I walk across campus to my second class of the day. Science. I've always gotten good grades in science, but I've never really understood it. I usually get past by just memorizing words and paragraphs from my text book, then writing them down on a test. That and doing my homework has managed to get me pretty solid A's. I'm afraid that technique isn't going to work here though.
I walk into the musty smelling classroom, and take a seat in one of the chairs that sit along the length of the black marble tables. They are placed into 4 rows that go across the room. The teacher stands in front of the class, writing something on the white board. I hear a chair scrape the ground next to me. I look over only to meet the same green eyes I saw this morning.
" You should probably go ask the teacher for your seat. He assigned them in the beginning of the year, so you can't exactly sit wherever you'd like." The tone of his voice isn't quite mean or demeaning, but there's this sort of superiority to it, like he thinks he knows everything. This bothers me, but I don't show it. Instead I just nod before picking up my stuff and shuffling my way to the front of the class, to where the teacher is now sitting in his chair checking something on his computer.
" Umm, sir?" I say almost incoherently. I've never been able to speak very openly with teachers. If I'm lucky, my voice will come out in little more than a whisper.
" Yes," He booms, turning away from the screen and focusing his smiling face on me.
" Ah, you must be our new student, Juliette."
I nod.
" Well, you may call me Mr .Delalieu."
He sticks out his hand to me so I awkwardly shake it.
" So," he begins, " First of all, I'd like to inform you that I will not tolerate any shenanigans in this classroom."
He gives me a stern look and I nod again. Wow. I think this is my ultimate low for meeting a new teacher. I've literally only spoken two words to him and one of them was more of a sound.
" Now that that's out of the way," He smiles and the skin around his eyes crinkles. " We need to find you a seat." He scans the class, then he looks down at a seating plan in his binder.
"Okay, so I think that seat there, next to Warner is empty."
I thank the teacher before walking back to the exact same seat I sat in in the first place. As I sit down, Warner looks over at me but doesn't say anything. Neither do I.
" Alright class." Mr. Delalieu says standing up from his chair. "Today we will be continuing from where we left off last week. So please turn to page two-hundred-and-forty-seven in your text books."
Everyone starts taking their books out of there bags, lazily turning the pages of their books.
" Miss Ferrars, I will make arrangements for your text book after class, for today, I kindly ask Warner to share his."
Warner slides his text book onto the small space of the marble between us then opens it to the correct page.
The rest of the class goes quite smoothly. I follow along easily with the words of the text. Everyone takes turns reading out loud. The majority of the class stutters their way through the words on the page, and look pleadingly at Mr. Delalieu between paragraphs. About half way through the chapter, Warner's name is called. He clears his throat and begins to read in a strong loud voice. I'm almost certain that he's the only person so far who's read his entire part without a single mess up or stutter.
"Well done Warner." Delalieu says. " now who shall I choose to try and beat that..." His eyes wander dramatically around the room, until they settle on me.
" Ah. Juliette. Why don't you give it a try."
I look down at the text book that sits between Warner and me. My eyes search for the spot that he left off at, and then, finally, the words begin to fall out of my mouth.
I've never been the most talkative person. It may have had something to do with the fact that in pre-school children would make fun of me at carpet time because I'd never participate. Everyone would be taking part in the conversation, but I would just sit there. Listening. Knowing that most of what the other children were saying was wrong. The few times I would actually contribute to the class, the other's shunned me. So I basically stopped talking freely in general. That's when books became so important. It wasn't just the stories they held with in them, it was the fact that I could read them out loud. After years of practically being ignored by your peers and family, the sound of you own voice becomes foreign. Even though I knew no one was listening it was still nice to sit alone in my room, grab a book, and just read aloud until my voice went ragged.
So now, as I read the pages of the text book, my voice is strong and full of life. In fact, I guess I've gotten better at this than I thought, because Mr. Delalieu doesn't tell me to stop until the bell rings for third period.
" Alright class. Everyone finish reading this chapter for next Monday. We'll have the whole block to study, then in two weeks we'll have our test." The class groans in unison as they pack up their bags and make their way out the door.
" Juliette, come see me on Friday for your text book please."
" yes sir." I say before quickly taking off towards my next class.
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