Paper Clip

Frantically Jill pulled open each an every drawer, moving around papers and pens and pencils, trying so hard to find a paper clip. Her final paper was do, she was out of staples and had to find something to hold her report together. With five minutes until her class, she had no time to run to the book store. Why hadn't she cleaned out her desk last night? More importantly why did she wait until twenty minutes before class to print up her project? What was she thinking. She didn't like to be late.

Prompted by a quiet voice in her head, the one she usually ignored, she lifted up the unused organizer to find a paper clip stuck in the edge of the drawer. She quickly fastened her 50 page print out, grabbed her back pack and headed out the door. After the door slammed shut and locked on her, she realized she didn't have her car keys. Man, this day sucks she thought to her self.

With her running shoes on, she hoisted the back pack on and took off running. Huffing and puffing her whole way up the hill to school, she thought about how she should have picked an apartment closer. Noticing the filled parking spots, she thought it ended up being a good thing she was running. Making a mental note to do a few more minutes on the treadmill this week at a little faster pace to help her get to school on time.

The campus was fairly empty, meaning only one thing, classes had started. When the McKay Building was insight she took her pace from a run to a fast walk so to catch her breathe and wipe the sweat off her brow. Even though it was only 50 outside, the quick race to school left her pretty drenched.

She entered the building, ran up two flights of stairs, and into her classroom. "Please pass your papers to the left and then forward" said the professor.

Jill found her seat and reached down into her back pack to pull out her paper, that she had shoved in on her way out. As she pulled it out, the paper clip popped off, flying into the air and landing who knows where. All the while the papers fanned out and spread their way onto the floor. As fast as the papers fell, her cheeks reddened. She bent over to gather her papers, while doing so she passed gas. And we aren't talking the silent and deadly, we are talking the loud and proud. If the other students hadn't been staring at her already, they were now.

She kept her head down, slowing down her gathering process, to avoid eye contact and any further embarrassment. Under the seat in front of her, her paper clip rested. She tempted to reach and bend further, only to have the chair slip out from under her, landing her smack on the floor, head under the chair in front of her and feet stretched out behind her, surrounded by her papers.

At this point the professor stopped talking and all eyes were on her. She didn't know what else to do. Proudly she picked up the paper clip, organized the papers, attached the clip, stood and took a bow.