by Jordan Lynde
He laughed. ‘What a simple prank. I could have done much better.’
I sighed, running my hands over my pants to see how wet they were. They weren’t that bad, only a little damp, so I carefully maneuvered myself to the supply room where the paper towels were stored. Arden followed me and I tossed a roll to him. ‘First task, dry off the floor. I don’t want anyone falling and being injured,’ I told him.
‘Yes, ma’am,’ Arden responded, mock-saluting me.
I stared at him in surprise. He was going to listen to me just like that today? Was the principal really that imposing? Thinking about it, I’d never seen Mr Martin angry before . . . maybe he was one of those people who could snap cement blocks when he lost it.
‘I’ve decided I like you, Harley,’ Arden announced, breaking me out of my thoughts.
Taken aback, I froze. ‘You have to call me Ms Allen,’ I said after a moment.
‘Nope, I like Harley,’ he responded simply, walking out of the supply room. ‘If I were you I wouldn’t be worrying about what I call you – I’d just be glad that I’ve decided not to cause trouble for you.’
‘Why the sudden change?’
‘You looked so pitiful yesterday that I couldn’t let it happen again,’ he sighed dramatically, putting a hand over his heart. ‘Just like an abandoned puppy.’
While I didn’t like being compared to an abandoned puppy, I wasn’t going to try to fight his change of heart.
‘So what else do you need me to do?’
Shaking my head, I walked over to my desk where the planner was. I quickly scanned it to see what my next lesson was supposed to be on. ‘Forbidden chocolate cookies?’
‘Is that what we’ll be making in our class later on too?’ he inquired, sounding excited.
‘No, we won’t be making anything today,’ I told him, smiling. ‘I have other plans for that class.’
‘That’s no fun,’ he complained, walking over to me and looking at the schedule. ‘Hey! It says right there we’re making—’
‘I’m the teacher, so I can change the lesson plans,’ I responded, turning up to look at him.
I hadn’t realized how close we were. I quickly took a step back to put space between us, and a look of surprise appeared on his face and he brought his head closer to mine again, narrowing his eyes. Uncomfortably, I continued to back away, making sure not to let him come too close.
‘Take off your glasses,’ he said.
‘What? Why?’
‘Just do it.’
‘No!’
‘Don’t make me make you,’ he warned, coming even closer. ‘Just take them off for a few seconds.’
‘No!’ I reiterated, bringing my hand to my glasses to hold them in place. ‘Why?’
‘I just want to see your face without them on,’ he said, frowning. ‘You look really young.’
I cleared my throat, feeling anxious. There was no reason to feel that way – it wasn’t like he could find out by just thinking I looked young. ‘Thanks for the compliment, but I am still young. Twenty-two isn’t that old.’
He stared at me for a minute with an unreadable expression and then he laughed. ‘Actually I was going to say you looked like a middle-schooler or something.’
‘What?’ I responded, feeling offended. ‘I don’t look that young!’
‘Is that why you wear glasses? To hide your baby face?’ he teased.
‘I don’t have a baby face!’
‘Sure you don’t.’
‘Don’t sass a teacher,’ I warned.
He suddenly burst out laughing, shaking his head. ‘You’re funny.’
‘OK . . .’
‘Should we start putting the ingredients for your next class out, then?’ he suggested. ‘The homeroom bell already rang about fifteen minutes ago. I’ll need you to call the office for me to let them know I’m here.’
‘Eh?’ I responded in surprise, glancing at the clock. That much time had passed already? I looked back at him. He was waiting, looking at me expectantly. ‘Um, sure. Let’s get started.’
‘Right away, Harley!’
‘Don’t call me that,’ I scolded immediately. ‘You can’t call a teacher by their first name.’
‘I’ll do what I want,’ he responded, rolling his eyes.
I pursed my lips. Nice teacher, think nice teacher, I said to myself. ‘OK, you can call me Harley, but only when other people aren’t around.’
He thought about it for a minute before nodding. ‘All right, deal.’
When the period ended, Arden took his leave, and I stood at the front of the classroom, waiting for my first class of the day. People slowly began to fill the room, gazing at me curiously. To say the least, I was surprised at the people who entered. I knew they were sophomores, but they looked so young! Maybe that was why Arden thought I looked so young.
I looked up to see Melissa, the blond girl I’d met earlier, smiling at me. ‘Morning, Ms Allen,’ she greeted, taking a seat front and center. ‘I heard about your classroom fiasco yesterday.’
‘Yeah, fiasco,’ I responded, grimacing. ‘I’m hoping it won’t happen with this class.’
‘Don’t worry, we’ll behave,’ she assured me with another smile.
Fortunately, Melissa was right. The sophomore class was pretty well-behaved compared to the seniors. There was a lot of texting in the class, but I’d take that over food fights any day. Maybe Collin had lectured all the students about starting a food fight today. Or maybe I was just catching a break.
The junior class, on the other hand, was full of snooty girls. There were a lot of horrible words being slung around, some directed at myself. Half of them didn’t do their work, either – they just chatted and ignored me. I couldn’t decide if I liked the juniors or seniors less.
When fifth period ended, I sat down at my desk, resting my head on the top of it. It had been an OK day so far, but now came the seniors, and Oliver was supposed to help me prepare for this period. I was not looking forward to dealing with his anti-social personality. Just as I had that thought, he came through the door and I grimaced, bracing myself for the worst.
What I wasn’t expecting, though, was for him to ignore me completely. He walked to the back of the classroom and dropped his bag onto the floor before taking a seat in one of the empty desks.
‘Um, good afternoon,’ I said hesitantly.
Oliver either ignored me, or didn’t hear me, because he didn’t respond. He pulled out a big black binder from his backpack and put it on his desk, opening it and flipping through it.
‘I said, good afternoon,’ I repeated, louder this time.
Still no answer. He leaned back over to his backpack and pulled out a pen, then started to write in what looked like a notebook. Narrowing my eyes, I made my way over to his desk. I cleared my throat when I reached his desk, and he still didn’t look up.
‘Excuse me!’
This time he looked up, his expression irritated. A hand went to his ear and I watched as he pulled out an ear bud. Immediately I felt like an idiot. ‘Listening to music devices during the school day is against the rules,’ I told him with a disapproving look.
‘I couldn’t care less,’ he responded simply, before putting the ear bud back into his ear.
‘Hey!’
With a sigh, he removed the bud again. ‘What do you want?’
‘What do I want?’ I repeated in disbelief.
‘That’s what I asked.’
Who did this dude think he was? I opened my mouth to ream him out, but immediately closed it. I was a teacher; I had to be mature about this. Taking a deep breath, I counted to ten before letting it out slowly. He gave me an impatient look.
‘You’re supposed to be giving me some help setting up for today . . .’
‘I think you can handle it,’ he said.
He stuck his ear bud back into his ear, returning his attention to his notebook and completely ignoring me. For a few seconds I stared at him incredulously; it took all I had not to
rip the headphones from his ears and smack him upside the head. If there could be a human definition of rebel, it would be this guy.
‘Oliver,’ I snapped.
No response.
‘Well, you’re lucky I don’t have to set anything up today.’
Still no response.
Grinding my teeth, I marched away from his desk and back to mine. I might not have been in regular school for almost a year, but I knew that even the most troublesome students weren’t like this. Students didn’t flat out ignore teachers!
My eyes landed on the attendance list. A small, yellow sticky note had been placed on it. I picked it up and quickly scanned it:
Harley,
Forgot to tell you yesterday, but make sure you take attendance today. Skipping is very habitual for students here, so we have to take attendance seriously.
Collin
Well, habitual skipping wasn’t a surprise.
I scanned my attendance list and looked at the list of ten names in my senior class. I had to deal with these guys for an entire year. I found Oliver’s name on the attendance list and glanced at his last name. Fox. How fitting. Grabbing a pen, I put a check mark by his name so I didn’t have to do it later. Next I searched for Arden’s name and put a check by it. His last name was Bring and I repeated his name in my head a few times: Arden Bring – it had a nice ring to it.
‘Hey.’
I looked up at Oliver, who was staring at me. I looked around the room and realized that it was still only the two of us. It couldn’t be that he was talking to me, could it?
‘If you are wondering if I’m talking to you, obviously I am since there is no one else here,’ he informed me in a mocking voice.
‘It’s Ms Allen,’ I told him, doing my best to keep my tone polite.
‘Yeah, whatever.’
‘Are you serious right now?’ There had to be some limit as to how insolent someone could be.
‘Do I look serious?’ he demanded, giving me a deadpan stare.
‘You little—’
‘Uh-uh,’ he interjected, shaking a finger at me. ‘You’re a teacher, aren’t you? You can’t talk back to me.’
‘And you can’t talk to me like that!’ I argued. ‘Don’t you know the saying respect your elders?’
‘I highly doubt you’re my elder.’
‘Yeah, how old are you?’
‘Eighteen.’
OK, so in truth he was older than me, but I was pretending I was twenty-two. ‘I’m twenty-two – in other words, older than you. And I’m your teacher, so be a little more polite.’
‘Whatever.’
I clenched my jaw. He was riling me up for no good reason. ‘What do you want?’ I asked.
‘I have to go take a quiz for Ms Rose and I need you to sign my pass,’ he told me, walking up to me and handing me a blue card. ‘I’ll be there for the rest of this period, so don’t expect me back.’
‘Shouldn’t you use a study hall for something like this?’
‘This is my study hall,’ he reminded me, narrowing his eyes slightly. ‘So instead of doing the work I won’t do at home, I have to help someone like you out.’
‘What do you mean “someone like me”?’ I responded, mimicking his look. ‘Remember—’
‘You’re a teacher, yeah, I got it. Just sign my pass.’
With an indignant huff, I grabbed the card out of his hand and initialed it quickly. He took it without thanking me and left the room. Sighing, I made my way to the supply room to double-check that everything was put away. My eyes zeroed in on a plate and knife by the microwave and I walked over to them with a frown on my face, picking up the dirty dishes. Had someone come in here to cook lunch while I was away? Maybe another teacher? I shrugged, putting the plate in the dishwasher that was in the room.
A pile of cookbooks on one of the tables in the supply room caught my attention and I walked over to them, grabbing the first one I touched. Perhaps I could find something new to cook for Will and Elliot while I was waiting for my next class . . .
Twenty minutes later the bell signaling the ending of sixth period rang. Some of the meal ideas in this book were great and I didn’t want to lose them, so I quickly stuffed a bookmark into the cookbook and shut it, sliding it closer to the table before making my way out of the supply room.
My eyes surveyed the classroom and I found Zak sitting at front and center with his hands clasped on the desk in front of him, waiting patiently. He smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. The second bell rang, but no one else took their seat. Not like I expected them to.
My eye scanned the classroom again and I realized that I didn’t see Oliver. Or Arden, for that matter. I knew they were both here . . . Were they skipping? For a moment, I actually felt disappointed. I was so bad that they felt the need to skip class?
Suddenly the door opened and Tucker walked in without sparing me a glance. Instead of being annoyed, I quickly raced through my thoughts. Which boy was Tucker friends with? Oliver or Arden?
‘Tucker!’ I called.
‘What?’ he snapped.
For a moment I was taken aback by his rude response, but I shook it off. ‘Have you seen Arden?’
‘Maybe,’ Tucker responded vaguely.
‘I’m right here,’ a new voice interjected, sounding amused. ‘I had to hunt down these two, so sorry I’m late.’
I turned to see Arden standing with . . . I blinked my eyes in confusion for a moment. Was I seeing double? Arden was standing with two identical black guys with cornrowed hair. Both were very tall and slender. My eyes widened when I realized they were twins – I hadn’t realized there were twins in my class yesterday.
‘Class is starting, so everyone sit down,’ Arden suddenly snapped, gaining the attention of the boys. ‘Remember what Mr Martin said.’
There were a couple of mumbles exchanged, but finally everyone took their seat. Their expressions told me that they were annoyed, but I guess the principal had threatened them enough to make them listen.
‘Where’s Oli?’ Arden asked, looking around.
‘The last time I saw him was in Ms Rose’s classroom,’ Tucker responded.
‘Well, we can start without him, no big deal,’ Arden responded, turning back to me. ‘Right, Ms Allen?’
‘How about we don’t start at all?’ one of the twins commented.
The other twin turned to give his brother a dirty look. ‘Wow, aren’t you the comedian, Joey.’
‘Why don’t you shut up, Joel?’
‘Why don’t you both shut up?’ Luke, the boy with the blue patterns dyed in his black hair, said.
Both twins turned on him. ‘Make us.’
‘Maybe I will.’
‘You looking for a fight?’
‘Maybe,’ Luke responded innocently.
The first twin stood up. ‘Then bring it!’
‘Guys!’ I said warningly, but it was too late.
A shouting match suddenly sprung up. I could barely understand the words being slung across the room. Zak sat at his desk, smiling at me calmly as though the fight that was going on behind him didn’t exist. Clenching my teeth and shutting my eyes, I forced myself to count to ten. Don’t let them get to you, don’t let them get to you, I chanted to myself.
Suddenly I felt my glasses being removed from my face. ‘Hey!’ I cried, opening my eyes and slapping my hands up to my face in a desperate attempt to snatch them back.
‘Hey, guys, look at this!’ Zak cried, holding my glasses out of my reach.
‘Zak!’ I gasped. When had he gotten up? ‘You traitor! Give those back!’
He laughed at me. ‘Not right now.’
The shouting ceased and I soon found all eyes on me. I blushed, reaching for my glasses again, but Zak held them higher. ‘Take a look at her face,’ he said, addressing all the students.
‘Guys, sit,’ I heard Arden say and half the class went back to sitting.
‘Now, don’t you feel bad? You’re making this poor
girl pull out her hair in frustration,’ Zak started. ‘After yesterday, shouldn’t we give her a break? Remember what Mr Martin said?’
‘We have detention, I think we’re equal,’ Joel (or was it the other twin?) responded gruffly.
‘Um, well, I—’ I was suddenly cut off by the sound of a voice on the intercom.
‘Sorry for the interruption, but the bus for the soccer game in Greenfield is leaving in fifteen minutes. All men’s soccer players report to the locker rooms to prepare to load the bus.’
A few groans swept through the classroom. I waited for people to head out, but no one did.
‘Um, is anyone in here on the soccer team?’ I asked, and four people raised their hands, including Luke and one of the twins. ‘Well, why aren’t you leaving?’
‘Because we have detention, so we can’t go to the game,’ Luke explained.
‘And because of that we’re going to lose the game since a third of our team is in this class,’ another boy added, brushing his dark bangs out of his face to glare at me. Mason? Was that his name?
That didn’t seem very fair to me. Why would the school give a punishment to the whole team for only a few people’s behavior problems? I didn’t think detention and soccer should be related . . . Suddenly an idea hit me, and I couldn’t help but smile a little. ‘If you guys will listen without talking for a few moments, I’ll make a deal,’ I said slowly and clearly. ‘I think you’ll like it. So, if you would please sit down again.’
The standing boys gave each other quick looks, but then slowly began walking to their seats. The smile on my face grew wider – I was actually getting somewhere.
‘OK, here’s the deal,’ I said as soon as they were seated. ‘I’ll let you off detention, all of you, whether you play soccer or not, if you promise to behave in my class. Fun is one thing, but destroying my classroom is another. It’s not fun for me, or you afterward.’
The classroom stayed silent and I held my breath as I waited for their response. Finally Luke smiled at me. ‘Well, I’m going to take the deal.’
Relief flooded through me. ‘Really? Thank you!’