To Write Love On Her Arms (COMPLETE!:)

Chapter 2

“Hey, Ethan.”

I looked up from my locker and grinned at Alan. “Hey, Alan. What’s up?”

“Not much. You?”

“Dreading English,” I answered, pulling out the blasted textbook and staring down at it.

“Yeah, I can’t imagine why. I mean, you only have the worst English teacher in the school. Wait, scratch that, in the world,” Alan retorted, making me laugh.

I shut my locker door. “Yeah, seriously. Shouldn’t she have already retired?”

“I would think so. She’s been teaching since the Dark Ages. She must be a witch. She seems to like torturing us kids. How much you wanna bet she ate Eddy Grant? The guy that went missing last year?”

I shrugged, not really responding. While I may not like Mrs. Gibbs, I wasn’t going to talk about her like that. It may shock a lot of people, but I tried to respect my elders, even if they made it difficult sometimes. Or all the time.

The bell rang and Alan and I said our goodbyes before heading off in opposite directions. I had English again this morning. Unlike my old school, which had had the A Day, B Day schedule, Evanston was on a block schedule, meaning we had the same four classes every day for a semester, then our classes would change second semester. While I wasn’t used to this type of schedule, it had some major perks. Like only having to deal with English for only one semester instead of two.

Totally cool with me.

I managed to remember my way to English class without getting lost. When I got there, Mrs. Gibbs was at the door, passing out what looked like a twenty page packet. Swallowing a groan, I took the thick packet from her and headed over to my desk without as much as a good morning.

Sitting down, I began flipping through the packet. It was mainly just review of the past three years of high school English and even a little bit from junior high. Then at the end it got into critical thinking short answers and there was an essay prompt at the end.

I sat there, staring at the packet as if it were a three headed dog.

God, take me now…

If this was for a major grade, I was screwed. I don’t like reading and I especially hate writing, two of the key components in English.

This was going to suck.

I continued staring at the packet until the bell rang and Mrs. Gibbs cleared her throat, rapping a ruler against the dry erase board at the front of the classroom.

The room instantly fell silent and all eyes turned to her.

Dang, I knew she was a difficult teacher in more ways than one, but to be able to silence an entire classroom of students without even speaking a word?

Just…damn. That was the only word to describe it.

Mrs. Gibbs scanned over us with a stern twist of her thin lips. “Now that I have your attention,” she started, “the packets I have passed out are a review of what you’ve been learning in the past four to five years. This packet will give me an idea of your reading, writing, and grammar skills and will set you at a specific place in my class. This packet will be your first major grade of this year…” she trailed off as a timid knock on the door echoed through the room.

Her expression turning downright sour, Mrs. Gibbs headed to the door and opened it. Clearly, she didn’t like to be interrupted. She opened the door a crack and I could hear some whispering before Mrs. Gibbs pulled back and pivoted on her heel to face us. Her eyes darted around before landing on the empty desk in front of me. “You may sit in front of Mr. Miller until I can find other seating arrangements,” she directed sternly and stepped aside to reveal the same emo girl from yesterday.