Chapter 2- Erina

Erina is the English teacher

Erina Hughes tapped her foot, as she waited outside Mr. Banner’s office. The flashy blonde PE teacher, Perri, was talking to him about something or other.

It was starting to get ridiculous. Erina had used up her break time to come see Mr. Banner, and she was leaning against the wall opposite his office, watching an argument that only seemed to be getting more and more heated. Erina sighed, checked her watch, and decided she’d wasted enough time-she needed to go and get ready for her lesson.  

She tucked her shoulder-length brown hair safely behind her ear and strode off towards the English corridor. Students sniggered slightly as she walked past. Erina was wearing her favourite colour, bright pink. Her dress was knee-length, make out satin, and its halter neck top was obscured by massive silk roses. She had customised with grey tights and suede ankle boots studded with fake sapphires. Really, with her...unusual dress sense, she was used to the sniggering. To be honest, it had ceased to bother her anymore. 

Her class was a year 10 one, and she had had the same set last year, so she knew everyone already. For this she was glad, it was exhausting trying to remember names, and even more tiring trying to get new students to stop treating her like a joke.

When she got to the classroom, everyone had already gone in. Peter Curra and his girlfriend, Chantelle, were making out on a back desk. This was a pairing that had surprised Erina last year; the two were extremely different, from a teacher’s point of view, anyway.

Peter Curra was the brattiest student Erina had ever had the displeasure to teach. He was a major PE dork, and he was always chatting to his band of mates about his minor league football team, that, from what Erina could tell, had yet to win a single match. He had never written an essay without at least one reference to Manchester United (his favourite team), and had never gotten higher than a D in any of his practice tests.

Chantelle was the opposite. She was pretty much the sluttiest girl in the school, and Erina was sure she’d never seen a shorter skirt on anyone. Her face honestly had the appearance of a paint pallet, and the thought of someone like Chantelle doing sports was unheard of. But, apparently, her relationship with Peter had lasted the summer, for which Erina was extremely ungrateful.

“Peter, Chantelle, if you can keep your hands off each other for one moment, please!” 

It was as if they hadn’t heard her.

“Everyone other than the two love-birds in the corner, take your seats!” fumed Erina. She rarely got angry, but Peter was a special case. And she knew that once they stopped snogging, there would be the whole, “I Love You, babe,” pantomime.

She decided to ignore them entirely. Turning her attention to the rest of the class, she began the dreary lecture on the finer works of Shakespeare.

It was the same as always. The girls were all texting, reapplying make-up and bitching about each other. The boys laughed at the innuendos, dirty words and any romantic inclination within the text.

About halfway through the lesson, at which point Erina was about three seconds away from tearing her hair out, Samantha Edwards poked her head through the door.

Erina sighed. And she’d thought her day couldn’t get any worse.

Samantha’s smug smile was in place, as her eyes knowingly took in the chaos in the room.

Erina didn’t even bother telling the kids to be quiet before she walked out of the room with the worst teacher in the school.

“So,” Samantha sniffed haughtily.

Erina tapped her foot impatiently, but Samantha didn’t expand.

“Um, if you don’t mind, I’ve kind of got a class...waiting...”

Samantha let out a patronizing laugh.

“You call that a class? I call it a rabble! But I suppose...” she casted her eyes condescendingly over Erina’s outfit, “Anyway, I’m here because Mr. Banner says he sent for you at break time, but you never came! Now, if it had been me, I would have made extra sure-“

“Thank you, Samantha.”

Inside, Erina was fuming. If Perri hadn’t been talking to him, I would have been there in plenty of time, and he could have fulfilled his stupid appointment, she thought to herself

“I’ll look after the class, if you want to go now,” Samantha’s sneering, nasal voice jerked her back to earth, and Erina glared at her through slit-like eyes.

“Fine, do what you want,” Erina snapped, and stalked off in the direction of the head teacher’s office.

 

Mr. Banner was a stocky man, with a receding hairline, and squinty brown eyes. In private, Erina liked to refer to him as The Evil Overlord. He wasn’t exactly the nicest boss, and a lot of the other teachers had snide little nicknames for him. She hated to think about what the meeting would be about, because with Mr. Banner, it was never good.

“Sit down.”

Erina sat in a hard, wooden chair, and glared at Mr. Banner’s swivelling office chair.

“I’ve told you to come here so that we can review the dress code of the school,” Mr. Banner sneered, cutting right to the point.

“I wasn’t aware that there was a dress code,” said Erina politely.

“Well, there isn’t, but I think we all agree that that must be a medium of dignity, don’t you think?”

This was not what Erina thought at all. She loved expressing herself through her wacky outfits, and she loved appending hours working out what to wear the next day-at a time when she really should be marking!

Erina opened her mouth to argue.

Author's Note

Please review, tell me everything you liked and everything you hated. Please?