Dictionary Strategy

He doesn’t cling to her anymore, since I told him that the next time I saw them touch it would be a writeup, but the kid constantly lurks around his girlfriend, apparently indelibly in love. I didn’t even know his name, or hers, since they are both students on the adjacent team, but I sensed subversion all the way, maybe in part because his hair comes way down over and hides his eyes.

Frankly, I was tired of their hang-in-the-halls-between-every-class puppy loviness, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it until inspiration struck. I called him over to me.

“On the green bookshelf behind my door are some dictionaries. Could you bring one to me?”

“Am I in trouble?”

“No, I just want you to look up a word. ‘Lurk.’ L-u-r-k.”

“What does it mean?”

“Look it up.”

By that time, two of his friends had gathered, and they hovered over him as he flipped pages.

“Are you in trouble?” they asked him.

“No, I just have to look up a word.”

He barely found the word before I sent him on his way, almost late for class. “I’ll have you read the definition next time,” I said.

After the next class, he was back. “Where’s that book?”

I handed it to him, still open to the word.

“A teacher told me it means ‘stalker,'” he said. “But we’re going out. I’m not a stalker.”

“OK,” I said. “What does the word mean?”

I helped him read the definition to me and his friends.

“Thank you,” I said. “Now, listen. Every time I see you hanging around down here, I’m going to have you look up another word.”

He hustled off to class.

The next day, I saw them gazing adoringly at each other again. I motioned him over.

“What do I have to look up this time?” he asked.

“‘Clingy.’ C-l-i-n-g-y.”

Again, he ran out of time before actually reading the definition, but after the next class, he was back. “I need to look up that word,” he told his friends.

After he read the definition (I’d helped him find it, under “cling”), he said, “Why is that bad?”

“I didn’t say it is,” I said. “Now, find ‘indelible.’ It starts with ‘i-n-d.'”

He hasn’t finished that one, yet. Maybe next week.