After Gilbert finished taking attendance, he opened his desk's drawer in hope of finding a box of chalk. Instead of finding chalk, he found a snake, curled up tightly and making threatening hissing noises.
Gilbert almost jumped at the reptile, but remembered that Anne had mentioned something about the girls hiding a snake in her desk on the first day of school. After a quick examination of the creature, Gilbert noticed that it was a garter snake, given its brown and yellow coloring and small size. "Wow, my zoology course this year actually has come in handy," Gilbert thought to himself.
"Wow, look at this garter snake, girls," he said, gently picking it up and letting it slither around his arms. "These snakes are very common here in Canada. In fact, they are docile creatures that are friendly toward humans. I congratulate whomever put it in my desk, as they must be very knowledgable about what snakes are poisonous and which are not," Gilbert said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Did you hear him, Jen? He thinks that we are knowledgable!" Myra whispered excitedly to Jen.
"We are sure to become his favorite students if we tell him that we were the ones who put the snake in his desk! He sure does seem to like to go after smart girls! We shall stay after class and tell him then!" Jen exclaimed to her friend.
"We'd better put the snake back out in its proper environment so that it does not die here." Gilbert walked over to the window closest to his desk and cracked it open, allowing the snake to slither down the exterior wall of the building until it landed safely on the ground.
"Now girls, let's pull out our texts and open to page 107..." Gilbert began to open up the teacher's book until he noticed that Jen and Myra Pringle were whispering in the back of the classroom over a parcel.
"I cannot wait to use these at lunch!" Jen said. "I finally have been able to get my hands on another box after Ms. Shirley made me throw the other ones in the oven!"
"We should set them off right in Telescope Eyes' face!" Myra plotted.
"I better put these away before Mr. Blythe..."
"Jen? Myra? May I ask what is in that box?" Gilbert asked.
"Just...food, Mr. Blythe," Jen replied, fluttering her eyelashes at her teacher.
"If it is just food, can you please throw the box in the stove? Kingsport Ladies College, as you well know, has a very strict rule regarding food in class. But, if the box actually contains firecrackers, then I recommend that you give the box to me so that we do not burn the school down."
Jen and Myra Pringle were left speechless at their teacher's deviousness. He knew that the box contained firecrackers! They had run out of pranks to play!
"Give the box to me, girls," Gilbert stated sternly.
Jen looked into Gilbert's eyes for a few seconds. How handsome they were, she thought. And he couldn't be that much older. He was definitely well within her reach, or so she thought. Besides, Jen was much richer than Ms. Shirley, anyhow. In fact, out of all of the Pringle girls, she was probably the richest.
"Jen?" Gilbert asked, uncomfortable at the way his student was staring at him, as she had held her eye contact with him for several seconds.
"Oh, um...sorry, Mr. Blythe." Jen was clearly flustered. She felt her cheeks turn bright red as she walked up to the front of the class to give the parcel to her teacher.
"Jen and Myra, you must remain after class," Gilbert said as he opened the box and confirmed that the contents were firecrackers. "These are not permitted on Kingsport's premises. I am quite disappointed that you girls would bring these in to school, and I hear this is not the first time such an incident has happened."
The entire class, with the exception of Jen and Myra, of course, burst out laughing. It was quite a rare occasion that a teacher would humiliate a student in front of the class in such a manner. Jen and Myra were finally getting into trouble for their conspiracies!
"I don't care if he asks to see us after class," Myra whispered. "He is so handsome."
"Have you ever looked into his eyes?" Jen murmured. "He is definitely better looking than any man we have ever come across in Kingsport."
"But he is from the same place as Ms. Shirley! It just can't be true," Myra concluded.
"All right, class," Gilbert said, interrupting the chitter chatter of Jen and Myra, "let's read the excerpt on plant cells at the top of page 107." Gilbert paused for a moment, scouting out a non-troublemaking student who would take the task of reading seriously.
Gilbert spotted a girl with long brown hair, blue eyes, and spectacles sitting in the very back corner of the room, whose name, he remembered, was Emmeline. She appeared to be immersed in a book that was not related to science. After squinting his eyes, Gilbert noticed that the cover of the book was A Collection of Tennyson's Poetry. He had to bite his lips to keep from smiling at the sight. How that reminded him of Anne during their school days...
"Emmeline," Gilbert said with a smile, "would you please read the top of page 107 for us?"
Emmeline cleared her throat as she turned to the correct page in the science textbook. "Plant cells are small units that require a microscope in order to be seen. Plant cells have a rigid texture and are shaped like bricks. Plant cells contain most organelles that are in animal cells but also contain organelles that are not in animal cells, such as chloroplast and the cell wall. The cell wall contributes to the rigidness of the plant, which allows for mitosis. The chloroplast causes the plant to be green in color. The dark green coloration allows for maximum absorbency of sunlight for the plant."
"Nicely read, Emmeline. Now, class, we will get out the microscope and..." Gilbert was interrupted in the middle of his sentence by the ringing of the bell. He hadn't even gotten to his lesson plan for the day! "...and we will finish this activity tomorrow," he stated, upset with himself. How had he only gotten through one paragraph of material? He surely wasn't that bad of a teacher!
After the rest of the class had left, Myra and Jen came up to their teacher to see what their punishment would be.
"Look, girls," Gilbert said, "I expect that you will not make such bad decisions again. For now, I have made the decision that you girls will spend a week's worth of lunch periods in this room, doing extra homework that I will assign on our current lessons in class, under my supervision."
Jen and Myra exchanged excited expressions at one another at the "punishment" of spending five lunches alone with the most handsome man who had ever lived in Kingsport!
"Will we start today, Mr. Blythe?" Jen asked, hardly able to conceal her excitement.
"Yes..." Gilbert said, until he remembered that he was seeing Anne during lunch that afternoon. Certainly that would not be postponed because of the misbehavior of two silly schoolgirls. "Actually, we'll start tomorrow. I have...to meet...someone...during lunch today," Gilbert confessed.
"Very well," Jen said smugly as she locked elbows with Myra, the pair marching out of the the Jen was out of the hearing distance of her teacher, she whispered to her Myra, "I know exactly what we will be doing at lunch today!"
A/N: Sorry I haven't updated this in forever! I will try to get the next chapter on as soon as possible! Thanks for your patience.