Surprising Disappointment

As a Tuesday surprise, I took my morning class a bag of Chips Ahoy Cookies. I thought the students could use a sugar rush before lunch to help them power through the grind of grammar.

The students sauntered into the room, and I greeted them with: "I have a surprise for you today. It's very special." They brightened with the unexpected news. The anticipation caused the students to take their seats quickly and murmur quietly.

I know. The surprise wasn't that good. In fact, I bought the cookies mostly because I like them, and I could eat the extras. But cookies are cookies, no?

As I was reaching into my briefcase for the crinkly, navy-powder blue bag of cookies, I heard one of my students say, "I know what the surprise is." Of course he couldn't know the surprise; Chips Ahoy Cookies are one of the most random things to pull out of a briefcase. But still, I postponed my unveiling to see if his guess was correct.

"The surprise is a Nerf Gun." The pod of boys clustered around him all started shouting with excitement. "Yeah!" "Sweet!" They started high-fiving each other. I was confused. Why would I buy a Nerf Gun for my students? But then again, Chips Ahoy cookies are no more logical for a grammar class.

I heard myself rasp, "Sorry," as I pulled gift from my bag. Most of the kids looked fairly excited, but the group of boys looked noticeably deflated. Their faces left the traces of their Nerf-gun smiles, but their eyes dulled with the revelation of cookies instead of weapons.

The class sat quietly eating their one-cookie ration. While crunching on my cookie, I too felt a bit deflated. Brushing the chocolate bits from my tie, I began to understand how my mother must have felt all those years ago when I shouted to open the big, green present under the Christmas tree. The present that I was sure held a Super Nintendo. The present I shook every day since it appeared under the tree. The present that turned out to be a desk chair.