Checkmate

It’s now Thursday, and the assignment is due tomorrow. I make my way to my seat in English and wait for Raven to get here. When she finally comes in, the bell rings. I chuckle from the sight of her since she’s completely out of breath. She glares at me, but I know that she could never be mad at me. The smirk that she gives me when she sits down confirms this.
“Why were you in such a hurry?” I ask.
“I was halfway here, but then I realized that I left my book on my desk in the other class. It’s a really important book that I had in my purse. I took it out last period after the test to look at it. I’ve been trying to research something, but I’m having no luck. Now, I couldn’t just leave the book there, so I had to run as fast as I could, without getting caught, back to the class and then run all the way back here. Luckily, that class is empty this period.”
“I see. You really need to get your head straight.”
“Yeah, but I wouldn’t be the same Raven, would I?”
“I guess so.”
I hear someone enter the room, and I know that it’s Mr. Gaskarth. I turn away from her in order to look at him. I thought that he looked good yesterday, but he looks even better today. He’s wearing a black button-up shirt with the first and last button undone and black pants that seem to just hug his ass in all the right places. To think that I’m learning chess from this man. Oh, and I’m learning English too. I can’t forget that.
“Alright class, I have news about your assignments that are due tomorrow,” he says with his always sexy voice. I don’t know why, but he just always seems hotter when he’s teaching. Is that bad?
“Is the time extended?” some jock in the back asks out loud without raising his hand.
Mr. Gaskarth doesn’t do anything about that. He’s a pretty cool teacher. He just doesn’t stand bullying. He also wants respect, but he doesn’t demand it. As long as you know your place when he really wants you too, you’re pretty much fine. It makes me like him even more.
“No, it’s still due tomorrow. I just decided to change things up a little bit.”
“What do you mean?” a girl questions.
“I decided that I’m going to make you all present them to the class.”
Did I hear that right? Oh no, I did. I gulp. I have to present it? I was hoping and praying that I wouldn’t have to. I don’t have my guitar, and I’m not really even sure if the guitar part is alright. The whole class is just going to end up laughing at me. I just know it.
“Jack,” Raven whispers, “are you OK?”
I don’t say anything. I just nod. My mind just keeps thinking about the class. I can take the bullying, but this seems to be something much more. It probably has to do with the fact that it deals with the one thing that I care greatly about. They can say things about how I look, act, and dress, but I don’t think that I can take it if they say something about my music. That’s just too much.
I feel eyes on me, so I look over in the direction. Mr. Gaskarth is by his board, and he’s looking at me with worried eyes. I was hoping that I wouldn’t attract his attention, but it seems that I have. I’ll probably have to talk to him about all of this after class. Of course, I probably was going to anyway. I pull myself together the best I can and give him a slight nod, so he can go on with class. He still looks a bit worried, but he continues with what he was saying.
“I know that this is a British lit. class, but I wanted to start off with something French.” He takes a book off of his desk and holds it up for the class to see. “I wanted to start off with The Phantom of the Opera.”
“Why don’t we just watch the movie?” Brittany asks. “The Phantom is hot in that one.”
Mr. Gaskarth seems to be reading my mind because what he asks is exactly what I was thinking. “I assume that you’re talking about the one with Gerard Butler in it. Have you ever seen it?”
“Um, no, but-”
“Then you might not know that it’s based off the musical.”
“So, why does that matter? It’s the same thing. It’s a love story about a guy that pretends to be a ghost.”
“It’s not the same thing. The musical and the book are both completely different. Only the main plots are really similar. The characters aren’t even all the same. Now, I would love to watch another version of it. Maybe we can watch the 1925 one? Maybe. However, we are going to be reading this book. I brought in enough copies this morning.” He pointed over to them. “I want you all to go and grab a copy, and please be nice to the books. These are mine, and I bought them all so I could teach the book.”
I wait until most of the students were gone before I went over to them. They were a lot older than I thought that they would be. I thought that they would be brandnew and just cheaper version that is sold as a classic. I’d seen ones like that before. Once I have my book, I go back to my seat. Mr. Gaskarth finds out what number each one of us has before he starts writing on the board. It’s just the chapters that he wants us to read by next week. When he’s done with them, I see that he just wants us to read the first five chapters at home.
“I want us to get through about five chapters a week, so we’ll be done with this before Halloween comes. I have an idea in my head,” he says, “There is a prologue, but I want us to read that in class. We should be able to get that done today. I’ll start reading, and if one of you want to continue, you may. If you have a problem with a word or name, you can ask me. The reason why I wanted us to do the prologue together is because it sets up everything. This whole story is told by the narrator who had done research about the events that had taken place at the opera. That is why there are parts in the novel where the narrator puts in parts that the people actually said. Note that this is still a fictional novel even though it is written like this. However, it was partly based on events that actually took place there. I’ll go into the history of it all after we read the book.”
Mr. Gaskarth starts to read. He reads almost all of it until some of the slutty girls decide that they want to read it. They do such a poor job though, so he goes back to reading it, which I’m perfectly fine with. I love hearing him talk, and I hope that he reads to us more often.
Just like he said, we get through the prologue before class ends, and just like I thought, Mr. Gaskarth motions me over after everyone had left. Raven waits for me outside the class. She still has something against him. I don’t know what her problem is, but I’m sure that it will eventually be sorted out.
“Jack, are you OK?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You didn’t look fine at the beginning of class.”
“It’s just that I’m not really sure that I want to present my project.”
“There is nothing to be afraid of.”
“Well, I don’t even have my guitar to present it. It’s a song.”
“I’ll bring mine in tomorrow.”
“Oh. OK.” I start to leave, but he tells me to come back. I do.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just wanted you to. I know that it will be good, and I wanted to hear it. I may also have wanted you to show those jerks that there is something much more to you, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“I’ll think about it. I’ll, um, see you tomorrow Mr. Gaskarth.”
“I’ll see you too.”
I leave with just one thought on my mind.
I hope that I can pull this off tomorrow.

Notes

Poor Jack. I hope that he can perform that song for Alex.
I wrote this chapter doing my last Phantom high...
Poor Erik. Poor Jack.
Poor characters in fiction.
Anyway, I hope that you liked it!