Here’s to Never Growing Up (teacherxstudent)

Chapter 6

Things were still not so great at home, and they were also going downhill at school. Besides Jackie’s constant quarrels followed by insane crying and then by pathetic reconciliation with Jake, I’d gotten on the Philosophy teacher’s dark side. I’m not even sure why or how. All I know is that he no longer playfully teased me in class and did nothing but ignore me ever since.

For some intelligent reason, Danny and I thought it was a good idea to go to the guidance counsellor asking about the Philosophy project’s due date. It’s not our fault that Mr. Law makes it look like he’s about to murder you whenever you talk to him. Furthermore, that woman knows everything happening in this school.

We called her to us after school and spoke about our doubts with the project. We also complained to her about him and his non-existent teaching style. All the whole class knows, is that we have a project due somewhere in the far future and that this project is going to be worth a large percentage of our final grade. Well, apparently half of the information we were aware of turned out to be wrong. No one has the slightest idea of even the objective or instructions of the project. We – and by ‘we’ I mean Danny and my nodding head – confessed to all of this to the guidance counsellor.

In return, not only did the guru nob about a hundred times and confirmed to us the actual deadline, but she also held up a finger at us and walked away. We were puzzled, but moments later, she returned with the defendant by her side. For some unknown reason, she thought it was a good idea, probably because she’s tired of hearing numerous complaints about the aging man.

He marched angrily as she strode towards us and was the first to speak. Mr. Buckteeth victimized himself and demanded us to repeat every word that had been said to the pumpkin-shaped lady, not understanding why we went straight to her and not to him. Danny did as he requested but spoke in a much shyer and polite manner than a few minutes ago.

“Okay, first of all,” he spoke with scornful anger and a hint of disquietude, “you are no longer kids. I don’t need to be constantly telling you everything. Some things you need to learn to figure out on your own.”

His teethy smirk filled with wrinkles and contempt made me grit my teeth. So he just expects us to figure out the due date and everything about the project on by ourselves? How the f**k would that be possible if he was the one who invented the entire thing?

“Do you really think your professors in college will be holding your hand like we do?” Can I beat him up right here and now? He always uses this same line. I don’t think he really understands that we are not in college yet. Or is it just an excuse so he won’t have to do his own freaking job? I said nothing, only looking back and forth between him and Danny as they took turns speaking. Daniel’s leg kept trembling and he kept his hands pressed together, fidgeting with his thumbs. He spoke with an apologetic tone as Mr. Buckteeth kept his teeth-gritting, scornful smile, showing of his beautiful, crooked, and yellow-aged teeth. I felt sorry for Danny, I just wanted to step in and yell at the man, telling him that he’s the one who’s at fault here, but my timid nature kicked in and I said nothing during the entire discussion.

I don’t know what conclusion this discussion came to – if it did have any – as I stopped listening with the repeating question in my mind: why the f**k did she have to bring him to us?! However, it came to an abrupt ending, and soon, Mr. Law was laughing conceitedly as he walked away. The counsellor shrugged and contorted her mouth before doing so as well. Meanwhile, Danny and I remained in the same seats, discussing the situation, insulting the man further and complaining about this unjustness.

“Fuck.” I suddenly gasped.

“What?” he inquired.

“Tomorrow I have class with him.” I laughed nervously.

“God save your soul.” he added, and we both laughed. “But tell me how it goes afterwards.”

And so, I did. The following day, I entered the classroom reluctantly and sat on my usual seat. Shortly after, Mr. Law walked in, looking tired and with no patience to put up with teenagers. His usual foul temper duplicated, and I feared for my future as his student. He could easily make me fail his class just because he hates me, and if I ever complained, the principle (who has a major in psychology) would just see my reasoning as a case of projection.

He glanced at me for not even a second with fury in his eyes, then looked down at his papers, putting his glasses on.

“I have heard some complaints about the apparent lack of knowledge regarding your project, which is due in exactly two weeks from tomorrow.” he hammered down the date on the board, destroying the marker with every motion.

Everyone looked around, whispering in outrage. I smirked. There’s no reason for him to only be angry at Danny and I now that everyone is expressing their obvious confusion. This only made him increasingly irate and yelled, forcing everyone silent.

He gave off his contemptuous laughter once again and I just felt like hiding under my desk. “First of all, I don’t understand why anyone would go to Ms. Peggi before coming to me, she’s got enough problems to deal with already. And secondly…” he went on and on without stop, repeating the same line making sure we understand that university professors don’t give a rat’s ass about us. My theory is that he was either neglected or abused by one of his professors, or he planned on being one, until all universities declined him. Mr. Law then went on, explaining everything we needed to know for the project. I took quite useful notes, amazed at his willingness to answer any questions. I just don’t understand why he couldn’t have simply done this earlier, before everyone was already complaining about him.

“Now, if you’d gone to the school website, you would’ve seen all of this information on the class page.” he spoke derisively. Everyone around me started asking what the enrolment key for the class page was. A shy boy asked me, as did Clara and Angie, but I didn’t know either. I told him to ask Mr. Law, but he was too scared. Everyone was. They just kept asking each other, but no one knew.

I sighed. What do I have to lose? I shot up my arm and everyone stared at me. Mr. Law scowled before asking what it was that I wanted. I asked him for the enrolment key and he smirked contemptuously.

“We’re almost halfway through the year, and you ask that now?” he chuckled, but everyone could tell it was not from amusement.

Noticing his hostility, particularly against me, some of the buys came to the rescue. About five all repeated “Yeah, I don’t know the password either.” in agreement with me. The kind jock smiled back at me. I took that as a reward for my bravery.

“It’s not my fault that you didn’t hear when I first told you what it was.” he insisted. His nose cringed and seemed to twitch in a dance with his upper lip.

“We tried that password, but it seems to be wrong.” another guy added.

“Oh.” was all that came out of that pathetic, embarrassed mouth. He was silent for a while and suddenly became flustered. “Then, JV,” he looked at the jock and his voice cooled down, “would you mind going to the I.T. office and ask for the correct password, please.” Somehow, to him, he was able to speak politely. He looked embarrassed and the humiliation only worsened my position.

He was tolerant for the rest of the time… That was until he instructed each of us to complete an outline until the end of the period. He walked around the room, stopping in front of every student, checking up on them and asking how their ideas were coming... Every student but me, I mean. And no, it wasn’t just a coincidence or a mere case of projection, as I wasn’t the only one who noticed. So did Angie, Parker and Clara. Parker had a silent laughing fit, while Angie and Clara looked at me in shock when he so obviously skipped from Clara, who sat in front of me, to the shy boy who sits behind me. I couldn’t help it but laugh. Adults are so f*****g hypocritical. Usually they would call this childish behavior, but I guess it’s not if an adult does it. The situation was way too funny for me to hold it in and Clara, being Clara, had told everyone by the end of the classtime about what had happened.

I left the room, insanely laughing my ass off. Angie followed me as if I were a lunatic in need of supervision. We repeated the story to Danny and Alex, both of whom didn’t find it as funny as I did. Danny feared for his life as tomorrow was his turn to have class with the i***t, but Angie and Alex insisted that I should speak to the guidance counsellor about the matter. Honestly, however, I didn’t want to. That woman can be the funniest being on the planet, but when she’s annoyed, which is quite common, she can be a master warlord. I decided to just wait it out and see how the next few classes go.

The next day, Danny showed up at our lunch table, telling me that Mr. Buckteeth was extremely nice to him. He described a man with amazing sense of humor who was foreign to both Angie and I. We looked at each other with furrowed eyebrows spelling out confusion. What the f**k, was my first reaction. But maybe that Freudian theory is actually correct. Maybe I was just so mad at Buckteeth that I started projecting my own feelings onto him. We’ll just have to see how tomorrow goes.

Meanwhile, Jackie was gone. She didn’t show up for lunch at all and my suspicions were all on Jake. I examined the jockeys’ table – he wasn’t there either. On our way to the back of the atrium, I took a detour. There was only one place I could think of them being in – unless they were dumber than I thought. The only place in the school without cameras – besides inside the classrooms. A room I, too, had once used.

And there they were. Right under the staircase, a muscular, pea-brained rodent kept yelling at Jackie, who kept wiping off her own tears. I could barely hear what they were saying, but I understood that he was tired of keeping up with the secret relationship they had. No wonder… Jackie is a truly beautiful girl, and he knows it, so he loves to showcase her around like a prize with no feelings.

They had not yet seen me, and I debated on what I should do. I had the choice of leaving my friend with the fuckboy, which I would never do, or I could interfere and probably have her stop talking to me for a week or two. That’s when my rusty lightbulb turned on.

Every day, after the secondary side finishes with lunch, it was time for the elementary’s turn. I dashed into the cafeteria, racing ahead of some little kids who followed behind their teacher like ducklings. I searched the room filled with excitement and huge dreams until I spotted two kids I had tutored the previous year. They recognized me right away and greeted me with wide grins and hugs. I told them my plan and they laughed in acceptance.

“Where are you taking those two?” a vigilant teacher objected as I stole the two children from their seats.

“I just need to film something for a class project. I swear it will only take like five minutes.” The woman nodded understandingly, though hesitant, and we ran off.

“Okay, their names are Jake and Jackie. You know what you have to do.”

The two girls giggled, looking at each other, and ran off. I went back to my line of sight and saw that the two troubled love birds were still fighting. The girls then sneaked ahead and, as I gave them a signal, they stomped onto the stairs above the frightened couple, chanting, “Jackie and Jake, sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…” The two vanished before the kids could finish their song. They laughed as they ran back to me and I sent them back to lunch, giving each of them a piece of candy I’d stolen from one of the elementary teachers I ran into.

The deed had been done and I was about thirty minutes late to my next class – Environmental Studies. The teacher eyed me as I walked into the room, as did everybody else. Great, watching yet another movie about how it took so long for this great country to accept global warming as truth.

“And why are you late?” the teacher tried to sound menacing, but his shiny bald head under the sunlight had gotten me distracted. “Maybe you can also explain your friend’s tardiness as well as she didn’t seem to know reason herself.” I looked back at Jackie who was already sitting at her usual seat. I sighed, thankful that my plan had worked.

All I did was keep sucking the candy and smile at him, avoiding the question placed. I walked up to my seat as he sighed, sitting between Angie and Alex who both looked at me questioningly until I gave in. Even Jackie had already figured out that I was the mastermind behind the whole plan – as it involved kids, people from my mental age as they say – but she wasn’t half as mad as I thought she would be. Apparently, the discussion had reached a point where Jake was insulting her continually.

“Girls.” Mr. Baldie tried to signal us to be quiet.

We ignored him.

“I think I’m going to have to break up with him.” Jackie suddenly announced.

“What?!” we all exclaimed, drawing the whole classroom’s attention onto us.

“Shush!!” the man who said goodbye to his hair too early forced me to sit in the empty back row and moved Jackie to the vacant row in front of me. For some reason, he thought Alex and Angie were completely innocent.

I slipped out my phone and started sending messages to our group chat. “Are you sure you want to do this, Jackie?”

Angie and Alex looked back at me, amazed at my ignoring-people skills.

“It just isn’t working out.” Jackie replied. She used her long, thick hair to cover up her phone and pretended to fall asleep to the extremely boring documentary. “My parents don’t let me see Jake anymore and he just doesn’t seem to understand. I keep getting the feeling that, to him, there’s no point in seeing each other if other people can’t see us.” I could hear Jackie sniffle and I felt like breaking that dirtbag’s nose.

“Guys, I can almost hear the smoke coming out of Mr. Stone’s ears from up here. He can totally see you guys texting.” Danny warned.

“Oh, no. What’s he gonna do, water us?” I said sarcastically. Danny burst out laughing and Angie and Alex giggled. The baldie’s whole crystal sphere of a head turned bright red.

“Guys,” Jackie interrupted, “please be honest. Do you think Jake really loves me?” Caught by surprise, everyone took a long time to answer.

Angie answered with a “maybe”, followed by a “yes”, which was then chased by a “probably”. Danny and Alex gave probably the vaguest answer, and I answered with an honest and harsh “no”. Angie and Alex shot sudden glares at me and Danny opened a private chat saying, “Em, being a savage once again.” Jackie asked for honest answers, didn’t she? It’s enough having her boyfriend tricking her, but her friends too?

“There’s no way any of us could possibly know the correct answer to that question, Jackie, so you can’t really take anything from our answers.” Alex replied, trying to reassure her.

“No, but Em is right.” Jackie finally showed signs of life. “And I know all of you think the same as Em but are too scared to say it. I’m starting to realize the truth now and I think the best thing to do is to break off from the leash. Thanks for your honesty, Em.”

I’m not really sure if I made the right choice or if I should be scared.