Apples Don't Just Mean School [in process of rewriting]

Script & Stress

Procrastination running circles in my head/While you sit there contemplating, you wind up left for dead/Life is what happened while you're busy making your excuses/Another day, another casualty/But that won't happen to me. ~Simple Plan, When I'm Gone

Matthew's POV

It was finally English for 9R, and I strode into the familiar classroom confidently. "Good afternoon, 9R! I'm taking over for Ms Emily today!" The class groaned. "No, I mean that I'm conducting English lesson! Like, for her!" I hurriedly corrected myself. The class cheered. Oh, so they like English better? I'M HEARTBROKEN NO MY HEART... "So, umm..." I straightened the crumpled note of instructions. "Take out your English notebooks!" 

I squinted at the small handwriting on the paper. Tell them to write a script for the End Of Year celebration, based on Romeo and Juliet. Ask them to finish the first Act by the end of the lesson. I blinked. COOL! A script! We didn't do that last time in school! These 9R kids are lucky to have Emily as an English teacher. But... I don't think the kids will like it... Once they had settled down, I read out the orders from Emily, causing half the class to groan and the other half to stay silent. 

"And your time starts now!" I chirped out, leaning back in my chair. A hushed babble arose, but I let that pass. A bit of talking is fine... I guess I'll stop it when it gets too loud. I got bored ages later (read: two minutes) and got up to peer over their shoulders. Most of the boys were half tearing out their hair and managed to write their name. Only their name. Some of the girls were discussing ideas, and a few of the students actually got some stuff done, and the script was not bad either.

The time virtually crawled by, like a lethargic sloth crossing the road. In that one and a half hour, I could almost hear the sound of one chewing on one's own liver (not a very nice sound). I guess writing a script is hard... I checked the clock. "Okay, 9R, your time's up! Have you all finished your first Act?" I watched the drowsing faces look up at me. "No..." some drawled out, while others murmured "Yes!" 

I grinned and collected all the scripts, reading through the first few lines of each as I did so. Not bad, not bad... After counting the bunch of papers, I tidied them up and walked out, yelling, "BYE 9R!" "BYE MR HARPER~" 

Emily's POV

I had decided to get started on marking the (terrifyingly awful) essays that 9R had written a week ago. The topic was 'Should students be allowed to have a vote to choose their school principal? Why/Why not?' and not surprisingly (look at Steinfield), all of them so far had said 'Yes'. Figures, they'd probably vote him out. Didn't they say one time during recess that they hated Steinfield too? Haha, they have SENSE.

One essay took me about fifteen minutes to mark, minus reading time. That meant I could only mark around four or so an hour. If I did some simple math, I would finish marking all of these in about eleven hours... ELEVEN. Wow. My red pen was going to utterly die by the time I would finish correcting all the errors. I'm lazy to mark... And I'm hungry~ But I'm lazy to get something to eat... MEH I'll eat later or something. OOOOH THERE'S A PACK OF M&Ms!

I indeed ate the M&Ms and eventually gave up marking around two hours later, collapsing onto my messy bed and checking my phone. Oh, I'm supposed to meet Matthew? Oh, not HARPER. Matthew Gareth Ragley? Who's that? Hmm... Oh, that's an obscure cousin four times removed. NOPE BYE I'm sleeping in and wild bulls can't drag me out of here! I threw my phone non-chalantly onto the bedside table... and it slid off into the dustbin. "WOW!" I groaned.

I ignored it and continued to be wrapped up in my thoughts. How am I going to finish marking all of this in the five days I have left? I have three stacks of supplementary worksheets, two stacks of essays, one test and two stacks of STELLAR worksheets to mark! Ugh! This workload is NUTS. I shouldn't have agreed to take on two classes this year... And both of them are a handful, I swear I'm going to DIE of the stress...

This Time Skip is brought to you by IGotBoredOfThis TM!

Matthew's POV

Emily was back, and I was set free from teaching English to 9R. But I admittedly enjoyed it tremendously, as I got to interact with the kids more and have fun with them. So I was back to solely teaching biology. Oh well... Ooh, let's go up to the 9R classroom to put up the posters! That'd be a cool surprise for them! I went to my table and tried to dig out the posters - or the Bio project - I asked them to do. Since it was lunch time, I won't be seen.

Where is it, darn it? Is it here? No, maybe I should have cleaned my desk... Nah, too lazy~ But WHERE ARE THOSE POSTERS? Underneath? No. Behind? No... It's HERE! Yea- No, it's not... Oh, THERE it is... Just HAS to be the last place I search! I got up, hair a little dishevelled, and sorted through the pile of papers. Ah, this one is nice. Olivia has talent. Oh, Victoria's isn't too bad either! Oh, man, what are these boys DRAWING...

I finally emerged from the Staff Room with the ten best works by 9R and took the lift up to level seven. Why do I have a feeling something's going to go wrong? I don't think anything bad will happen, probably overreacting... Oh, COME ON, does the lift HAVE to stop at EVERY SINGLE FREAKING LEVEL? Ugh! The lift SLOWLY inched up and after two minutes (way too long), I got out of the small cubicle and went into the classroom, with was deserted. I walked to the back and started pinning up the posters... until I caught a whiff of a pungent smell. What's that? 

Turning around, I saw flickering flames, engulfing the room...

Fire.

A/N: CLIFFHANGER AHAHAHA hope you liked it! *hides behind table*