My Bubbles of Nothing

I eat in the stairwell at my school. It's fun. I like it. My friends and I moved there from a teacher's classroom, where we had originally moved to from the cafeteria because it was too crowded. We are sort of nomads like that.

We have a pass to eat there, meaning no one else is allowed to. We got a pass b/c we got in trouble for eating there once. We make sure to clean up after ourselves, even the little crumbs. So far, it's been nice.

Sometimes, though, someone will bring a friend or a couple of friends who are not on the pass. These are people who (hate to say it) we do not like. (By "we," I mean the original 6 girls in our group. A couple of guys have joined us, and they are the ones who bring their friends.) When this happens, the stairwell gets too crowded and the conversation splits from one into two or three. Not fun. Usually, when the place gets too crowded, we'll leave. It's sad that we can't even been in our own spot.

Anyway, today was one of those days. Someone brought along, not only extra people, but one who used to go to our school but transferred out and her friend who had never gone to our school. The gals and I decided to leave (after waving the pass in their faces and telling them to leave, nicely, and them not listening). We walked around the school, and when we started heading back, someone told us that the people who were not supposed to be in the stairwell had gone in after we'd left and started lighting sparklers. Not only is it stupid, it's against the rules. The smoke alone could set off the fire alarms or the sprinklers (which flood the whole school). I know for a fact that the alarm was once set off by something on a bunsen burner in the chem lab, no more smoke than burned popcorn. Then there are those rules like "no fireworks etc. in the school" and "no lighters in the school" and whatnot. On top of it all, one of the guys who actually is allowed to be in the stairwell with us managed to be an idiot and burn his hand on one.

Needless to say, I'm pissed. My one sanctuary in the whole school has been compromised. This is the one place I have to be with my friends, the small group of people in the school that I actually give a rat's rear about, and another select few is ruining it, day by day. I hate to be so exclusive, but I really really really enjoy having time to talk to my friends and be with them without a hundred other people crowding around us, being annoying.

I set my facebook status to say something about how stupid it is to light sparklers inside a school, or any building. Next thing I knew, this girl was leaving me a message about how it was "no big deal" and how they didn't get caught so it "didn't matter." We went back and forth about it, I pointed out all the things that WERE actually a big deal about it, none of which seemed to matter to her. It seems to have halted to my response to her calling me "immature." Yes, I'm immature because I respect the rules and because I like to spend 25 minutes a day with my good friends. I must be regressing back to age 5 as I right this, eh?

Hum. To make a long story short: People should really think about what they do and how it might affect other people, especially in a public environment like a school.