PROMPT : DROP
“Drop and give me twenty!” The Substitute Teacher barked.
Joey Johnson turned several shades of pale in the span of thirty seconds.
May Melrose, the one he’d been tormenting, gawked at the teacher, her eyes wide behind her fat, round glasses. It was a look of complete awe with a hint of admiration.
It was grudging respect that came from the rest of the class when Joey finished his push-ups from beneath the Substitute Teacher’s critical eyes. No one had expected that, much less to see it enforced, but there was something about this substitute—something that was different from all the others.
A sweaty Joey stumbled back to his desk, flushed red from head to toe. He’d also turned blue, green and grey through the course of his ordeal.
Very interesting.
I silently slipped the knife back in my pocket and flashed a grin at May when she tentatively looked back in my direction.
Her grateful smile said that she hadn’t missed my flare of protectiveness, but the relief in her warm brown eyes said that she was glad.
Glad that I hadn’t been forced to kill for her sake again.
I smiled at her until she turned back to the front and pretended that I didn’t notice the Substitute’s critical frown of our interaction. That was our secret.
I only had one sister, after all.
(c) S. Harricharan