Worst Teacher

Anxious and amused, I am waiting for Mr. Douglass to come burst his bubble all over this clean and quiet hallway. It is just a regular Tuesday and Mr. Douglass once again gave myself and my partner in crime, Greg, the boot from his classroom. We were not doing anything that any other 5th grader in his class could easily get away with. I was disassembling a purple gel-ink pen, and Greg was merely admiring my speed and precision in which I could finish this task. With zero warnings so far in the day, we thought we could get away with a little fool play and distraction. “HEY! Pay Attention!” Mr. Douglass exclaims. We were used to being told to pay attention and still going about our business. However, on this day Mr. Douglass' bubble was already full with irritation, and frustration. So there was no room to cram our fooling around in this already plump bubble of his. After the first splurge of anger towards us, that was it. “Get out of MY class!” He yelled in our direction. So we gallop to our regular desks in the hallway, for this was a daily ritual for us at this late point in the year. He made us wait, like always for ten minutes or so. To think about “what we were doing wrong.” We never did much internalizing about why we pissed him off, but more plotting of how can we piss him off more. Simple thoughts that pass through most troubled ten year olds simple brain. He comes out into the hallway, quietly closing the door, as to not disturb the other “well behaved” students. “I have to deal with you two every single day” he tells us, like we didn't feel the same way towards him. Just the looks on our faces made the vein in the center of his forehead pop out at us like a pop up picture book. This was his last straw, he could tolerate no more of our “mis-behaving.” Instead of apologizing and admitting we were out of line, we decide to just laugh at him. He was one that did not like being mocked, so this made his ever famous vein take up what seemed to be his whole forehead. We were sent to the principles office earlier then usual, but not for bending spoons in the cafeteria or rough housing on the playground. No, we were sent for frustrating our teacher so badly that he couldn't handle us anymore. We got the usual lecture from the principle about behaving better in the classroom. We nodded our heads in agreement. What neither the principle nor Mr. Douglass ever really realized was, we were never nodding our heads in agreement with them, we were just nodding our heads to each other. Saying without actually saying, “Yep, we will see you again tomorrow.”