I'm a Square

My school is extremely strict on smoking on school grounds, at least for the students. If a teacher find a student smoking, that student may be forced to eat their cigarette, and when (male) students ask to go to the bedroom in the middle of the night, they'll be pat searched to check to make sure that they're not sneaking off to light up in the trenches. That said, there's such a culture of male smoking around here, that it's unsurprising that so many of my school's boys want to try it. 

The other day I was riding my bike after a school on a Friday, passing 7th and 8th graders as they were walking to their villages, and many kids were smoking. As I passed by, I would yell to the kids that they shouldn't smoke, or stop smoking--I kinda felt like it was my teacherly duty. Later, I realized I was the stereotypical image of the dorky teacher: riding a bike, chiding edgy students, and in general just being a square. The only thing that saved me from completely fulfilling that image was my lack of a helmet....and that lack was due an inability to buy a helmet, and not due to any remaining coolness that would have saved me from complete squaredom.