13. Sounds about right
I teach 16-year-olds. When a girl likes a guy she’ll draw hearts on his notes. When a guy likes a girl he’ll draw penises on her notes.
14. Oh man, was it that obvious?
Oh man, the longing stares across the room. The almost creepy wistful “what-ifs” you can just see in their eyes.
When I was in middle school, that was me.
15. It’s so true that you have to wonder if it’s God’s cruel joke on us
Teenagers are not subtle by nature, but they are amazingly oblivious when it comes to matters of the heart (they are really perceptive with other things, though).
The boys almost never recognize if a girl likes them, and the girls never realize a guy is showing interest. It’s funny to watch it happen — it’s so blatantly obvious as an outsider, but I remember being just as oblivious as a student.
16. This is cute, but only up to a certain age
I’m a substitute teacher and my favorite “student with a blatant crush” experience was with a 2nd grade class. I picked the kids up from the yard after recess and a boy came to me very upset because one of the girls had been chasing him the entire recess. Once we got back to class I talked with the girl, asking for her side of the story. Conversation went something like this:
Me: Jose was pretty upset about something that happened this recess. Do you want to tell me what happened.
Girl: We were playing.
Me: He said you were chasing him, is that true?
Girl: (Slight blush) Yeah…
Me: Do you think he wanted you to be chasing him?
Girl: No.
Me: If you knew he didn’t want to be chased, why were you chasing him?
Girl: (Huge blush, guilty smile, and hunched shoulders) He makes me laugh.
17. They totally do it on purpose!
High school teacher. Depending on the kids’ personalities, they either get louder or quieter when their crushes are present. The loud ones are freaking annoying. The quiet ones are the ones I would purposefully sit next to their crushes!
18. You ruined it for them
Computer science/computational physics university lecturer here. Men tend to outnumber women 10:1 in my lecture groups. This has resulted in some… odd… scenarios, my favourite being 4 of my students simultaneously being exceedingly into the same exceedingly pretty woman who was in the realms of shy but unremittingly kind. She also happened to be a lesbian; I knew this, they did not.
Of course, only two people could sit next to her in a lecture theatre, and an actual friend of hers usually took one of those spots. So the four of them would try to play it cool as she sat down, then desperately try to get as close as possible without giving the game away, like a single round of musical chairs where only one person can win but there’s definitely never going to be a prize any of the players want. It’s important to also be aware that these were nerds of the highest order, so at a certain point they were just running and shoving one another, charging down the aisle like the adults they apparently were. I was eventually forced to intervene and end the game when one of them honest to god vaulted a row of seats and nearly landed on another student. They deliberately avoided her after I pulled them aside, which was probably great for her, but terrible for me; I found their fruitless game a never-ending source of comedy.
