Biology

I stared at the blank page before me. It was still blank. For twenty minutes it had been white, and crisp, and new. In any other context, it would represent hope and opportunity. Purity, perhaps. But I was in my 10th Grade Biology class, and it only symbolized my impending failure.
Mr. Bailey was a great guy. I'm sure if I had gone to high school with him we would have been friends. But he was my teacher, and so the whole witty, outspoken, often inappropriate sense of humor turned me off. It boggled my mind, actually. I mean, all of the teachers at my school were professional. They dressed nice, and spoke with dignity. They demanded respect. Mr Bailey--he demanded pity. I think it's because he was aging prematurely. He was maybe 30 years old, but his eyesight was terrible and his hair grayed and  receded. And bless his heart, he just couldn't deal with it. He was so insecure about it, that he ended up overcompensating in all other aspects of his life. His clothes were fashionable, if not a little flashy, and his vocabulary was infused with phrases that were "too hip" for any of his students to understand. I'm sure he had a sweet spirit, but I just found it repulsive. It was distracting and overbearing, to the point where I couldn't concentrate on any class lectures. All I could think about was what the phrase "cool like a cucumber" could mean, and what it had to do with osmosis.
Which is why I ended up getting a B- in my class--a grade which is definitely not "cool like a cucumber".