Locker secrets

It started with small chocolates he use to put into my locker.

We had an option of putting locks on our lockers in high school. I used the same one I get at Walmart since 8th grade. The code 36-6-24. It was silver nothing fancy. No extra keys to get lost. A real easy lock to jiggle to unlock if you were close to the right numbers. For some reason, if you have a lock for your locker, you are uncool. Keeping your locker open at all times is more convenient, less nerdy, you appear more trustworthy.

We had tall blue lockers, one for each kid. As you got older your locker would change from the science hall way (9th and 10th grade) to the band and choir hall way (11th and 12th) and if there wasn't enough room or if you had a last name more in the middle of the alphabet, you got these narrow brown lockers near the lunch room. My last name was in the beginning of the alphabet so I was able to get a good locker every year.

Every senior class does a count down on the lockers starting with 30. Every year I thought that was cool. I always wondered what it would feel like to be done with high school. Move on to college. I never knew the relief I'd feel when that day actually came. I think my number was 20 something. That I can't remember but as the numbers got smaller the gifts increased. At one point I received a snow globe, a owl lawn ornament. The gifts got bigger the harder it was to bring them home safely. Somehow they made it home without questions. I always hid them in my room.

I started leaving my locker unlocked during the school day. It was hard to get from the library to the math room in three minutes. So I started grabbing materials for each class two at a time and dropping off the other materials during break. It wasn't flawless, we could have used more time, but that means more time for goofing off and trouble from other kids, right? Of course we can't have people vaping in the bathroom, but the kids that were didn't really care if one way or another. Somehow in between each class there would be small gifts placed into my locker. He'd always ask if I got them. One morning I remember getting an email from him worried that another teacher caught him putting things into my locker and he had to lie about what he was doing.

Did that teacher ever talk to me?

No

Did she actually care?

No

Did she know what was happening by the end of my senior year?

Yes