The day has been quite...boring. Really. Nothing has happened. We've had our classes and all the teachers are getting us to do is ice breakers like we don't already know each other.
Luckily it's lunch now and I'm just waiting for Zoë and Birdie to come to the cafeteria, I have only one class without one of them, physics.
Mr Daley, our physics teacher is actually such a joy. He makes the clases fun and intriguing, he's a good teacher. He's also super close to the students, we talk to him about lots of stuff and whenever we don't find class interesting he finds a way to teach it again to make it more interesting for all of us.
I don't know a single person who's failing his class, it's the most passable class you could have. The learning is easy and the teacher is good.
"Letty!" Zoë says as she approaches our regular lunch spot.
The girls and I aren't popular. Yeah we're known around school but we don't click with everyone. In school we really only have each other and that's pretty much all we've needed all these years.
"Hey ZoZo." I say with a smile.
"How was your physics class?" She asks me while we eat the fries she has together.
"It's Mr Daley, so it was all good. Great first day back lesson, especially since all the others have been boring as hell." I say dusting my hands off.
"You're lucky, you and birdie have him. I have miss amber and she's so boring we all fell asleep."
"She actually sucks." I say and we let out a little laugh as birdie approaches the table.
"Have you guys seen the new English teacher?" She asks in excitement.
"Hi to you too B." Zoë says with some sarcasm.
"Hi, have you?" She asks us again.
"No why?" I ask eating my own fries now with both Birdie and Zoë.
"Shit. I wanted to know if you guys saw her, she's supposed to be really hot but a total bitch too." She says as she sighs.
"Did you see her? Or have her for English?" Zoë asks.
"No I haven't seen her or have her for English, I'm stuck with mr pat." She sighs and we both let out a laugh.
Mr Pat, is know for being the teacher to do all sorts of gross things while teaching. And he brings up the topic of pedophilia a little too much, any chance he gets. He's also a bit of a sexist.
None of us have any idea why the school still has him.
Then again, it's the Hamptons, you could buy your way into anything around here.
"I'm so sorry B, maybe you could put in a request to be moved before anyone else does." I say.
"I'm gonna get my dad to do it, I can't with the man. I swear he's a child offender." She says annoyed and both me and Zoë laugh.
We talked for the rest of lunch about everything new in school, how we thought the year would go and inevitably, the back to school party that's been thrown.
The three of us always get invited but we don't show, very rarely do we show. We always spend those days doing something we all like, since parties aren't really our scenes.
"Okay we have to go to English now." Zoë sighs as she gets up.
"Hopefully you have the new teacher." Birdie says.
"Hopefully." I say crossing my fingers.
"Let's go Letty, we'll see you later B." Zoë says looping her arm with mine.
"Bye guys." Birdie waves as she walks in the opposite direction.
"If we get her what do you think she'll be like?" I ask Zoë as we walk to English.
"Not sure, hopefully she's a sweet teacher, we need more of those." She says as we enter the English room.
No one is here yet so both me and Zoë pick seats next to each other near the back but not quite back.
The students start trickling in one by one until the class is full of students chatter and laughter.
"Alright, I don't have time to be babying you all today. So please turn your ears on and take a seat." The teacher says walking in.
It's the same woman who stole my markers. Marker thief.
My eyes go wide in her direction and Zoë notices.
"Why are you looking at her like that?" Zoë ask as the student chatter dies down.
"She's the same woman who stole the markers from me in target." I say and she hold in a silent laugh as the teachers eyes scan the class.
After a couple seconds of her eyes moving they land on me before raising a knowing eyebrow and that same condescending smirk moves into her face.
"Okay, my name is miss Fairbourne, I'll be replacing your old teacher miss Archer. We're going to start easy for the first five minutes. I want you all to stand up and say your name, birthday and one interesting thing about yourself. One by one, I'll start." She takes a breath standing with her back towards the board now.
"My name is Miss Fairbourne, my birthday is on the 3rd of February and I wind glide for fun. Now the next person." She says leaning her hip against the desk.
Nobody speaks up and the class is silent. "Have you all suddenly gone mute?" She asks raising an eyebrow.
Again she's met with silence from even me. I look down in my lap twiddling my thumbs, I'm a little nervous and I don't know why.
"Someone better be next otherwise I'll give the whole class detention. I don't mind staying late. But like I said I'm not here to baby you. So someone get talking." She says raising her voice a little.
I look around the class and it seems like no one is eager to start talking. I look to Zoë and give her a look. She looks at me the same way and she stands up. With the unspoken communication I know I'll be next.
"My names Zoë, my birthdays on the 9th of December and I'm from Egypt." Zoë says almost too quiet but her lips move up into a smile.
"Well done and thank you Zoë. I'll add five extra credits to your score." She says noting it down as everyone's ears perk up at the word extra credit.
I stand up next but my knees feel like they're going to give way beneath me. "My names Collette, my birthday is on the 26th of February and I enjoy reading." In silently say.
Miss Fairbourne's eyes look at me the entire time and she offers a warm smile instead of the condescending one from earlier and a few days ago.
"Thank you Collette. Someone else now." She says and the everyone starts introducing themselves one by one.
The whole task only took the class about seven minutes in total.
It's helped us all learn at least one new thing about each other, like today I learned that this boy named, carter the quiet kid, is the only boy in a family full of girls, even his mothers.
Once we all had a turn, miss Fairbourne spoke again "Alright, now we all know each other, and I know what you've learned. I'm going to ask you summarise one of the three books you read last year. Your favourite would do. I expect no less than two pages and no less than 2,500 words. I'll give you the rest of the lesson and some of tomorrow's lesson to complete it but by the end of my lesson I expect it to be complete. If it isn't you can expect a detention." She said turning around to her desk and we all groaned pulling out either our laptops or notebooks.
"Let it be handwritten please." Miss Fairbourne spoke up again.
We all sighed or let out annoyed huff once more. She is the only teacher to give us actual work on the first day back.
I think I'm starting to regret saying that the other classes were boring.
"Miss, I forgot which books we read last year, what were they?" Josh, a boy in the class asks.
"Pride and Prejudice, a midsummers night-dream and of mice and men." She spoke loudly so everyone could hear.
I decided to go with pride and prejudice. It was my favourite. I've read it more than 4 times to I know it like the back of my hand.
The love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy is undeniably good. The things they had to over come just to be together were challenging and they still made it work.
I was one page in when I decided to glance around the silent class. Zoë looked to be working hard, she had her laptop out looking over her notes from last year. I can see she chose to go with a midsummers night-dream.
I look around once more before my eyes fall on miss Fairbourne. She looks to be very concentrated as she types away on her laptop.
She's pretty. She's got thick eyebrows that I didn't notice the last time I saw her, her eyes are still a piercing green colour. Her lips rest in perfect heart like shape. They're a perfect yet intimidating red colour. Painted to perfection. She has eyeliner on too that makes her green eyes pop. Her hair is down and slightly wavy as it falls onto her back.
She's dressed somewhat professionally, it looks comfortable yet professional. She's wearing a pair of black dress pants that have a loose or flowy fit to her, a black top and a pair of black shiny heels with a red underneath that match her lips perfect.
Her eyes shoot out to mine and I immediately look down and drop my pen. The look made me nervous for some reason.
"Please make sure that you actually have 2,500 words before you decide to look around." She says and I sigh at her words moving back to continue writing.
The class ended quickly and we all packed up about to leave. Luckily my next period is a free.
"Please make sure that your summaries are ready for tomorrow after class. Collette, please stay back." She said before dismissing everyone.
I looked at Zoë and she looked at me before leaving. "I'll wait for you outside yeah?" She whispered and I nodded swallowing the lump in my throat.
I walk over to her desk and stand in front of it at a respectable distance.
"You wanted me to stay back?" I say timidly as she looks up from her computer.
"Yes, I assume you're finished with the summary?" She asks folding her finger together resting her chin on them.
It's a simple action but she makes me intimidated. She has such an authoritative aura, it's scary.
She's also not wrong. I am finished with it. It was easy for me. I love the book and everything it holds, I could talk or write about it for hours.
"I-uh- yeah. I finished it." I say quietly.
"Good let's see it. You have a free now yes?" She asks leaning up off her desk and walking around to her door.
"Go to your free Zoë, Collette is still a bit busy here." She says out the door and I can see Zoë tense a little before nodding.
"Do you not have another class?" I ask her quietly.
"If I did I wouldn't have told you to stay would I? Think." She says pointing a finger to her temple before grabbing a marker, pen, pencil, ruler and eraser off her desk before moving to sit at one of the students desks.
"You could've been nicer about that." I say in a sarcasm tone while taking my summary out.
"If we think then I will be." She says with a fake smile of her own.
"Here." I hand her my summary and take a seat she pointed to.
"You have remarkable handwriting. It's very neat." She says looking over the 3 pages I had written.
"Thank you?" I say unsure of how to answer.
"You chose pride and prejudice?" She asks reading and marking over some stuff I've written.
"It's one of my favourites." I tell her.
"You have some good taste then. It's well written I'll give you that." She says handing me back my paper with red writings, pen marks and ruler likes in it.
"But?" I ask scanning the pages with my eyes.
"You lack depth. It's well written yes, but without the depth it means nothing. I've added a few ruler lines where you can use better words to fit what you want to say, circled in pen where you missed capital letters and added small markings in red to the places where you should dig deeper into a topic. If you feel the need to write more about them, do it. You articulate yourself well." She says pointing to my page with her finger, she has a dark red nail polish on her nails. Almost a cherry red.
"How?" I ask her and she looks back at me.
"Put in your own opinions toward the end. What makes the love story between Bennet and Darcy so immaculate to you. You've got it in you, I know that much." She says looking back at me as she crosses one leg over the other resting her chin atop her interlocked fingers.
Something about her word made me feel proud. It's been so long since anyone has seen potential in me. It's weird the same woman who stole my markers is the one to make me feel proud.
"How do you know I have it in me?" I ask her in a slight rude and sarcastic tone. I didn't mean for it to be, it just slipped out.
"First of all, cut the attitude and sarcasm. And secondly, you're different from the rest do your peers, you write like someone who rights for publishing companies while everyone else writes like they are regurgitating what they learn. You make it personal." She say raising and eyebrow at my rudeness
She's right again. I like writing. I've been doing it for a while, but I have a problem. I can only write about things that I feel passionate about. I can't write school essays if I don't like what I have to write them about. But English is different, I could write about any topic we have in this class, it's always so exciting.
"Okay. I'll redo it for tomorrow then." I say and she rises from her chair and i mimic her actions.
"I'll look forward to reading it then." She say opening the door for me to walk out.
I head to the library so I can get a head start on this. I have to get it done before tonight.