Daddy

2. English and Prejudice

"So can anyone tell me what a simile is?" Nobody rose their hand to answer. My heart began to beat fast. "No one? Do I have to choose?" He looked through the class and his eyes landed on me. "Melanie. Please explain to the class what a simile is."

I froze as the class looked at me. I couldn't speak. I hated the students here. If you did something stupid, they'd make fun of you. If you said something stupid, they'd make fun of you. It always ends the same. Embarrassment.

"Melanie? Are you ok?" Mr. Styles asked. "Yea I uh- a simile is comparing two things using like or as." He smiled at me and continued on.

"Very good. Someone tell me what a metaphor is." Again, nobody came forward. "Ok. Michael, what is a metaphor? Go."

"Oh uh, comparing two things not using like or as?" Mr. Styles clapped once. "Yes! Now someone give me a good example of a simile. Not something like, she was as beautiful as a goddess." He looked directly at me. A girl rose her arm quickly and Mr. Styles called on her.

"The man kissed me like a hungry lion." She looked in the wind like she was day dreaming. He cleared his throat before speaking.

"Well, you're on the right track. But not exactly what I was looking for. The man was as scary and mean as the Grinch himself. Something like that. How about a metaphor?"

"Love is a lemon- either bitter or sweet." My voice didn't match with my brain and words spilled out. Mr. Styles looked at me surprise written on his face as I looked down to avoid any contact.

"That was both metaphoric and poetic. Now that we got that down, turn to page seventeen in your textbooks and read that story. I want you to circle the similes and underline the metaphors." He wrote on the board and sat down in his chair. I took my book out of my bag and opened it to the page assigned. I've never seen this poem before.

With two minutes left I closed the book and put it in my backpack. "Ok class, I will see you tomorrow." Everyone stood up and left as I still packed up my bag.

"Thank you for directing me towards my class this morning Melanie." I turned around only to drop my books.

"Yea no problem." I groaned when I had to bend down for the bruise on my back ached. "Are you ok love?"

"Just fine." I grabbed my books and put them in my bag. "See you tomorrow." I grumbled and walked out of the room. Two minutes left and I'm switching out my books for algebra. I sped walked to my class and took my seat just as a new person closed the door.

"Hello. My name is Kevin Vanderbahl. You can call me Mr. V if you'd like. Your teacher is in the hospital do to medical reasons in which I know nothing of so don't ask." Mr. V was somewhat handsome but not enough to make me warm inside. "Before we begin, I just wanted to let you know a bit about me. So your old teacher won't be here for a while so I'm mainly temporary. I am twenty seven years old, I grew up in Ohio. I have a degree in teaching and education and I was an officer for our local county out in Ohio.

"I moved last year because of issues and now I'm a temporary teacher here at your school. I hope that we will have fun while I'm here with you guys. I don't really have anything for you guys to do. I haven't gotten my technology from the school yet so I couldn't put anything together. But I'm hoping by tomorrow I can put something fun together for an easy grade." The kids did a small cheer before talking to eachother. I gradually took my library book out of my backpack and opened it to the last page I read.

"Pride and Prejudice huh? This book is quite possibly the most insipid novel I have ever read in my life. Why this book is so highly treasured by society is beyond me,

Mr. V pulled up a chair beside me, " It is 345 pages of nothing. The characters are like wispy shadows of something that could be interesting, the language that could be beautiful ends up becoming difficult to decipher and lead me more than once to skip over entire paragraphs because I became tired of having to stumble through them only to emerge unsatisfied, and the plot is non-existent, as though Austen one day decided she wanted to write a novel and began without having any idea what would happen except that there would be a boy and a girl who seemingly didn’t like each other but in the end got married. The story really probably could have been told in about 8 pages, but Austen makes us slog through 345 pages of mind-numbing balls and dinner-parties. That book was a complete snore. "

"Excuse me? I'd like to point out that this book was written 200 years ago and literature was different back then. People spoke differently and used longer sentences. But for the time this book, and all of Jane Austen's other books could almost be considered revolutionary. Not only were they written by a woman, they follow the lives of what can be considered strong female protagonists. I highly doubt that modern literature, especially literature, would be the same without it. This is the most interesting book i have ever read and infact the most loveliest book among Jane Austen's other books.The pleasure which i felt reading it was the thing i which never felt while reading other books... It is beyond explanation."

"Everyone in my English College class agreed with me. It feels good to know that I wasn't crazy when I couldn't figure out the plot because there was none."

"You need to take into account when this was written. A completely different time. It's not meant to be similar to modern historical romances. That is how people spoke, and wrote, back then. That's part of the beauty of this novel. Austen transports you back to her day not only in her story, but by the way she tells it. I pity those who can't understand the humor and wit of Jane Austen. This book is so ahead of its time it's unbelievable. It's got such a dormant but present sense of feminism. I don't know how people don't see that this book goes beyond the story of these characters. So I really do pity you so much." Mr. V chuckled.

"I like you. The way you stuck up for your book is amazing. You are a hero. " I smiled.

"I liked our debate on how much you despise the book and how I love it. I've read this book a thousand times but- my dad burned my copy. So I had to get one from the library."

"I hear devotion. There needs to be more girls like you." I offered a small smile as he continued to stare at me with a barely noticeable smile. Almost as if he was thinking over something. I nodded my head and rose my eyebrows before going back to reading my book. "What's your name?" He asked me.

"Melanie Fay."

"I have a feeling that we are going to be extremely close." His smile still on his face but something else stirred in his eyes making my stomach churn.