Chapter 1     :           The Maiden Teacher

Pie Mindara Manaying

I wasn’t always mean but doing a ‘surprise’ quiz would always be my favourite. It was fifteen minutes before the lunch break when I decided to do one. The reactions from the students were priceless; I loved to see them panic. I knew it well; nobody really loved quizzes but then honey that was a norm as a student. The fifteen minutes felt like forever as the students were too engrossed with their sheets, answering the questions provided carefully that you could have heard a pin drop. I brushed my gaze to each of the children briefly. To my interest, I caught several of expressions which could make me burst out laughing. A few of them seemed composed and steady as they answered the questions, some held their gazes on me as if the answers were written all over my face; which I presumed they looked at me for some inspiration while the rest seemed nonchalant with the surrounding as they kept writing down every piece of their thought on the sheet. I have never made the questions easy. They were all in subjective forms which required the students to compose their own words based on their understanding. Again, I wasn’t a mean teacher. It was just my kind of bench mark to monitor the students’ understanding on the subject.

The bell rang, indicated that their time was up. I heard most of them grunted as they put down their pens. Knowing my way of conducting the class, each of them began to rise from their seats and walked to the front of the class where I was waiting. They handed in their sheets before they left for the lunch break. The last person who handed in the quiz sheet was Michael, the naughtiest boy in the class. He scowled long as I took the paper from him.

            “How’s the test?” I asked even though it was obviously he has showed it to me how unhappy he was with his performance.

            “Don’t ask me anything, teacher.” He looked up to me and shook his head quickly. I nodded at him, trying to stifle a laugh as I watched him left the class sighing loudly to his disappointment. Once his figure was nowhere to be seen, I took out his sheet and have a brief check on it. He barely answered anything, leaving almost of the blank spaces clean and unanswered. I guessed I have just given the bad boy a lesson today; never played around in Pie Mindara’s class.

Soon after, a familiar figure walked briskly into my classroom, greeting me with her wicked smile. She took a glance to the pile of sheets in my hand before she spoke to me, “Surprise quiz again?” Her eyebrow arched into her significant sarcastic remark.

            “Why asking the obvious?” I ignored her and began to assemble my stuffs.

            “I don’t understand why you still get a lot of presents on Teacher’s Day and be one of the most favourite teachers in the school. As far as I have gone through my old days at school, students hate teacher who love to burden them with difficult test.” She complained as she grabbed one of the sheets from the stack which I have arranged. She scrutinized the content of the sheet to its details before she placed it back to the stack and grunted softly. “I pitied the children. You’re one wicked teacher.” She muttered, over and over using the same adjective to describe me.

            “Yes, I know it.” I nodded at her. “Perhaps you should find me a flying broom. It’s such an honour for me to be crowned as the Wicked Teacher of the West” I told her. Fern didn’t even laugh for my intended humour. You can boo me for the reason I failed to make it as a joke. She rolled her eyes to me and silently made the ‘HAHA’ remark, expressing how ‘funny’ it was to her. She was too mean.

            “How can I explain it to you, Mrs. Maurer?” I pretended that I was pondering something. “Perhaps, I am the fairest teacher of all. No one can hate a hot teacher.” I told her and couldn’t help myself from not laughing when my companion shot me a disbelief look. This time, she got affected by my brag.

            “Oh please Pie.” She made a ‘shoo’ gesture by waving a hand quickly. My best friend used a lot of body gestures to express everything.

            “Let’s get going, Fern. We are running out of time.” I glanced to my wristwatch just to find that ten minutes have passed and we only have about forty five minutes for the lunch break. She didn’t say a thing when she trailed after me.

We walked out from the classroom and went down the long hallway. The classrooms were nearly all empty as the students gone for their break. Eventually, we made our way to the staffs’ pantry. We didn’t usually go to the cafeteria. I brought my lunch box so did Fern.

            “Seriously Pie, the kids really like you despite the fact that you often made them think studying your subjects are like surviving a life in hell.” Fern said, still couldn’t get over of the previous conversation we had in the classroom. I couldn’t blame her for her exaggerations; Fern is the head panel of the Language department. She was good in languages that she was cable of arranging the words and phrases into something that either could annoy you or shut your mouth completely. Sometimes she included foreign languages in between our conversation with intention either to irritate or to talk bad about me. I didn’t really mind it anyway. As for me, I held an important position in the Science department. Pure Science is my field and I’m an expert in Chemistry and perhaps Mathematics.

            “I am just doing the best to help the kids, Fern. After all, you have been going through the same thing when you were in high school.” I shook my head, amused by my best friend’s reaction towards the way I conducted my lesson. “And to answer you, I have no idea why they like me either. Anyway, I’m not that awful and strict like the discipline teacher.” I shrugged. Fern shuddered at the thought of I’d mention the discipline teacher. Mrs. Morrison, a woman of her mid forty was not only feared by the students. The teachers hardly get along well with her too.

            “I prefer you, not to mention about her. She scared me.” Fern stated and shook her head as if Mrs. Morrison was standing in front of her right at the moment. She had a bad encounter with the teacher in the past.

The pantry was empty by the time we arrived there. We headed to our favourite spot and placed our belongings. Fern helped me to get my lunch box while I grabbed us some drinks from the fridge. Thank you to the thoughtful teacher who gave the idea of inventing such wonderful pantry. We got almost of everything here.

            “I guess I can do more wonder than you, Pie.” She said, ing the container to me. “Words are mightier than the sword and words can change the whole world.” She added.  I noticed that she threw her gaze to the empty air. She was about to start her drama again.

            “The Shakespeare is here.” I rolled my eyes at her. She punched me in my arm playfully before we took our seat, across each other. “Did your hubby cook your lunch?” I peeked into her container. She had a scrumptious lunch, beautifully decorated that it looked like a child’s lunch box.

Fern flushed red as she nodded at me. “Yes. He made this for me.” She stated, staring to the content of the container with a huge grin on her face.

            “You’re so lucky to have Mario. He is a good man.” I told her. Fern and Mario married three months ago. They met at a function and become close to each other for about a year and half before they decided to tie the knot. I envied her for that. She has a loving husband while I was all single and forever alone.

            “You should give a man outside there a chance to be with you, Pie.” Fern said, directing us to another topic of conversation which I dislike the most. “You hardly date anyone these past few years. What are you looking for?” She added, babbling to me like a nagging mother.

            “Not again, Fern.” I shook my head, not wanting to further the conversation because I knew Fern would ended up getting pissed off because of me.

            “Are you aware that you’re not getting any younger, Pie? It’s the right time for you to think about your future and years ahead. Don’t you want to see your little one who resembles you or your husband running around and cute?” Fern didn’t notice that I was frowning at her upon hearing her description about my ‘future child’. Why she must include the ? She’s gross. “Don’t you want to wake up next to the one you loved and feel you’re the luckiest person in the world?” She continued, flooding me with her ‘advice’.

            “Wait…” She grasped for my hand