The English walked into the room, not sparing me one glance. He walked to the back of the classroom and dropped his bag onto the floor before taking a seat in one of the empty desks. He proceeded to lean over and dig through his bag.
"Um, good afternoon," I said hesitatingly.
Oliver either ignored me, or didn't hear me, because he didn't make any sign if response. I pursed my lips, frowning at him. He pulled out a big black binder from his backpack and put on his desk, opening it, and flipping through it.
"I said good afternoon," I repeated, louder this time.
Still no answer. He leaned back over to his bag and pulled out a pen, opening it, and beginning to write. Narrowing my eyes, I made my way over to his desk. Didn't he know ignoring people was rude? I cleared my throat when I reached the front of his desk, and he still didn't look up.
"Excuse me!" I cried, slamming my hands down on his desk.
This time he looked up, his expression irritated. A hand went to his ear and I watched as he pulled out an ear bud. Immediately I felt like an idiot.
"Listening to music devices during the school day is against the rules," I told him with a disapproving look.
"I could care less," he responded simply before putting the ear bud back into his ear.
"Hey!"
With a sigh, he removed the ear bud again, looking up at me with narrow eyes. "What do you want?"
"What do I want?" I repeated in disbelief.
He raised an eyebrow. "That's what I asked."
Who did this dude think he was? I opened my mouth to ream him out, but immediately closed it. I was a teacher. I couldn't ream him out. I had to be mature about this. Taking a deep breath, I counted to ten before letting it out slowly. Oliver gave me an impatient look.
"Um, I could use some help setting up for today..."
Oliver smirked, and for a second I couldn't take my eyes away from him. His smirk suited him very well. A blush was making its' way onto my face, but I fought it down.
"I think you can handle it," he commented, his English accent more noticeable than before.
"But you're supposed to help-"
Oliver stuck his ear bud back into his ear, looking back down at his desk. For a full minute I stared at him incredulously. It took all I had not to rip the headphones from his ears and smack him upside the head. If there could be a human definition of rebel, it would be this guy.
"Oliver," I snapped.
No response.
"Well you're lucky I don't have to set anything up today."
Still no response.
Grinding my teeth, I marched away from his desk and back to mine. I may not have been in regular school for almost a year, but I knew that even the most troublesome students weren't like this. Students didn't flat out ignore teachers! But then again, I thought with a quiet sigh, these were delinquents. They didn't care about anything. Especially this one, apparently...
My eyes landed on the attendance list. A small, yellow sticky note was placed on it with something written on it. I picked it up curiously and quickly scanned it.
Harley,
Make sure you take attendance today. Two students skipped yesterday. Skipping is very habitual for students here, so we have to take attendance seriously.
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."
"What do you mean 'someone like me'?" I responded, mimicking his look. "Remember-"
"You're a teacher, yeah, I got it. Just sign my pass."
With an indignant huff of air, I grabbed the card out of his hand and initialed it quickly. When I went to hand it back to him I "accidentally" let it slip out of my hand. Oliver spoiled my plans by quickly snatching it before it dropped out of his reach. He smirked at me one last time before turning his back on me and leaving the room. A sigh escaped my lips as I watched him leave. Obviously he was going to be no help in the future.
I made my way to the supply room to double check that everything was put away. There was no way I was going to try cooking with my senior class right now after what happened yesterday. To waste some time, I opened every cabinet and began to familiarize myself with the whereabouts of everything.
My eyes landed on a dirty plate and knife by the microwave. I walked over to them with a frown on my face, picking up the dirty dishes. Had someone came in here to cook lunch while I was at lunch? Maybe it was another teacher? I shrugged, putting the plates in the dishwasher that was in the room.
This room was really well equipped. It had an oven, a microwave, a huge refrigerator with a separate, but equally as large, freezer, a twin sink, and plenty of cabinets. The classroom itself was what I expected it to be, maybe a little fancier. Each table had stove tops, mini ovens, and sinks connected them for the student to use. But it must have cost a fortune.
A pile of cookbooks on one of the tables in the supply room caught my attention and I walked over to them, grabbing the first one I touched. Perhaps I could find something new to cook for Will and Elliot while I was waiting for my next class...
The bell signaling the ending of sixth period rang, nearly making me fall off the stool I was now seated on in surprise. I quickly looked around the room to see if I could find anything suitable enough for a bookmark. Some of the meal ideas in this book were great, and I didn't want to lose them. The sound of students entering the room forced me to grab the closest thing to me to use. I stuffed it into the cookbook and shut it, sliding it closer to the table before making my way out of the supply room.
"Is she not here?" I heard someone ask before I stepped out.
"Maybe."
Listening hard, I stayed by the door, waiting to see if they said anything else. Someone laughed, and I heard what sounded like someone running into a desk.
"I wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't here," another person commented. "I bet yesterday she went home crying."
"I'd believe it," the first guy said with a laugh.
I scowled, stepping out of the room now. Immediately I looked for the three who were talking about me. When I located them I gave them the harshest glare I could. They looked back at me in surprise before turning around quickly. I was about to say something to them, but Will's advice popped back into my head. Dropping the scowl, I put a polite smile on my face. Nice. Think nice.
My eyes surveyed the classroom and I found Zak, sitting at front and center with his hands clasped on the desk in front of him, waiting patiently. He smiled at me and I couldn't help but respond to it with a more sincere one of mine. The second bell rang, but no one took his seat. Not like I expected them to... well, not all of them. I expected some to listen. I shot Zak an accusing look, which he understood immediately.
"I can't force them to do anything," he told me with a shrug. "They only always listen to Oliver."
My eye scanned the classroom again and I realized that I didn't see Oliver, or Arden for that matter. I knew they were both here... Were they skipping? I could see Oliver skipping, but not Arden. For a moment, I actually felt disappointed.
Suddenly the door opened and Tucker walked in without sparing me a glance. Instead of being annoyed, I quickly raced through my thoughts. Which boy did Tucker follow? Oliver or Arden? Er...
"Tucker!" I called, gaining his attention.
"What?" he snapped.
For a moment I was taken aback by his rude response, but I shook it off. "Have you see Arden?"
"Maybe," Tucker responded vaguely.
"I'm right here," a new voice interjected, sounding amused. "I had to hunt down these two, so sorry I'm late."
I turned to see Arden standing with... I blinked my eyes in confusion for a moment. Was I seeing double? It looked like Arden was standing with two, identical, young men with blonde hair. Both were very tall and slender. My eyes widened when I realized they were twins. This was my first time meeting a pair of twins in real life!
"Hey," one of the twin students greeted me. "You're cute."
A blush made it's way onto my face, but I ignored it. I cleared my throat. "P-please refrain from making comments like that in the future..."
"Suck up," his brother muttered before pushing away from Arden and joining a group of boys on the other side of the room.
"Joel, Greg, Mason, Ben, Aaron," Arden suddenly snapped, gaining the attention of five boys, including one of the twins, who I assumed to be the people whose names he said. "Take your seat."
Immediately the five students went silent and went to their seats. I watched in shock as they sat and faced me. Their expressions told me that they were annoyed, but I guess they couldn't say not to Arden. Arden grinned at me before taking a seat next to Zak. Zak looked at him in disgust, but said nothing.
"Where's Oli?" Arden asked, looking around. "Where's my favorite English guy?"
"Don't know," Zak responded simply, keeping a straight gaze.
"Tucker?"
My eyes flicked to the blonde who frowned at Arden.
"I don't really care where that guy is," Tucker told Arden. "The last time I saw him was in Ms. Rose's classroom though."
"Well, we can start without him, no big deal," Arden responded, turning back to me. "Right, Ms. Allen?"
"But he's skipping," I said with a frown. "He can't skip..."
Guffawing laughter came from the group of boys that were still standing in the far corner of the classroom. Scowls immediately came on all those students who were seated as they turned to glare. I could definitely tell who followed whom. Arden could at least keep his followers under control. Thought it was a little upsetting to see how the twins were on opposite sides. Did they get along still?
Arden suddenly stood up. "Oi!"
The group in the corner ignored him. His followers soon stood up and shouted at the other people to sit down. I had a bad feeling about this.
"Um, listen-"
"Just sit down for now!" one of the boys whose name I didn't know yet said. "Oliver isn't here, so the least you can do is behave the slightest bit!"
"Shut up!" a few of the boys in the other group responded. "We'll do what we want until Oliver says so."
"Oh, you boys are independent," Arden teased, rolling his eyes. "Do you abide to that guy's every whim?"
"Hey!" I interjected, trying to gain their attention. "Guys!"
"We don't abide his every whim!"
"Really?"
"I think you guys do," Tucker agreed with Arden, a smirk appearing on his face.
"Are you looking for a fight?" the boy with blue coon tails demanded.
"Maybe," Tucker responded.
"Guys!" I cried again, but it was useless.
A shouting match suddenly sprung up. I could barely understand the words being slung across the room. Zak sat at his desk, smiling at me calmly as though the fight that was going on behind him didn't exist. Clenching my teeth and shutting my eyes, I forced myself to count to ten. Don't let them get to you; don't let them get to you, I chanted to myself.
Suddenly I felt my glasses being removed form my face. "Hey!" I cried, opening my eyes and slapping my hands up to my face in a desperate attempt to snatch them.
"Hey guys, look at this!" Zak cried, holding my glasses out of my reach.
"Zak!" I gasped. "You traitor! Give those back!"
Zak laughed at me. "Not right now."
The shouting ceased and I soon found all eyes on me. I blushed, reaching for my glasses again, but Zak held them higher.
"Take a look at her face," Zak said, addressing all the students.
"Guys, sit," I heard Arden say and half the class went back to sitting.
"Now, don't you feel bad? You're making this poor girl pull out her hair in frustration," Zak said, talking to the other member's of his group. "I understand Oliver isn't here, but after yesterday, shouldn't we give her a break?"
"We have detention, I think we're equal," the coon tail man responded.
"Um, well I-" I was suddenly cut off by the sound of a voice on the intercom.
"Sorry for the interruption, but the bus for the soccer game in Greenfield is leaving in fifteen minutes. All men's soccer players report to the locker rooms to prepare to load the bus. That's all."
A few groans swept through the classroom. I waited for people to get up, but no one did.
"Um, is anyone in here on the soccer team?" I asked and six people raised their hands, including the coon tail guy. "Well, why aren't you leaving?"
"Because since we have detention, we can't go to the game," the coon tail man said, glaring at me. "And because of that, we're going to lose the game since a third of our team is in this class."
"Yeah," a few people agreed.
That didn't seem very fair to me. Why would the school put punishment on the whole team for only a few people's problem? I didn't think detention and soccer should be related... Suddenly an idea hit me and I couldn't help but smile a little.
"If you guys will listen without talking for a few moments, I'll make a deal," I said slowly and clearly. "I think you'll like it. So if you would, please take a seat."
The standing boys gave each other quick looks, but then slowly began walking to their seats. The smile on my face grew wider. I was actually getting somewhere.
"Okay, here's the deal," I said as soon as they were seated. "I'll let you off detention, all of you, whether you play soccer or not, if you promise to behave at least a little in my class. Fun is one thing, but destroying my classroom is another. It's not fun for me or you afterwards."
The classroom stayed silent and I held my breath as I waited for their response. Finally the coon tail man smiled at me.
"Well, I'm going to have to take this deal."
Relief flooded through me. "Really? Thank you..." I trailed off, searching my seating chart for his name. "Luke?"
"Yup," Luke responded with a nod.
"I accept too," another boy said raising his hand. "Coach will kill me if I miss more than just this game."
"Same," another student agreed.
"What about the people that don't play soccer? Is there any kind of deal I could interest you in?" I asked, my eyes searching around the room. "Or is letting you off detention enough?"
"Can you do that?" a boy with curly brown hair asked.
"If I can give you detention, I'm sure I can remove it," I responded with a nod.
"Then that's okay with me," the boy responded with a sigh. "I have a job after school. I could have gotten fired."
I felt a clap on my back and I jumped slightly, turning to Zak. I forgot he was standing beside me. He grinned down at me, placing my glasses back on my face. My eyes widened in surprise when I realized I hadn't had them on. My face heated up in embarrassment and I pursed my lips at Zak.
"My glasses stay on my face," I warned him.
"Good job," he responded. "Bribery is a good way to handle delinquents."
"What? No! It's not bribery!" I denied. "It's deal making!"
"Sure," Zak said with another grin. "Whatever you say."
"Zak!"
"It's bribery," another voice commented and I turned to see Arden.
"No it's not!"
"Well, Ms. Allen, since we don't get to bake those delicious cookies, what are we doing for the rest of class?" he asked, changing the topic.
The class now refocused its' attention on me. I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. "Well... I actually thought it was going to take longer for me to convince you guys about the deal- which if you guys break your end, you can expect detention again," I added, eying everyone individually. "Understood?"
"Understood," they echoed with the exception of one. Tucker just rolled his eyes.
"Well to continue what I was saying before, I didn't have anything else planned, so I guess you guys can do whatever you want as long as you keep the volume down," I finished with a shrug. "Tomorrow we'll start baking again... and I swear if there's a food fight-"
"There won't be," Arden assured me. "I'll make sure to that."
I turned to him now as the class began chatting again. "Um... thanks."
"No problem, Harley."
"I told you not to-"
"Relax," Arden said with a laugh. "No one else is listening."
I sighed again. Well, he was right. I glanced at the door again, frowning. I guessed Oliver wasn't going to show up. Was he really skipping? The thought made me irritated. If he thought he could get away with skipping my class, he thought wrong.
_________________________________________
GASP! Last day before the nominees for the watty awards are announced :O :O Please vote, vote, vote for me :D Although to be honest I'm not expecting much since this story is at chapter eight (lol) so I'm not going to be disappointed if I'm not, but still! Just in case ;D Thank ya
Oh, and as a heads up, you don't have to worry about trying to know all the students in Harley's class. Really only: Tucker, Arden, Oliver, Zak, Joey, and Joel. Those six will have the biggest parts in the story.
Hope you like this chapter :D I feel better about it than last chapter! Facebook page in external link! And I finally got a myspace so for those asking, feel free to add me. Search "Jordan Lynde". I have the same profile picture and I will be more than willing to answer questions about anything you want to / need to know :D Kay, adios!
[Today's Song: Never Give In - Black Veil Brides]