Come back to a nice surprise.

Thankfully, the dean caught Gabriel before he could leave the school. You explained the situation and the boy was taken to the headmaster’s office. The dean tells you he’ll most probably be suspended for a week, maybe two. He advices you go to the infirmary, but you tell him you’re okay and that you should go back to class, so you get a bag of ice, hold it against your face and head back.

When you go back to the classroom, you almost can’t believe what you see. Yes, there are students talking, yet they’re mostly in pairs, reading what you gave them and talking about it. When they see you enter, however, all eyes are on you.

“Teach, how’re you doing?” a dark skinned girl asks you, eyeing the bag of ice. That’s… Harper Flores, if you remember right.

“I’m okay. Thank you for your concern, Ms. Flores,” you say, giving the girl a thankful smile. She seems surprised that you know her name. She’s one of the quiet ones.

“What’s gonna happen to Gabriel?” one of the boys asks. Sadly, you can’t remember his name right now.

“He’s in the headmaster’s office,” you tell them, not saying anything about his possible suspension. Better not to say anything until it’s a done deal.

“Man! I can’t fucking believe you stood up to Gabriel! You’ve got balls, teach!” Lucas, one of Gabriel’s friends tells you with a huge grin on his face.

The rest of the class echoes his surprise and praise, nodding and saying how insane you must be.

“I’d like it if we could just forget this happened and get back to work,” you say with a sigh, still holding the bag to your face. Though you have to admit this is the best response you’ve gotten out of them in your whole month with them. “I see a lot of you are reading. Is it too difficult? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me.”

Now, there are a few questions, mostly about the meaning of certain words, and while they’re reading, not many of them are answering the questions. Well, you’ll consider that progress for today, at least.

Veronica Young does ask more interesting questions though, asking what one of the questions mean by “language features and techniques”. She’s still as earnest as ever. After you answer her question, she eyes you carefully and asks. “Are you really okay, Mr. Sinclair? That punch threw you to the ground.”

You give her a small smile. “Yes, I’m fine, Ms. Young. I just slipped. Thank you for worrying. Yes, my face hurts, but nothing I can’t handle.”

“Alright.” She nods, though there’s still concern in her eyes. Man, if only all of them could be little bit more like her…

And so, when you turn around, it’s like your eyes are struck by a holy vision. One of the girls is raising her hand as she keep reading through the extract. Her whole body gives out a radiant light, like a holy sign from god.

Or it could just be that she’s sitting alone by the window and the sunlight is right on her. But still, this girl has never asked a question, has never participated in any way and has never so much as taken up her pen to write her name on a worksheet.

Just the sight warms your heart. You walk up to her as quickly as you can.

“You have a question, Ms. Lindbeck?” You ask, almost afraid that anything you say to her will kill any motivation she's built up.

Vanessa Lindbeck, a stunning redhead with a slender body, small chest and an angelic face. She turns to you and you can clearly see her light green eyes. In your opinion as a man, not as a teacher, if your class has something going for it, is that is has the most beautiful girls in school. But as always, you quickly remind yourself you’re a teacher here and immediately push those thoughts aside.

“You said this book was called The Great Gatsby, right Mr. Sinclair?” she asks you.

“Yes, I did.” You nod.

“What is it really about? Why is this guy throwing a huge party?” she asks with a hint of honest curiosity.

Seeing this as a huge opportunity to encourage voluntary reading, you start explaining to Vanessa the most important and most appealing aspects of the novel without spoiling anything, conveniently forgetting to mention that there are four movies about it.

The girl looks intently at the sheet of paper in her hand before turning to you again. “Do you know if the book is in the library?”

YES! Success! “It is. That’s where I got this extract from.”

Ms. Lindbeck hums, then grabs her pen and starts writing down her answers to the questions.

Time goes by and class ends. Students leave for lunch break and you get your things ready to do the same. All in all, this was the best class you’ve had so far, and you only had to get punched in the face for it.