Differently

Going to roll call, you noticed that quite a few students seem to be missing.

Listening in you hear the story, which was confirmed once you got to roll call and the teacher demanded to know what was happening.

Your normal bus, which Zack took instead of his normal, which you took, had hit a pothole and not just blown a tire, but messed up the steering a bit. Not only that, but where they were pulled over made it hard for them to swap buses.

This meant those students would be late.

You smiled a bit and during roll call read some of your history text-book.

First class was history, . . . . and the homework you handed in was not very good. The teacher, a man nearing retirement age just looked at you in disappointment.

However, you paid attention this time and took a fair bit of notes

After that double, and time for your first break, you waited until the other students left and approached him.

“Mr. Kangal, I would like to apologize for my poor work.”

That got his attention “This is a surprise. I would like to hear what you have to say.”

You could tell he had heard people say something like that him before, but most often they were trying for him to be lenient.

“I admit my work was poor, and am not asking for you to go easy on me. It would not be fair if you did. The reason I did poorly was at my last school my step-brother would have his friends over, and often my schoolwork would go missing. Probably their idea of a prank to hide it for a while. I gave up putting effort into homework since I figured; why should I bother if I wasn’t going to get good marks anyway.

“With the move here, adjusting to the change and everything, it has taken me some time to get things sorted out mentally. I will put more effort into my work. I can’t promise to hand in wonderful assignments, but they should be better. If I can have a copy of assignments you give out to the class, I can use them to help me study and pull my grades up.”

Mr. Kangal looked at you thoughtfully. “Interesting. Often people ask for extension or leniency. I will give you copies of the assignments I gave out last year for each year, except for this year. I will give you copies of this year’s assignments so far.”

You realized just what this meant, and nodded. “Thank you sir. Please just remember I will be having to catch up with my other subjects as well, so I can’t focus exclusively on this.”

Mr. Kangal surprised you by chuckling “Glen, focus on the subjects that help you get a job, like Maths and Science. I promise you that after you finish high school that unless you get a job studying the past, this class would be useless. Most of the subjects are.”

He thought a bit, “Come by my office during lunch. I’ve got my next class to prepare for.”

You understood the dismissal when you heard it.

You only hoped your other teachers took your request so easily.