WHAT'S THE PROBLEM MERRICK?!?!

Since pretty much grade seven or eight I've been pretty close with the same group of guys, Rob, Simon, Merrick and Raiden, Merrick left after grade nine and Raiden left just last year, and a lot of people agree that his presence is missed! I'm going to be honest, the balance just hasn't been quite right since even Merrick left. Me and him were good friends, even though I'm pretty sure we hated each other about ninety-five percent of the time, that's just what happens when you have two people who refuse to admit that there's even a possibility either of them could be wrong. We did some stupid stuff, but that's not important, what's important is that after him and Raiden left school just isn't as funny any more! We had, or used to at least, have way too much fun! Any ways, time to get to the story. So it was grade nine, Mr. Schugraf was our home room teacher.poor guy. Only now do I realize that he had been much more on edge then he normally was for those handful of weeks, I mean, we could tell something was off, knew he was on edge, we just didn't apply that to how we behaved. How could we? Honestly, with Merrick there was never a bad time to joke around, the more inappropriate the situation, the better. So normally in 'mentor' class (I still maintain that it's not a real class in any way, shape or form) you're supposed to read, but way more often then not we would just kind of hold our books, leave them open on our desks and just talk and do homework. Today was different though, he was actually making us read for once! I suppose someone had spoken to him about it, so... What happened in the forty minutes to follow wasn't real a befitting response. We were just not having it that day, I'm pretty sure we had a lot of work from the classes before because we just did not have an ounce of focus left in us, so as per usual we tried to do our homework but as we heard the class was for reading today, and so we had to go put our work away, and as the saying goes "Idle hands are the devil's playthings." As expected we just goofed off, talking way too loudly, joking amongst each other (don't worry you're not the only teacher to have had to suffer through it), and pretty much doing anything except reading our books. Merrick and I were joking (yes this material is pretty old) that we couldn't read, he first tried reading the book through osmosis, more simply explained he just mashed his face into the book and stared into space with a dead and somewhat confused look. This was quite funny, I'm laughing as I remember it, but I could keep it pretty low key. Then Merrick sat bolt upright, and started sliding his finger across the page, more or less across the words, and of course I asked what he was doing, he explained that he was blind and at this moment he was just looking straight forward, but things soon escalated. He leaned back in his chair, finger still sliding across the pages, let his jaw drop open and stared straight at the ceiling with that dead look again. I couldn't help but start laughing, not too loudly but loud enough for people around me to notice, Raiden looked over and also began laughing at the hilarious scene that was unfolding in front of him. Now I could also hear Rob laughing too, but was too consumed with what Merrick was doing. Then from the front right corner of the room came a very angry (to say the least) yell. "What's the problem Merrick!?" and completely silently, Merrick slowly looks down, eyes wide, confused, mouth still hanging open. As his eyes meet the page a look of shock and  revelation comes over him, he looks at Schugraf, back at the page and clearly speaks the most true and memorable words I have ever heard. "It's not Braille", completely straight faced he looks again at Schugraf with a look of now confused horror. "Get out!", in possibly the most infuriated sounding voice I have ever heard from a man, were the only words from Schugraf's mouth. We just laughed in his face, we laughed so hard I was almost in tears! I can't remember laughing so hard in my life! We laughed until we were out of breath, and then he told those of use who were responsible "...you know who you are." to go to the Dean's office. Needless to say I of course didn't go, I'm laughing so hard I can hardly explain why! Then afterwards he informed us of how we were, I'm not sure if this was the exact number, but the third group of people, in all of his years of teaching, that he had to ask to go to the dean. God I miss Merrick!


For reference this is a picture of the man himself  (ignore the random guy in the background):

Merrick.

And this is a shot of Raiden:

Let's just say he kind of let himself go...