Page 1 of For Your Own Good
Part
One
1
ENTITLEMENT HAS Aparticular stench. Pungent, bitter. Almost brutal.
Teddy smells it coming.
The stench blows in the door with James Ward. It oozes out of his pores, infecting his suit, his polished shoes, his ridiculously white teeth.
“I apologize for being late,” James says, offering his hand.
“It’s fine,” Teddy says. “Not all of us can be punctual.”
The smile on James’s face disappears. “Sometimes, it can’t be helped.”
“Of course.”
James sits at one of the student desks. Normally, Teddy would sit right next to a parent, but this time he sits at his own desk in the front of the class. His chair is angled slightly, giving James a clear view of the award hanging on the wall. Teddy’s Teacher of the Year plaque came in last week.
“You said you wanted to talk about Zach,” Teddy says.
“I want to discuss his midterm paper.”
Zach’s paper sits on Teddy’s desk—“Daisy Buchanan fromThe Great Gatsby: Was She Worth It?”—along with Teddy’s rubric assessment. He glances up at James, whose expression doesn’t change. “An interesting topic.”
“You gave him a B-plus.”
“Yes, I did.”
James smiles just enough. “Teddy.” Not Mr.Crutcher, as everyone else calls him, and not Theodore. Just Teddy, like they are friends. “You know how important junior year grades are for college.”
“I do.”
“Zach is a straight-A student.”
“I understand that.”
“I’ve read his paper,” James says, leaning back a little in his chair. Settling in for the long argument. “I thought it was well written, and it showed a great deal of creativity. Zach worked very hard to come up with a topic that hadn’t been done before. He really wanted a different perspective on a book that’s been written about ad infinitum.”
Ad infinitum. The words hang in the air, swinging like a pendulum.
“All true,” Teddy says.
“But you still gave him a B-plus.”
“Zach wrote a good paper, and good papers get a B. Exceptional papers get an A.” Teddy picks up the rubric and holds it out toward James. “You can see the breakdown for yourself. Grammar, structure, mechanics... it’s all here.”
James has to get up to retrieve the paper, which makes Teddy smile inside. He folds his hands and watches.
As James starts to read, his phone buzzes. He takes it out and holds up a finger, telling Teddy to wait, then gets up and walks out of the classroom to take the call.
Teddy is left alone to think about his time, which is being wasted.
James asked for this meeting. James specified that it had to be afterhours, in the evening. This is what Teddy has to deal with from parents, and he deals with it ad infinitum.
He stares at his own phone, counting the minutes as they pass. Wondering what James would do if he just got up, walked right past him, and left.
