“Why can’t we hang out with you Ms. Brady?”

 “Yeah, we don’t want to go to lunch.”

 “Play a game with us!”

 Kat just shook her head. She still couldn’t understand why teenagers would spend their lunch period with their math teacher instead of hanging out with their friends.

 “Why don’t you guys just go down and chill out with everyone else?”

 “Because we love driving you nuts!” Madeline teased her, running around the room with her blond ponytail flying behind her.

 India, Jace, and Paulo laughed.

 “Real funny, guys! Now I know you like torturing me!”  Kat laughed. She loved her job and these kids even if they drove her crazy sometimes. She had a good relationship with them and that made her job easier.

“Please?” Jace begged. He started rummaging through her closet and dug out their favorite game. Most people didn’t realize that teenagers turned into little kids when they got to play games with each other.

“Oh please no. Not that one.” Kat groaned.

 There was this new game out that had all the players wear a Velcro headband and attach three pictures to them. The players had to guess what was on their head by watching the others perform charades. Kat hated this one because she always got stuck with the embarrassing ones like dodo bird, toilet brush or trash can.

 Kat was close to begging at this point. “There has to be something else you guys want to play. Anything else.”

 “Nope!” India put her foot down. “This is the one that we’re playing. You’re going to have to tough it out Ms. Brady.”

 They had just gotten settled into playing when Brenda came over to visit.

 “I love this game!” she said and started laughing. She knew Kat hated this one and the look on her face was priceless. She had gotten stuck with stinky socks, mud and spiders.

 Kat started to get up. “I insist you take my spot then Ms. Davidson. I wouldn’t want to deprive you of an opportunity to play.”

 Brenda pushed her back down. “Oh no. I love watching you play.”

 Kat mouthed “I hate you” at Brenda and she sat back down. Brenda decided to sit opposite Kat so she could make funny faces at her behind the kids’ backs.

 They had been playing for a few minutes when there was a knock on the door.

 “Come in!” yelled Kat, still trying to guess one of the clues. She heard it open and she looked up at Brenda when she squeaked. Her face had turned completely white and she was pointing furiously at her head.

 Completely forgetting that she had the pictures stuck to her forehead, she turned to see who had come in. She had to do a double take when she saw her principal, Mr. King, standing there with the Backstreet Boys. Her principal and Kevin were smiling while Nick, Howie and Brian were chuckling. AJ was the only one not smiling.

 She turned back around to hide her blushing and she saw Brenda motioning to her head again. Kat also noticed that Paulo had actually fallen out of his chair laughing and the others were doubled over. At first she didn’t realize what everyone’s problem was and then she lifted her hand to her head and felt the cards. She was horrified that she had them posted to her head when she turned around and all she wanted to do was crawl under the table and die.

“Why don’t we give you a couple of minutes to clean up Ms. Brady and then we’ll have some coffee in my office.” Her principal walked away laughing and the boys turned to leave. Brian bent down and picked up a card that was on the floor.

“I think this is one of yours.” he said with a grin and then followed the others out.

 As soon as they were out of earshot, Kat turned to face Brenda and the kids. “I hate all of you right now!”