My pulse quickened as the teacher stalked around the room like an animal hunting for prey.He slowly passed back the test one by one,staring down each person with a blank faced expression. As he stood in front of me, a small frown seemed to crawl across his face.
“I’m very disappointed” Mr. Richardson quietly hissed as he passed back my test.There at the top of the crisp white paper was a huge F written in bright red ink. I felt my eyes grow wide as I started to try to respond, but all that came out was incoherent babble. After I took a deep breath croaked out the word “WHAT”?!? I studied every day for the past 2 weeks trying to prepare for this test. Mr. Richardson must have made a mistake. I turned around in my desk and scanned the back of the room, looking for my friend, Jada. I spotted her, as always with her head bobbing to the beat of her head phones. “Jada,” I mouthed, but she couldn’t see me. Her bright green eyes always closed, and her curly brown hair always bounced whenever she got lost in her music. I tried getting her attention again. This time I subtly flailed my hands while I mouthed her name. She was still being unresponsive, so I tried to make the biggest paper ball that I could out of three sheets of paper. I pulled my arm back and sent the ball flying, trying to knock one of her head phones out. Instead the ball hit her in the face, and she yelped, startled by the large flying object. I laughed, which is strange considering the trauma and distress that this teacher was causing me. “Jada,” I mouthed for the 75th time.
“What is it?” she mouthed back.
“What did you get on your test?” I asked. She held up her test and on the top of it it had a B+.
“What did you get on yours?” she asked back. I held up my test and her jaw dropped so low that her chin seemed like it was going to touch the top of her desk. “Oh my gosh!” she mouthed exaggeratedly. Then suddenly the bell chimed over the speakers, and within moments I was the last student inside the classroom.
“Mr. Richardson,” I said, trying not to let my annoyance get into my voice.”This must be a mistake, I went over my answers, and they were all correct. So why did I get an F?” Mr.Richardson looked up from the papers he was correcting and gave me one of those sour looks he always has.
“Nina, your average test grades are usually 80-85%, yet on this test you got 100% if I actually believe you did the work.” I felt my face scrunch up in an expression that said I thought he was crazy.
“Wait, you think I cheated?!”
“Yes, I do because you are one of the two people in all of my classes who earned 100% and the other person just so happens to sit next to you. Coincidence? I don’t think so”. I felt my expression change from frustration to pure anger. I felt my cheeks burn as I slowly started to raise my voice.
“So let me get this straight...because I usually earn 80’s-85’s on my tests, you think I cheated!” He slowly nodded in agreement.”Well what about this other person, you didn’t even bother to ask him did you?” Mr.Richardson didn’t need to answer because I could tell from the quick appearance of guilt across his face.”Since you think I cheated, i’ll retake the test to prove you wrong” I said, spitting out the words, not bothering to hide my annoyance anymore. Mr. Richardson seemed to be taken aback by the way I was talking to him.
“Alright,” he started to say. “You can take it during lunch tomorrow.”
“Actually I wanted to take it now since it is lunch,” I said trying to keep my voice as matter-a-factly as I could.
“Alright” he repeated. “I guess it wouldn’t be a problem. Go take a seat and i’ll give you another test.” This time he gave me a different version of the test probably thinking that I wouldn’t able to cheat on this one because nobody else had taken it. I looked up from my test to look at Mr. Richardson sitting behind his desk.
“Look at him and his big, round, bald, head” I thought to myself.” I bet if you rubbed and looked into it you could see into the future.” I quietly began to laugh and he looked up from his desk and glared at me. When his eyes stopped glaring and re-focused on the test he was grading, my eyes re-focused on my test. Within the hour of lunch, I finished my test and sat anxiously waiting for him to finish re-grading my test. I saw his expression change from that all knowing sour look he always has to a look of surprise.
“Well, I guess I made a mistake” he sorrowfully said as he handed back my test.There at the top was an A+ like it had belonged there from the beginning.
“Well?” I said looking up at him.
“Well, what?” he questioned.
“You owe me an apology.”
“what? I don’t owe you anything.”
“Yes you do, you accused me of something I didn't do.”
“It was a justified assumption.”
“No it wasn’t. Even if it was, you still owe me an apology because it was wrong,” I said as I started to get up from my seat, picking up my backpack.
I watched his face change from surprise back to that sour look again when he said,” I refuse.”
“Well then i’ll just have to tell the principal since my mom and the principal are such good friends,” I said as I started to head for the door.
“Wait...”
“Yes” I said as I turned around with a victorious smirk on my face.
He sighed and said “I’m sorry.”
I gave him one of my toothiest smiles and asked him “Now, was that so hard?”
With a frown on his face he simply said “Yes” and pouted behind his desk.
I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room, feeling the victory of a battle fought and won. “I think I deserve some ice cream,” I thought to myself, and that was exactly what I ate.