They say that the eyes are windows to your soul. Many times have my own eyes caught the gaze of others'. Sometimes they look away quickly. Sometimes that gaze is held, and through it, two souls are connected briefly, as if trying to decipher the dreams that lie behind those eyes. An exchange of looks during a dull lesson, a flutter of nervous blinking, a wide-eyed stare translated between the spectrums of shock and friendliness.
Right now the form of eye contact Sienna encountered the most was the hasty glance. And coming from the person she was once that close to. She was awfully vexed by her situation when they had all just come back from summer vacation. Here was a disturbingly new chapter and also the final year of her high school life. Somewhere along she decided to make the best out of it. How else could one so broken carry on...
~
"I just hate his classes. They're so boring and he doesn't even know what he's teaching..."
"Yea, I know right. And now he's making up this project so that he doesn't even need to TEACH."
"His lessons ruin my mornings."
Shawn, Lydie and Sienna said their 'see you later's and proceeded off to their next classes. With the bulky textbooks in her arms, Sienna marched up the stairs to the lockers. Helen happened to be there too.
"Hey! How's it going?" She asked cheerily.
"So-so. Hmm, you know how some people in the class have been talking bad about the History teacher?"
"Yea... what about it?"
"Well, I think that it's not really his fault because he only joined recently. Besides, he does try to make his lessons fun with the random facts of the day."
"And your point is...?"
"Well maybe we should give him a chance. Look, I think he KNOWS what we've been saying behind his back and... don't you think we're hurting his feelings?"
Sienna pondered this for a bit. Her friend was right (in a way). But would standing out to say something that didn't conform to the rest of her classmates alienate her? Make her a 'teacher's pet'? She didn't want to be estranged by more people. His indifference to her was as frigid as it could get.
Opening her laptop, she decided that she would post this message on the Google Docs that she shared with her teacher in an effort of encouragement:
Dear Mr C,
Although we are not very responsive in class, please do not give up trying to teach us. You may not be the greatest teacher, but you are a nice person.
S
