Sebastian Spence rolled his eyes and let out a fed up sigh, as the bell sounded for registration on April 10th 2008. It was the week before ‘study leave’ and from his experience in teaching, it meant that today was the day students would try and avoid doing anything constructive... well more than usual anyway. Principal Anderson had been very insistent that Spence was to take the class, feeding him some bullshit story about how he was ‘the only one who could make something from this bunch of underachieving degenerates’, in other words they were unruly and with Spence’s bad temper being well known to every one of his colleagues and the student body alike, he got the impression that Anderson wanted some kind of confrontation and this was the best way to achieve it.

Spence wasn’t exactly the most calm and collected lecturer at the best of times. Not to mention that he served as one of the 4 house counsellors and also sat on the somewhat controversial disciplinary board. Anyone unlucky enough to have him as a counsellor knew that there was no sympathy or empathy in this man’s body; if you needed counselling from him, you were weak. Weakness was unacceptable in his domain; he lived by the motto ‘kill or be killed’.

He walked into the PC suite and slammed the door to silence the room and it certainly stopped the raucous noise. Spence put his clipboard on his desk and strode forward to the whiteboard so that he could have a good view of the entire room and all of the degenerates in his class. His eyes stopped at a desk occupied by a short, broad-shouldered kid with long black hair wearing dark clothing and an unusually tall young woman with red hair and equally dark clothing. He decided now that they would be his first targets should any of the students step out of line because they had made been stupid enough to sit directly in his firing line.

"Welcome to Business Administration. My name is Mr. Spence and I will be your lecturer until after your exams. I do not tolerate slacking off and anyone who thinks this will be a walk down easy street like your time with Dr Robertson, is extremely mistaken. Anyone who does not adhere to my rules and my methods of tutelage, will find out soon enough that you do not screw around on my time unless you want to find yourself repeating the entire year,” he barked.

“You will ALL pay attention and only speak when you are spoken to, we may live in a country where freedom of speech is a human right. Happily for me, and sadly for you, MY classroom is not a democracy and the only right I permit you to have is the right to silence and the right to breathe. Now, until I call your name from this register, I expect you to shut your mouths. If I so much as hear a peep from any of you, I will recommend you for expulsion. I’d like to think my track record of discipline shows I’m not bluffing”.

Looking down at the class list briefly, one name in particular caught out Spence and seemed to ignite some kind of inferno, based on the crimson colour of his face. He called out my name. “Which one of you products of unplanned parenthood is James Valentine?” I stood up slowly, struggling to understand what I had just heard. “Would I be wrong in thinking your father is this schools’ most famous pupil, Mr Zander Valentine? The very man who took great delight in rubber stamping a slanderous news report about me a number of years ago? And now I get the pleasure of schooling his son” said Spence in a manner that could only be described as demonic.

“Mr Spence, I don’t know who you are but I can confirm that yes, my father is Zander Valentine and yes he did attend this school. Might I suggest you pop another Valium pill and chill out, instead of trying to victimise me because of some issue you may or may not have with my father?” I replied with a cool voice.

“You are without a shadow of a doubt, your fathers’ son… Ignorant, Arrogant and a Pissant” barked Spence, returning to his desk.

“Alright Class today is the final day of preparation before study leave. I would like to think that over the last year you have learned something under Dr. Robertson, though given the way he taught, it will surprise me if any of you remember what a formula even...” he stopped mid-sentence; his eyes flared with anger and his facial expression changing from tolerance to fury in a matter of seconds. Spence spotted one of the other guys in class, Rob, browsing an auction site for a new car.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of car you are interested in buying, boy… The only woman who could ever be interested in you, would have to be butt-ugly or a tramp who gives it away. I suggest you try focussing on your revision, at least that way you can gain an education and find yourself a higher class of slut” said Spence with a soft yet venomous tone. At this point, I’d had enough. Who the hell did this guy think he was?

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience there… Sir”. The class erupted in laughter at my quip. There were hollers, howls and high-fives aplenty.

Swallowing a lump in his throat almost out of shock, Spence snapped back, “Surprise, Surprise. Valentine has just got to be the centre of attention and involve himself in things which don’t concern him. You’re not half the man your mother is, and I’m not even sure you know who your REAL father is,”. Before he could finish the sentence, I jumped from my desk and tackled him to the ground. Who the fuck did he think he was, insulting my parents like that? As I went to start throwing punches at his pathetic little body, three guys from the Rugby team hauled me off him and tried to calm things down. I returned to my desk, grabbed my bag and booted the door to the room open. Not a chance in hell I was sitting listening to his shit. Michelle called after me but I had no intention of answering her… my blood boiled as I charged down the hall out of the building.

“You did what?” he asked. “You said what to that student? Sebastian I sent you in to that class thinking that you could be the one to finally bring some authority to the classroom. Instead you went in there and nearly caused a RIOT!!! What on earth possessed you to indicate that the boys’ father might not be his real father? Zander Valentine is the head honcho down there at Channel 3 news. All it would take is one word from him to the Minister for education and the government funding we receive to keep this private school afloat would be pulled without any hesitation. 5 years ago when nobody else would hire you, I took a gamble and gave you an opportunity to mould young minds into brilliant ones and this is how you repay me? Give me one, just ONE good reason why I shouldn’t fire you on the spot?”

“Do as you wish Anderson,” replied Spence with a tad more arrogance than normal. “You know that I have brought credibility to this so called institution of learning. You can look at what I’ve achieved; what I’ve done for the student body and know that I worked my ass off to ensure this school was able to compete on a scholarly level with the likes of Dundee High School, Morgan Academy, even Madras College in St. Andrews”. Spence was quite tall standing at 6ft 2, well built thanks to his training regime but all muscle, not one ounce of fat on him. With long blonde hair tied back in a pony-tail, he could easily be mistaken for a Hollywood pin-up or a sports superstar but no, he was an educator. Using his height and build to his advantage by towering over Principal Anderson, Spence stated quite clearly that if he was to continue working in this establishment then respect would need to be shown.

Anderson was in contrast a relatively short man and quite portly, but what he lacked in height and build was more than made up for in presence and fiery temper. He did however, have 2 choices and needed to decide what would be in the best interests of the school; Firstly to fire his unruly staff member and show him why Anderson was paid more and was able to make the big decisions; Secondly he could ignore the incident for the time being and keep a level of continuity within the school. After all, there was still quite a lot of questioning going on around the school and the city with reference to Dr Robertson’s untimely and gruesome death just a week ago.

“Don’t play hardball with me Sebastian. You were on the scrapheap when I offered you a life line, so all of your little achievements are thanks to me. Your threats carry no weight; I can see that in your eyes. As of this moment you are suspended, unpaid, for 3 months. I don’t want to hear any of your complaints or gripes. My decision is final and there will be a full investigation into the incident. If I find that there was no justified reason for your outburst, then you'll be back in the gutter. Now get out of my building and get out of my sight” said Anderson in a calm but serious voice. He walked around the desk and opened the door, emphasising the point that Spence was not going to talk his way out of this one.

With a snarl, Spence got up and replied “I don’t know why you’re protecting that boy Valentine but I will say this to you Andrew; if it’s the last thing I ever get to do, I’ll take you both down to hell with me. You think that suspending me is going to achieve anything? You’ve already lost one teacher this week and I use that term lightly, now you want to suspend me because a student wants to throw fisticuffs? You’re pathetic. You can kiss my ass Anderson; my resignation will be on your in the morning”.

Spence made his way through the door and out of the corridor without the slightest hint of remorse for what he had just done. First things first however, he needed to deal with both Anderson and Valentine, embarrass them both and bring them to their knees. It would take careful planning and a lot of coffee, but Spence knew what he wanted to be done and would call on an old friend to put his plans into action.