Camping Gone Wrong

Mr. Matthew walked to the entrance of Milton High School’s third grade class and heaved a sigh of relief. His job had almost been on the line. He was coming from the Principal’s office where one of the third graders’ parents had reported him for harassing the students. He had been a teacher there for the past four years and had just been recently assigned to take over the third grade class from Mr. Simeon, their former teacher who had retired the previous year. “Those third graders are like little devils,” he muttered to himself. He opened the door a little and glanced at the students sitting, each on their little colorful seats. The third graders stood up to greet him amidst giggles.

“Keep the greetings to yourself, you baby animals!" he scowled and opened the door wider, standing arms akimbo. “You all are just spoilt, over-pampered....." he started but stopped when he felt dust drop on his head. The students giggled again and clasped their hands over their mouths as they watched the board duster fall down slowly. He looked up and was horrified to see the oncoming object. He couldn’t get out of its way on time and it ended up landing on his left cheek. He yelled in pain and held his left cheek. 

The students all started laughing. He rushed to his bag and quickly brought out his medicine pack. He took two out and gobbled them down with some water from his water bottle. Ever since he was a child, he had always had toothache, so those medicines were always administered to him to relieve the pain, and even as he grew, he still had frequent tooth aches, and so had to keep the medicines handy. After taking the medicines, he grabbed a cane and pointed it at the giggling students.

“I’ll beat you up, all of you!" he growled. The students all kept quiet and looked at him with pitiful eyes. 

“Yes that’s right!" he continued, waving the cane frantically at them and sometimes hitting it on the table. “I’m going to make your every stay here miserable!" he snarled. “Every one of you will get this!" he said, raising the cane up. “And you can tell your ‘oh- high-and-mighty parents’ who think you all should be spoilt, tell them, yes! Tell them that I, Matthew Bale beat you and I beat you real hard!" he bellowed and landed the cane on the nearest table to him again. The children shuddered as the cane made a thundering sound.

He continued roaring at them till he was interrupted by a pretense cough. “Ahem, Mr. Matthew," a voice called from behind him. He looked back angrily. The Principal was standing at the doorstep, folding his arms and giving him a stern look.

“Aha!” he said and turned back to the students. “You all are in for a big surprise!” he sneered at them, pointing the cane at all of them in a 360º angular way. He then walked up to where the Principal was standing and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re here Principal, thank goodness! Now you will know that I am not the cause of all the problems happening in this class, but these malevolent little nitwits over here!" he said and glared at the students again. The Principal removed Mr. Matthew’s hand from his shoulder.

“What exactly is the problem, Mr. Matthew?” he asked, giving him a mean look. Mr. Matthew pointed at the children in the classroom. 

“These, these are the problems, right here sir, every one of them!" he said and shook his head vehemently.

“Oh, God! Mr. Matthew, can you just stop your ramblings for once and get to the point?!” Mr. Thomas said pointing at his watch. “Time waits for no man you know?” he said and folded his arms again.

“Yes sir, yes, I know that sir, what happened here was that, just after coming from your office today, I came to the classroom and stood at the door looking at them, like I normally and usually do, and you won’t believe it sir!” Mr. Matthew said and waved his hand in the air.

“Mr. Matthew, the point?” the Principal said, disgusted at the time-wasting capability of one of his ‘highly’ educated and sophisticated staff.

“Sir, these little runts here set a booby trap for me; they placed a duster, the fourth duster which the school had generously provided for this classroom, on top of this door edge, so that it would fall on my face as I walked in, can you imagine that sir?!” Mr. Matthew said and stood arms akimbo beside the Principal, who was looking at the pupils.

The Principal turned to face Mr. Matthew. “Is that why you were shouting earlier on?” he asked. Mr. Matthew replied with a positive nod. The Principal turned his gaze toward the pupils. “Is that what happened here this morning?” he asked. 

Mr. Matthew was dumbfounded and tried to object, but the Principal silenced him with a wave of his right hand.

One of the third graders stood up and walked to where the Principal and their teacher stood. “Erm sir, we were not the cause of our teacher’s misfortune today sir," Mia said and did a little curtsy.

“Sir, who knows? It might be the after effects of Mr. Matthew’s drugs, which he takes every time just before shouting at us," Caleb offered. “I’ve read about this in many books, that’s even why they said keep drugs away from kids,” he concluded innocently.

“And people with anger issues," Molly, who was sharp mouthed and sat at the far back, added, loud enough to be heard.

The Principal looked at Mr. Matthew. “You take drugs? In class?! In front of these kids?!” he asked, pointing towards the class. Mr. Matthew tried to apologize but the Principal shushed him.

Another third grader stood up from his seat. “Sir, we don’t even have our class duster," little Jamie said. Mr. Matthew looked on in horror. “Look at how these little bums are spitting out lies like they have an aversion for the truth!” he thought to himself.

“And sir, think about it, none of us here is tall enough to reach the door sir," Edgar said aloud from his seat. Mr. Matthew’s gaze tightened.

“Don’t give me that gimmick!” he fired back. “When it comes to mischief making, you all don’t let any obstacle get in your way, do ya?!” he finally said angrily.

The Principal nodded. “As much as I hate to, Mr. Matthew has a point there," he started but was interrupted when Barry from fourth grade came knocking and asked for permission to return the class duster his teacher had asked him to borrow earlier. The Principal and Mr. Matthew both looked at each other, dumbfounded while the third graders all heaved a sigh of relief. Barry was a real life saver. Barry dropped the duster on the teacher’s table and skipped away, winking at the third graders as he whizzed past.

The Principal cleared his throat loudly. “I stand corrected, Mr. Matthew, please, I would like to see you in my office, now!” he said and hurriedly walked out of the classroom. Mr. Matthew stood there with his mouth wide open as he watched the Principal walk away. He was one hundred percent sure that the duster hadn’t left the class either that morning, or the day before, or the day before that at that. He gave the pupils, who were smiling widely by now, a malicious glare and pointed at them.

“You think you can turn the Principal against me? You think your innocent faces can make any heart melt?" Mr. Matthew started. “Well, it can’t! I am a tough man, a strict disciplinarian who doesn’t take nonsense from anybody, and I am proud of the man I’ve become,” he concluded. The students all looked at him, little smiles creeping up on their faces.

“You all had better watch out because I---“Mr. Matthew had started but was interrupted by the Principal’s voice calling his name from down the hallway. He remembered that he was supposed to meet the Principal and quickly rushed out of the class.

“Mr. Matthew!!!” the Principal’s voice was heard again, louder this time. Mr. Matthew quickened his pace. In no time, he reached the Principal’s office, and after entering, closed the door gently behind him.