by Jordan Lynde
‘Yeah, and you’re in my seat.’
He ignored me. ‘How old are you?’
‘Twenty-two,’ I responded confidently.
Someone snorted from behind me and I spun around to see who it was. As I scanned the class, I made a shocking discovery. The class only consisted of ten young men – not one single girl was among the mass. I blinked in surprise, turning back to Oliver, who was still staring at me, and I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick.
‘You look like you’re twelve,’ a new voice commented, and I turned to see the short-haired guy from earlier, Zak, grinning at me. He cocked an eyebrow, waiting for my response. He had his arm propped on his desk, sleeve rolled up to his shoulder to show off his tattoos.
I opened my mouth to insult him back, but then snapped it shut immediately when I remembered I was a teacher and couldn’t do that. Instead, I settled for glaring at him as harshly as I could. He just laughed again. I turned back to Oliver, trying to keep my face as straight as possible. ‘Go to your seat.’
‘No thank you,’ he drawled, leaning back in my chair once again. ‘I like it here. Why don’t you go to my seat instead? You look like you belong there more than I do.’
‘Remember you’re talking to a teacher,’ I warned, clenching my fists angrily.
‘I’ll make sure to do that.’
I groaned quietly in frustration. Why wasn’t he taking me seriously?
‘Oli!’ another voice called from the back of the room. ‘Dude, let her start class!’
Oliver and I both turned to look at the student who had spoken. He had styled, dyed-black hair with dyed-blue raccoon tail patterns in it. I frowned a bit. Did they allow hair dyeing here?
A moment passed between them, and then Oliver smirked, standing up and offering the seat to me. ‘Here you go.’
I watched him warily as he moved around the desk and back to his seat, the class silent as he sat down. I returned his look, slightly confused at his sudden change of attitude, and I felt myself growing nervous again. What was I supposed to do now? ‘Um,’ I started, my eyes dropping to the floor. ‘I’m Ms Allen, and I’m your substitute home economics teacher.’
‘Obviously,’ someone commented, making the class laugh.
I looked up to scowl at the guy who said that. Another shock ran through me as I realized he was the guy with mahogany-colored hair from earlier. Just my luck. He just grinned back, placing an elbow on his desk and resting his head on it, staring up at me. I cleared my throat, looking down at the black binder on my desk. ‘I guess we should start baking—’
‘I have a better idea,’ a voice I already recognized as Oliver’s interrupted.
‘Do you?’ I responded flatly, staring at him.
With a derisive look on his face, he nodded, lifting up his hand. It took me a second to realize there was something in it – then his smirk continued to grow as I realized it was an egg. I froze as he brought back his arm.
He wouldn’t . . .
‘Food fight!’ he shouted, launching the egg at me.
As soon as the egg hit my chest, cracking open and spilling its contents all over my shirt, all hell broke loose. A second, third and fourth egg hit my chest as I jumped up from my desk, looking down at my shirt in disgust and shock. A fifth egg smashed into my collarbone, making me wince in pain. I managed to dodge the sixth egg. ‘Stop it!’ I cried, trying to get the yolk off my now dirtied blouse. ‘If another one of you throws an egg, then—’
‘Hey, Arden!’ Oliver shouted, smirking at guy with mahogany hair he’d been fighting earlier. ‘Catch this!’
I watched as Oliver hurled an egg at the unsuspecting boy. Arden turned and was met with an egg to the face. A quick breath of air left my mouth as the egg broke, running down Arden’s face. That looked painful.
‘You . . .’ Arden growled, wiping off his face with a sleeve. ‘I’m going to get you for that!’
Suddenly eggs were flying across the room. The air was filled with flour as well. I stood amongst the chaos, mouth open for a moment. I tried to get everyone to stop, but no one was listening. Finally an egg came flying right at my head, knocking my glasses off, and I snapped. ‘Enough!’ I shouted. ‘If one more egg goes flying across the room, you’ll all have detention for a month!’
This made everyone stop. For a second, I thought I’d scared them into submission. Then a couple of them snickered.
‘Ooh, I’m so scared,’ someone mocked. ‘You going to call our parents too?’
I could feel myself growing more and more frustrated. My hands shook at my sides and I could feel angry tears pricking in my eyes. Who did these boys think they were? Did they think they could get away with destroying my classroom? On the first day too. I was probably going to be fired now, and I really needed this job. Why couldn’t I have had a class of well-behaved students?
Oh, that’s right, I thought bitterly. This is a school for delinquents.
‘I think we should give her a break,’ a calm voice commented, breaking me from my thoughts.
‘Why do you think that?’ Oliver responded, turning to face Arden, a scowl on his face. ‘Sucking up, Arden?’
He grinned back. ‘Maybe.’
Oliver laughed scornfully. ‘The great Arden, sucking up to a new teacher.’
‘You know what, Oli?’
‘What?’
Before I could protest, Arden had already flung an egg at him. Oliver caught it with his hand, the egg breaking in the process. He shook the remains on his hand at one of the students behind him, before taking up another egg and flinging it at Arden so fast I could barely see it. After seeing those two start fighting again, the other students took it as their cue to begin again as well. Eggs, flour, sugar and water were soon being thrown across the room once more.
And as if it couldn’t get any worse, Oliver suddenly grabbed the front of Arden’s shirt, raising his fist threateningly. I stared at him. Was he kidding? Starting a fight in the middle of a food fight? And in class as well? My hands clenched into tighter fists and I marched over to them, shoving a hand against each of their chests. Oliver immediately let go of Arden and glared down at me. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Taking order back,’ I responded. I drew myself to my fullest height, returning his glare.
‘But we were just getting to the fun part!’ Arden protested from behind me.
‘You know what the fun part is going to be?’ I responded, turning to look at him. ‘You, Oliver, and everyone else in this classroom cleaning up my classroom.’
‘Not happening,’ Oliver muttered, rolling his eyes.
‘I’m not sure how many times I’ve said this, but I’m positive I’ve made it clear that I am the teacher, and you are the student,’ I said in a hard voice. ‘You listen to me, or you get a detention.’
‘Getting a detention is nothing new.’
‘I get a detention three times a week,’ Arden chirped in a cheerful voice.
Before I could say anything else, the door to the classroom opened and Mr Martin walked in. His eyes widened in surprise and his jaw dropped as he looked around the classroom. When his eyes landed on me, I swear I saw amusement flicker in his eyes for a second before it turned to confusion. ‘Ms Allen, what happened here?’
Immediately I pointed my finger at Oliver and Arden. ‘They started it.’
The two boys immediately dropped their stances, taking another step back away from each other. The principal sighed heavily, shaking his head. ‘I should have known it was you two,’ he said, frowning at them. ‘Both of you, my office. Now.’
‘Right away, sir,’ Arden said, mock-saluting. He put a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. ‘Shall we go, Oli?’
Oliver immediately shoved his hand off. ‘Don’t touch me. And don’t call me Oli.’
‘Someone is in a bad mood,’ Arden taunted, following Oliver as he headed out of the room. ‘Are you upset you got in trouble?’
‘Boys!’ the principal warned, giving them a stern look. ‘
Go to my office right now, and if you fight any more you’ll be in bigger trouble than you are in already.’
Oliver clenched his jaw, looking around the room quickly, and our eyes met for split-second; he narrowed his, an annoyed expression flashing across his face. I looked back in surprise. He was annoyed with me? He was the one who had started this food fight in the first place – I was glad he was getting in trouble. He deserved it.
‘See you later, Teach,’ Arden commented, waving at me before he disappeared.
The principal turned back to the class. ‘The rest of you are staying here to clean up this mess and you’re not allowed to leave until this place is spotless. And you all get a week of detention. No discussion. Ms Allen, I’m sorry about this – you can go get cleaned up.’
The principal took his leave without another word and I blinked, surprised at his sudden harshness. The class must have been surprised too, because they stayed silent. Everyone was covered from head-to-toe in flour, sugar, eggs and water. If I wasn’t so annoyed, I would’ve found the sight funny.
‘What do we do, Tucker?’ asked one of the boys whose name I didn’t know yet.
The blond one, Tucker, looked at me with a thoughtful expression on his face. After a moment he shrugged, turning back to the guy who asked the question. ‘Let’s just ditch.’
He started for the door and I automatically ran towards it, nearly slipping twice on the mess on the floor. ‘You think you’re going to ditch?’ I asked, directing my question to Tucker.
‘I believe so,’ he responded in a hard voice.
I stared at him in disbelief. ‘You already have a week of detention and you want more?’
He started walking toward me, slowly and menacingly, but I stood my ground. There was no way I was going to be intimidated by these guys again: they were students – I was a teacher.
He had only taken about three steps when his eyes suddenly widened in surprise and he slid forward, slipping on the ground. Before I could blink he fell over backward, landing on the ground with a loud smack.
I stumbled over to his side and kneeled down next to him, holding out a hand. ‘Hey, are you OK—’
‘Don’t touch me,’ he growled, slapping my hand away.
Surprised, I retracted my hand and moved back as he pulled himself to his feet quickly, looking embarrassed. He nodded to a pair of guys and together they headed for the exit.
‘If you leave, I’m adding another week of detention to your punishment,’ I threatened.
‘Do what you want,’ Tucker responded, opening the classroom door and walking out. ‘See ya.’
The other two left after him, slamming the door shut. I stared at it, dumbfounded. They didn’t care at all they now had two weeks of detention? This was unbelievable!
‘Need some help?’
I looked up to see Zak hovering over me, holding out his hand. I cautiously took it and he pulled me to my feet in one swift motion. Looking around the classroom, I noticed that two other people besides Zak were still in the room, standing around idly.
‘So are you going to leave us to clean, or what?’ Zak asked, tilting his head to the side questioningly.
I blinked at him in surprise. ‘You’re going to stay and clean up?’
He grinned. ‘You’re new, I kind of feel bad for throwing this all at you on your first day. These guys feel the same.’
Mumbled agreements followed Zak’s words. I stared at the trio curiously for a minute, wondering what brought this sudden change in attitude. Was it because the principal had stepped in and enforced the rule? Or maybe they didn’t want to get into any more trouble? Whatever it was, I was glad. ‘Well, the faster we work, the faster we’ll finish and be able to go home,’ I commented, stretching out my arms. ‘Do any of you know where the cleaning supplies are?’
Zak looked surprise. ‘You’re going to help us?’
‘The more people who help, the faster it’ll get done,’ I responded. ‘It’s not like I’m going to make you guys clean up by yourself.’
‘But we’re the reason your classroom was destroyed . . .’
‘And now you’re helping me clean it up,’ I said with a shrug. ‘In the future, though, this better not happen again. I may look young, but I’m still a teacher, and you have to respect that . . . all of you.’ I turned my gaze on the two students behind Zak. ‘Understood?’
All three nodded.
‘And since you guys actually stayed to clean, unlike the others, I’m going to see if I can waive your detentions.’
‘You’re kidding,’ Zak responded, a grin spreading on his face. ‘I love you already!’
‘In return,’ I continued, ignoring his remark, ‘try your best to stay out of trouble in my classroom.’
The grin slipped from Zak’s mouth and was replaced by a frown. He sighed, scratching his head. ‘You’re new here, so I don’t expect you to know this, but . . .’
‘But what?’
‘How do I explain this . . .? Arden and Oliver are like mortal enemies,’ he tried, his expression thoughtful. ‘Everyone knows that. Everyone also knows not to mess with either one of them, since they both can kick anyone’s butt. Their feuds kind of prod other people to misbehave as well.’
‘Great,’ I said wryly. ‘I’m guessing they fight a lot? They don’t seem to get along too well.’
‘Yeah, like this morning. I was there. Remember? That’s a pretty normal occurrence. If you see those two fighting, you’ll probably see me and Tucker. I always have Oliver’s back and he always has Arden’s.’
I groaned internally. Yes, I remembered the fight from this morning. Of course I did. This school year was going to be hard enough as is, but I was also stuck with two feuding students?
How perfect.
Chapter Six
The next morning I trudged into the principal’s office, still tired from the day before. It’d taken close to an hour to wash all the yolk and flour from my hair and my clothes had needed cleaning up too – the skirt was still wet, in fact. And I was pretty sure Will snapped a few photos when I’d first gone over to his apartment the evening before to get Elliot.
Somehow I managed a smile. ‘Morning, Collin.’
‘Harley,’ he responded, staring at me like I was a ghost.
I frowned. ‘What?’
‘Nothing. I’m just surprised to see you here; I thought you might not want to come back after yesterday,’ he responded, seemingly impressed. ‘I’m glad you decided to, though.’
‘I’m not going to give up that easily,’ I told him stubbornly.
‘I’m sorry you got stuck with a class including Oliver and Arden, but I can’t transfer them out because they need to take that class in order to graduate. However I gave them both a severe scolding yesterday, so hopefully they won’t be a problem any more.’
‘Hopefully,’ I agreed.
He smiled encouragingly. ‘Today will be better. All new teachers get trouble from the students on their first day.’
‘Seems like these kids watch too many movies,’ I sighed.
He laughed. ‘Maybe.’
‘Although I was being kind of mean yesterday, so maybe I deserve it a little,’ I said, frowning. ‘Maybe if I’m nicer to them, they’ll be nicer to me. I just have to keep calm.’
‘That’s right. If you respect them, they’ll respect you, Harley,’ Collin agreed. ‘But before I forget to tell you, I told Arden and Oliver that they have to help you prep for your classes, when they’d usually have a free period. Arden will help you first period and Oliver will help you sixth for a month.’
I stared at him in horror. ‘What? Why?’
‘As a punishment,’ he told me, narrowing his eyes in confusion. ‘I had to punish them somehow and I thought you’d like the help.’
‘But they were the ones who started the food fight in the first place!’ He was going to make me be in a room alone with them for a month? I was going to be killed! Or beat up. Or something.
‘That won’t
happen again,’ he assured me, smiling slightly. ‘Trust me. The bell’s going to ring soon, so you should head to your classroom.’
Sighing in defeat, I nodded. So much for having to deal with them only one period a day.
The hallways were empty as I made my way toward my room; the students hadn’t arrived yet. When I reached the room I tried the door handle and, to my surprise, it was unlocked. I frowned, slowly starting to open it. Suddenly it was whipped the rest of the way open and I fell forward, being tugged along with the door.
A strong pair of hands steadied me and I looked up to see Tucker standing in front of me with a scowl on his face. ‘Out of my way,’ he demanded, shoving me to the side.
I stumbled a few steps, but didn’t fall – it had been a smart idea not to wear high heels to work. Tucker attempted to walk away, but I grabbed his arm before he was out of reach. ‘Wait!’
He stopped and turned to me with a scowl. ‘What?’
‘What do you mean what? What were you doing in my room?’ I snapped, irritated by his rudeness.
‘None of your business!’
‘It is my business!’
‘Let go,’ he ordered, ripping his arm away from my grasp.
‘Hey!’
He ignored me and started walking briskly down the hallway. For a minute I glared after him, but he never looked back. What had he been doing?
I made my way around the classroom, looking for anything out of place. It was kind of hard to do since I didn’t really remember where anything was supposed to be after just one day, but I did my best. Nothing suspicious came up, but I was still curious as to what he was doing in my room.
I made my way to my desk and suddenly my foot slipped out from under me and I fell to the ground. When my hands touched the floor I yanked them back – it was wet! I groaned in annoyance as I felt the water soak into my slacks.
‘You have a habit of falling, don’t you?’ an amused voice commented from above me.
My heart leaped into my throat and I quickly looked up to see Arden grinning at me. He held out his hand, but I ignored it, managing to push myself to my feet. ‘Someone thought it’d be a great idea to make the floor wet,’ I muttered, knowing exactly who it was.