Former Teacher

2

Mr. Till takes a sip of his coffee. "Good morning, who can tell me how many chromosomes does a human have?"

The girl next to me raises her hands.

"Yes, Miss Campbell?"

Did he just pick me? "Um... 47?"

"It's not a shock that you have that extra chromosome." A boy blurts out.

I lower my head. I know exactly what he intended. I meant to say 46, but I got nervous. This was an easy question too. Now everyone will know that I'm that stupid.

Mr. Till picks up the clipboard with the seating chart. "ENDERSON GO TO THE OFFICE NOW!"

"It was a harmless joke..." Eric says, laughing.

Mr. Till sets his clipboard on the front table and starts to walk down Eric's aisle. "I guess giving you an f in this class is harmless."

Eric packs his things immediately, booking it out. Mr. Tills voice terrified everyone, including me. 

He walks back to the front. "Moving on. For the rest of May, we will be doing labs. You will need to find a partner, but considering what just occurred, I will choose not to. So when Eric comes back, you can all thank him. I will be pulling sticks."

And there goes my anxiety throughout the roof. Mr. Till did the same thing back in elementary. He would sometimes let me work alone, depending on the subject. But this is biology, and I have no chance.

"Now pulling stick numbers one and two. Maria and Grace."

Every stick he pulls up, my heart rate increases. A few sticks have gone by, and I haven't got pulled.

"Bella and Savannah."

My heart went to normal once I learned who my partner was. It's the girl sitting next to me. She is nice and smart. I have talked to her a few times for help. We are like school friends. I help her in history, and she helps me in biology.

"Last sticks. Bryan and Skylar." He takes all of the sticks and lets them fall back into the jar. "Get to it! Books are in the back, and your packet tells you everything that you need."

"I will go get the books," I say, getting up from the stool.

"I don't think we need a book yet. I think we will need it at the end." Savannah reads over the packet. "For now, we will need a microscope, methylene blue, glass slide, coverslip, and onion skin."

I look over the sheet myself. There is a lot of materials put on here for such a little thing. Everything is already in a bin on the table. Savannah and I help each other tie our aprons. The cells in the onion skin is amazing. I could see It's structures too. My favorite part was adjusting the microscope.

"Alright, class, start cleaning up! You will continue this tomorrow!"

I'm kind of sad that we had to clean up, but I'm eager to go home.

"Bella, can I see you for a moment?"

"Sure," I say, getting up and walking over to his desk.

"I apologize for what happened today because of Eric's impulsive actions."

"It's okay, no worries," I say, fidgeting with my bag strings.

"Does he pick on you a lot?"

"Who doesn't."

The bell rings.

"I must get going. I don't want to be late this time. Bye, Mr. Till."