Sweet dreams
Sweet dreamsNick Tidswell
10/4/00
English 101
Sweet Dreams
Max sat in class gazing at Claire Jones. He watched as she leaned over to her friend Julie and passed her a note. Her small school blouse and shorter-than-normal skirt defined her curvaceous body. Julie saw Max watching her friend. She giggled and motioned to Claire to look behind her. Claire turned and looked awkwardly back at Max. Max was caught out. His elbow slipped on the desk and dislodged his small tin pencil box. It crashed to the floor making a loud noise. The entire class turned and laughed at him. He felt the heat of a crimson blush as a rush of prickles ran up his back. He glanced back at Claire and Julie who were still looking at him, giggling. A quiet fury surged inside him. He hated it when people laughed at him. It was worse when Claire did. She seemed to know he liked her. Humiliated, Max slumped down in his chair. He lowered his gaze to his desk. Surely no more ridicule would culminate if he lay low for the rest of the lesson.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mr. Cilo spyed Max sulking and drifting off into a daze.
“Max Brome!” shouted the Legal Studies teacher, Mr. Cilo. “Would you stop daydreaming and concentrate! I don’t like your attitude young man. I’m trying to inform the class about the Queensland court system and all you can do is stare at your desk? Please pay attention. I’m sure if your attitude does not improve you’ll learn more about the courts first hand!”
Max could hear muffled laughter around the classroom. The other students were careful not to agitate Mr. Cilo.
‘Sorry siiUGHr’ replied Max as his pubescent voice cracked; the way a plate shatters when it is dropped in a full diner. Everything goes quiet and the sound almost echos.
The class instantaneously erupted into laughter. He had been keeping quiet in the last few weeks because he knew that he couldn’t trust his changing voice. Cilo had lost control, side conversations sprouted left and right until it was just noise. No one payed attention to Cilo as he shouted for order. Max sank back in his chair and looked straight ahead at the white board, wishing he were a turtle with a shell to retreat into.
Under the roar Cilo chuckled to himself, pleased at the humiliation he caused Max. As the class settled down a little, Mr. Cilo extracted a pile of papers from his briefcase.
“I’ve marked your mid term research essays on the ‘Constitutional Rights of Australians’ and I was generally pleased with the effort. Some of you, however, have let your own opinions get in the way and have been marked down in that respect. If you are unhappy with your marks come and tell me. I’ll see if I can help you understand where you went wrong.”
Max knew he’d included some of his...
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