. Shukov learns the workings of the camp and “had been knocking around for forty years, he'd lost half his teeth and was going bald, but he'd never given or taken a bribe outside and hadn't picked up the habit in the camps,” (232). He also does things like taking his cap off when he eats. “However cold it was, he would never let himself eat with his cap on,” (85). This scenes show Shukov's attempts to keep his character and morals in tact. Reflective on the nature of humans, both my narrator and Shukov rebel in small ways. My narrator rebels by being sarcastic and making jokes that she knows will bother Adri. They are harmless, but gives her the small satisfaction that she is still the joking person she wants to be. Similarly, Shukov is supposed to clean the floors as a punishment, but he realizes, “if you're working for human beings, then do a real job of it, but if you work for dopes, then you just go through the motions.” These small acts of rebellion give my narrator and Shukov the small sense of contentedness with themselves.