Encounter with a Teacher

Today, I went to the mall with my brother. We both got bored and decided to escape the monotony by heading to a sneaker store. We planned to do what we always do for fun: lure an employee into explaining everything about the sneakers, try them on, walk a few steps, and then move on to different stores to repeat the process, even though we didn't have a nickel in our pockets.

But today, things were different. As soon as we entered the store, a gentleman approached me and said, "You forgot to appear for your physics exam."

I was astonished to hear those words because it had been two years since I studied physics, chemistry, or any kind of science. I was angry that someone had ruined my mood; I was no longer in the mood to do my little show with my brother. The man who uttered this nonsense was none other than my former class teacher, JD. Actually, his name was long and stereotypical (he was from the south), so the students started calling him JD instead.

Anyway, I greeted him as soon as I remembered who he was and asked him what nonsense he was talking about (of course, I asked him in a proper way). And he began, "Look, here are your midterm results. According to them, you passed in physics, but according to school rules, as you are aware, you still have to sit through the final exams for the full three hours. But since you missed your final, which was yesterday, we can't do anything about it. Your chemistry exam is tomorrow, and you need at least 30 marks to pass, and—"

"What the hell is going on?" I asked him bluntly because I wasn't going to sit through all this. I graduated from school two years ago, and now suddenly someone from there comes to me and says that I haven't passed my exams because I missed some exam I remember taking two years ago.

"Excuse me, I am just doing my job and doing you a favor," JD continued. "Your result was not issued; in fact, no one's result from your class was issued. Now you are having problems getting admission to college. We checked all that, and it turns out that your exams were rescheduled to check if the students still remember what we teachers taught them. Clearly, you weren't informed, so here are your exam dates, and make sure to appear next time."

JD handed me some papers and left the store. How he tracked me down at the sneaker outlet, I don't know. But I do remember that something happened two years ago. I can't remember the specifics, but I do remember giving the exam and the principal saying in a speech that the results would be out in some time. That time never came. The school was demolished the next day, and no one got their results. Some people knew some people and created fake results to get into colleges. Some started doing part-time jobs, and I started roaming around doing nothing.

I took my baby brother and went straight to the site where my school used to be, and there it was. Same as before, every inch of it was as I remembered. I knew now that I had to study to finally get my school degree.

But as soon as I reached home to study and asked my parents where my old books were, they said, "Your books are burning outside; you don't need them." I was angry. Why did they do that? But I didn't have any time to waste; I had to study because chemistry was my weakest subject. I went to the library, and I swear to God, I studied really hard the whole night.

The next morning, I went to the school and, as I was sitting in the exam hall, the teacher gave everyone the exam paper except me. I asked, "Why?" and they replied, "You don't even deserve to take these exams. You are worthless." I was in a rage, and with that rage, I woke up in the morning. It was all a dream. That morning, I didn't talk to my parents at all. I went to school, and JD was there, giving out the marks for previous papers. He came to me and whispered, "You didn't appear for the physics exam, and you failed in chemistry."