The Poetry Teacher

"Wake up Berkeley, wake up! It's a beautiful sunny day this morning and there is no...."

Why on earth I have to put the radio on at this time of day? The announcer is getting on my last nerve, and besides today was my first day of school, joy. I closed my eyes once again, after opening them, and wished so badly I didn't have to go to that crappy school again.

I'm Sandy Silverman, by the way, and I'm just a 16 year old that is tired of her life being the same and with no small changes being made. My mom is a newspaper editor, pretty boring, huh? Well anyways, it's quite a surprise she enjoys doing her job, and if I was her, I would've quit the first day I started. Anyways, I have short black hair, green eyes, and pretty, punk style that everyone seems to admire, I wonder why? I have a lot of friends, because they think I'm cool for some reason, and guys that have been wanting to go out with me, I turned them down, because they were complete losers.

I finally decided to get up, after I thought it over, and headed to the bathroom. I stared at myself in the mirror, I looked like a total mess, but would clean up soon. I really didn't want to go to school, even though my reputation was pretty good, I didn't have a best friend, a boyfriend, at least. Even though I had a lot of friends, I still felt like a loner, like I didn't have anyone else in the world. When I was finished, I headed back to my room and got dressed.

The good thing, is that I have a car, so I can drive to school alone, without any reassuring words from my mom. I finally, got to school and parked in the student parking lot. I got out of the car and headed into campus. As I was walking down the sidewalk, I got stopped by a very attractive looking guy. He looked in early thirties, but looked very young. He had bright green eyes, just like mine, jet black hair, and really cool clothes, that seemed stylish enough to me. The outfit was a red tie, black tight pants, an all black dress shirt, and black converses. To me he could easily be counted as a student, and did I mention he was totally cute?!

I stopped walking and asked,"Yes? Do you need any help?"

He smiled and said, "Yeah, um, do you know where the main office is?"

I replied, "Yeah, you just go through that building over there, and once you turn the corner, it should be right there. It, also, has the big words written on it, you can't miss it."

He smiled once again and said, "Thanks, um I didn't get your name."

A small smile came through my lips as I said, "Sandy, nice to meet you Mr...."

"Armstrong, but you can just call me Billie."

"Billie, cool name, you know I could never guess you were a teacher here."

"Really? I thought I looked like one of those old and raggedy school teachers," he replied.

"Well, you don't. You could actually pass as a student," I said back to him.

"I bet not, you're just trying to get my hopes up," he said.

I smiled and was actually finding myself liking this teacher by the minute, I think I just made a great friend. He continued to stare at me with those awsome eyes as I was feeling more shy and awkward by the moment.

I ruined the moment by saying, "Um, I gotta get going to my first class, see yah around."

He nodded and said, "Well ok then, well hopefully you'll have a class with me or something."

I nodded reasuringly and walked away to my first class period. I felt my cheeks turning red, I hope nobody saw me. Well as I arrived to the chemistry class, I took a sit on a stool, and took a small, well huge look at my schedule. It was looking good so far, until I saw my third period class, it was Poetry 1A, Mr. Armstrong. I grew so excited, but tried to calm myself down so nobody would thing I'm mentally retarded and held it inside. Mr. Redburn, the Chem teacher, was discussing something about lab rules, but I wasn't paying attention, all my focus was on my third period class. I wanted to make another good impression on Billie, just because I had a great interest in him.

The bell finally rang and I headed to English 3A, it was pretty interesting and the teacher was really cool. During the class, I grew more and more nervious about third period, I didn't really want the bell to ring any sooner. Then it went and I headed silently to the magnet hall, as I reached the shiny hallway, I was searching for the right class. A few seconds later, I found it and went inside. There he was, sitting silently in his desk, going through important papers. He didn't even seem to look up, I guess he didn't notice I was in here. I was starting to sweat and kept whiping it off my forehead with the back of my sleeve. A sort of deep sigh came out of me and that's when he looked up.

He smiled at the sight of me and said, "Well hey there Sandy, didn't notice you were actually in here."

I smiled and said, "Well here I am, um is it really hot here or is it just me?"

He replied, "Well actually it's just you, cuz it feels just fine in here."

I nodded and decided to take my sweater off, as I was doing this, Billie seemed to be starring at me. I felt so awkward and nervious that I didn't even know what to do, so i just put my head down when i was finished. Afterwards, a lot of students filled the classroom and Billie stood up from his desk.

He began, "Welcome students, I'm Mr. Armstrong, your new poetry teacher, which states the obvious." People were laughing as he said this, and he continued, "And you all are probably thinking, "Why am I here for, I don't need this crap to graduate," but trust me you're gonna need it cuz it helps a lot with your song writing, which you're all gonna be doing this whole semester to turn it up a notch."

People were actually paying attention to him cuz he was way different than other average teachers, and for the prep girls, his looks could be deceiving. I didn't really care, I just liked him because he has something special in him, and I waited to see it.