Heartbreak on a gold platter

In my first year in junior school, there was this English teacher I really liked. This lady seemed to be so good at everything. Intonation, composure, looks - she served and I admired. Being one of her favorite students, she allowed me the opportunity to be around her frequently. If there was one thing about this lady I tried so hard to avoid, even after seeing her do it to other students, it was the way she spoke to students when they disappointed her. To be put simply, she was rude to students. As a result, many students in my class disliked her.

Whenever she said something unfair to a student and I happened to be around the student when he or she is sulking, I would try covering up for her and telling them she was only angry that's why. She isn't a wicked teacher. My pacification always ended with them, reminding me that it was because I was her favorite that's why I was still covering for her.

I didn't mind though. I liked everything about her and even looked up to her till I experienced first hand what other's said. I represented the school for quite a number of competitions and I came back with the trophy, most of those times. But there was one particular spelling competition I went for. I didn't win it. I got back that Monday and when the teacher that went with me, told her I did not win it, she looked at me, hissed and walked out of the staffroom. I felt so bad that day but I chided myself into thinking that her reaction was because I didn't win that competition. I should have won it and she wouldn't have reacted like that.

Soon enough, we found our way around each other again, preparing for another competition. I had a school mother then. She was the head girl of the school and she represented the school, way before I came in. So, that particular day, we were both practicing for a competition that required us both to participate in. This lady would ask me to spell a word and if I couldn't, my partner would spell it. Then I'll learn it. But that day, my school mother, Rosemary was finding it hard spelling some words but I could spell them. After some time, this lady just slammed the book on the table and shouted "What is wrong with you? Look at somebody you're older than is spelling everything".

Rosemary could no longer stomach it at that point, and ran out of the staff room crying. I was hurt on her behalf because I knew how humiliating it was. After that experience, I began distancing myself and staying more in my class. No more lingering around her table because of the access I always had to novels. I figured out that if I continued being closest to her, when she eventually served my own heartbreak, it would be on a gold platter.

This lady was so mean that she said anything to anybody, as long as you weren't her superior. There was this one time, we were having a merged class. JSS1 A and JSS1 B held English class together that day. And in Js1 A, there was this boy who had macrocephaly. We were in class that day when she asked a question, and chose this boy to answer it. The boy was unable to. You know what she said? Your head is so large yet you don't know the answer to my question.

The silence in the class at that moment was palpable. It was like everyone knew she had crossed a line with that. I was so disappointed in her because my believe then, as a child was that all adults didn't use foul words. Only kids who didn't know better, did. I expected so much from her but was so disappointed.

This is my entry to the inleo daily prompt for the month of March

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