Justify — Preface(2)
She was early. Very early. The door opened and closed five times after she had sat down at the plastic desk with a slight wobble on the left hand side. Each time the door with a safety glass window at the top opened to reveal another student, they walked in and sat down at their equally wobbly desk, said nothing and folded their hands nicely on their legs, waiting patiently for their new professor to arrive. Not a High School Teacher, the man was a Professor. Actually, the man was a Doctor, but considering their previous Art History Professor was a Doctor too, the title didn’t imply they could handle a disorderly, and questioning class of six.
The Deputy Principal walked after everyone had been seated. She glared at each of the students as she sauntered across the room to sit at the desk at the front of the room, and eyed the students one by one where they quietly sat at their desks. However, as much as Eden could see the Deputy was getting more and more frustrated by the silence of the usually unruly clique of students, she didn’t say anything, instead looked piercingly at them over the frameless glasses which sat perched on her nose.
A fly buzzed around the front of the room. A large loud blowfly. Before long the fly grew tired of the lack of movement from anyone and landed quite contently on the Deputy’s nose, causing her to fly out of her seat in panic, flapping her arms wildly and viciously, screaming bloody murder to the fly. The students stayed still, but she almost gave them away. Eden almost allowed herself to smile, to smirk, as the meager group of students sat, alone and away from the others around them, straight faced and bored, dream like states all painted the expressions on their faces.
The Deputy’s wild rage softened when she noted the students were still dream faced towards the whiteboard. The Deputy placed herself back on the chair precariously, focused on the group of students notorious for getting rid of teachers. Eden was sure the Deputy would crack soon. No-one could be this frustrated with the straight and bored faced class who had driven away their last Professor. Eden almost felt sorry for Ms Levy, her intention was there, she wanted to teach well, for her students to learn, but when the time came, she didn’t have the voice to yell. It was high, her voice a piece of chalk squabbling across the board. No-one could understand her. In reality, Eden though, she had to go. So they planned it. Days where they didn’t turn up, days where they bought spiders and left them wandering around the classroom, days where they started yelling and had a marshmallow fight and stacked the chairs in a fort. Ms Levy coped better than the class had thought, but the catalyst was a warm Tuesday, last period of the day and it was a double Art History period for the class. Ms Levy sat at the front while the class behaved much as they were now, straight faced, polite, much too quiet. Ms Levy was ecstatic, her look basically thought the class had turned over a new leaf, ready to learn, willing to listen, she was amazed. They had all turned up, papers out, pens out, ready to start. She took a deep breath, ready to start the lesson, went to stand from the very desk The Deputy sat at right at this moment, and in walked two lapdances. Ms Levy didn’t even stand a chance to run screaming from the classroom,
There were no clocks in the Art History class, the only class without one, the only class waiting on their professor to arrive to class too. No phones allowed, especially with the Deputy sitting and guarding the meager students like a crow. The Deputy glanced at her watch and sighed, looking more ticked off as the second hand danced forward closer to the end of class.
How much longer? she thought. Nothing could go slower than waiting, however she knew that everyone seated around the room was just as bored. This group didn’t do well with quietness, so it was a wonder they had kept up their act for the Deputy this long.
Finally, the Deputy snapped.
“Don’t you have work you could be doing? Your finals are in three weeks.” Her eyebrows angled downwards, her lips in a terrible frown which contorted her features. She look ready to stand and jump from her seat to yell at the peacefulness nature of the class just as she had at the fly. She thought better of it and took three deep breathes.
The six students took out a notebook each to pretend to study and write notes. They were all going to fail Art History anyhow, the least they could do was pass one of their other classes. Eden opened her bag and pulled out the notepad which stored her small amount of notes for this class, still managing to keep a straight face, along with everybody else.
A loud thump sounded on the door, not a knock, but as if someone had crashed head first into it. The Deputy was up and off her seat before anybody could react, and had yanked the door open, almost ripping it from its hinges, glaring at the rumpled person who lay sprawled on the ground on the other side of the door.
The man jumped up and came eye to eye with the Deputy.
“Hi,” he practically yelled in the Deputy’s face, “I’m teaching this class, what are you doing here?” He grinned at the Deputy gleefully, she scowled back at him.
“You’re late,” she growled.
He laughed, “A little bit of waiting never killed anyone.”
“Almost killed her,” came a snigger from one of the students, who earned a glare from the Deputy, who did look in the mood to kill someone.
“I’ll leave you be then,” she snapped, “Don’t be late again.”
“You can’t find anyone for this job, being late is the least of my worries.” He stepped into the classroom, smile sitting smug on his face as he looked out over his new class.
“The best way to start the day is with a bit of excitement.” He said, laughing to himself. “Today our excitement was getting rid of the Deputy, but now the frenzy begins, finding out what you don’t know.”
The class rolled their eyes, of course they would be required to do work for the last few weeks with a new Professor. Always the way, thought Eden.
“Right, I’m Parkes, no Mr, no Sir, I’m not old enough for that. So what do you know?”
No-one said anything.
“Great start, and here I was thinking you would try to get rid of me at the first attempt.”
One of the boys spoke up from the back. “We will, but not today, Sir.” The class sniggering in agreeance.
“Sounds promising, I’ll look forward to it.” Parkes turned from the class, ignoring the Sir.
“Right, so you will have known about van Gogh, about Picasso, about Monet and Michelangelo?” Parkes looked at us expectantly, “You do know, right?”
Someone toward the back sniggered, Eden looked around behind her, of course it was Henry. “Why would we know?”
Parkes looked like he was about to collapse to a puddle on the floor, “You know nothing?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Well, pack your bags, we’re ditching the rest of the day.”
No one moved. For a class so accustomed to doing nothing, to getting rid of teachers, ditching with the permission of one? Unheard of, so everyone questioned what they had been told.
“Ugh, why?”
“And here I was thinking you would be happy with this impromptu arrangement?”
Marcel stood up with his bag in hand, “Well, I’m not complaining,” he said.
Henry also stood up, “Neither am I.”
Eden and the rest of the class begrudgingly followed, picking up their bags and gear and filing out of the classroom.
***
Parkes led the six students quickly out of the school grounds and down towards the Metro.
“Today is a crash course in Art History.” Parkes said once they had boarded the train. “We will be going getting a private tour of a private collection from my very good friend, Haas Renee.”
“Hey,” Selene whispered to Eden, her best friend, “I didn’t know he was an art collector? He’s my performance director at YMA.”
“Really?” she whispered back.
“Yeah, you should come after school today, I’ll even come for coffee with you after.”
“Haas has the largest collection of art in LA, he has Da Vinci and Titian and Raphael and Picasso. He will…” Parkes words fell on deaf ears as they sat on the Metro, each conversing with each other.
“Why should I come?”
“Because you write so well!”
“But I don’t perform.”
“Well, we’re finding out about a new piece that we’re performing with the other theatre group tonight.”
“And…” Eden gestured in and on and on motion
“Well,” Selene said, looking down at the floor, “the guys in the group are really hot.”
“Selene!” She exclaimed, “You can’t say that!”
“Why not? It’s true.”
“You still just can’t.”
“Freedom of speech.”
“They are not chilli’s.”
Selene snorted. “Fine, the guys there are extremely attractive.”
Eden raised an eyebrow, “Try again.”
“The young men are very good looking.”
“Better,” she considered her answer, “sort of,” she said with a half a smile.
The six students and Parkes walked from the Metro and down the road, through a park filled with just grass, continued through the grass for about a kilometre before Henry asked, “Where are we going?”
Parkes laughed. “Only time will tell.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he mumbled.
The six walked in the sunshine, pleased not to be in class, but still curious as to where the day would eventually lead. It wasn’t until Parkes led them to a locked gate between two buildings, he rattled the gate multiple times, then with a click, it popped open.
“How did you do that?” asked Henry.
“Magic,” was all Parkes said as he led them through the gate until it clicked behind them.
The group walked between the two buildings in an alleyway that was darkened by the hidden sun, sheltered by the buildings either side of them. The walked two by two with Parkes at the front, like animals lining up for Noah, to survive and live to tell the tale. But it was not the setting which shocked Eden, it was the calmness of her classmates, wandering without question or rowdiness. Maybe the last three weeks in this class wouldn’t be so painfully boring as she had thought this morning.
***
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