Stories

Chapter 3

The New Teacher

"Hello everybody, my name is Dr. X."

Peter stared at the man standing in front of the classroom with disbelief. He was very handsome. His hair was arranged neatly with mousse. Most male teachers in this school wore casual T-shirts, but Dr. X was wearing a long, black coat that showed off his slim figure.

Peter saw many girls staring at the man in a different way, with dreamy looks in their eyes. Peter felt a pang of jealousy. He glanced at Sophia and was relieved to see her not interested in the teacher.

Dr. X glanced solemnly at the class. "I know many of you are shocked by the news of Ms. Sullivan, but please understand that it was an accident. You all have a long, long future ahead of you. I know all of you will be sad for some time because you loved Ms. Sullivan, but you must accept the fact that she is gone and go on with your life."

Peter's face darkened at the reminder of what happened to Ms. Sullivan. That was when he noticed Dr. X's mouth twitching slightly upward, as if he was trying hard to conceal a smile.

"So, if nobody has any questions, I'll start class," said Dr. X.

Everybody groaned. Some teachers spent a whole period introducing themselves.

John Hopkins raised his hand.

"Yes, young man."

"What's your real name?" John asked.

Dr. X smiled. "It's a secret."

"Why?"

"Just call me Dr. X, please."

Almost a week passed since the accident. Peter's father had gone to work in China for two weeks the night before. He still didn't know Ms. Sullivan was Peter's teacher. Before he left, he had asked Peter, "Will you be okay?"

Peter had lied, "Yes, I'll be fine. I'll look after Scott too."

Peter's father had smiled at him gratefully and left.

Peter went to Ms. Sullivan’s funeral with Scott. The funeral was held at a gorgeous church. He was relieved to see many of his classmates there. Many teachers were there too.

A young man sniffled and said, "She was a wonderful friend to me. She supported me when I failed the test to become a professional soccer player..."

One by one, people made sorrowful speeches about Ms. Sullivan.

Dr. X was also there. “Although I never met her, she must’ve been a lovely person. I feel extremely sorry for what happened.”

Again, Peter saw Dr. X’s mouth twitch.

However, he had no time to think further about Dr. X’s mysterious actions. It was Peter’s turn. Peter’s throat grew cotton-dry and his mind went blank. He had so much to say about Ms. Sullivan, he couldn't decide. Finally he said hoarsely, "I loved her as much as I loved my mother. I thought she would be with me until the end of my life-"

Suddenly, a long-bearded old man in the front seat started sobbing. His sob was anguish.

"He's the killer!" the old man screamed at the top of his lungs, pointing at a young man right in front of him. Peter noticed the young man resembled Ms. Sullivan.

“Father! I can’t believe you would accuse me of all the people.”

“You were fighting with Christina and you followed her to the beach. I know it was you, I know you too well. You’ve always been jealous of her because she’s much better at everything than you are and you’ve always been a loser.“ Then he raised his voice in a higher pitch and yelled, “Somebody call the police! He’s the murderer! He killed my daughter!”

The younger man gripped the long-bearded man’s arms tightly. “Have you gone insane? She’s my sister!”

“Somebody call the police!” The old man bellowed again, as he shook himself free from the young man’s grasp.

People were murmuring and whispering to each other. Somebody shouted, “Will you please calm down? We’re in the middle of a funeral here.”

“You heard what I said! He’s the killer! He’s the killer!” The old man broke into a sob again. “He killed… He… killed…”

A tall, blonde-haired woman suddenly stood up from the benches of the church. “Actually, I happen to know about somebody who holds the biggest grudge on Christina.” She pointed at a petite woman with reddish hair. “It is you, Maria Humphrey.”

“What? No way! How dare you say such thing! “

“You hated her ever since she became an elite, just because you couldn’t become one yourself.”

“That was ages ago. I can’t believe you’d say that after knowing how close we were.” The petite woman glared furiously at the blonde-haired woman. “If anything, you are the most suspicious one because-“

“This is getting ridiculous!” somebody shouted.

“Shut up!” the petite woman yelled back.

All at once, the funeral turned into a mess with angry shouts and screaming.

The chaos somehow settled down after the appearance of the police. After the disaster at the funeral, Peter felt like staying in his room for the rest of his life. He just couldn’t trust anyone anymore. How could anybody hold grudges against a person as generous and loving as Ms. Sullivan?

Time flew by, not giving him a chance to mourn any further about Ms. Sullivan. Recently, a new topic was coming up. It was about Dr. X. There was something weird about him. After learning from him for some time, Peter noticed Dr. X always made them do strange, maniac-kind of experiments about segmentation. Of course, Peter sort of appreciated it because he was quite maniac himself, but he wasn’t sure if anyone else in the class understood half of it. Also, Dr. X always changed the subject whenever the topic was about himself or about his family. He managed to conceal any personal facts. He was a very, very enigmatic teacher in every way.