[Intro: piano and strings over a shuffling breakbeat] [Verse 1] The building sold in April and the rent went up nine hundred flat I had a classroom and a hatchback and a cardigan, and that was that Now I park behind the all night gym where the lot lights never sleep I grade the spelling tests by dome light with a red pen in my teeth Five a.m. I shower, half past six I'm in room nine Write the date up on the board, I water the fern, and I'm fine [Pre-Chorus] And the bell rings, and I'm already in Lights on like I own the place And nobody sees it on my face [Chorus] Home room, eight fifteen I call thirty names, and every name says here Home room, the warmest place I've been Seven hours where I don't disappear And they wave goodbye at three o'clock Like I've got somewhere to be Home room It's home to me [Verse 2] My trunk's a filing cabinet, report cards and socks in rows A blanket and a pillow where the spare tire used to go My mother calls from Fresno, says, you sound tired, are you eatin' I tell her, Mom, I'm fine, it's only grading season Jaylen in the second row says, Miss, you wore that yesterday I say, it's lucky, Jaylen, and I laugh it all away [Pre-Chorus] And the bell rings, and I'm already in Lights on like I own the place And nobody sees it on my face [Chorus] Home room, eight fifteen I call thirty names, and every name says here Home room, the warmest place I've been Seven hours where I don't disappear And they wave goodbye at three o'clock Like I've got somewhere to be Home room It's home to me [Verse 3: half time shuffle] Christmas break's the hardest, two whole weeks with nowhere to be I drive down to Ocean Beach and count the cars like me A nurse in a minivan with the windows cracked an inch A line cook in his pickup with his apron on the bench We nod across the parking lot like neighbors on a street A whole damn neighborhood, and every house is a back seat [Bridge: piano and strings, the drums fall away] Eleven months, a key on a ring A studio above a taco shop on University First night I can't sleep, the ceiling's way too high So I go down to the car and sit there one more time Then I switch the dome light off and tell it thank you, and goodnight And I climb back up the stairs and leave on every light [Final Chorus: full groove] Home room, eight fifteen I call thirty names, and every name says here Home room, the warmest place I've been Seven hours where I don't disappear And they wave goodbye at three o'clock And for once I've got somewhere to be Home, room Home to me
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