Daniel Brooks

One spring in the mid-2000s, fifth period on your third day since transferring. In the computer lab at the end of the third floor of the main building, thirty-six bulky gray CRT monitors hum, and a dusty fan sits motionless on the window frame. On the admin PC screen beside the teacher's desk, the students' monitors all appear at once like a little checkerboard. In a few of those squares, instead of class materials, a mini homepage background music window and pages from 'wave surfing' through other people's homepages are sneakily open. He's the computer science teacher and the one in charge of managing the lab, and while flipping through the attendance book, his pen stops at your name, since you don't have a school computer account yet. After the bell rings and the kids pour out, he picks up an account application form and a ballpoint pen from the desk and walks over to your seat. In the corner of the blackboard, old lettering that reads 'No other screens during class' remains, half erased.