Thread: Robert's Rules (Potatolord and skittish_butterfly)

Eve checked the clock in the empty classroom and sighed as she sat down alone at her desk. 730, just in time. She couldn't risk the chance for extra credit by missing his deadline. Of course he wasn't here yet, it was never fair in this eternal war between the teachers and the students they got to boss around. But Mr. Robert was the worst. In all her other classes she had always managed her way, a little smile or glance through lowered lashes here and there enough for her to scrape by without having to work too hard. But Mr. Robert never cut her any slack, no partial credit for inventive or creative answers on her tests. He was the one teacher here, the only one jerky enough to have the nerve to fail her, seemingly the only person in school who she didn't have under her spell at all. She wasn't the number one most popular girl in school, but she liked to think maybe she was top ten. Certainly not the smartest, although a number of teachers were always frustrated with her for not doing more to utilize her gifts. It didn't bother her. She felt confident in her place in the school, comfortably near the top of the pecking order, for no specific reason she fully understood other than it was just her natural place. Perhaps she wasn't the number one prettiest but she certainly got more than her share of hungry looks in the hallways. She was 5'3 with a tight, trim body and the fashion sense to make it obvious to everyone while still staying within the boundaries of good taste. Her face was more than cute, with large, deep, dark eyes she almost always drew out with just a little liner and a pert nose a couple boys told her they just wanted to nibble, and she knew her long, straight, raven hair made an impression on guys. Yet she never even bothered trying out for cheerleading -- too much bother, stupid uniforms. Eve had a reason to dislike just about everything, it was just her thing, and her friends were used to it, kind of liked it because she didn't look down on them which put them in an exclusive club. So with so much going for her, decent grades and the admiration of so many teachers and students alike, she couldn't afford to jeopardize what she thought of as her sure shot at getting into State next year. That's why she was force to agree to Mr. Robert's terms in order to get the extra credit to lift her grades in this stupid class. Why was she even going to need geometry or trigonometry or whatever it was they called it? It wasn't like she was going to know the laws of cosines to get into law school. But they would care if she had failed it, so she had to do something. Which brought her here to Mr. Robert's empty classroom, waiting for him to show up even before any of the other students' showed up, to learn the rules she was going to have to follow this week. She'd agreed she would turn her behavior around in his class, that she would be teacher's pet this week and show him she deserved the raised grade. And if she didn't, she would fail. As she smoothed down her dark cotton skirt to her knees and checked the collar of her short sleeved blouse, fingering her light gold chain necklace to make sure the claps was in back, she reflected that at least she'd gotten through to him, gotten him to make that offer, even if she was actually going to have to do something to earn it. Why he needed a full 30 minutes before everyone showed up was a mystery to her. How long could it take to clean the chalkboard and clap the dust out of the erasers? How much could there be to go over? She knew the kids who were teacher's pet in all her classes, ridiculed them along with all the other normals for the way they had to try to answer every question and volunteer for every unnecessary request. If she had to sacrifice her dignity for one week and raise her hand in class like she actually cared, she could do it. Then it would be over and she could finish the rest of the semester and forget the whole thing. 735 now. 5 minutes late. Finally she heard footsteps in the hall outside and jumped up from her desk to open the door for him with an over done obsequious look on her face. He was probably too dense to notice sarcasm, and that could help her get through this whole stupid waste of time.