2、Embarrassed
As Ruth was about to tap Jennifer, Mike called her name coldly, “Miss Orton” Orton was Jenifer father’s name. He was a popular retired lecturer in the school and a professor as well. He prefers calling her “Miss Orton.” than calling her Jennifer.
Jennifer’s attention was on the chat she was having with Daniel that she could not hear her name. Ruth wanted to tap her but was scared of Mike cold look.
“Miss Orton!.” Mike called her again, raising his voice a little bit high than before. This time, the class became silent. All eyes were on Jennifer.
“Miss Orton.” Mike repeated, this time, louder and deeper and her head snapped up. She realized that almost every pair of eyes in the classroom was on her. But none of them compared to the cold penetrating gaze from her teacher.
Her heart began to race as her palm began to sweat.
“ummmm.. Yes sir?” She asked, somehow scared of the situation. His facial expressions was cold , fixed and hard. . . .
“I warned you before. How can you be pressing phone in my class. Don’t you have manners? Since your intellectual aptitudes has what it takes to give complete lack of attention to my able lecture, perhaps you can shock the rest rest of the class with your ultimate intelligency. Drop that phone and stand up” He said. Jennifer bite her lower lip, hoping he wasn’t serious.
“Sir, I’m so….”
“Don’t keep us waiting, Miss Orton. Time is not at my side. Stand up quickly.” He repeated without any trace of smile on his face. Jennifer looked over Ruth and Sandra whose hazel eyes were sympathetic.
She doesn’t know what else to do. She stood up in embarrassment. Her leg became soft and she rested her palm on the desk to keep her stood still, as her leg kept vibrating.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
Mike crosse his wrist from his back and began to pace in front of the class, thinking of how he will deal with her. He stopped, looked at her and noticed how nervous she was looking.
“You don’t have to be nervous, Miss Orton, We will start with something pretty easy. Thoroughly identify this piece.” He said as he pressed the button on the black remote that operated the screen at the front of the classroom, moving the ongoing presentation to the next slide.
Jennifer was completely confused and blank at the moment. Even though she had seen the piece somewhere before, but in her current state of nervousness, she could not gather herself and think clearly.
“You are wasting my time, Miss Orton. What I asked is a very simple question.” Mike said, looking at her. Jennifer bite her lower lip and pouted her lips like a kid, looking from left to right and to her friends, hoping that someone will help her out on the question.
Unfortunately, everyone was just gazing at her. Ruth and Sandra was giving her sympathetic look with no help.
In other not to continue to keep quite and look like a moron, She said, “Sir, please. What do you mean by… thoroughly identify.” Some of the students, especially females in the class chuckled but Mike was not amused. He looked serious and cold than ever.
“Are you trying to tell me you don’t know what it mean to give a thorough overview of something? Is that what you are trying to tell me!” He asked, getting tensed.
“I’m so sorry sir.” Jennifer replied in a panic.
“Sorry for yourself. Before i loose it. Kindly give us a quick overview of the image on the slide. The abstract. Give us the a title, artist name if available, the historical context, its current location.. any kind of information you think that would be helpful on the detailed explanation.” Mike elaborated.
Jennifer sighed heavily and stared hard on the photograph. Her head was spinning to recall what seemed to be the answer to the question. To her, it just looked like a broke old statue. It looked similar to something she saw in Paris during vacation with her mom, but she hadn’t been paying much attention.
“Emmm.. I think its a Greek statue.” She managed to say causing Mike to stared at her for some moments. It wasn’t what Mike wanted to hear.
“OK. I want you to impress your fellow class mates with a detailed explanation. We all know that it’s a statue, just that you made us to know its from Greek. We need more information from you.” Mike said sardonically. Jennifer bite her lower lip as she felt her face turn hot from embarrassment. She wish the ground could open and swallow her. She had never been in this situation before and her friends were not helping matters.
She looked at the statue deeply and decided to explain the morphological structure of the statue since she doesn’t have any other information to give and save herself from the ultimate embarrassment.
“Um. . it doesn’t have head.. and its made of marble. looking at the statue, it’s probably old. It has wings and there’s no way it could be nothing but a Greek goddess.” She said quietly knowing that she was fucking up more.
“Is that all you can come up with? You just described the physical appearance which we don’t need.” Jennifer’s hand which seemed to have gained strength began to tremble again.
“I.. I’m… s.. sorry sir.” She stammered timidly.
“Sorry is not going to answer the question. Sorry is not going to make you pass the exam or this this class for that matter. Put your phone inside you bag and Pay attention. I don’t want to see the phone again. See me in my office after school for detention.” Mike said coldly before continuing his lecture.
Jennifer slumped back into her seat and flipped her book open after putting her phone in her bag.