It’s just after midnight and I can’t sleep. My phone is buzzing with messages from a group message, but I don’t check them. I’m scrolling through Twitter, hoping to fall asleep soon.
One of the messages at the top of my screen catches my eye. It has the word “rat” in it.
I flip to the messages.
Oh my god you guys there is a rat in my bedroom.
Chuckling, I remind myself to get the whole story in the morning.
Class was pretty uneventful the next morning. Besides Katelyn’s tale of the rat in her bed in the middle of the night, we continued on with language training as usual.
Wednesday was field trip day, so we took off to the market and then to lunch. The afternoon was hot and the half a mile uphill meant it was time to lie on the hard wooden benches for 15 minutes before class could start.
Wishing for shade and an early end to the day, we trudged back into the classroom. Pens, notebooks, and workbooks lay scattered across the thin, wooden desks we occupied.
Looking around, everyone is taking their time rearranging their backpacks next to them and pulling out the worksheet we’re about to go over.
I’m flipping through my notebook, holding a dictionary in one hand to use as a placeholder, and trying to find my pen.
I hear a shriek from my left and someone yell, “it’s in my bag!”
I find myself standing on top of the bench I was just sitting on 5 seconds ago. Katelyn is standing on top of her bench and Bobby is standing on the bench next to me.
I start to laugh. Our language teachers, startled by the combination of screaming and laughter, walk over to Katelyn and pick up her backpack.
Out go the backpack, our language trainers, and everyone else in the classroom.
Katelyn’s rat has been attending class with us all morning
What happened next is best explained in the pictures below:
Ted, the rat, was safely returned to the wild and we returned to our classroom with a story for everyone else.