This is actually a bit of a deviation from what is typically written, but then again six years ago the typical was put on hold.

Math class was becoming hard for me. Years back I was in advanced classes, but now I was in normal level and would eventually go into help classes. We had our quiz, we graded it ourselves, and turned it in for credit. First class of the day. Only a few people said the pledge, the rest stood up only because we are supposed to.

I did not really pay attention, I seldom took notes back then. The bell sounded and we left for the next classroom, our teaching assistant class, or TA class. Closest thing we had to recess, we chilled out. An addictive card game common amongst us was BS.

But it kept going, there was no bell signaling the end of the fifteen minute period. No announcements, nothing. Another half hour, we students talked amongst ourselves, curious as to what was happening. There were no answers, not for awhile. They kept us in the dark, possibly as long as they could.

Then the first announcement. Over the intercom they announced first that an attack had been made on the Twin Towers. No surprise, a couple weeks ago I remember seeing a detective show on TV about the 1993 bombing and how it looked like it was snowing, but the towers remained. I got concerned with the second part of the sentence, when they said the Pentagon was attacked as well.

Another hour, they kept us in the dark. Around what was supposed to be the beginning of my lunch period, my planned Spanish class having already been absorbed by the elongated TA period, a school official was making her rounds. She came to our class and gave us what details she knew about how planes had been used to attack both the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

We saw it then, just outside of the window. It was Minnie Howard High School, the 9th Grade Center for TC Williams High School. Located in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from Arlington. We could not see the Pentagon from our vantage point, a narrow window to an insignificant classroom; we saw smoke, it rose well above into the skies, tainting a bright blue day.

Lunch, then class again. Details emerged, people talked, providing that dull roar in the background. Eventually we knew something had happened, something beyond 1993. My final class was English Honors, which at that time was combined with a History Honors class. On major projects the two classes were brought together irregardless the block scheduling.

It was the English teacher who addressed our class near the end of the day, informing us that we would most likely get tomorrow off, but that this day off came because hundreds maybe thousands had been killed. That was Tuesday, on Wednesday I did not go to school, for we got the day off. I was glad, because I felt I needed a day off just to appreciate what happened, why I got a long TA class, the longest one I ever had.

On Thursday, when class began in my Human Growth and Development course, we all said the pledge.