I want my friends to die early

An intermission from my normal routine of Japan culture and holidays. I am going to write about a particular class amusement.

Some background
I am currently teaching some of the more useful aspects of having a phone conversation when the person you want to talk to is unavailable to my 3rd year JHS students. So some of the key phrases include things like ''May I speak to...' 'He/She is out' 'May I leave a message' 'Would you ask him/her to...'

These two incredibly intelligent boys were sitting front and center in my classroom. They have a really good grasp on English and will, when they feel like it, clue the rest of the class in on what I am talking about. Today was a particularly interesting day between the two of them and they one did something when the other sat down which set them off in a battle of the wills: holding a secret war between each other while still being focused on English. I knew what was going on and saw a few of their punches ( they are friends so they were trying to maim...permanently). So then I walk up to them and tell them that the next punch I see they are going to have to do Butts Game, a Japanese punishment game. So they almost sober up and say yes they understand. I continue to walk checking student work and not even seconds later one of the two falls off the chair. The other punched him off. The one on the ground is pointing at the one at the desk who then explains 'But Ms. Lauren - you didn't see it.' Ok I can't flaw their logic.

Class progresses and their battle still rages
We reach an activity where we are going over the phrase 'Would you tell him/her...' more in depth. And we reach an exercise that states 'I want my friends to______________' and they write in an activity and of course I give them more activities they can write in ( give me Christmas presents, send me nengajo...). I am walking around and checking their work and I reach my favorite pair they have written down 'die early'. I could no longer hold back my laughter. I want my friends to die early.

And for any who are curious, at the end of the lesson I made them both do the Butts Game. I made them sing the ABC's to the rest of the class. Seeing as they are both very popular boys one of them starts clapping and gets the rest of the class to clap along and towards the end, they all start singing.

And for as much trouble as they cause me, I would rather have 100 cheeky mischief makers who are good in English than a single silent class.

The suspects in question