Two girls giggle at their desk in the middle of the room. I look up. They are staring at me.
“Mr. Hasan,” one of them says as the other laughs. “Look at this.” She holds up her phone with a picture of a hand holding a spoon to a boy who’s about to put it in his mouth.
“I gave him a spoonful of crushed tortilla chips,” she says.
“And he ate them!” the other one says.
They then proceeded to explain who this boy is and how one of them is trying to figure out how to ask him to prom. (Although he’s their age, he’s not a student at our school.)
Ok fine. Except that they are asking me for advice. Not a good plan. For various reasons, prom is a blot on my memory. Whatever. I think to myself how I’ve wished someone had given me advice to just make sure your date has fun. Why was that not obvious? So I give them my answer.
“Here’s what I think,” I say. “Just tell him, Hey! I know something fun we could do…”
The two of them immediately erupt into uncontrolled laughter.