Edward sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Third period was about to begin. Dreaded third period. It was a large class, and almost half of them were Twelfth-graders, which is to say they were retaking the Eleventh grade class. Of those, most were failing. Again.
But worst of all was Joanna. Joanna had one of the worst attitudes Edward had ever experienced in a student. He shook his head. Only eighteen and she already hated the world. How could someone so young become so jaded? So rude and mocking?
She, along with several of the other twelfth graders, had pretty much given up. They were retaking, and refailing, Math III. That pretty much meant that they were not going to graduate. Once a student stopped giving a damn, it was almost impossible to rescue them.
But what made Joanna stand out was her "go to hell" attitude. It drove Edward crazy because she couldn't seem to grasp that he was trying to help her. He knew that if she didn't graduate, she would most likely remain in poverty. She would likely get pregnant soon, and she might even end up in the justice system. He shook his head. All she saw was that he constantly pestered her to do her work.
Like many students, she didn't get it. The teachers who let them get away with failing were the ones who didn't care. He spent extra time and energy trying to get Joanna to focus and get her work done. He put together work packets to help her marks. Yet all he ever got out of her was rudeness and disrespect.
Even worse, she was terribly disruptive. She would blurt out rude or mocking comments, answer questions with silly answers, and even whistle during lectures for no reason whatsoever.
There really was no question about it: she was a hateful young girl. Edward did his best not to show his severe dislike for her, but he knew on his down days, some of it shone through.
As the students filed in, he squared his shoulders and resolved to treat her with as much kindness as he could summon.
Almost on cue, she sauntered in, just before the tardy bell. Instead of going to her seat, she went to talk to one of her other twelfth-grade friends. Edward called to her, and asked her to get her notebook and go to her seat.
She ignored him, forcing him to raise his voice, something he hated to do. "Joanna! You need to be seated with your materials when the tardy bell rings," he said with his booming teacher voice.
She just looked up at him, arched her eyebrows and said, "Yeah, well, I'm not," in a sassy voice.
He swallowed his anger and reminded himself, diffuse, don't escalate. He said calmly, "Yes, Joanna, I see that. Please sit down. I don't want to have to mark you tardy."
Having said that, he turned away and walked back to his desk at the front of the class, easing his overweight frame into the plush chair.
"All right, everyone, you can see the warmup on the screen here. You know what to do. Remember, use your notes, ask a friend, and only as a last resort ask me."
He began taking attendance as the students started working through a small set of problems. There was some low talking as students discussed the work, but overall the noise level was low.
Except for Joanna. She was loudly talking about some kind of drama she had been involved with earlier in the day. He clearly heard the words "bitch" and "fuck" and various other curse words.
He walked over to her desk and interrupted her. "Joanna, consider yourself warned. We use only professional language at this school."
He walked over to the board and wrote her name. "Now, if you get a check," he continued, "you will have to stay past the bell one minute.
"I don't give a fuck," she mumbled just loud enough to be heard.
Edward shook his head and wrote a check next to her name. "One more check and you spend lunch in here with me instead of with your friends."
Her face was screwed up in an angry expression, but she clearly didn't like the idea of losing lunch, so she looked down at the paper, mumbling something he couldn't hear.
The rest of class went much as could be expected, With Joanna pushing her behavior right up to the limit of getting a checkmark, then pulling back at the last minute. She was an expert at coming close to the border of outright disrespect, without actually crossing it.
Her facial expression remained contemptuous, and Edward had to remind himself several times that getting angry would do nothing to help things. In fact, that was exactly what she wanted.
When the bell rang, she got up to leave, but he stood in her path and said, "Nope."
She glared up at him but went to her seat. She joked and talked with her friends as they walked out, so Edward didn't start the time until they were gone. He started a stopwatch for one minute.
One minute is a surprisingly long amount of time if you just sit and watch the clock, and Joanna knew it. This wasn't her first rodeo. Instead of acting in any way put out, she tried to affect an air of casual indifference.
She yawned theatrically and arched her back, fists raised.
Edward did a double-take. She usually wore loose hoodies, but today she was wearing a form-fitting sweater. He was momentarily shocked by how large and shapely her breasts were. Her tiny frame suggested small breasts. Before he could stop himself his eyes roamed downward to her trim waist and back up over her firm, hefty tits.
He quickly snapped out of it and looked away, but not before Joanna had seen him gawking. When he glanced back at her, she was looking directly at him, a smirk on her face.
He quickly looked away but it was as if his whole world had been turned upside down. He noticed with dismay that his penis had become semi-erect in just the few moments he had been admiring her teenaged titties.
The timer went off and she stood and left the room.
Edward couldn't help himself. It was as if his eyes belonged to someone else. He found himself staring at her ass as she stalked out of the room. Jesus! It was perfect. Nicely rounded, shifting provocatively under her tight jeans as she walked, it was a perfect little apple-butt.
He quickly looked away, red-faced with shame. What the hell? He had never in his ten years of teaching perved on a student. Never. He was a caring professional, and he had learned to build a wall in that area. It was true that many high-school girls were devastatingly beautiful and well formed, but he had always managed to ignore it and remain completely unaffected.
How had this infuriating little snot gotten around his wall? Why did he feel such a powerful attraction all of a sudden? It was maddening. His feelings of her had not changed. She was horribly disrespectful, snotty, rude, and... he couldn't help but think, hot as hell.
He rubbed his hands and tried to clear his turbulent thoughts. None of this mattered. He would build the wall again, and never let her through again. He was a professional, goddamn it! Such thoughts were beneath him.
*****
All the next week, Joanna remained as rude and disrespectful as ever. She wore her signature black hoodie and her attitude was anything but attractive. Edward began to feel that he had indeed won the battle against his strange attraction to her.
