CHAPTER 36

                                    

                                          
Mondays were dreary as they were, but having Biology first lesson somehow made it worse. Robyn looked around as the students filed in and chatted with their desk-mates. She hadn't seen Caleb in the class since the accident. When she thought of it, she had barely seen him at all. Their friendship wasn't that special or deep. They were just simple biology buddies, although she felt it had the potential to be more.
Now, Rick had become her permanent deskmate. Not that she minded, he helped her a lot. Robyn had, however, never cheated off him again. She had written the tests entirely on her own and she dreaded looking at the results, which Mr. Samuels carried with him as he entered the class.
She knew she hadn't done well in them, but the thought of hearing that from her teacher made her anxious. He wasn't particularly stern with her, but he definitely could be. It also didn't help knowing he was the boys rugby team coach. He was just one of those teachers no one wanted to displease.
Robyn wrung her fingers together as everyone settled down and waited for class to begin.
"Morning," Mr. Samuels called, dumping the load of paper he walked in with on his desk. Some mumbled back a reply half-heartedly, as anyone would expect on a Monday morning.
Without wasting a second more, Mr. Samuels started handing out the marked papers. "Your actual exams start in three months," he spoke as he went around the room, "considering the way some of you have performed in this test, I'm afraid what the outcome of your exam would be."
He looked pointedly at Robyn as he handed the test back to her. Robyn couldn't meet his eyes, instead she focused on the red F on the top of the sheet. As she'd expected.
Rick whispered something to her but she couldn't hear it over Mr. Samuels' voice.
"We've not even finished learning all the topics yet," he continued. 
To Robyn it felt like they had already learned more than necessary.
"So, it's been decided that this class is going to be shared with another teacher," Mr. Samuels finished handing out the remaining papers, then returned back to his desk, leaning against it.
"We'll move through the topics much quicker with two teachers, and it would leave us some time for revision before the exam."
Robyn groaned internally. It was stressful as it was with one teacher, she couldn't imagine the workload with having two. She opened her timetable and marked the lessons with the new teacher on Mr. Samuels' instruction.
"Besides, some of you really do need more time for revision."
Robyn's eyes fell on the paper laying face-down on the table. 
"Those of you who do know who you are. I would suggest you get tutoring from someone in the class, or come see me during lunch and we can go over the topics again," Mr. Samuels turned and began writing on the whiteboard. 
Robyn was certain of one thing, she would not get tutoring from him during lunch.
"You're all adults so I hope you make a wise decision about it," he concluded.
A soft sigh left Robyn's lips.
Rick raised a hand. When he turned to face the class again, Mr. Samuels gestured for him to speak.
"Who's going to be our new teacher?"
That hadn't crossed Robyn's mind. If it was someone like her previous biology teacher then she might just fall in love with the subject again.
"She's someone you've not had before," their teacher replied, "she's just graduated with her teaching degree, so I hope you guys will be easy on her. Her name is Ms. Higgins."