What Goes Around, Comes Around

A while back, we had a test in my film class. The test was scantron, so I brought my trusty number two pencil.

The girl beside me asked if I had another pencil. I informed her that I did not. She proceeded to ask everyone around her. No one had an extra pencil.

The tests were handed out and the class began bubbling in their answers. But the girl beside me fidgeted and looked nervous, not sure what to do.

She then started to mark the answers on the test sheet itself with her pen.

I finished my test with plenty of time to spare, gave the girl my pencil, and left the classroom. (We could leave after we finished the test.) The girl thanked me and began bubbling in her answers furiously.

The next time the class met, I sat beside the same girl again. She thanked me for the pencil. "That was so cool of you. I was freakin' out." "No problem," I said. "No problem at all." But she made no intention of opening her bookbag, shuffling around, and finding my pencil.

And, in fact, she never gave me my pencil back. And it was my favorite one. It was a cool metallic silver cheapo Bic that I loved. And it's gone forever.

I mean, c'mon. Doesn't common courtesy imply that I was letting her borrow my pencil, not giving it to her? I thought about asking for it back, but it was just such a weird situation, that I didn't/don't know how to respond.

I sit by the girl in that class everyday. She's nice enough. Smiles and says "hi" when I walk past her. Lets me look at her notes when I'm absent. But no pencil. No freakin' pencil.