A few weeks ago, the new year 2022 was ushered in. The coronavirus infection in Denmark is still increasing exponentially and has broken all our records. According to our government, all restrictions have been eased, and the coronavirus is no longer a socially critical disease.
As a freshman, I started high school in the summer of 2021 and have had a somewhat chaotic year. The coronavirus was all around my high school at the beginning of December. More and more classes were sent home, and there weren't many students left before we went on Christmas break.
It was now the last week of January, and under normal circumstances, there would be somewhere between 300-500 high school students, sixteen and up, at the school. Unfortunately, it has decreased recently due to the increasing number of infections. Many are in isolation, and several classes have started temporary online courses for a short period. This is because most teachers find it useless to hold physical courses when only ten students show up.
Therefore, online teaching was introduced as an excellent alternative to help integrate the isolated Corona students so they could still participate and get something out of their day at home. On the other hand, only the healthy and positively infected students without symptoms attended the online classes.
The result of the virtual teaching classes led to the fact that there were now more or less than 100 students in the school. My class was one of the few left and had to show up for physical education, but even our class was severely affected by the curse of the coronavirus. We were usually twenty-seven, but now we were almost half left. The rest were in isolation.
My High School Teacher - Part 1 of 2
It was Wednesday, and history class had just started. Our teacher, Margit, was an older and rigorous woman. Her teaching was very dry, and I wouldn't say I liked having her. On the other hand, having an old rusty collar as a teacher was a positive thing under these Corona conditions. Margit was the type of teacher who always had difficulty with technology. She could get so frustrated when things didn't work out how she wanted and always gave up.
We had fourteen students present today. The rest were in isolation. Margit had, unbelievably enough, managed to set up a Google Meet so that the rest could participate in her teaching virtually. It was something we as a class agreed on now that the management had ordered the teachers to allow the isolated students to participate in the lessons because otherwise, Margit would never have made such a decision herself.
Since Margit couldn't stand the technology, she couldn't stand the virtual teaching. Which was a positive thing because the old bitch was a stubborn camel. Instead of giving her typical long-winded and deathly boring lectures as she used to, she had made up some working questions for today's lesson. Therefore, we had to examine and answer the questions and answer together in plenary when the class ended. The questions were simple: if you had prepared for class and read the homework like me. It took me over twenty minutes, and then I was done. When I put down my pencil and looked up at the clock, I quickly realized there was over an hour left in class. I sighed softly and leaned back in the chair with my arms crossed. I refused to sit in my seat and stare into the air the rest of the time.
I looked around the class. Margit was sitting on her chair by the catheter and concentrating on some ancient magazine. Four girls, working together in pairs, sat in the row across from me. They whispered to each other and were preoccupied with the tasks they had not yet completed. Next to me, there was a group of three boys. One was half asleep, while the other two had their faces glued to their computer screens. I peeked and could see they were in the same game. The two boys had run in and out of the class a few times. This time, they had been to the canteen and got two cans of coke, which they silently toasted to each other.
I borrowed some books from the high school library for a previous project assignment we had to hand in just before Christmas break. I hadn't had the opportunity or time to deliver the books yet. That's why I thought I might as well do it now. It suited me just fine. I could just as well take advantage of the opportunity to avoid Margit's so-called teaching and simultaneously kill some time. I noticed she didn't comment when the boys came in with their sodas, so I grabbed my books and carefully slipped out of the class.
The library at my high school was quite different from many others. Since more and more students were enrolling in the high school every year, the school had been forced to use the library space to make extra classrooms. Therefore, they had chosen to clean out the basement and place all reading materials in a dark and somewhat gloomy room. This meant you had to go outside and down the basement stairs to get inside. When you finally got inside, the room was only half lit by some old fluorescent tubes, which should have been replaced long ago. It had been a very long time since the basement had a proper cleaning and some love. The wise people higher up in the hierarchy had thought it didn't matter that much. They believed the young high school students didn't use the library that much anyway, which was a good argument for spending money on something more substantial.
The library was staffed only two days a week. Tuesday and Thursday. Today was Wednesday, so I was all alone. From time to time, there were a few individual students who listed themselves here to do some group work. However, I did not see a soul when I entered the large room. I looked around in every direction and tried to listen for any voices or movements as I headed for the counter where I could drop off my books. I moved the mouse so the screen saver disappeared and entered my name and code. I then took the handheld scanner and beeped in the four books I had to hand in. Finally, I carefully pushed them into the delivery slot, where the box below received them. I could hear from the sound when they hit that the box was not empty.
"What the hell, are you here too, Emma?"
I was shocked and made a splash when a deep yet familiar male voice sounded behind me.
"Whoops, I´m sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He regretted it immediately. I turned and looked at him. It was Stephen. He was my English teacher. I was so relieved when I realized it was him. He stood between one of the many rows of bookshelves crammed with books and hid.
"It's okay; I thought I was alone." I smiled broadly at him and quickly wiped it away again to not reveal my great interest in him. Stephen was in his early thirties. He was bald and had a big bundle of muscles. Today, he wore a pair of baggy Nike sports pants and a grey t-shirt with a black cardigan. He probably had sports with some other classes today. The cardigan was too small to cover his large torso and instead seemed to be for decoration. His pectoral muscles were visible, and they dressed him nicely, like two large pillows. I caught myself biting my lips as I briefly imagined what it would be like to have my head resting on one of them.
"I understand. It's not exactly because it's particularly open here,” I nodded affirmatively. The many full shelves made it impossible to get an overview of whether there were other people in the room. Therefore, you had to use your listening sense extra hard to ensure you were alone in the library. I thought I tried hard enough to pick up any sounds when I entered, but Stephen had obviously been good at sneaking around silently.
"Don't you have classes?" he asked kindly to keep the conversation going. He was leafing through a book he had taken from the bookshelf he was standing by.
"Yes, we have Margit."
"Ah, I understand," he replied. I didn't need to elaborate because he knew precisely what Margit was like. He had often experienced the class's frustrations with her when he had come to English class right after we had her.
"Where are your two companions?" Of course, Stephen referred to my two friends, Anna and Malina. We were an inseparable trio and were always a bit more kind towards Stephen. All three of us thought he was very hot and constantly tried to flirt with him when we got the chance. Sometimes, it's a bit too much.
"I left them in the class so I could be alone with you down here." I looked haughtily at him and winked flirtatiously with one eye.
"That doesn´t sound good," he smiled and, at the same time, shook his head at me. I giggled myself, glad that I could make him laugh.