Dimokre Chronicles Book 2: Sarah's Fate

Chapter 17 - Getting Detention

"Miss Williams!"

Sarah snapped awake and looked up at the substitute teacher. He held a ruler in his hand that he rapped against her desk. She flushed. "S-sorry, sir."

"Since you know this material so well that you can afford to sleep through it, can you show us how to take the derivative of the equation on the white board?"

The truth was that Sarah did know this material well. Biology, not so much, but calculus she could do with her eyes closed. Normally, she'd be a good student and solve the equation while explaining. She wouldn't even mind having to stand up in front of the whole class to do so. However, right now she was exhausted, and the hallucination of her grandmother's ghost followed the substitute teacher.

Elise smiled and pointed to the board. She turned back and gave a thumbs up.

Leave me alone. I know you're not real.

Sarah swallowed. She took the Expo marker and slid out of her seat. She went to the whiteboard at the front of the class and shakily reached up to it. She glanced back at the teacher, who irritably gestured for her to write. Sarah's eyes trailed to Elise, who looked like she was giving the teacher a piece of her mind. Only, her voice didn't come out.

Sarah sighed and turned back to the whiteboard. She wrote under the equation, taking the derivative like the teacher wanted. She stiffened, getting a vision just a few moments away of the teacher barking at her to explain what she was doing as she solved it. She jumped, snapping herself out of it, and glanced back at the class. They were all staring at her, and some were trying to see what she wrote on the white board.

The teacher smugly stood by his desk, impatiently waiting. He really thought she couldn't do it. She focused on his future, and in every version, he would yell at her in front of the whole class no matter what she did. If she explained the whole way through or didn't, got the answer right or wrong, did the chicken dance, or yelled back at the teacher, he would yell at her no matter what. She sighed, turning back, and Elise's face was right in front of her, sticking out of the whiteboard.

"Gah!" Sarah exclaimed, jumping back. Her cheeks burned, and she busied herself with the equation without looking at anyone. She was half-way through the problem when, as she predicted, the teacher scolded her about not explaining while she solved it.

"In a minute," she mumbled. It was easier to ignore Elise's wild facial expressions if she wasn't looking around as much.

"Now, Miss Williams."

Her hands trembled, writing as quickly as she could. She could see the teacher's face turn purple in the corner of her eye. Finally, she finished. Sarah backed away and explained her work, lazily pointing to the steps with her capped marker.

She turned back to the teacher, and Elise was between them. Sarah swallowed. Their eyes locked on each other, and she could feel tears stinging. She held out the marker and looked away from the teacher and the ghost, not wanting to deal with her brain playing tricks on her. The teacher yanked the marker away.

"That... is correct, Miss Williams," the teacher said bitterly. "Next time, however, explain your work properly and don't sleep in my class."

"Sorry, I just haven't been sleeping well so—"

"I'm aware," the teacher snapped. "Many teachers have been reporting that you sleep through their classes, and many excuse it. This is the third time this week you've slept through my class alone, while Mrs. Hensha is on maternity leave. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Uhm, you're a very diligent substitute?" Sarah offered.

The class laughed. Elise flipped the teacher off. Sarah tried to hide her own laugh.