Believe Me, I'm Lying

:Believe Me, I'm Lying: 8

Rob.

Well, habitual skipping wasn't a surprise. I scanned over my attendance list and realized that there were two more students on the list than were in class yesterday, bringing the total count of students in my class up to fourteen. Fourteen senior males I had to deal with for an entire year. If anymore acted like Oliver, Arden, or Tucker I don't think I could handle it... a few more like Zak would be nice though.

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. I repeated his name in my head a few times. Arden Bring. It had a nice ring.

"Hey, idiot."

My head snapped in the direction of Oliver, who was staring at me with a bored expression. I looked around the room and realized that it was still only the two of us. Was he talking to me?

"If you are wondering if I'm talking to you, obviously I am since there is no one else in here," Oliver said in a mocking voice.

Disbelief crossed my face. "Ms. Allen," I told him, doing my best to keep my tone polite. "I'm not 'idiot'."

"Okay, stupid."

"Are you serious right now?" There had to be some limit as to how insolent someone could be!

"Do I look serious?" Oliver asked, giving me a deadpan stare.

"You little-"

"Ah, ah," Oliver responded, 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."

Well, in truth he was older than me, but I was pretending I was twenty-one, so technically he wasn't. "I'm twenty-one, in other words, older than you. And your teacher, so you will call me Ms. Allen."

"Whatever, stupid."

I clenched my jaw. This guy was so infuriating! What was with his aloof attitude? He wasn't going to earn himself a punch to the face if he didn't watch it! No, Harley, I thought, forcing myself to stay calm. I couldn't act violent towards the students. But I could do the best alternative.

"You're just begging for detention aren't you?"

Oliver snorted. "Another thing I could care less about, stupid."

"Don't call me stupid!"

"You're sure riled up easily," Oliver commented, a smirk appearing on his lips.

With an internal groan of irritation, I held in my next retort. He was right. He was riling me up for no good reason. I could deal with him calling me stupid. He was just doing it to irritate me, and I would not let it get to me.

"What do you want?" I asked changing my tone back into something more polite.

"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 class, so don't expect me back."

"Shouldn't you use a study hall for something like this?"

"This is my study hall," Oliver pointed out; narrowing his eyes slightly. "So instead of doing the work I won't do at home, I have to help someone like you out."