Post by Publicist on Jun 1, 2019 6:29:33 GMT -5
WELCOME BACK, HASTINGS
TV-PG | 30min | Comedy | TV Series (Pilot)
Kenzi kept cutting her eyes towards Angie as the dazzling blonde sat up straight in the front row, eyes facing front with an attentive look on her face.
“…fucking bitch…”
Kenzi muttered under her breath.
“OUCH!!”
Kenzi grabbed her shin as Roxy kicked her from the desk adjacent to hers. The blonde narrowed her eyes as Kenzi as she leaned in and hissed under her breath.
“Shhhhhh! She’s gonna hear you bb!”
“…I don’t care…”
Kenzi immediately shot back, but it was clear that she did care, as she kept her tone low, and measured. Both girls held their breath as Angie turned, looking in their direction as she smiled and waved. Roxy gave an eager wave back, but Kenzi folded her arms and rolled her eyes.
“…Kenz, you’re embarrassing me in front of the coolest girl in the school…”
Kenzi gave Roxy an incredulous look, clearly feeling threatened by her friend’s eagerness to avoid having an issue with Angie.
“…she’s NOT the coolest girl in the school…she wears fucking full length dresses with goddamn cat prints! That is the most UNCOOL thing that you can do! How is she not getting beaten up for her lunch money every fucking day…?”
“…DUH, cuz no one can beat her…”
Kenzi turned a jealous gaze back towards Angie as she turned her attention back to the lesson, still seeming engrossed as the teacher droned on and on.
“…I could beat her…”
Roxy couldn’t control the giggles that escaped her.
“…her foot has been upside your head so many times the last few weeks that I think you’re suffering from athlete’s face bb…”
Roxy tried to brush the side of Kenzi’s face, but the girl angrily swatted it away. She turned to her friend, face screwed into a mask of anger.
“…well, why don’t you fucking try your luck then…”
“Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Kenzi and Roxy looked over as Jet Somers pressed his fingers against his lips, giving the universal sign for them to shut the fuck up. Kenzi replied with a middle finger, triggering muffled laughter from the others in the class, including Travis Roberts, his best friend. Jet punched him in the shoulder and he did what he could to stifle his giggles.
“…quiet Gray, we are trying to listen to the lesson…”
Kenzi jerked her head towards Bordy so hard that it hurt her neck. Her eyes dark pools, narrowed to vicious little slits.
“THAT’S NOT MY NAME!”
“IS THERE A PROBLEM BACK THERE?”
The entire class straightened as the teacher’s voice boomed across the room. After a few moments of silence, the lesson continued. A few moments after that, Roxy leaned in and whispered again.
“…everyone knows I am the prettiest one here! I’m just biding my time bb until I can take Angie’s place, that’s all…”
Kenzi grimaced behind pursed lips, her eyes still burning a hole into the side of Angie’s head. It was clear that she still wasn’t over being bested by Angie, nor would she be for a good long while. Even though it felt like all the eyes were on Angie, she couldn’t shake the feeling that just as many were on her…but for an entirely different reason. Her fingers worked on the papers on her desk, crinkling and uncrinkling them, loudly.
“…hey…could you please knock that off…?”
“…shhhhhhhhhhh…”
“…salope tranquille…”
“…we are trying to listen to the teacher…”
Kenzi pounded her fists on the desk in frustration and jumped to her feet, nearly toppling over her chair.
“SHUT UP!! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!!”
There was a long silence and small voice echoed from beside her.
“…I think you meant shit up boss…”
Ashley Allen froze under Kenzi’s intense gaze, until the voice of the teacher boomed over the class room. Order was restored almost instantly.
“I’m sorry Kenzi, did you have anything to add here?”
Kenzi turned her eyes up to the front of the class.
“GGGAAAAHHHH!”
The eyes of their teacher, Donovan Hastings were fixed on Kenzi, even as he was in the middle of dealing out harsh discipline to one of their classmates. Konrad’s legs kicked wildly at the empty air as his mouth hung open with a bit of vomit dripping from the side of his mouth. Mr. Hastings sat on a chair pinning him to the floor, his brown suit and matching tie standing out in sharp contrast to the strange scene.
“Have a seat while I finish this, then you and I are going to have a word!”
Hastings turned his attention back to Konrad, as he struggled in vain. Hastings leaned forward on the chair as he addressed Konrad directly.
“How many times have I told you, no vomiting in my classroom…EVER!”
“WILL…NOT…STOP! NOT…UNTIL…YOU FACE…MEEEE!”
Konrad let loose with another spew of vomit that the teacher was barely able to avoid as the rest of the class twisted up their noses and let out a collective “EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!” He held him there for another few moments, until was finally dragged away to Principal Ichabod’s office. Hastings straightened his suit, adjusted his tie, and pointed his finger at Kenzi. He gave a slow hook, signaling for her to join her at the front of the class.
A long “Oooooooooooooohhhh” could be heard as Kenzi drug her feet, heading to the front to join Mr. Hastings. Each step was like she was wading through quicksand, and she hated it. As she reached the front of the class, she really felt all eyes on her…and it wasn’t at all in the way that Angie had them.
“What seems to be the problem Kenzi?”
Kenzi looked down at the floor, her hands behind her back. She gave a slow shake of her head.
“No problem…everything is fine.”
Mr. Hastings raised a single eyebrow as he gave her an inquisitive look. He folded his arms across his broad chest.
“Do you think you can teach this class better than me? I mean, it’s obvious that you feel you can. That’s why you disregarded everything that I was trying to teach you, wasn’t it?”
“Wh-What?”
Kenzi was dumbstruck as Mr. Hastings ripped into her.
“I gave you the benefit of my years of knowledge and you failed to learn! Do you think I decided to become a teacher just to hear myself talk? I mean, not that I don’t enjoy the sound of my own voice. STILL, I did it for the little people!”
“The LITTLE people?! Who in the hell are the LITTLE people?! Konrad? Is he your latest pupil?!”
Mr. Hastings rapped his fingers against the chair he had only just had Konrad pinned under moments ago.
“Konrad has potential, but he is misguided and he needs correction, of the hands-on variety. Perhaps, in time he will be where you are…or rather where you should be. You have so much potential, but you squander it on useless endeavors, which is why you continue to come up short when it counts the most. Under my guidance, you would have certainly written a better essay on the Seven Deadly Sins essay than Angelica, but you had to go your own way…didn’t you?”
Kenzi glanced over at Angie, and the blonde could only shrug her shoulders innocently. The gesture made her want to wrap her hands around her long thin neck and strangle the life out of her. She had been her constant foil for as long as she could remember…whether she meant to be or not.
Angie this…
Angie that…
Angie…
ANGIE…
“TO HELL WITH ANGIE!!!”
The class burst into laughter, all except Angie herself. The girl’s mouth fell open as her pale skin flushed with embarrassment. The girl slid down in her seat, unsure of anything she could do, except to shrug her shoulders.
Before she knew it, Mr. Hastings had her by the arm and was pulling her out of the class as they all continued to laugh and mock her…particularly Travis and Jet, both of them seeing their opportunity to take her place as Chairperson of the school’s Cooperative Outreach Program.
Mr. Hastings took Kenzi into the hallway, holding on to her in one hand and still carrying his chair in the other. He closed the door, but that did little to quiet her classmates. She could hear them buzzing behind the door. The loudest of them all was the annoying cackle of Bordy. That annoying little bitc…
“ENOUGH! No more outbursts from you!”
Kenzi snapped out of her own thought as Mr. Hastings leaned down, getting right in her face and causing her to recoil a step or two. He put one of his hands on her shoulder, giving her a firm shake.
“I meant it! You have all the potential in the world, but you seem content to only brush up against success instead of realizing it…instead of seizing it! You could be the class’s top pupil, but you just won’t stop focusing on this imaginary popularity contest inside your own head!”
“REALLY?! You’re seriously out of touch, that is what this class is all about!”
Kenzi straightened her shoulders, squaring off with her teacher.
“Angie gets all the attention…doesn’t she, from everyone! They all fawn over Angie, as if she was actually the most talented and the most popular! Jocks like Zane Scott can’t stop obsessing over her. Creepy hillbillies like Dave Rydell are always buzzing around like an annoying little bearded bumble bee. Even that nutcase Bordy, who doesn’t have love for anyone, treats Angie like she’s the second coming!”
Mr. Hasting tapped his foot, giving a disinterested yawn at the girl’s theatrics.
“The school year isn’t even half over and you’re ready to crown her class valedictorian? There is plenty of time for you to pull your grades up. Who knows, maybe you can even pass up Roxy at the top of the honor roll if you follow the lesson plan I outlined for you.”
She wondered if he was actually serious.
“LESSON PLAN?! My work this year has been EXCELLENT! I should be at the TOP of the class!”
“You COULD be, but you refuse to realize your true potential and I can’t understand why! I have given you every advantage, but it’s like you’re afraid to take that next step that would put you over the top. Everyone who has listened to me has gone right to the top of the class…with one notable exception…”
He paused, scratching at his beard as he stared off into the distance. Kenzi didn’t have to be a mind reader to know who he was thinking about. It was the same person she was thinking about. His eyes turned back to her.
“Your ‘friend’ had just as much potential as you and I gave her opportunities because it. Had she followed the plan, she would probably still be in this school…still at the top of the class, but she was too proud. She refused to be molded…she refused to be guided…she refused to let me teach her.”
He cocked his head to the side.
“Is that why you’re holding back? Are you worried that she will see you succeed…without her?”
This time it was her turn to look away. His words had hit dangerously close to the mark. It wasn’t that she was afraid to succeed without Sarah, she was just hurt because she was in the middle of her best school year in a new district that Sarah had brought her to…then left her alone. Roxy and Angie were still here, but they were besties with one another more so than with her, by their own admission.
“Do you want a transfer? I’m sure Principal Ichabod would have no problem with letting you go to another district. Who knows, maybe you will find yourself in another class with Sarah. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
Kenzi did want that, but there was a part of her that didn’t want that at all. A jealous and angry part of her that felt betrayed and deserted. Sarah had pulled herself out of class, with the understanding that she had come back too soon and she wasn’t ready for the class load. Yet that didn’t really ring true to her either, especially since Sarah had found plenty of time last semester to take courses with Angie as her writing partner in another school.
…Angie…again…
Kenzi’s jaw tightened, even as she did her best to keep her emotions bottled up tight. If she didn’t she would burst into tears, or simply explode. Mr. Hastings offer was a tempting one…Sarah had found her stride in a new district, but Kenzi couldn’t bring herself to just up and leave. The school work wasn’t done here. Her dark eyes met those of Mr. Hastings.
“No…I don’t want a transfer.”
A slight smile could be seen behind his bushy beard. He stood tall and straight, lacing his fingers.
“What do you want?”
Her voice as low and laced with venom.
“…extra credit…”
Kenzi snatched up the chair from Mr. Hastings and marched to the door, throwing it open as she looked back over her shoulder at him.
“I’m going to make you proud Mr. Hastings!”
She turned, raising the chair high over her head with a maniacal grin on her face. She charged back into the classroom and all of the laughter stopped, turning to screams and panic as the sound of metal on flesh resounded throughout the room. Mr. Hastings grabbed the door and pulled it closed, then wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye.
“Education will always be my passion…”