Chapter 2- Teenagers and their lies
Like I said, I skated through school without much work but mainly because of my English teacher Mr. Chalmers, or Mr. C for short. He started teaching at Arcadia the first week of my sophomore year. He was part of the reason school wasn't hell. He was pretty cool to start with, he never gave much homework and all of the books we read in class were simple and tests were a breeze. Everyone loved him, including Tanya, Kate and myself, we were his teachers pets, but he always chose me over them. He would send them on errands, and they were always grading his papers for him, or organizing his classroom while I was allowed to sit at his desk and surf the web all day, he would even give me notes to miss other classes if I didn't want to go, but he never offered that to Tanya and Kate. He would ask me questions about school and how my classes were. He was like a third father figure to me. He was always willing to help if I needed something. He would help me with my other classes, and even excuse me from homework or projects if I didn't want to do them.
Personal space was never an issue for me. I wasn't one of those teenagers who wanted a bubble three feet wide around them to keep others out. I liked the physical attention, I loved hugs and, it never bothered me when a teacher would give me high fives of place their hands on my shoulders. It was a parental thing you know, mom always hugs and always drapes her arm over my shoulder. Kate, Tanya and myself were always holding hands or hugging so nothing physical would ever bother me. So when Mr. C. started touching my back or would place hands on my shoulders to look at my homework over my head it was no big deal. He would enjoy giving me back and neck massages when I was stressed out, because I always thought of him as my third father I didn't mind. I could tell him anything, he would never judge me, he would even give me advise about what to do when a problem arose. I looked up to him and wanted to be like him.
It was March that year when Mr. C. started asking me some personal questions, It didn't bother me at first, I just figured he was just interested and thought of me like a daughter. You know how older teachers act like that sometimes, intrigued with the younger generation an all. The questions at first were things like, how's your home life?, do you like your step dad?, does Phil treat you well?, what movies have you seen? Ect. As the year progressed the questions got more personal. Who are you dating?, Does he treat you like a lady? Does he respect you? Has he kissed you yet? Do you have a crush on any other boys? Then one day the questions scared me, I only answered them because I didn't want to loose my free ticket to an easy year. The questions went from concerned dad type to covetous or even obsessed, I got the feeling he was jealous, he asked about the first time I had sex, and if I liked it, if I would want to try with an older man or was I even interested in a man with more experience. What do I wear to sleep in? The questions got worse and worse. I left his class room that day worried that I had done something to lead him into these questions. I knew it wasn't right for him to ask me these types of questions.
Like any normal girl, I told Tanya and Kate about the questions he asked and told them how intense Mr. C, was to hear the answers. I told them I wanted to talk to my parents about it, they agreed full heartedly. So two days after the question session in English, I went to my mom and Phil. They freaked out of course and told the principle Mrs. Victoria about the odd, and very inappropriate questions I was asked. At first she didn't believe me because everyone knew that I was Mr.C's teachers pet. Finally Mrs. V said she wanted to conduct an in house mediation between my family and Mr. C.. The next day I was called out of my Gym class and into Mrs. V's office, where my parents were staring daggers at Mr. C. I was asked to sit down so we could get everything out in the open. They asked about my classes with Mr. C., they asked about my grades, and such.
After 2 grueling and embarrassing hours later, I was asked to wait out side of the office for them to discuss a solution to this whole "misunderstanding". I was informed a little while later that the school would put Mr. C on a short leave of absence pending an investigation with some other female students. While I was informed of this Mr.C. whispered in passing that he would see me soon. I was immediately worried about everything. I was sent back to class and my parents went back home. That is when the entire female population of the school turned on me save Tanya and Kate. They were the only ones to stand up for me, when the others were talking shit about me, things like how could she get rid of the best teacher in school, or his tests were so easy and She didn't even have to work in his class. I was then kicked to the side where no one would even acknowledge that I was alive anymore. James was also pushed to the side and everyone came down hard on him to dating the girl who just wanted attention, the girl who lied.
A week after the meeting, the investigation ended and the school board found that I had misunderstood Mr. C's intentions and twisted it into inappropriate actions on his side. They permitted Mr. C. to return to the school and his teaching. The school wouldn't allow me to switch from his class because he was just a concerned teacher who didn't mean any harm. I was scared, and had every right to be. Mr. C started picking on me and singling me out in every class I had with him, which happened to be three classes in a row, Government, English and Economics. When he came back to school he gave me a special seat in the front of the class behind him and I was not allowed to participate in anything. I was allowed to sit and doodle on my papers, silently. If I made any noise or drew any attention to myself, Mr.C. would assign a huge paper for everyone in class but myself, in turn making ever one hate me more. I never had to do homework, and if I did, he would just give me a zero on it. My grades in his class started falling and soon I was failing 3 of my 6 classes.