I walked in the room to see the worst substitute possible, Senor Grandma! (Her real name is Mrs. Fitzgerald but no one calls her that. We call her that to her face) Our math and science teacher Mrs. Cedarbaum had written down on the whiteboard what we were supposed to do for morning work. I sat down wondering what ridiculous things would happen this week with Senor Grandma. I proceeded to do my morning work and heard the kid behind me ask Senor Grandma a question about the types of speech worksheet we were completing. She walked up to him and said "I am astounded and disgusted that you don't know the answer! You are in sixth grade!" with a curl of disgust in her lip. I sighed thinking that this was not going to be a normal week.
Once Senor Grandma was out of earshot and turned around and explained what we were supposed to do to him. He nodded and started circling answers. When I turned around and looked up I saw Senor Grandma staring right at me with cold hatred (much like Snape looks at Harry) and she said "I will not have talking in my classroom sweetheart." That was the last straw, I could almost feel the anger boiling up inside me, threatening to boil over. I took a deep breath, reining in my anger. In a steely calm voice I told her "For your information, my name is Amelia as you can see on my desk. I suggest you use it." Without waiting for her to respond I stood up and continued "Second of all, you are a teacher ment to teach! If you do not fill that roll others will do that for you! I suggest that if you don't want talking in class you should provide the information yourself!" By that time everyone was looking at me with expressions of shock, admiration, sympathy (for the punishment that would come later) and some a mixture of all three. But the most shocked of all was Senor Grandma. I bet it was the first time that a student had ever stood up to her. That made me sad, so many kids are brainwashed into thinking that they are inferior to adults. Adults should treat kids nicely, they are the future of our world , after all.
Senor Grandma opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again like a fish out of water. She seemed to have forgotten how to speak. She finally seemed to regain control of her voice and said "Please sit down Amelia." I completely ignored that order/request. She continued, telling me "Since you seem so interested in helping other students you can answer any questions they have. If they have any you cannot answer that is just proof that you are inferior to me. Since this is your first infringement this will be your only punishment. One more and we will speak to the guidance counselor. Should you question my authority again after that then we will be talking to the principal and your parents shall be informed." That didn't bother me too much. It was true, I really liked helping and teaching other students. I was considering being a teacher when I grew up. I was also fairly confident I could sway the guidance counselors and the principal to my side. My parents being informed was what scared me the most, they were likely to only hear that I did something "wrong" and not bother to hear my side of the story. That's what they did with me and my little brother.
She walked away from me and I sat down, jumping when I heard applause, growing with each passing second. My classmates were clapping for me. For ME. I smiled, I had never been very popular. In 4th and 5th grade I had dipped my toes in the "wanna bees" pool and did not want to go anywhere near that pool ever again. I smiled both externally and internally, thinking that there was still hope that all kids were brainwashed. If anyone wasn't it was my class. They were the most un-brainwashed 12 year olds I could think of. Senor Grandma whipped around and snapped "Back to work!". We proceeded to our work and whenever someone had a question I would answer it.
My first questioner raised their hand and I walked over to them. They whispered in my year "That was awesome! You showed her!" "Did you have a question?" I asked, quite pleased with the praise. "Oh yeah! What is hyperbole?"I smiled and told them "Hyperbole is an exaggeration of something. For example "it took a thousand years!" would be an example of hyperbole." I was thanked and I proceeded to walk back to my seat when another hand up. I walked over and she congratulated me "That was awesome! Great job!" I again, smiled and walked back to my seat. The rest of my questions were only 48% questions. A lot of people congratulated me on standing up to Senor Grandma. Something no one had ever dared to do before. I walked back to my seat thinking I didn't care what the consequences were. I was going to be these kids hope. Heck, I was going to be the whole schools' hope. I promised myself I would give them something to believe in. I didn't realise just how much else I would do.
When it was time for our first recess (we have two) I left my jacket on my chair. I knew I was wearing a short sleeve shirt but I get hot easily and knew I would end up taking it off. I didn't think much about it until I heard Senor Grandma clear her throat and glare at me. She announced "Do you have a coat?" I answered "Yes" Well, where is it?" "On my chair" "Well then wear it" "But I know I will just take it off and then I'll have to carry it around with me" She rolled her eyes at me and responded tightly "Fine, but if you get frostbite it won't be my fault." It's 55 degrees outside. I won't get frostbite! I almost said this but then I heard a whisper in my ear saying "Pick your fights" I whipped around to see Ella. When I looked at her she nodded her head meaningfully and I turned my head back around to see that the people in front of me had started moving. Before I could start walking I heard Senor Grandma say "This is you second strike Amelia, we will be talking to the guidance counselor tomorrow. I finally walked outside and just like I thought I wasn't cold.
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The rest of the day went fine without any big problems. Senor Grandma was flat out mean to me and seemed to not like the kid behind me. She would always pick out something was wrong with whatever he did or his work. When we walked out the door I heard the girl in front of me; Brooke whispering as she passed by Senor Grandma "old hag". Which in retrospect was not very nice but I inwardly laughed at her statement. Conveniently Senor Grandma didn't seem to hear. When we got to the lines waiting to be picked up, all the kids in my class spread the news of Senor Grandma. She was not going to have a good two weeks. We made plans to tell Cohort A about the situation too. Surprisingly a trickle of kids started to congratulate me about standing up to her twice. That trickle turned into a river and then a waterfall. I think all the kids there had congratulated me at least once. It reminded be of Harry Potter in the Leaky Cauldron for the first time when everyone shook his hand. My mom's car pulled up and I had to leave, but I smiled thinking again that Senor Grandma was going to have a horrible two weeks.
A/N - Hoped You liked it! This part was a little bit longer then the other ones. Feel free to give suggestions!
Question: Has anything like what happened to Amelia ever happened to you?
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Lectured!
General FictionI'd had enough of teachers assuming that all people in "IGen" were mindless people all depending on technology. Some did, but that's not to say that we all do. It was time to make a stand...
