They sit in their desks, which chance has placed side by side, and quibble. Snipe. Insult. Complain. One barges in on another’s conversation with an inane response meant only to provoke, then grows angry about the provocation. An act? The other talks about her nemesis as if she’s not there when in fact she’s within ten feet. Deliberate cruelty?

I intervene, and soon one or the other is saying words that could have easily come out of either’s mouth

“She’s so irritating!”

“I can’t stand her!”

“She does that stuff just to annoy me!”

“She won’t quit!”

And I find myself saying, “If.” If you’re so annoyed by her, why provoke her by cutting into her conversation? If you think she’s purposely irritating you, why encourage her by acknowledged her success? If she won’t quit, why don’t you?

The obvious answer isn’t always so obvious to adults; to expect a flash of mature intuition from thirteen-year-olds might be just looking for the miraculous. Still, I hope that eventually, once the blinders begin to fall off, they’ll recognize futility.