"You know, Mr. Walker, when the bell sounds it means you are to be to class. If you fail to be to my class on time, you receive a detention," Mrs. Ellsworth, our ancient, crazy, and batty history teacher said. She firmly stood her ground, which wasn't much considering she wasn't even five foot, against the large running back.
"Good morning to you, too, Mrs. El," Forest greeted as he sashayed into the classroom empty handed. He smiled to Willow Lyons, his girlfriend, and took the seat next to her. Mrs. Ellsworth laid a detention slip onto Forest's desk, then she faced the class.
"Now, today, we will be discussing the American Civil War. Forest, can you tell me the year it began?" Mrs. Ellsworth asked, picking on Forest due to his tardiness. He stopped jabbering to Willow and focused on what was actually important.
"Uh, 1898...?" Forest trailed off, questioning himself at the end of his answer. He looked around the room to see if he was right and he received wide, unknowing eyes. Also, a set of rolling ones, which would be mine.
"E?' Mrs. Ellsworth asked, knowing that I knew the correct answer. She was right, of course, I excelled in history.
"On April 12th of 1861, after Confederates fired upon Union soldiers at Fort Summers in South Carolina," I explained to the stumped looking juniors surrounding me. All while a smug look possessed my face. "But, at least you were in the correct century," I directed toward Forest. The entire class, including Mrs. Ellsworth, let out a chuckle.
"Forest, can you tell me what year the American Civil War concluded?" Mrs. Ellsworth challenged with her thin, gray eyebrows raised. A smirk took over her wrinkled mouth as she waited for an answer.
"1889," Forest answered to me, not to Mrs. Ellsworth, in an overly cocky tone. I burst out laughing, even wiped a fake tear from the corner of my eye. I didn't wait for Mrs. Ellsworth to encourage me to feed the rest of them the correct answer.
"The American Civil War ended on April 9, 1865 leaving Ulysses S. Grant and the Union in the hand of victory," I delivered to the class smoothly, leaving Forest looking royally pissed off at me, "But, at least you were in the same decade," No one in the class tried to hide their amusement as I humiliated a red faced Forest Walker.
"Quiet down! Now!" Mrs. Ellsworth called over the howls of laughter. She frowned toward me and I smiled slyly in return, nothing could bring me down from the high of embarrassing Forest Walker, nothing.
"Do you want a ten page paper over the American Civil War due tomorrow?" Mrs. Ellsworth yelled in a threatening tone. A frightened hush fell over the room. Today was Tuesday and we didn't have school tomorrow because of a teacher's work day. She would make us hand it to her tomorrow, no matter what. She had done it before, back in freshman year.
"That's what I thought, now pay attention," she stood in front of her white bored and began to write the notes we had to copy. She wrote carefully and precisely in her swirling cursive, not smudging a single word. It took the rest of the period to copy down the notes. Just as the last person finished the bell rang. We all jumped from our seats in desperate attempt to escape the classroom.
"We will discuss notes no Thursday! Have a good day tomorrow, I know I will!" Mrs. Ellsworth called after us as we rushed to the exit. One more period closer to the end of the day.
I was stuffing my notes into my bag and walking to my next class at the same time. It was when some idiot decided it would be smart to yank on the edge of my sleeve. My notes flew everywhere and I glared at the person responsible for the mishap.
