"Um, Mr. Bernstein, this is-" Mr. Bernstein cut me off.
"I didn't ask you, I asked you," Mr Bernstein pointed a finger at Markus.
"Hi, sir, I'm Markus. I'm your new student."
"Well, Markus, let's see how well you know your history, hmm?" Mr. Bernstein asked judgementally.
"Wonderful," I muttered sarcastically.
"Pardon, Ms. Parker?"
"Nothing sir!" I assured him. When we walked into the classroom, all the kids eyes were on us. "Now everyone, it seems we have a new student today," Mr. Bernstein announced. "You all know the routine for new students. Are you ready, Markus?"
"I guess, sir," Markus replied, unsure.
"Okay, excellent. The routine is each new student has to answer ten history questions within one hundred seconds. If you can do it, you're on my good side."
"Um..." Markus hesitated. "Okay?"
"Okay first question, what single thing probably saved the city of Washington D.C. in the War of 1812 when the Britisn set fire to many public buildings?"
Markus thought for a minute. "There was a thunderstorm that put out all the fires," he replied.
"Wow, not many people get that one right. Nice job, Markus."
Wow, Markus was already on Mr. Bernstein's good side, and he hadn't been in the class for even five minutes yet. And also, Markus had brains. A valuable quality that not many guys had. Mr. Bernstein continued to quiz Markus on the history questions, and surprisingly, he got all of them right. I personally thought that it was cute that Markus knew all of the U.S. history. The clock ticked for all eternity while we waited for the bell to ring. U.S. history was probably our most boring class, and I didn't get to drop it until Thursday. Oh, well. "Ms. Parker?" Mr. Bernstein called my name; he had a thing with using my last name... it was only me, I don't know why. "Yes, sir?" I replied. "Would you like to explain to the class what two events happened on July 4th, 1828?" Although this was probably complepletely irrelevant to our cirriculum, Mr. Bernstein liked to give really random pop quizzes. "Sure, sir. On July 4th, 1828, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the C&O Canal started construction on the same day."
"Excellent, I see you've been taking wonderful notes in class. Excellent job, Callista," Mr. Bernstein congratulated me. Usually, he only used my first name when he was proud of me. Mr. Bernstein continued to lecture about something ( I don't know what, I really wasn't paying attention) and after what seemed like several eternities, the school bell finally rang. I packed my bag and walked alongside Markus. "For third period, everyone splits up," I told him. "Lemme see your schedule, and I'll walk you to your class." Markus sheepishly handed me his schedule, and he blushed.
"Thanks, Callista. I feel so helpless."
"No prob, Markus. That's what friends are for, right? And it looks like you and me have the same class. I'm taking third period drawing too."
YOU ARE READING
A Modern Belle
RomanceEveryone's heard retellings of the princess story of Cinderella. But not everyone's heard a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. So as cheesy as this is, this is a rare occurance of the retelling of Belle.
