"Okay! Time to take roll, kids." Mr. Negan said picking up his clipboard with the class roster on it. "Let's see here….Michonne!"
A disappointing sounding "here" was heard form the young girl.
"Eugene?"
"Here." Eugene said fearfully. He was still very scared of his very tall, strict, new teacher even though he had been there a few weeks now.
"Rosita?"
"Here." She said smartly.
"My favorite student, Simon." Mr. Negan looked up from his paper and grinned. Simon smiled at his teacher. The other students rolling their eyes. "My little assistant, Daryl." The black haired man looked at the front of the room where little Daryl was standing. Daryl reciprocated by glaring at the man. "I see you." Mr. Negan said and laughed. "Alright, let's see here." A sigh. He looked down at the name and smiled then looked at the young boy that had caused him so much trouble weeks ago. "Rick."
The young boy hesitated. He knew all the other students' eyes were on him. "Here." The boy said quietly.
"What was that?" Mr. Negan said. "You're gonna have to speak up."
"Here." Rick said louder.
"That's better." Mr. Negan laughed. "Come on, guys, you know me by now. I'm not some new teacher anymore. But do I get mad? Do I kick out another kid?"
The other students glared making their teacher grin.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Daryl, get the door." Mr. Negan ordered. The young, redneck boy obliged. He saw Carol standing there and became surprised. She just smiled at him.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Mr. Negan said. "We have a new student joining us today. Everyone, you probably know Carol. I expect everyone to be nice and greet her. Nice to meet you, young lady." The blacked haired man smiled. She smiled back and took an empty seat next to Rick.
Mr. Negan finished taking roll and turned toward the board.
"What are doing in here?" Rick whispered to Carol.
"I got my scheduled changed so this is my class now. Why?" The young girl tilted her head to one side.
"You picked a bad time to come here." Michonne over heard the conversation and chimed in. "Our new teacher is a jerk."
"Really?" Carol looked to and from Rick and Michonne. "He seemed so nice."
"He's not." Rick shook his head. The three kids then turned their attention to the board so they wouldn't get caught by the tall guy.
"Our new vocabulary word is…" Mr. Negan began writing the word on the board, "plethora." He turned back to face the students. "Does anyone know what that means?" No one said anything. "It's an 'excessive amount of something.'" He wrote next to the word. "For example, Sasha, if you don't put that phone away and start paying attention, I will give you a plethora of detention."
Sasha slowly lowered in her chair and put her phone back in her purse.
"Thank you, young lady." Mr. Negan smiled. "Now," he rubbed his chin while looking around, "I really gotta shave this crap." His eyes fell on Maggie. "Miss Greene?"
Maggie looked up.
"Can you use this word in another sentence?"
"Sure." The young girl sat up in her chair. "My new teacher gives me a plethora of headaches."
Laughter was heard around the classroom. Mr. Negan slapped his yardstick on a desk and the room fell silent. He walked closer to Maggie and stared at the girl. "Hmm." He finally smiled. "You're right. I probably do." Then, went back to his lesson. Maggie and Tara shared an exasperating look.
"Alright, kids, time for lunch." Mr. Negan called. "I'll see you back here in a bit." He dismissed his students.
A few "yes's" and "thank Gods" were heard then all but one student ran out of the room. Young Rick Grimes stopped to try and talk to his best buddy. "Daryl, hey—
"No!" Mr. Negan said. "You don't look at him and you don't talk to him. Got it?"
Rick put his head down. "Yeah." He said quietly. "Sorry." He whispered to Daryl as he walked by. Daryl watched him leave then sadly looked at the floor. For the past few weeks, he and his teacher had to leave to get lunch together then they brought theirs back to the classroom. Daryl missed eating lunch with his friends. It's the best part of the school day for a kid. However, today was going to be a little different.
"You're dismissed, Daryl." Mr. Negan said. Daryl gave his teacher a look. "I have to go to a meeting today with some other teachers so I'm trusting you to go get your lunch and then come back here. You can do that, right?"
Daryl thought for a minute. He could easily just lie to his teacher and stay in the cafeteria with the other students and he wouldn't know a thing. "Yeah, sure." Daryl nodded.
"Good." The man said. "You may go."
Daryl walked out of the room and down the hall unable to hide his smirk.
"Yeah, I don't know. I have this student that's just being a little dick." Mr. Negan told one of his colleagues. "His name's Rick."
"Rick Grimes?" The other teacher asked. "I've heard a lot about him. So many teachers have left this place because of him."
"I know." The tall man said. "The other kids aren't so great either. But that's going to have to change. They just need a firm hand."
"Well, good luck with that, man." The other teacher said and slapped the man on the back. "You're doing a good thing here."
"Thanks, Gareth." Mr. Negan said. If only the other teachers knew.
"I couldn't help but over hear your conversation." Another teacher, a women, said.
"Oh, hi, Mrs. Learner." Mr. Negan greeted.
"Please, call me Dawn." She smiled. "So, you're having problems with a student?"
"Yes. Rick Grimes."
"Ah." She nodded. "I didn't have him for very long, but Daryl Dixon was more of a problem for me."
Mr. Negan sighed and nodded. "Yeah, he can be a little dic-jerk too."
Mr. Negan got back to his classroom and, of course, his young, redneck assistant wasn't there. The man shook his head and smirked. Damn, these kids. He thought. He is going to have to crack down even harder.
The black haired man looked at the clock. The kids should be getting back any minute now. Just as he had that thought, he heard footsteps in the hallway and prepared for the fireworks.
The kids started pouring in one by one. Daryl and Rick took their time getting there because they were deep in conversation the whole way back. They haven't had much time to catch up. The boys stopped dead in their tracks as soon as they set foot inside the door, not taking their eyes off their teacher.
"Hi, there, Mr. Dixon." Mr. Negan smiled.
"What the hell?" Rick whispered to his best friend. "I thought you said he was going to a meeting?"
"That's what 'e said." Daryl said.
"Take your seat, Rick." Mr. Negan said. Rick slowly walked to his desk. He feared for his friend. He hoped that their teacher wouldn't kick him out like he did to two of their classmates already. Mr. Negan then took young Daryl out into the hall then closed the door so the others couldn't hear. "This was a test for you and you failed!" He pointed the yardstick at his student. "I was going to let you start having lunch with your pals but not now! Nope! You can kiss that goodbye. All I asked for is a little trust and you can't even give me that." He shook his head. "Have anything to say?"
Daryl angrily glared at his teacher. He was mad at the man but not as mad as he was at himself. He blew it and he knew it.
"Alrighty, then." Mr. Negan stretched. "Get back in there then." He opened the door and both walked back into the classroom. Daryl's face was red with anger, he tried to turn away so the other kids couldn't see.
"Alright, let's get started." Mr. Negan announced to his class. The man started writing problems down on the board. "Would a volunteer like to come up and do a problem?" None of the kids made any effort. "No one? Okay." The tall guy said. "Eugene!"
The young, nervous, boy looked up wide-eyed. "Come up and solve this for me."
"Y-yes, sir." Eugene said. He was too afraid to say no. He slowly and shakily walked up to the board. He dropped the chalk when Mr. Negan handed it to him.
"Pick that up!" Mr. Negan yelled. Eugene whimpered and trembled while picking up the chalk. "Now solve this problem."
"O-okay." The boy said. He slowly wrote out the problem as he was solving it.
"Hurry up. Come on, you're a smart kid." Mr. Negan taunted the boy. He knew how nervous of a kid he was.
"I'm g-goin' as f-fast as I c-can." Eugene stammered. The boy finally finished the problem and turned to his teacher.
Nr. Negan sucked on his teeth. "Really? You're done?"
The young boy nodded.
"Go over that problem and tell me what you did wrong."
Eugene looked back at the board nervously, he didn't see anything wrong. "I-I don't see anything, sir."
"Check again." Mr. Negan squinted.
Eugene looked over it again. "I still don't see…oh, I forgot the decimal."
"Yeah." Mr. Negan smiled. "YOU FORGOT THE DECIMAL AFTER I'VE TOLD YOU TIME AND TIME AGAIN NOT TO FORGOT THE DARN DECIMAL AND WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU FORGET THE DECIMAL!"
Eugene was terrified and whimpering.
"Now fix the problem!"
Eugene added the decimal where it needed to go.
"Now was that so hard?" The blacked haired man asked.
"No. No." Eugene shook his head still shaking.
"Good, now go back to your seat."
Eugene started to walk away but Mr. Negan stopped him. "What's that smell?"
The young boy hesitated. "…I-I shit my pants." Eugene cried.
"Y-you shit your pants?" Mr. Negan questioned. "You're 12 and you really shit your pants?"
The young boy nodded. There was a pause then their teacher busted out laughing. Just then, Simon laughed loudly as well. Eugene stood up there and cried.
"Alright, alright." The tall guy said. "Go to the nurse and get your diaper changed."
The traumatized boy practically ran out of the classroom.
The other students were angry but they were used to this kind of thing from their teacher by now. However, there was one student who was not. Carol sat back in her seat. She felt very bad for her classmate, Eugene, for that must have been mortifying for him. She narrowed her eyes at her new teacher. The other kids were right what they said about him. And she knew exactly how to fix him.
The next school day started as normal. The kids walked into their classroom and took their seat then Mr. Negan took roll. "Alright, class, let's get started—
"Mr. Negan?" Carol called raising her hand.
"Yes?" The tall man answered.
"I have something for you. May I bring it up?"
"Sure." Mr. Negan questioned.
The young girl took out a small container of cookies from her school bag and walked them up to her teacher. "These are for you. I made them." She smiled.
"Why, thank you, young lady." Mr. Negan smiled. "That's so sweet."
"Try one." Carol urged him. "They're really good."
Her teacher took one out of the container and bit it. His eyes seemed to light up. "Mmm. That IS a good cookie!" He finished his cookie. "I just may eat this whole box."
"Go ahead. I made them just for you." Carol informed him.
"Well, I am flattered. You just may be my new favorite student." He tapped her nose.
Carol smiled one last time and went back to her seat ignoring the looks from her other classmates. Simon glared at her in jealousy as she walked by.
"What the hell?" Rick asked her.
"Just wait." She smiled at him. He gave her a weird look but didn't say anything.
Mr. Negan ate two more cookies before starting his lesson. "Alright, let's begin." He began writing on the board. While he was writing, he got a slight pain in his stomach that was gone quickly so he ignored it. "Today we are talking about—" He was suddenly cut off by the rumbling of his stomach. "Oh." He thought. "We are talking about angles." He finished. The man's stomach started to rumble even more, more than he could ignore this time and it was loud. Some of his students laughed. He felt the feeling go south. "Oh, oh no!" He said. "I'll—I'll be right back!" He yelled to his students then took off out the door.
Carol sat in her seat laughing loudly. The other students looked back at their new classmate like she was crazy. "I put laxatives in the cookies." She said.
The other students mouths' hung open. Was she joking? Soon the whole room was filled with laughter. Daryl gave Carol an impressed look.
"How much did you use?" Gabriel asked.
"A plethora." Carol said smoothly earning laughs from all the kids.
"I'm sure glad you switched classes, Carol." Rick said.
"Me too!" Michonne yelled.
The kids continuing laughing and praising their new classmate.