Another fraught lesson

It takes ages for all the girls to arrive. You shut the door and start handing back the homework. Most only glance at their scores. A few look disappointed. The rest indifferent. It’s as you’re returning to your desk that Kelly turns up. She makes a big fuss of opening the door, slamming it behind her and sauntering to her desk.

“And why are you late Miss Golden?”

“Because I didn’t want to come.”

“Well, we’re going to discuss the homework today. Homework you didn’t bother to do.”

“It was boring. Are you going to expel me now? Or you going to lock me in your office again?”

“No, you’re going to sit at that desk and listen to everything being said, but you’re not going to say a word.”

“And if I don’t.”

You wave her to her desk. She plops down theatrically and makes a noisy effort to empty her bag. When she gets her laptop out and opens it, you move over and close it. “No laptops.”

“But I need it to make notes,” she claims. You look at her disparagingly, and repeat, “No laptops.”

For the whole lesson Kelly keeps trying to interrupt whenever you’re speaking. You ignore her. If she raises her hand, you pick someone else. When she shouts out absurd answers, you don’t even try to address them. Her shouting gets louder. Her answers get absurder. You just ignore them all.

You wouldn’t say it was a fruitful lesson, but around half an hour in Kelly appears to give up, slumps on the table and pretends to sleep. She’s not fooling you. Her green eyes are open and watching you. Finally, you do get some teaching done. It’s still painful, but it’s not the painful of fighting against Kelly.

When the bell rings the girls are up and rushing away. Kelly pauses at your desk. She thrusts out her breasts, as if this is meant to make her look important, and not just sexy.

“You’re no fun,” she tells you.

“I’m not here to be fun. I’m here to teach you.”

She harrumphs and storms off. You watch her go, pushing some of the other girls out of the way as she does.

After this you have your regular meeting with Mrs Oversight and Abigail. The meeting this time is in Abigail’s office. It’s identical to yours, just showing a more female touch, more decorated. On her desk is a picture of a couple of old people (you’d guess her parents), and the books in the shelves are all of 20th Century history, centred around the rise of the Nazis and the start of the 2nd World War.

“No problems with Kelly this week?” Mrs Oversight asks.

Abigail has, but you report that you caught Kelly’s misbehaviour early thanks to Abigail’s warning. “She tried again just now, but I kept her on a tight leash.”

“Keeping her on a tight leash is just the start. We need to get her learning.”

“You’ll never do that,” Abigail opines.

“That’s not an option. There is a way to get through to her, a good teacher will find it.”

Abigail isn’t impressed by that dressing down. You stay quiet. The rest of the meeting goes quickly and you’re soon out for lunch, and then the final lesson of the day.