Prompt — First Sentence: “For once, she could not keep her irritation in check.”
Goal: 200-500 Words
For once, she could not keep her irritation in check. She slammed her textbook closed as soon as the bell rang to dismiss class. She gathered her things angrily as the professor was erasing the board with a smile on his face while waving goodbye to the students that were already out the door.
She shoved her books and notebooks into her tote bag and flung the bag over her right shoulder. Finally taking her eyes off of her professor, she looked down at the ground and stormed out of the classroom.
“Oh, Erin!”
She paused and squeezed her eyes shut. She began to count to ten in her head when she heard her professor call her name. She needed to calm herself down before facing him. Otherwise, she knew that she would end up getting herself into trouble.
“Yes?” Erin muttered through gritted teeth. She turned around to look her professor in the eye, who was frowning at her. What happened to that wide, obnoxious grin he was just wearing to all the other students?
“I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about your grade or not.” He sighed as if saying you-should-be-disappointed-in-yourself.
“Well, I can’t exactly say that I’m happy about it.” Erin peered into her bag. Her essay was sticking out of her notebook. She was so upset she had gotten a D that she didn’t even put it neatly into her folder. She was planning on throwing the paper into the fire place when she got home.
“You just didn’t seem to understand the assignment.” He continued on. “You should have come to me for help. You know my door is always open. I check my e-mail every single night. You have many classmates that know what they’re doing. There’s a tutoring center that could always help. You have many options.”
Erin tilted her head to one side. “So, it sounds like you’re telling me that I didn’t even try.”
“Well,” he paused and looked up at the ceiling as he pondered his thoughts. “It’s not that you didn’t try. More like…you gave up.”
Erin glared at him. “I slaved over this essay. I did go to the tutoring center. I e-mailed you a few times. I spent six hours writing these five pages. If I really gave up, then I would have gotten much worse than a D.”
“Well, a D is a pretty bad grade. It sounds like you are giving up if you’re just going to accept the D.”
“You haven’t been any help! You don’t even teach! Today in class you talked about your daughter’s Bat Mitzvah from over the weekend instead of teaching us something new. How is anyone supposed to write a decent essay in this class when the students don’t have help?” Before she realized what she was saying, the words were already spewing out of her mouth.
His next class stood behind her in the doorway. Some had their jaws dropped, others were snickering.
Just great.
Words: 499