Max sat in class gazing at Clare 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 Clare to look behind her. Clare turned
and looked 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 Max. He felt the heat of a crimson blush
as a rush of prickles ran up his back from embarrassment. He glanced back at
Clare 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 Clare did
though. She seemed to know he liked her. Humiliated, Max slumped in his chair.
He lowered his gaze to his desk. Surely no more ridicule would eventuate if he
lay low for the rest of the lesson. ‘Max Faulkner!’ shouted the Legal Studies
teacher, Mr Finch. ‘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 exacerbate Mr Finch’s aggravation.
‘Sorry siiUGHr.’ The class erupted in laughter when Max’s voice faltered. He had
been keeping quiet in the last few weeks because he knew that he couldn’t trust
his changing voice. The class struggled to regain composure. Max sank back in
his chair and looked straight ahead at the white board. Finch chuckled to
himself seemingly pleased at the humiliation he caused Max. As the class settled
down a little, Mr Finch 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
own opinions in his essay. He hoped that it wouldn’t be too obvious. He
remembered how Finch didn’t like it when people did things differently. Surely
he should get a reasonable mark. He put a lot of work into this essay. He needed
better marks in Legal Studies so he had done his best to submit a very good
paper. He only hoped Finch would recognise his effort and mark it accordingly.
Finch walked around distributing the papers amongst the class. Max watched the
expression of the students as they discovered what mark Finch had given them.
Most showed some degree of disappointment. Finch handed Clare her paper. She
immediately turned to Julie to tell her that she got an ‘A’. Finch tossed Max’s
paper in front of him. ‘Yet another unsound piece of work from you Max. I wish
you had a better attitude towards this subject.’ Max blushed. Again he felt a
rush of prickles run up his back. Some of the students looked at him with smirks
on their faces. Others had more sympathetic looks. Max read his mark. He felt
nauseous when he learned Finch had given him a ‘D’ for his paper. He swallowed
hard, managing to contain his disappointment, dejection and anger. The bell rang
for the end of class. There was no time to see Finch about his mark.
