Tight

“Miss Klein, How you spell ‘horse’?” NK, one of my students asks me.
“h-o-r-s-e” I spell it out for him slowly. He is asking me how to spell horse because it is the password for our class computer. Originally, the password was the same as all the other computers in the school – ‘dellteach’. One day, one of our most enterprising students didn’t take his medication, and had a nice time changing the passwords. He even went as far as to change the ‘hint’ that you got when you forgot your password.

I clicked on the ‘hint’ in order to find a way to unlock the computer. ‘You Tight!’ was the clue that came up at me. I was indeed tight.

Tight means angry, frustrated, pissed off. If something doesn’t go your way, you are tight. If someone gets in your way, or makes you mad, you are tight. If you are tight, you have license to do pretty much anything.

One of my sweetest students got into a fight, and came to tell me about it, her hair still rumpled and her cheap gold necklaces ripped from her neck. She beams as she recalls that we won. To win a fight is to ‘wash’ someone. This girl told me that she ‘washed’ her opponent.

“You!? Why?!” I was shocked that this sweet girl would be fighting. She shrugged in response, and smiled shyly. “Seriously, why?” I asked again. This time she answered.

“She got me tight.”