He should not have phrased his answer as a question. The teacher, brimming with conflicting emotions, bit her lip in a failing attempt to control herself.
"You think this is some kind of game?!?" she roared. "I don't know?!? Change the world?!?" For once she had the attention of the entire class. "Everyone of you," she said, now almost whispering through bared teeth, "Everyone of you needs to seriously consider what he or she is doing here."
And everyone of them did. Most wished they had obeyed their first impulse that morning and feigned the flu and skipped class. Budd stood up. In a single expression, the whole class thought, "Oh no." Budd stood up and spoke. "Yeah. What am I doing here?" He walked to the door, turned the handle, and swung it open. He walked out of the classroom and let the door slide closed behind him.
Dude knew that all this was somehow his fault. He wasn't usually given to caring about this sort of thing, but he didn't want the teacher to kill him either. "I'm here to learn. So I can change the world." There was little conviction in his voice. In fact, there was no emotion at all. But the question mark was gone.
The teacher flopped into her chair, buried her head in her hands and began to sob. Giant stood up in the corner of the room, shouldered his backpack, and whispered, "Let's leave her alone."
Class was dismissed.
2 comments:
I know I ask this all the time, but, is this a true story?
All the characters are/will be based on actual people that I don't really know that well.
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