Between The Brackets

FIVE

"No one helped you?" I asked again, borrowing my colleagues glasses from her desk just so I could tease Tireni some more. 

He bit back a laugh as I slid the pair down my nose and looked up at him the way a teacher of mine back in university used to.

This is basically his first okay assignment since our lessons together began. The first time, he gave me solutions without workings and I threw it at his face then asked him to repeat it. The second time, he didn't reach my deadline so I tore it up and asked for him to repeat it as well as do the next assignment I gave him. The third time, I got creative and drew a monkey on his work...fine specimen it was. That's good enough explanation for why he had sunken eyes and a five o'clock shadow under them. 

"No one helped me." He assured me.

"You know, this is actually okay." My words wiped the smile off his face and I could tell he was about to start whining.   

"Okay!?" He grumbled.

"Your work is barely neat and you didn't meet my pass-mark." I explained. 

"But I only failed like..." He flipped through the book furiously. "Like seven out of like sixty questions." 

"Change that to percentage." I leaned on my office door. 

"That's like..." He mumbled somethings under his breath before exploding again. "eighty-eight percent!"

"Which is a fail." 

"That's an A1!" He argued.

"That's a pity mark for people who barely get As." 

"Okay, I've been pitied. I still got an A1." 

"One. I have mood swings so if I'm not taking your screaming at my face as an insult now, I will later and you won't find it funny. Two. The school pitied you, not me. My class, my rules." I patted his head. 

"I'm sorry ma." He mumbled, a frown etched on his face. 

"Could you sound like you're actually sorry?" I folded my arms. 

"I'm sorry ma." He repeated with more life.

"I don't need your sorry, I need you to work harder. Never get comfortable where you are. The most intelligent person in your class has never scored less than ninety-five in my exams so that should be your lowest." Lie...but I bet he's going to try to make that his lowest. "I know you can do it because you're not dumb, you're lazy. Highly horribly lazy and I need you to know that lazy people go nowhere in life. Even with money in their hands." 

He had the inside of his left cheek trapped between his teeth, a habit he I realized he has. 

"So turn around and find out what you did wrong and fix it." I ordered. 

"Thank you ma." He left with his shoulders slumped. If someone told me that he absolutely hates me, I would believe them. Good thing my job isn't to put a smile on his face. 

I leaned on the door frame with my arms crossed for a couple of seconds. 

"Boo."

My hands flew to my chest in shock and my eyes popped out of their sockets. "Jesus Christ!" 

Tayo's laughing caught my attention and I glared at him. "Are you mad?" I shoved him.

It didn't seem to bother him though. He just looked like a babbling, stuttering mess. "You were practically drooling on the door." With the wheezing occurring between words, I was surprised he could even finish his sentence.