rich man's world; charlie dalton

[six] ducky

She turned her head in the direction of where he was staring again, pretending  to not have been distracting him from the lecture. "Oh shut it Hall, don't think I don't see the way you slide over your seat to sniff Charlie's hair," he whispered in response, for a quiet boy he was horrible at whispering.

The boys around him stifled a laugh at Todd's comment, Sigrid's nostrils flared in embarrassment. She raised her hand while thinking of an excuse to get out of class, she remembered the conversation she had with Mrs. Dalton in the morning and her foot was out of her table to run toward the door. Todd hissed at her to bring her hand  down because he assumed she was going to tattle him. Or worse, ask to be moved and have all the boys interrogated for possibly saying something to her.

Mr. Keating stopped his lecture, slightly annoyed that he was being interrupted, but smiled away at his vexation and called on her with his pointer. Her hand slowly went down, "Sir, I truly apologize for interrupting but I've just remembered that I have an important presentation with Headmaster Nolan in fifteen minutes. I would've given you the note earlier, but again I'm quite forgetful."

Todd sighed in relief, sinking his head down as the rest of the boys in the classroom turned to stare at her. It was obvious that she hadn't gone to a boarding school  before, most of them saw her as rude. Richard Cameron set his pencil with an agitated sigh and then turned to her as well, "Why are you wasting our time, Hall?"

Mr. Keating looked between them waiting for Sigrid to say something but she deliberately  ignored the redhead, he smiled at her sense of maturity. "Yes, you may go. Would you like someone to escort you to the main room?"

She was about to protest when a hand in the front of the class shot up abruptly, she glared over at the person without particularly knowing who it was. Her eyes softened back into nonchalance when she noticed it was only Charlie, he wasn't all that bad as he made himself out to be. Sure, they weren't friends like Todd and Sigrid already were but he wasn't torturous to be around.

She stood up, shaky-legged from the fear of having such intense stares put down on her, Charlie looked at her worriedly as then walked up to her desk to ask if she was ok. He had one of his hands on her school bag and the other on her shoulder to keep her in place. "Living up to my nickname huh," she whispered under her breath and then tried to pack her things.

Mr. Keating looked between the two, then turned to his blackboard to write a fictional poem on his drawing of the Pritchard's chart. "On the Pritchard's chart, Sonnets to Sigrid is eighty on perfection, but ten on importance because I've got a lecture to finish, Miss Hall's got a meeting to attend, and Charlie? Well, he has a lot of waiting to do with those flirting skills. Am I right boys?"

Charlie didn't respond to his teacher, between shifty eye movement and the way the other boys jokingly repeated how worried Charlie was. Sigrid quickly got annoyed and opened the door, "That was quite unprofessional, Mr. Keating."

She was unamused. Mr. Keating still smiled, knowing that deep inside she was reacting in a way that would be embarrassing. "Alright, Ms. Hall, should I scale it up to a thirty?"

Her tongue popped out from her cheek as she fought the urge to laugh, if he weren't a teacher he'd definitely be a successful comedian. She showed Charlie out the door, "With all due respect, sir, that chart is the most unappealing and disappointing chart I have ever come across in my life. How does one measure poetry on a chart? It sucks the meaning of it. It's like judging a the fruit based on how close to a raspberry it looks."

"If you weren't in such a hurry, I'd ask you to give the lecture yourself."

She rolled her eyes, "I haven't got the patience."