Lessons to Learn

Chapter 4: Helping Hand

Chapter 4

"Maya, why are you late?"

The calm voice of my English teacher, Mr. Dale, welcomed me as soon as I walked through the door. He seemed to be observing the students from his desk, who were in the process of working in our English books. When I walked through the door though, all of their attention were immediately on me.

"I had an asthma attack, causing me to visit the nurse. Sorry for the inconvience." I cast my eyes on the floor intently from all the unwanted attention. I hoped that my lie was believable. I could have easily said, "Oh, the emo boy that everyone hates just saved my life.", but that would probably cause an uproar amongst the students, they would call me crazy, and all that stuff. 

"No need to be so formal, Maya." I heard Mr. Dale say when I looked back up at him to see him warmfully smile at me. People usually say I'm formal, but I don't try to be. "I'm glad you take good use of the English language. Are you sure you're alright?" I heard some concern in his voice.

"Yeah...I'm fine." I said simply. I saw some of the students whisper and snicker to each other, which made me shift uncomfortably. If they were talking about me, they weren't good at hiding it.

"Good, good. Now take your seat, Maya." He nodded toward the lone chair in the back that was my assigned seat.

I hid a sigh of relief as I walked over and sat down in my seat. Mr. Dale would usually give us detintion or something of that sort if we came in late, but he had a soft spot for me. He's my favorite teacher and I think I might just be his favorite student. He lets me get by with a lot of things that he wouldn't let the others get by with.

"We're working on page 259 in the English book, Maya. It's mainly review, so I think you'll get done quickly."  Mr. Dale grinned proudly at me.

I smiled back at him and opened my book to get started. I saw some of the students roll their eyes and groan. 

"You don't think we'll get done quick, Mr. Dale?" I heard a boy shout from the other side of the room. It startled Mr. Dale, as he eyed the boy with confusion. 

"That's not at all what I said, Jack."

"But that's what you were implying." Jack crossed his arms and laid back in his seat smugly. Some of the others started giggling and I believe I heard someone whisper, "Go Jack!", but I could be wrong.

"Jack, I best not hear you back talk me one more time." Mr. Dale stood up and started raising his voice, but Jack just kept fueling the fire.

"Why do you suck up to Maya so much, huh?!" Jack stood up as well and started yelling. I felt myself blushing of embarrassment at the sound of my name being brought up.

"That's it, detintion, Jack! Right now!" Mr. Dale started yelling. Jack hesitated before walking up to get the detintion slip. He slipped out the door with a sulky attitude, and before you knew it, everything went back to peace and quiet.

Mr. Dale piped up after a few minutes. "Sorry about that, class. Please get back to work. I'm sure everyone wiill get done quickly, just to clear that up." He cracked a faint laugh but only recieved awkward stares from everyone. I couldn't help but giggle at it.

I decided to finally take a look at the work and just as Mr. Dale expected, I already knew it. I was done in 3 minutes at the most. The girl in front of me named Stacy glanced back ever so often. I knew exactly what she was doing.

"Mayaaa?" Her squeaky voice made she shiver in distress. "I don't know how to do this...Do you think you could help?" Her smile was so fake, I knew that she had already planned this out.