"There was, as always, the slight nagging feeling that never left me, but I was trying to deal with that."
-Matt
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“Maybe we should just skip going to that class today,” Julia whispered while we were all listening to Mr. Ehway. “I’m not sure I want to find out who our replacement teacher is.”
“Why would it matter who the teacher is?” Andrew asked. “It’s not going to be Mr. Grey or something, he’s dead. And so is his wife. They won’t bother us, that whole thing was probably just some video prerecorded that he had someone play for us to get us riled up.”
“I know, but it doesn’t seem like we’ve had the best luck this year, and I don’t want another freaky teacher scaring me out of my wits daily.” Julia shivered. I thought about what she was saying and worried a little. What if she was right? What if the replacement for Mr. Grey was another person in on his plan?
Today was the first day the new teacher would be in classes teaching students, and rumors had been flying around like mad. Every time someone stopped to say hi to somebody else, they ended up sharing the latest gossip on Mr. Grey, his death, and his replacement. In less than half an hour we would know who it was though, and we would find out if the teacher was actually an old lady that still went skydiving once a month or if it was the just-out-of-college-hot-twenty-four-year-old.
“They’ll probably be rather mundane in comparison to Mr. Grey,” I muttered. “I wouldn’t worry.”
And I was right. When a young man in a vest and thick-framed, black glasses strolled over and took Mr. Ehway’s place, any fears were evaporated and I breathed a slight sigh of relief. He didn’t look like he would willingly hurt a squirrel, let alone attempt to murder seven rather innocent kids.
“Hey everyone!” He waved at us and grinned. “I am your new math teacher.”
“Well, he kind of fits the just-out-of-college-hot-twenty-four-year-old rumor. Although, I must say that I am rather disappointed that he isn’t an old person who skydives in their spare time or someone who took up the job to be able to feed their seven pet cats.” Amy eyed the guy up and down once more. “He seems like he’ll make this class interesting though, and I don’t think I am going to dread math as much.”
“My name is Mr. Clark, and now I just want to start off with introductions. Let’s see, why don’t we do first name and favorite hobby, just so I know a little bit about you.” Mr. Clark sat himself down on the large rock that was at the front of the class area and placed his chin in his cupped hands. He had short brown hair that was a little spiky in the front. “You start,” He nodded at Kyle.
“I am Kyle, and my hobbies probably include astronomy and navigation.”
“Probably?” Mr. Clark joked. “You mean you aren’t actually sure at all what your hobbies are? Maybe I should start off. My name is Craig and my hobbies are baseball and, well, I enjoy teaching.”
“Okay, then I don’t probably enjoy astronomy and navigating I guess, I just enjoy astronomy and navigation.”
“Aha, the gifted student!” I chuckled at how Mr. Clark picked up on Kyle’s love for learning right away. Kyle didn’t hide his intelligence, in fact he jumped at any opportunity to show off his knowledge. “You guys can just go on down the line introducing yourselves.”
“I’m Johnny, and I like doing stunts!” Johnny then proceeded to stand up and perform some sort of flip thing that I would never be able to describe.
“Very nice, very nice.” Mr. Clark clapped as he laughed lightly at Johnny bowing.
“God, you’re going to end up with fifty broken bones someday,” Amy groaned.
“Is that even possible?” Julia questioned.
“Well, there are two hundred and six bones in an adult human’s body, so yes.” Kyle explained, and Mr. Clark nodded.
“I was so right about you. Okay, I’ll prepare myself to be proved wrong. I won’t be too hurt if it happens. Next person?”
“I am Ethan, and my hobby is painting.”
“Well, that’s kind of cool; I always wished I was artistic. I’m not though. I am not the most creative guy around. Next?”
“I’m Matt, and my hobbies are football and running.” I introduced myself to Mr. Clark.
“Hello Matt. Are you on the football team then?”
“Yeah.”
“And you do cross country?”
“Uh…no. I just kind of run on my own.”
“I see, a mind clearer. That’s what I call activities I do when I need a little break from life. You?” Mr. Clark shifted his focus to Julia.
“I am Juila and I like to play the electric bass.” She spoke quietly. Julia was always the one who came across as rather reticent. Mr. Clark nodded in appreciation and smiled at Julia. He then turned his attention to Amy.
“You?”
“I’m Amy! I like to dance and experiment around with a few other things.”
“Dance, interesting. I plan to spice class up with some music hopefully, maybe you’ll show us a few moves,”
“That’d be cool, but I doubt Matt would ever be able to pick up the graceful part.” Amy joked playfully. Mr. Clark grinned and moved on to Andrew.
“My name is Andrew and my hobby would be soccer.”
“You’re on the team?”
“Yeah, but the fall season is almost over.”
“Well, I wish your teams luck. I hadn’t really planned much of anything for a lesson today besides some introductions and then games or whatever, so I guess you can all just talk for the rest of class. I’ll just sit here, ask me anything you want.”
We all turned to each other exchanging grins. Math class was sounding so much better already, and it almost made me forget about ubiquitous Mr. Grey. There was, as always, the slight nagging feeling that never left me, but I was trying to deal with that. Although Mr. Grey was sending us mixed signals that left nebulous impressions behind, we were going to work out the kinks with that eventually.
“I’m so, so, so incredibly glad he isn’t someone in cahoots with Mr. Grey. You don’t even know how relieving it is and what solace I found in the fact that he is a pleasant guy like this.” Julia looked like she was about to just float away on a cloud of glee in comparison to what a dead weight full of worries she was earlier that morning.
“Well, we can’t always make such quick judgments on people, we never know.”
“Yes, but look at the guy. He isn’t someone who is going to try and poison our food or chase us through the woods with a gun.”
“True, okay Andrew, I have to agree with you for once.”
“Amy! Are you feeling alright?” Julia held a hand up to Amy’s forehead, which Amy swatted away.
“Gosh, we aren’t always so disagreeable, are we?” Amy muttered.
“Actually, I think I have never seen two more pugnacious people than you and Andrew.” I provided.
“Matt! I just noticed! You’re using your big words again once in a while!” Amy clapped excitedly. “See, sometimes it can be nice to let yourself be happy with life.”
“I’m not happy with life. I can’t be happy with life if a dead man is threatening my father, it sounds like it’s something from a supernatural movie. I’m just trying to let myself be relieved that Mr. Grey isn’t going to be in the same clearing with us every day alone for an hour. Do you know how scary it was to sit in math class with him after everything he did?”
“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Julia started, “But I personally find it a little scarier that we have no idea whether he is dead or alive. Mr. Grey’s manipulated our minds to the point where I’m scared to turn my back on anything, and I think that was exactly what he was going for.”
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OHMYGOSH GUESS WHAT GUYS
HAMILTON ACADEMY BOOK ONE IS A FINALIST IN THE WATTY'S
I screamed so loud when I hear, you wouldn't even believe. It's SO CRAZY to me, I still cannot get over it!!!!
I'm SOOOO thankful for everyone's support-you guys got me there! You are all the best!
So, thoughts on this chapter? Any ideas yet about what's up with Mr. Grey?
xx
Ella
Comment, Vote, Fan<3