It's Whatever

Part 1 - This is the Introduction

     Old black bag, old black shoes, old black hat. She had everything she needed for the day and was out the door. It was wet outside. It looked like everything was sweating. The trees, the grass, the soil, the cracked and crumbled concrete on her porch. She tightened the straps on her backpack before she went any further. She hopped off her porch and walked through the overgrown grass and around the broken down cars that made up her driveway. She grabbed the baseball bat that she always had leaned up against the fence of her front yard and started walking to school. Since she started living in her current residence, she always had something leaning against that fence that she would pick up every morning. Some kind of weapon. It was either a big, club-like, stick she had found or a metal pole she took off of a bed frame. She had stuck with a baseball bat for the past year. Every morning for the past year, she would pick up that baseball bat and carry it over her shoulder on her walk to school.

As she approached the end of her street, here he came; her victim. He tried to attack her every single day without fail. Just like every other morning, he ran at her as fast has he could, growling and drooling, showing all of his teeth. And just like every other morning, she was ready. She stopped and tightly gripped her bat. When the moment came, she swung as hard as she could, hoping to knock his head off of his muscular body. It's not that she wasn't a dog lover. She just already had too many scars from dog attacks.  

She already had too many scars. "She" is Anna. Anna: 15 years old. As you may have guessed, much like the dog, Anna had had her fair share of fighting. You could say that Anna was a bad lil' momma. Bad but kind. She didn't want to beat the dog anymore than she had too. She didn't want to beat the dog at all. She just wanted to get to school without a new wound. She really is an animal lover despite the fact that she has been around a lot of mean dogs. After all, dogs are not people.

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When Anna got to school, she was making her way to the cafeteria to have breakfast but walked past the wrong classroom on her way there.

"Anna, good morning, would you mind taking a seat for a moment?" said the teacher that couldn't let her be, as he walked into his classroom and motioned for her to follow. He had had many private conversations with her like this in the past. He loved to stick his nose in her business practically every chance he got. It was pretty annoying. Although she enjoyed his class she didn't like speaking to him because it always got personal. The conversation always took a turn that Anna didn't want it to take. 

She sat in a seat in the middle of the classroom and he, Mr. Walker, sat behind his desk. Mr. Walker was a very nice man and his class was very fun. He was in his early fourties and had many many years of teaching experience under his belt. He had black hair, small earrings in his ears, and was always dressed to the nines. Everyday he wore slacks, dress shoes, a bright colored button up shirt and he always had the sleeves rolled up and the top button undone, a vest, and a cool tie. His classroom matched him. His classroom had been decorated by students over the years. It had cool pop cans and drawings and streamers and posters all over the place. He was a very popular teacher.

"Anna, you made a 33% on your last test." he said and leaned back in his comfy looking chair.

"I know." 

"Why did you score so low?"

"I didn't study."

"Why not?"

"I didn't feel like it." she smoothly replied.

He paused for a moment looking at her before saying, "You need to start doing better in my class."

Anna didn't say anything. "You don't even take notes." he continued.

"But I pay attention."

"Apparently not enough attention if you always fail my tests. If you choose to pay attention why don't you take notes as well?"

"What's the point if I'm not going to study?" she said.

"You need to take notes and you need to study. Nobody wants to study, but they do because if they don't they will have to face the consequences of choosing not to study, such as an F. You need to start taking notes. You need to start studying. You need to start doing better in my class." he stated firmly.

The entertainment Anna had been getting from the conversation faded. She still didn't really want to be talking to him so she put an end to the conversation. "I believe I only need food, shelter, and water.  Shouldn't you know that? You're the biology teacher." His face shot bright red. When she saw his reaction she decided to throw in a little extra spice just for the heck of it. She leaned over her desk she had picked out and finished, "And I certainly do not need a single thing from you." 

"Leave." he coolly instructed.

Anna picked up her backpack and exited his classroom like nothing had ever happened while he gave her a glare and watched her like a hawk.

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She walked to the cafeteria and got some cinnamon toast and an orange juice. She sat alone and ate her food. She liked it that way. It was the morning and she wasn't particularly a morning person and besides that, most of the time, the kids who have breakfast at school are a little... odd. She was a prime example of that kind of kid. She thought about the conversation she had just had with Mr. Walker. She was trying to figure out if she regretted saying what she said to him even though she knew in her gut that she did. It was really rude. Anna didn't like to be mean or rude or bratty in any way. But she did get defensive sometimes. She always had her guard up, especially around people like Mr. Walker; the saint who only wants to help. That was a big reason that she felt kind of bad for  saying what she said to him. He was only trying to help. She liked him as a person and trust me, she wanted help from him, it's just that she didn't know how to get help from him even though he was constantly offering help. It's hard to explain. She didn't want to open up to him even though she trusted and respected him more than she had ever trusted or respected anyone else in her life at that point. She loved him and she hated him. She wanted to hug him and she wanted to punch him in the face. She wanted to get help from him without actually getting help from him. She appreciated him but wanted him to leave her life. It's really hard to explain how she felt. All she knew is that no matter how bad she felt about what she had said to him she wasn't going to apologize because being rude and disrespectful to him was her way of pushing him away and saying leave me alone; get outta here! She couldn't just politely tell him that she didn't want any help from him because then he would want her to talk about her feelings. Lord forbid that ever happen. Who knows what would be said or what would happen? The truth is, she had never opened up to anyone before and she didn't honestly want to. I mean she wanted to but she was scared to I guess you could say. Her game plan was to tighten up her shell, give him the cold shoulder, and tell herself that what she said wasn't really a big deal because it wasn't. She could have flipped a desk and cussed him out. But she didn't cuss, not once! And she was never aggressive with her body language. She could have gotten up and simply beat the crap out of him and left the campus never to return. She didn't though! But those things might have been a little uncalled for especially in that particular situation. She was tired of thinking about it. She got up, threw her trash away and went to the bathroom to wash the sticky syrup off of her fingers from the surprisingly chewy cinnamon toast sticks. When she was finished, the bell rang, and it was time to go to class.