Speech Class

You make it to the classroom and see the door is closed. You hope that the teacher left it unlocked so you can walk in without disrupting the class too much, but when you go up and try the handle, you find it locked. You sigh, and resign to knocking.

After a moment, the teacher opens the door for you. She's a tall woman with long light brown hair and light skin. You would describe her as beautiful in a modest sort of way. She looks at you with green eyes, realizes who you are, and speaks.

"You must be Alex Scott? Could you please tell me why you're late to our first class?"

"Sorry, I got my schedule mixed up and went to the wrong class this morning."

"Well I'll let it go this time, but don't show up late moving forward. I'm very strict about attendance, so in the future you'll have to get a late slip from the office if you're not here before the bell."

She then steps aside and allows you to enter. Her tone of voice had been in contrast of her looks, cold and unfriendly. You decide it would be best not to show up late for her class again.

You take your seat inside, making sure to avoid meeting anyone's gaze. When the teacher returns to the front of the class, she continues where she left off before the interruption. You must have missed the part where she introduced herself since she never mentions her name. Instead, she talks about what the class will be covering over the second semester. At some point, she mentions an end of the year presentation. She tells the class that everyone will give a presentation about their final year in high school and how they grew as people during this time. It makes you wonder for a moment how your year will go. You hope that, despite the circumstances, you'll settle in to this new life quickly and have a normal year.

The class goes by quickly. Your teacher gives a short lesson on the importance and applications of what she'll be teaching and hands out a syllabus. From it, you learn that her name is Ms. Stevens. There's a list of several presentations that will be done throughout the year. It makes you a little nervous. You've never been the best at talking in front of a crowd, but hopefully these would be group assignments so you at least wouldn't be alone while presenting.

When there's only a bit of time left before the bell, your teacher lets everyone talk and review the syllabus for the last several minuets of class. Everyone else seems to already have established friend groups and are talking amongst themselves, so you just quietly continue to review the syllabus by yourself, until you look up at Ms. Stevens. She's looking right at you when your eyes meet, but she turns her head away from you without making any effort to hide the fact that she was watching you. There had been a look in her eyes. It's hard to describe exactly what it was, but if you had one word to do so, it would be "distaste". You feel your heart sink a little. You had dealt with a teacher who didn't like you back in sophomore year, and it was extremely unpleasant. You hope that it's just your imagination, or maybe that she's just upset you were late to the very first class, because if it's not that, then you may be in for an even rougher year already.

When the bell rings, you pack up your things and head straight for the door. You try to ignore the sinking feeling in your gut, and head back toward the opposite side of the campus for your Physiology class.