Gifted

Part 5: Class

       

"Nora! Jordan! So nice of you girls to finally join us!" Our history teacher, Mr. Matthews said as we walked in right as the bell rang.

    "Sorry." I said quietly. I had arrived on time, but my friends and I talked for too long. We took our seats. They were the only empty ones left.

    "Alright, everyone. Listen up. Today we will be learning about..." Mr. Matthews began to teach. I loved his class. Mr. Matthews was the best teacher I've ever had. When he described the historical events, we all could tell that he had personally been there. He was a young teacher, only about thirty-years-old at most, but, he had the ability to travel through time. He never taught by the book. He said that history textbooks were filled with lies, and he preferred to tell us what actually happened. We could tell that he always went back in time to fact check before his lectures. Sometimes, he even took his students with him on field trips. Those were the best days.

    "I'm so bored." Jordan whispered behind me.

    "Me too." I lied. Maybe if I had a powers like my friends, I'd be jaded too.

    "Nora Evans. Please stay after class." Mr. Matthews said after his lecture was over. I started to sweat. I was probably late to too many classes. I hoped that I wouldn't get detention. After everyone else left, I walked over to Mr. Matthews' desk where he was sitting. I sat in a little chair next to it.

    "Nora." he said.

    "Yeah?" I asked. Surprisingly, he only seemed a little irritated.

    "You have been late to every single one of my classes. Is there any explanation you would like to give me as to why that is?" he asked. I looked down at the name tag on his desk.

    Ian Matthews it said.

    "I...um... no. There's no excuse. I'm sorry." I said. Mr. Matthews smiled. He could tell I was lying. It was true. I was late to absolutely every one of his lectures, but that was only because his class was unfortunately the first one of the day, and my siblings always made me wait for them. I doubted that Mr. Matthews would be understanding if I blamed everything on my siblings, so I didn't bother bringing them up.

    "I see. So there's no particular reason." he said. "Your friend, Jordan, was late as well with you this morning. Did she distract you from coming to class on time?" he asked. I shook my head.

    "No. Of course not. It's not her fault. Am I going to loose credit for this class?"

    "No. You still manage to maintain an acceptable grade, so I don't think we should go to those extremes quite yet. Just keep in mind that school is a responsibility and it's very important that you show up on time. Alright?"

    "Yeah. Ok." I said.

    Mr. Matthews took off his glasses for a moment to rub his eyes and then an unsettling feeling stirred within me. There was something about Mr. Matthews that seemed...utterly familiar, but not in a teacherly sort of way. Then it hit me. The man from my dream. Could it have been Mr. Matthews? But that was impossible! Why was I dreaming about him? My teacher?

    "Oh, and Nora?" Mr. Matthews said as I got up to leave.

    "Yeah?" I asked.

    "Take care of yourself. Alright?" he said. He was staring intently at me which made me uncomfortable. He had put his glasses back on and I felt a little calmer. Maybe it was my imagination. There were lots of dark haired men in this world.

    "Yeah, sure. You too." I said.

    "Wow. So he wasn't mad at all? That's weird." said Jordan. I had just filled her in about my weird meeting with Mr. Matthews as we walked to the school parking lot after classes were over. I told her how he didn't give me detention after all. I didn't mention that I suspected seeing him in my dreams. I was relieved when Jordan didn't suspect that anything else was bothering me. "He didn't ask me to stay behind with you though, and I was late too." she said.

    "He was a little mad, but not as mad as I thought he would be. Besides, you were late today. I'm late everyday." I said. She laughed.

    "So what? It's history. Unless you want to be a history teacher or work at a museum, this class doesn't mean anything." she responded.

    "Yeah. I guess you're right." I said.