Happy Birthday! (Amy Jackson POV)

After my first period, I needed to leave my classroom to make a phone call to check if my brother dropped by my mother’s house and dropped off her medication. I would take it in the class but I didn’t want any of my students overhearing my conversation. One of them bumped me and I yelled his head off. I love the look of fear that appears in their eyes as they’ve done something wrong. I left him with a warning as I walk into the teacher’s lounge and start to call my brother. Before I could even press the call button, one of the other teachers started asking, “Why are you in here young lady? Students are not allowed in the teacher’s lounge.”

I looked around the room to see who he was referring too but I didn’t see anyone but him and myself. Maybe the older gentleman is going senile as I looked back down to my phone.

“I’m talking to you, Mrs. Jackson. The least you could do is respond to my question.”

“What are you talking about? If this is a joke then it isn’t funny. I’m no student at this school and I’m way too old to be one either.”

“Look Mrs. Jackson, if you keep arguing with me about this then I’ll have **** but to give you a detention and have security escort you out.”

“I’m a teacher at this school! I’ve worked here for at least 3 years and I’ve been working with you for over a year now You will treat me with the respect I deserve!”

It was then that the principal, Mrs. Pearl, walked into the teacher’s lounge. Finally, someone I could reason with because I was getting nowhere with Mr. Young.

“Mrs. Pearl, please tell Mr. Young to stop joking around about myself being a student while I take this phone call.”

“Mrs. Jackson, I don’t know what you’re going about since you’re a student at this school.”

What? Not the principal too.

“That is ridiculous, I wouldn’t have the keys to my classroom if I was a student. Nor would I have my teaching license already if I was a student. Besides, I don’t have a student’s schedule anyway. Please Mrs. Pearl, stop messing with me, I’ve a heard day so far already.”

“Mrs. Jackson, you’re just making it harder on everyone else with all your complaining. Just wait outside the lounge while I construct a student’s schedule for you. If I hear any objections, then you will have to attend detention for a whole week and have to do some community service as well.”

After that threat, I just shut up and went outside the classroom and looked at my phone to see a text from my brother.

“I brought mom her medication, don’t worry sis. I have to be a responsible older brother for you.”

Older? He’s obviously the younger brother. Why is everyone treating me like I’m some little kid? I don’t understand what’s going on. Have I been cursed or something because there’s no way the principal would joke about something in a million years and while I don’t like Mr. Young he is a respectable teacher? Maybe it was that joke I made about being 18 that triggered it. Maybe if I just say my actual age then it’ll reverse whatever’s going on here. I waited for a while until the principal came back with a student’s schedule for me. I told her I was 33 years old and she laughed as she walked back into her office. There’s no telling what would happen if I ditch these class or tried trying to teach my own so I just start attending the classes on my new schedule. Some people recognized me but there was no tone of respect anymore in their voice and they called me by my first name, Amy. The teachers I was close with still treated me nicely, but they didn’t treat me like a colleague anymore. Some people still were afraid of me but not for fear of punishment but out of fear that I was going to snap at them for a random reason. I just kept attending each one of my new classes until I reached my last class of the day.

I just have to survive one more period of this and I’ll get to go home for the day. Maybe this is all just a bad dream that I’ll wake up from. I made my way after the bell rang to the gym. I reached Mrs. Pool’s gym class and told her that I was attending her class. She was fine with it but wasn’t fine with the fact that I had no gym clothes, so she **** me to change into one of the extra outfits she had. The gym uniform for her class was a white t-shirt and gym shorts. It would be great if she had my size but instead, she gave me shorts that was a size too small and slightly faded T-shirt that if you’ve looked close enough, you could see the color of my bra. I tried fighting back but Mrs. Pool was adamant about instilling discipline into me. I should be the one instilling discipline into students and not her. I move out the changing rooms into the gym with all of the other students. I just hope this period ends up going by quickly and uneventfully.