«So what? Its none of your business!», she spoke out of turn. He just gave a «who-cares kind of shrug.
«Sure. However it confirms the fact you werent short of time yesterday, or today. You should either get up earlier or go to bed later. And youd be better off studying than smoking, you know. So, theres no excuse. No mitigating circumstances.» At that moment the headteacher came up to the door and asked to talk to him. He went out. The girls and boys didnt think he was close to the door, so, they couldnt hear him coming back after his talk with the headteacher. But he could hear them.
«He must be crazy. He talks too much. I know what to do myself. Hed be better off not teaching me. You smoke, you dont study, you cant read. Who cares what I do? Im not his daughter. What the hell does he want?», this girl was bursting with anger.
«Maybe hes a sort of do-gooder?», another one asked.
«What? Bollocks! Tell it to my old aunt Fanny! There are no saints in this world, my mother says. And she really knows such kind of things, believe me!», she couldnt calm down.
«Maybe hes a sort of do-gooder?», another one asked.
«What? Bollocks! Tell it to my old aunt Fanny! There are no saints in this world, my mother says. And she really knows such kind of things, believe me!», she couldnt calm down.
«Of course, she does! Weve heard all about her. Shes living with her nephew now, right?», the latter one said with a poisonous tone.
«Ill kill you, you bitch!», the first girl screamed.
«Spare yourself, stupid. Kill your Mom first and kiss my arse!», the other girl seemed so self confident. Andrey Ivanovich guessed who was who. Then the bell rang.
«Hey, you, both, stop that! Right, whats the next lesson?», someone else stepped in to interrupt.
«Biology.»
«Shit. Weve got to hurry. Come on, lets get out of here!»
A dozen of pupils swept away from the class and disappeared down the stairs. Andrey Ivanovich looked at the quiet classroom and began to prepare to the next lesson. The sixth form was supposed to be there in ten minutes.
It was a remarkable day.
The sixth form guys were very excited with some PE exercises and could not calm down for a long time. When they did, he sighed and repeated his standard phrase «Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen!..» In vain. «Ladies and Gentlemen!» he increased his own volume: «Good MO-OR-NING! Cut the noise and lets begin our wonderful journey. Who is on duty today?»
One more lesson has begun. It was little different to his previous lessons but there seemed to be no sign of improvement either. «So, my friends, hows things? Where have you been? What have you seen?», half of class began to shout loudly and he could not recognize a word. «Lets begin with «oysters, so to speak,» he smiled. «Ms. Loginov, how are you?»
«Im fine. Thank you. And you?», a chubby girl answered quickly. She got her face made up and a thick layer of Mascara rested on her eyelids even though she was twelve.
«Im fine too. Thanks. Tell us what your rest was like?», he wondered.
«Pardon?», she asked in Russian. He had to repeat the sentence more slowly, «Have you had any rest?»
«What Everest, Andrey Ivanovich?», the girl was completely confused. «I was at dacha. Are you joking? Ive got no money for Everest!», she chuckled and he looked up expecting a loud laugh but nobody even smiled. «My God,» he thought, «how can I go on? And they are in the sixth form now»
«Ms. Loginov, not «Everest but «any rest. Got it?», he tried to explain her mistake with a sad smile. Only then some of her friends laughed a little. He shrugged.
Half of the lesson has passed by and Yuriy Ilyasov, a quiet and an industrious pupil with thick-lens glasses, was desperately fighting against the army of unknown words in his text book. He joined this class last year and had studied in another city until his parents moved to Moscow. Andrey Ivanovich patiently waited for him to make mistakes and then corrected him. He turned his eyes for a second but still kept listening to the pupils reading and translating. Suddenly a word grated on his ears. He turned around and asked him to repeat.
«Lord Baron,» Yuriy said blinking his eyes.
«What?», Andrey Ivanovich was surprised.
«Lord Baron!», Yuriy repeated in an injured voice. «Cant you see, Andrey Ivanovich, it is written is the text. Im reading it as it is!», he pointed out down to the page with his finger. Andrey Ivanovich began to laugh and the laugh turned into dry cough with tears on his eyes.
«Yuriy, my dear friend,» he whispered hoarsely, «its «Lord Byron. Havent you ever heard of him?»
The boy shook his head. Andrey Ivanovich looked around the room. The guys and girls looked puzzled. He felt perplexed as well.
«Hey, little monsters, no ideas?!», he raised his brows and waited. No-one replied. He nodded and sighed. «OK, just for your information «Lord Baron as you said,» he pointed out to Yuriy, «or Lord Byron was the greatest English poet.» He shrugged in disbelief and asked the next boy to go on with the text. A quiet voice began to read the next sentence, and he sat listening to it. Ten minutes left before the bell rang but «that was not the half of the story, though. The pupil read the sentence a bit disconnectedly and finally has begun to translate. He was slow but OK. The first half of the sentence took him two or three minutes and the second part was supposed to kill the rest of the lesson time. The boy mumbled to himself before speaking loudly and finally said, «The Queen Charlatan was presented,» he sat thinking about something nobody but him could know about. Andrey Ivanovich opened his mouth thunderstruck with the translation and asked «What? What did you say?»