Caution: Words Haunt

"Nice of you to join us." Mrs. Hoopes greeted me when I showed up slightly late for my English class.

"Well, it took some debating, but I finally deemed you good enough to be graced with my presence." I mocked.

"Just sit down please."

"Well, since you asked so nicely-" I said, cutting myself off and finally sitting down. As I did, I found myself surprised to see that I was taking out my pencils, binder, and the book that we were reading in this class. I opened it to the right page and sat awaiting instructions.

"Oh wow, class! Who knew that Audrey was capable of doing what she was supposed to!" Mrs. Hoopes said.

"If I were in the mood to argue with you, I wouldn't be behaving this well, so if you wish for this to continue you, insulting me like that is not the right thing to do." I said, staring straight into her face.

"...is that a threat?" Mrs. Hoopes obviously had never had a troublesome student. I mean, compaired to a lot of kids, I'm not that bad. This lady needs to get out of the church and realize that just because a teenager looks at you in the eyes (which is a professional gesture, I read) doesn't mean they're going to jump you or anything.

"Mrs. Hoopes, what she means is that you should appreciate this while it lasts and not insult her in front of us by acting as if it's impossible." someone in the back of the class said. I looked past all the people in front of her and saw that it was Jamie, a girl that I had tutored in science when I was in the seventh grade. I miss the good old days before people found out I was gay. I mean, no one could care less if I did drugs, but once they find out I like girls, I'm the anti-christ. Still, Jamie's never held it against me and always asked me to help her some more. Maybe this is a sign to start.

Mrs. Hoopes looked at me and I shrugged at her. "Read the first chapter of page 59, please, Audrey." she said.

"Right." I said and complied. Maybe today was a good time to start being a good. The class continued going pretty well, but since it's me, I had to screw it up somehow.

"And what could this part mean?" She asked, reading a short passage.

"It means something like don't judge people so quickly." some kiss ass from the middle of the class said.

"Right. And where have we ever heard that? Sound familiar? Where have we ALL heard such a thing be-"

"In the last fricken book we read as a class!" I said, annoyed that she thought we were so stupid that she needed to constantly repeat herself.

"What?!" she said, staring at me as though I'd just kicked her dog in the face.

"In the last book we read, that was one of the themes. Big deal. It's all over baby shows on nick jr and no one seems to care." I said.

"You NEVER say that word." she said. Oh my God! She's bitching because I said fricken?!

"It's better than the alternative." I said.

"You never say either of them." she said, still sounding appauled that I could utter a word related to it.

"How about 'the last damn book' or 'that last piece of crap you thrust under our noses.'? You know, I kinda like the latter." I said, smiling to myself as everyone else either laughed or sat in shock of my stupidity. I honestly didn't care. This bitch insults me as if I can't be normal, then she gets pissed off at a simple mistake! That's like telling her that when she says "God" it offends all of the athiests! Even if someone said that, she wouldn't care, so why should I care that she doesn't like it?

I heard the bell ring from above me and the annoying voice of the bitch was in my ear telling me to stay after class a few minutes.

"Can I help you?" I said once the class had vacated.

"You need to watch you're mouth." She said, sounding like a mom when they're four year old says shit for the first time.

"I'm sorry. It slipped out, I swear. It's just, when you continuously repeated and rephrased yourself-"

"I needed to because no one-"

"Don't shut me up. I'm not finished. You were repeating yourself because no one was answering, but that's just because no one was paying attention except me and I had gotten sick of it so I finally answered. Its just, by the time I opened my mouth, I was so annoyed that I slipped up." I said.

"How do you know that no one was paying attention? You can't honestly speak for the whole class."

"Governors and senates do. Anyways, I know because unlike you, I don't underestimate everyone to be an idiot in this class-"

"I don't-"

"Stop interrupting me! Let's be adults here and speak when it's our turn. That way, our responses will be more informed and when we defend ourselves, it'll make sense, alright? Now-"

"I don't under-"

"Ok, that time, I was barely starting. Hence the 'now'. As I was saying, it's obvious that you underestimate us because even the stupidest of people can remember a book that we just finished last week and it's themes. You repeating yourself was not only annoying but insulting because it implied that you thought we had no idea where we've heard that before. Now you may speak." I said, motioning towards to her begin.

"Ok. I guess I understand. But you need to not say stuff like that."

"I already appologied. To do so more than once would lessen the value of it, don't you think? Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a class in which I actually learn stuff in coming up."

"Are you saying that you don't learn in this class?" she asked stupidly. No, I was implying that I wanted to go to KFC. No shit I was saying that!

"I've spoken English since I was 5 months old and I've been writing since I was three. What else is there at this point?"

"Well, there's so much complexity of the English language!"

"No, there's just more formal ways of saying the same thing over and over. This isn't learning; this is wasting time. Speaking of which, you're wasting more-"

"This is important. I'm not wasting you're time."

"Can you grow up and speak once I'm finished? I swear, I'm gonna walk out next time because you obviously aren't even trying to listen at this point! You're wasting my time now because I need to get to my next class. It's all the way-"

She started talking again but I didn't care. I was out the door and down the hall in two seconds. I heard her calling back to me and I didn't care. I couldn't be late to anymore classes or I'd get a referal. Damn, why do teacher's get one free period a day but students don't? We have just as much stress. God, I hate this bitch.