When a teacher attacks...

Time made loud ticking noises as the moment for the presentation nears. I, the president of the class trembled at the thought of being the only person qualified to remind that notorious unpredictable Asian lecturer in front that her time had to be cut short. She was in the middle of her Ganges River sermon when it happened. Everyone were holding their breaths, each taking their own turn giving me “the look” to stand up already and politely tell the old woman to leave. It was a matter of minutes before we perform our English play. There were still loads of work to do- blocking, make-up and pep talks. I knew I had to man-up and go where no high school sophomore dared to go before. I took one very long deep breath and then decided to do another short one before deciding to raise my shaking hand. If only the arm chair could talk, it would definitely scream from how hard I was gripping it.

“Yes, Ms. Istante. What is it?”. I felt the words sting. I knew something bad was bound to happen any time.

“Yes. I'm sorry, Ma'am. But we have our play scheduled this day and I'm afraid by now we should already start preparing. We only have 10 minutes to show time.”

My plan was to say everything as fast as I can. I thought doing so would lessen the pain of when she starts exposing her wrath. I was nowhere near right. I stood there like an idiot while the aged woman in front of me erupted.

“I am doing my lecture, young lady! Have you no.......”. Blah blah blah. I tuned out the moment her voice hit infinite octave. She was like another being from a parallel universe. There I was, the center of all disgrace, panic-stricken and getting pale from all the shouting and anger this history teacher of mine so generously donated.

“Ma'am, I didn't me...”

“I am in the middle of my discussion and you tell me it's time already!! How....”

“asdfgh12345@#$^&*..!!!!!!!!”.

Boy, was she really angry. I didn't have the outstanding courage to stand up and say my side although I did get her to shut up and leave giving us the time to get on with our play already. She got her bag off the table and left marching with extreme irritation obviously from my random outburst. I was still in shock, silently rallying within that the whole thing wasn't my fault.

“There should have been a memo about this. Why is she so pissed?”, I quietly said to myself. I was still standing when everything started to turn into a slow motion scene. That's when I felt the sign of humiliation and disbelief sink in and stream right down my left cheek. My classmates who were all so busy getting in their costumes and running lines here and there stopped as if some football coach had just blown his whistle to call in the team. I guess they noticed that their ever courageous president and female lead is still in shock, teary-eyed from the fiery one-sided confrontation.

“Cara, are you okay? Please say something. We're about to start, you're not even dressed yet.”

They were all saying the same things so I had no choice but to push myself into waking up from my bubble. I was still crying when I started preparing. I got my dress and went to the girls' bathroom without talking to anyone. I was Juliet for crying out loud. I'm supposed to be a tough bitch and everything. While I went inside one of the stalls, I was still contemplating on what happened. I have always had the feeling that somewhere along the school year, I was bound to be thrown in some misunderstanding with any one of my eight subject teachers. I like to babble away. I like cracking jokes and I hate too much formality. I never turn down a chance to say my side in a debate but ofcourse I know when to tune down my radio. My plan was to stay incognito as much as possible. Throughout the year I was silent as a monk when need be, so it really came as a surprise to me how easily I went to being the main attraction of the class.

I went out the stall still in zombie form when all of a sudden,“that's okay, Cara. That Ma'am Asuncion is really a asdfgh12345@#$%^!”. Typical teen angst I know, but coming from the resident queen bee of our batch, it felt really weird. I thought why would she be nice to me, she practically annoys the crap out of plain girls like me everyday. I just went and muttered a very demure thanks to her somehow surprisingly friendly antic. We all then headed to the auditorium to meet with the very thing that caused our History teacher to metamorphose into a troll.

“Thank you, II-Magdiwang for that performance” one of the judges called.

And so the play ended. I knew what happened that morning sort of affected my acting for the dang play and so I was prepared to receive the worst my classmates could throw at me. I heard nothing from them. It figures. I know that they know it was the least they could do to thank me for saving the day by catching all the teacher's inferno that was supposedly meant for the whole class.

That same day I picked up what was left of my guts to try my luck and talk to Ma'am Asuncion. I slowly and shakingly made my way to the Teacher's Lounge. It was unusually cold inside that den or maybe it was just sweat running down my back as I tossed and turned for the right intro inside my mind.

“I'm sorry, dear. Ms. Asuncion timed-out early today. Was it because of what happened a while ago?”. Great. I became the talk of the town in a matter of hours. And in less than how many more would I become the school's black sheep?

“Yes Ma'am. I wanted to apologize for what happened.”

“Oh no, worries dear. I'm sure she didn't mean to explode like that. Just be back again some other day, okay?”. Well, atleast I got some sympathy or whatever.

Days passed and Ma'am Asuncion was a no show. I kept recalling that fateful incident over and over, just to be hurt more every time. I was starting to get really anxious. It was never in my nature to delay an apology. I always felt like it made things worse to have something important to say and have it postponed until that something is not as important anymore. Anyway, since the whole teacher-makes-a-scene-because-student-reminds-time issue, everything has gone a long a little smoothly for everyone. The mean girls in the class transformed into complete angels. They stopped making so much drama in class and went on to just focusing on their grades class performance- for a while. I don't want to get ahead of myself by thinking it was because of what I did that made them want to avoid screwing with ancient teachers, so I just blamed sickness or women red days for the matter. There were also some noticeable decrease in the amount of noise and unruliness that the class executes. Our section suddenly became the teacher's favorite. We'd get test exemptions and extra points sometimes and I'd like to blame it on the fact that everyone- like the mean girls- was indeed trying their best not to infuriate any teacher once more. We haven't had history for three days already and mostly that meant free time for us.

“This is the best time we'd had since Sir Corazon was sick for a week! Sure glad Cara pissed the hell out of Ma'am Asuncion”, I heard one classmate go. Everybody was up on their feet, thanking me for the deed. And while I managed a half-smirk to acknowledge their immature evaluation of the situation, my ego still remains fragile from the serious case of public humiliation I had just experienced.

“Hey guys, they just posted the list. We ranked fifth!”, Jocely announced. Not bad, I thought. Coming from an unfortunate encounter from Ms. Asuncion, we still pulled off a good play and even ranked fifth out of seven. Not bad. And just as I was about to let out my first genuine smile for the week since the incident, a familiar face went inside the room that sent not only shivers but perhaps convulsions up and down my spine.

“Good Morning, Ma'am Asuncion”, we said in a uniformed yet uncertain manner.

After 4 days of ditching, she came this very last day of the week. Perhaps to continue the overdue round two of her tangy whips on me. I took a long sigh and prepared for the worst.

“Okay, class, where did we end last meeting?”.......... Whaaaaat?? Did she really say that? And in a calm voice too?

Someone answered her but I was too stumped to find out who. I was waiting for more shouting, curse words and embarrassment to fill the room but there was none. What was left of our one-hour History class was all about Mesopotamia, Cuneiform writings and casual cracks of how she was friends with King Nebuchadnezzar who apparently courted her some time in her teens. Everything was so surreal. I could not bring myself to laugh- doing so may start the frenzy I had been expecting. I was fidgeting the whole time, trying to figure out a hint into this mental Rubiks cube she's playing in me. All I got was a slight smirk. I had no choice but to wait until the class was over.

Finally, it ended. And as she walked out our classroom door, I hurriedly ran after her.

“Ma'am, wait. Ma'am..”. She turned around, face all normal.

“Ma'am, I just wanted to... I've been trying to see you.....”. I stuttered every time I decided to go on a different direction with the apology. I knew my face was tomato-red already because of trying to suppress the tears. It's a reflex of mine.

Ma'am Asuncion just smiled at me. Genuinely, may I add. It wasn't exactly the verbal forgiveness I was hoping for but it worked, anyway. Her smile and her happy eyes had said it all. It has been haunting me if ever I really did offend her with my reminding of the time or if not, what made her act as if she would blow up any time from fury. I decided to let that be a mystery up until this day. I figured, theoretically, I had already committed an act of disrespect and that I would not want to risk committing another one again by asking her that question.

She softly patted my shoulder and went on to her next class.