Dance and Drama

Chapter 10

"Since I am taking over this classroom while your other teacher is hospitalized, this class will be run by my rules!" Ms. Emmonds announced. "No eating or drinking in class, Pay attention at all times, All homework must be turned in AND completed on time, no exceptions or excuses, no chewing gum in class and definitely no cell phone use! Anyone who does not follow these rules will receive immediate detention!" These rules are so strict. The paying attention rule is difficult for Frida to follow. She has a hard time staying focused on one subject and easily gets distracted. She raised her hand to get the teacher's attention. "But Ms. Emmonds, I--" she started, but she was interrupted. "Frida, I heard enough excuses!!" Ms. Emmonds yelled. "But--" "ENOUGH!" Frida went silent. "Now, students, we will begin our subject of Calculus." Wait! We didn't learn Calculus yet! Several students raised hands and tried to tell the teacher they know nothing about Calculus. "Ms. Emmonds, we weren't taught this kind of mathematics. At all." Tyler objected. "The week before, we were studying Trigonometry. Calculus is a senior-level subject and we're still jun--" "Well Trigonometry is on hiatus right now. You're gonna learn Calculus starting today!" Ms. Emmonds interrupted. "Now everyone take out your notebooks, you will be needing these notes!" She takes out a marker and starts to quickly write on the whiteboard and defining the vocabulary out loud. And she's moving too fast. Everyone, including myself, was rushing to write everything down. "Calculus is about finding properties and derivatives and integrals of functions by differences. The main two types of caclulus are Differential and Integral...." And she goes on and on. Craig raised his hand. "Ms. Emmonds--" "Save your queations until AFTER we take notes!" She interrupted and continued with notes. Once she was finished, she hands us a packet of classwork to do. ...What the heck is this?! Is this what a math class in College is like?! Ugh! "You all have thirty minutes to complete this packet. " Ms. Emmonds announced. I have been paying attention this whole time, but I still can't understand what's going on. Neither can anyone else. "Ms. Emmonds, can I go to the bathroom?" Shawn asked while raising his hand. "I don't know, can you?!" She said back. I can hear Jessica and her friends whispering giggling at Shawn's embarrassment. And Ms. Emmonds heard them too. "Is there something you girls want to share with the class?!" She asked, almost sounding like she's ready to start yelling again. Oooohhh, this will be good. "No, that's why I whispered it." Veronica said sarcastically. "Such disrepect, missy!! If you're gonna be like that, then you and your two little friends will be recieving a detention!!" Ms. Emmonds yelled. "Hey, you don't know who you're talking to! I am Jessica Evergreen! Heiress to my family company, Evergreen Makeup Products!" At this moment, Ms. Emmonds eyes widened and she smiled at them. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Evergreen! You and your friends will not be getting a detention after all. In fact, you will not have any homework tonight either, Miss Evergreen." I take that back! That's not fair! The meanest girls are off the hook and Jessica gets no homework, but the rest of us have to get homework and suffer from these strict rules?! Unbelievable! Several classmates got MAD and stood up one by one, clamoring to Ms. Emmonds about how it was unfair that Jessica and her friends getting no homework or detention just because Jessica is rich. Ms. Emmonds scowled again and yelled at everyone. "ENOUGH!! This isn't fair? Life is not fair!! And I heard ENOUGH OF YOUR COMPLAINTS!! IF I HEAR ONE MORE WORD, YOU'LL RECEIVE A DETENTION!!" Everyone shut right up and sat back down. Several minutes passed and I'm still struggling so hard to finish the first page of this packet! I raised my hand. "Ms. Emmonds, can I please have some help?" I asked. She stormed towards me. "It's just a simple equation!! Is it THAT hard for any of you to finish the first page?! You wouldn't have be struggling with your classwork if you actually paid attention!! You know what? Forget completing this classwork, because it's an automatic zero!" "But-- but you can't give me a zero! All I did was ask for help!" I exclaimed. "No, you have come late to class and just wasted my entire classroom time!!" She snatched my classwork off my desk, placed it on Mrs. Bruins' desk and returned to me writing in a pink notepad. "You can make your way to detention and waste the rest of your time there!!" "But--" "NOW!" I just take the detention slip from her hand and carried my backpack out of the classroom and straight to the detention room. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any worse, it did. The minute I entered the door, there were several students in there looking at their phones and giggling. They noticed I came in and they quietly laughed behind my back after I sat down. I was too upset to tell them to shut up. The administrator walked up to me. "And what are you in here for?" She asked. I don't say anything. I just hand her my detention slip. "Tardiness and Class disruption?" I looked at her. "It wasn't my fault." I began. "I was late to class because the bus came late and we had severe traffic outside. I look like a mess because I got splashed with dirty rainwater. As for the class disruption thing, my math class has a substitute teacher while Mrs. Bruins is in the hospital. And she's the opposite of her! She's mean, she keeps yelling at us and she's way too strict, and we were supposed to be studying Trigonometry, but she's making us learn Calculus. That's college level stuff. I asked her for help, but instead she yelled at me and sent me here." The administrator grabbed a white notepad from her desk and wrote something before giving it to me. "Here. Take this." She said. She felt sorry for me."That wasn't fair at all. Sure you were late to class, but asking for help with classwork is no reason for that teacher to send you here. Also, tardiness shouldn't even be considered a detention penalty. You are free to go. Class is almost over anyway." I take the note. "Thank you." I say to the administrator before putting my backpack on and leaving. I want to stay out of detention, but I don't want to go back to the Math classroom. Not while Ms. Emmonds was there. But I go in anyway. "Why are you back in this room?!" Ms. Emmonds scolded. "The administrator sent me back." I told her before giving her the note. She briefly read it and her face went red. "Unacceptable!" She scolded. "Not even detention can handle you!" RIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGG! Class just ended. But before I turned to leave, she grabbed my arm and turned me around. "Did you forget you have homework?!" She scolded me again. She shoves a thick packet of homework in my hands. "Complete this! It's due tomorrow." And I finally leave...