Vincent stood in front of the chalkboard dressed for success. He was wearing his pink tie given to him from his wife as a birthday gift. Something in the classroom seemed way out of kilter. He was told that he would be teaching a full class but he noticed 7 desks were empty. Vinny recounted the class one more time. 12-13-14-15........ Where was the other 7? He patiently waited for the din to settle but it never got quiet. One kid was reading a porn magazine hidden inside a Men's Health magazine. A red headed girl was listening to a personal CD player. To no surprise, the majority of the class was African American. The floor tiles looked drab and in need of repair. The whole entire classroom was a mess. Vincent walked over and snatched the porn magazine out of the student's hands.
"Hey man what gives?" Pouted the boy
"Not in my class." replied Vinny and threw it in the garbage.
He walked back over to the front of the chalkboard and cupped his hands over his mouth.
"Can I have your attention please?" He shouted through his cupped hands.
The noise dropped a little but there were still people talking.
"Does anyone know where the other seven students are?"
The class just giggled and went about their business. " Okay fine then, we'll just have to start without them."
He grabbed the roster and called the names out one by one to check who was there. After he finished checking off the names of the 15 students that were there he tossed the roster on his desk and cleared his throat.
"Good afternoon, my name is Mr.Young and I'm your new math teacher. How many of you think you will like this class?"
At first nobody raised their hand. Vinny scanned the room once more and noticed that a short chunky girl wearing purple lipstick had surreptitiously raised her hand.
"So what's your name?" He asked her.
The girl looked around the room for approval before she spoke. The other kids just rolled their eyes at her.
"Natasha."
"So what do you want to be when you grow up Natasha?"
"I'm going to be a lawyer." She replied with confidence. " Hey that's great. Most of this class might need you some day. Class, I'm joking, you'll all turn out fine."
But the class didn't think he was so funny. In fact, one student in the back flipped him the finger but Vinny pretended not to notice. Instead he kept his spirits up. This class was going to be challenging but he liked a good challenge.
"So who wants to help me pass out these text books?" This time nobody raised their hand.
"Okay then."
Vinny took a look at the text books which were covered in dust.
"Did your last teacher ever hand these things out?"
The students just laughed. The red headed girl in the second row removed her headset to watch the funny man in the pink tie try to teach the class. Vinny opened up a text book and skimmed through the pages. Some of the pages were stuck together with chewing gum and the other pages had obscene drawings on them. Vincent passed out the text books anyway.
"Before we get started can anyone tell me what pi equals?"
This time a kid sitting in the back and wearing sunglasses raised his hand.
"Yes,you, what's your name?"
"Jamaal." He quickly replied.
"Nice name Jamaal. Can you tell me what pi equals?" " Yeah, it equals pumpkin,cherry, or apple."
The class chortled with excitement and Jamaal had a sly grin on his face.
"Oh, I see we have a wise guy in the back. But can anybody tell me the real answer?"
Natasha raised her hand. " Yes, Natasha?"
" Is it 3.14?"
Whew! What a relief. Vinny thought to himself, At least one student has half a brain.
"You are correct. Lets turn to page 10."
The class finally settled down and some of the students were showing him some respect. For the remainder of the class Vinny went over some easy basic stuff. Natasha seemed to be the only one that knew anything. Near the end of class Vinny felt optimistic about his new class. These were good students that lacked an education. But Vinny was wrong, dead wrong. Soon these kids would figure out a way to destroy his entire life.