Alfred nervously straightened his tie, wondering what these kids would be like and if he could actually manage to hold their attention for forty minutes if he could even catch their attention from the beginning. Unfortunately for him, it would not be too hard to capture this class, rather it would be more difficult to convince them that, no he was not joking, he was their guest lecturer and was going to be there all week, helping them review for their rapidly upcoming AP United States History exam.
When reminded of the looming examination, the class quickly became somber and paid him rapt attention: with twenty-two pairs of eyes on him, his palms were beginning to sweat and his tie suddenly felt too tight.
"Are you really going to teach us for a week?" One girl blurted out, turning as red as her hair. "Wouldn't it make more sense for our actual teacher to be here? He taught us all year…I mean, it's just…weird."
He laid out his notes on the small podium, suddenly realizing how large he was compared to these teenagers: his nineteen years to their sixteen or seventeen was not so large a gap, but it was his status as a nation that made him feel older and wiser to these teens. The things he had written on paper scraps seemed insignificant now, crumpled in his hands, and he realized that they were all still waiting for him to answer the girl.
"It would, yes, but he's not here. I am. Now, where would you like me to start?"
A tentative hand was raised by a boy in the back of the classroom. "At the beginning?"
Alfred laughed and the air in the room became more laid back and relaxed, not so stiff and formal as when he first had walked in.
"The beginning is a long way off! It was so long ago when-" he stopped suddenly, realizing what he had almost let slip " 'it was so long ago when I was a child' probably would have made him lose his credibility.
"Um, DeCarlo said that you would be able to start from the beginning…if you wanted to?"
"The beginning is fine. Let me see…'once upon a time-'-"
"The AP graders killed anyone who dared begin an essay with 'once upon a time'." Someone scoffed, causing a few muted or stifled giggles to erupt behind pursed lips of covered mouths.
"Fine then. The beginning."