New Life : A Second Chance

Chapter 28 - Mrs Doolittle

The school bell soon rang, signaling the start of the first lesson. A rather matron looking woman, taking short, brisk steps walked into 1F and headed straight to her desk in front of the class. She ignored the noisy class, then dumped her books onto the table with a loud bang, prompting everyone to silence.

"Good morning everyone," she greeted them.

"Good morning Teacher," chorused everyone in return.

"I am Mrs. Doolittle," she began and then stopped, upon hearing a sudden snort from behind. She looked back, her eyes in a slit as she glared at each and every student that was sitting in the last row but could only see eyes giving her their fullest attention to her.

She gave them one last glare then continued, "I will be your Class Teacher for the year, and I run a tight ship around here. No hanky panky and we will get along just fine."

She paused for a dramatic effect, and gave what would be known among her students as 'The Glare' and said sternly, "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?"

"Yes, Teacher Doolittle," chorused the class obediently.

Satisfied, she sat down and started calling names from the attendance sheet. When she reached Kyle's name, she paused, then looked up to stare at him in the face. Kyle looked back at her innocently, not showing any expression as he said, "Present". She appeared like she was going to say something, as her mouth opened once then she looked back down at the paper again and called the next name.

Kyle smirked. It was bad enough that he couldn't hold back the snort of laughter upon hearing her name, it was taking all his will power not to laugh out loud again. He knew all the names of the teachers in the school, of course, but it still never failed to amuse him. To actually have a teacher with that name just made him want to laugh all the time. To think that she turned out to be his Class Teacher is seriously going to test his willpower all year long.

Mrs Doolittle taught history, and as her dry and monotonous voice droned on and on ... it lulled Kyle to sleep. He couldn't help it. It was rather hypnotic, really. Kyle hadn't had much sleep lately, and last night had been exhausting. Master Shifu had sent him on an assassination mission, and it had taken longer than usual. The target was much more skilled than he had originally thought, causing him to take more drastic measures.

He had been severely reprimanded by Master Shifu after that. Kyle knew he was at fault for being overconfident, something that slowly crept up on him since he had been able to handle every target easily all this time. He had already been warned by Master Shifu of this danger, and though Kyle listened, he didn't quite get it until last night.

Still, being pushed like that and forcing him to go all out caused his skills to notch up a bit. He felt he had been rather stagnant lately, and figured this must be the 'bottleneck' those wuxia novel characters were always facing when advancing. It's until you were in a real life-and-death situation would your skills be executed properly.

So there he was, slightly drooling with his head laid back when a sudden sharp sound echoed throughout the class. Jolted awake, Kyle stood up shouting, "Reporting for duty SIR!" Everyone burst out laughing, and Kyle blinked several times, wiped the drool from the side of his face and smiled sheepishly at Mrs Doolittle while saying, "I mean, Reporting for duty, Teacher Doolittle!"

The girls sighed as they watched Kyle. He looked so dreamy with his sleepy look, making his eyes appear more misty and gorgeous. Even his drool was cute, and when he smiled sheepishly, with his head tilted to the side a bit and making his dimple more pronounced, they melted even more.

"Good, good," she began, rapping the ruler that she had used to smack the table in front of Kyle, "Good, good. You dare sleep in my class, Kyle Smith. Go and squat outside the class with these books on your head!!" She then placed three heavy history text books in his arms. Kyle took those books without a word, walked out and did as he was told while thinking, 'What is this? Kindergarten?'

Kyle found this whole thing ridiculous, and knew that she was punishing him in this manner just to cause him pain and embarrassment. She probably thought that he was so self-conscious of his image, that having him struggling there while people walked by would be devastating to his ego.

Kyle scoffed. He was used to doing the horse stance with Master Shifu dancing on top of his shoulders, so what was this measly thing? As for image? What image? He didn't really care about it, but didn't mean he wouldn't utilise his looks to get a certain advantage. Feed the masses, so to speak.

Word got round to the fact that Idol Kyle was squatting in outside 1F's classroom and suddenly, students just had to go to the bathroom - that just happened to be beside 1F. Sure, there were closer bathrooms but who wanted to go there? In the end, Kyle would flash his signature dazzling smile to anyone who walked by, sometimes raising his eyebrows comically which caused the giggling girls to giggle even more before running away.

Kyle found that this was WAY more fun than listening to the monotone drone inside. Maybe he should fall asleep again in her class. He would occasionally shift his weight, while clenching the leg muscles and going on his tiptoes. This would help in blood circulation, so that his legs wouldn't fall asleep while being in that position for so long.

When Teacher Doolittle came out 45 minutes later, she was bitterly disappointed. Instead of seeing a red faced, worn out boy with his legs shaking (or his butt on the floor), she found that he hardly broke a sweat. In fact, he stood up at her command, returned the books to her and walked back into class without any visible discomfort. She gritted her teeth.

Looks like the punishment needs to be tougher the next time round, Mrs Doolittle thought to herself. She was sure there would be a next time. Boys like that were always trouble and only invited trouble. She shared the same sentiment as the Principal, which was why she was appointed as 1F's Class Teacher. Walking away, she headed to the Principal's office to make her report.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully. The other Teachers basically ignored Kyle, and Kyle basically ignored them. As expected of an "F" class, the enthusiasm of the teachers that taught the class left a lot to be desired. Kyle figured that the reputation of Sakura's Academy was based entirely on the elite class, or at least the top three classes. The resources and best teachers probably went there. He would need to compare notes with the others to see how they fared.

Kyle also sneered at the thought of the Principal sending him here. With such awful teaching going on, how would the 'bottom classes' ever go up then? True, most of them around him right now were not really interested in learning but he figured that if the teachers could engage them and make the lessons interesting, they would turn things around.

Instead, the apathy of the teachers created the disinterest in the students, then made the teachers feel more apathetic. It was quite pathetic, really. For Kyle, he didn't need to attend classes to do well but most of these students do. Their future seemed to be sealed already, and that wouldn't do. Kyle tapped his finger on the desk, thinking that there something needs to be done. This school needed a revamp in some places.

The most major obstacle, of course, was the Principal. That, however, was to be the finale.

At the end of the day, Kyle went over to 1D to pick up Kay. As expected, he caused quite a bit of commotion as he stood by the doorway, peering in. Kay knew he had arrived without even needing to look up, due to the twittering of birds .. er, girls ... all around her.

"Coming, brother. Hold on a sec," she said as began placing her books in her bag. Kyle walked over and took the books from her hand, putting them into her bag. He swung it casually over his shoulder, and onto his own school bag. Sakura Academy didn't have lockers like Retsu Primary School did, so they had to bring the required books for whatever subject they had that day.

"I can carry that," Kay insisted, reaching out for the bag.

Kyle took her hand, shaking his head, "It's heavy."

"Exactly. You can't carry both our bags," Kay insisted and tried to release his hand and take her bag. Kyle just held on her hand tighter, refusing to let go. At that moment, all the girls wanted to be Kay's hand and all the guys wanted to be Kyle's hand.

"Come on," Kyle said as he turned, bringing her along, "Be good. Don't be stubborn."

Kay pouted, causing many boys' faces to flush beet red and their hearts quicken even more. Some even found difficulty in breathing and had to sit back down. She just looked so adorable and cute that they wanted to rush over and dote on her even more. There was a collective sigh in the whole class after the Smith twins went out.

Life is good, thought the students of 1D.