Lessons (Andy Barber)

Chapter 4

Odette just could not understand how Jacob Barber's grades were declining? He'd been at Cherry Creek for a few weeks now and the work and essays he were producing were not of the same standard as what he'd been achieving at Archer.
The last thing that she wanted was for him to not graduate but at this rate he wouldn't be.

"Jacob, see me after class." She said, putting the graded essay down in front of him and continued to hand out the others before returning to the front of the class. "Some of the stuff I read in these? You guys bloody stress me out." She smirked.

"It's our job." Troy grinned

"Just as it is mine to make all your lives hell." She threw him a look.

"Yeah but you're like, one of the coolest teacher in this place."

Odette looked offended and scanned the room, "Am I not the coolest? Who's beating me?"

"You're the coolest" Austin smirked, "you've got a Captain America poster and you let us play cool music on Fridays." He looked at the wall behind Odette's desk where there was a poster of a film.

"I let you play music all the time providing you get your work done and the guy who plays Captain America is a "hottie", is that the term?" She looked at around as they nodded. "Anyway, enough about that, the bell is about to go so do whatever the hell you want for the next few minutes so I can get some peace." She looked at the clock and the sound of chairs being scraped back followed. "Doesn't mean that you can leave early Troy!" She saw the boy head for the door, "the only excuse is if you have a hot date."

He grinned, "I do?"

"I'm calling it, it's Katie.

"What the hell?"

Odette smirked, "I listen to gossip too y'know." She chuckled as the bell sounded. "Go on, get out of here." Waving them away she leant back against the edge of her desk seeing Jacob remain behind.

"You wanted to see me?" He asked.

"Don't look so scared, I don't bite." She smiled and gestured for him to sit down at one of the front desks. "How are you settling in?"

"Ok I guess..."

Odette looked at the grades sheet and then back at him. "I've been looking at your grades Jacob, and I'm a little concerned - at Archer you were doing so well but here? Is there something wrong? Is it the work I'm setting?"

He shook his head, "no miss..."

"So why am I not seeing what you produced at Archer?" She asked. Jacob said nothing to this and stared at the desk top. "Jacob, with grades like this you could risk not graduating."

"I don't care..."

The comment made her eyes widen slightly, but she kept her cool. "I'm going to have to speak to your parents about this."

"My mom doesn't give a crap, you wanna talk to someone then it's my dad." His attitude was now showing.

"Alright then, your dad it is." She crossed her arms and stared at him. "But I won't have the 'I don't care' attitude. That's not how my class works."

Jacob said nothing and in the end Odette dismissed him, knowing she wouldn't get anymore out of him.

Finding the contact details for his father, she punched in the number on the phone and waited patiently as it rang. A deep voice answered. "Hello?"

"Mr Barber?"

"Speaking..." His voice was a mixture of suspicion and concern.

Odette hated making calls like this, but now took a deep breath. "I'm Jacob's teacher, I was wondering whether I could arrange a date for you to come in and have a discussion...it's about his work..."