“Um excuse me sir” Josh said softly standing next to Mr. Harper’s desk nervously clutching his essay in his hands. He had gotten a D, a D! He never got a D, he wasn’t a straight A student either but a D was definitely below his average. Besides he had worked very hard on this paper and he thought he disserved a little higher than a D.

“Huh?” Mr. Harper said distracted without looking up from his stack of papers.

“Sir?” Josh tried again clutching the piece of paper even harder.

“Uh…” Mr. Harper responded while he slowly looked up to see who was standing next to his desk.

“Yes, Mr. Chasez?” Mr. Harper asked when he recognized his student but with a little exasperation in his voice that someone disturbed him.

“I um… I… was uh… just” he stammered looking down at his paper, nervous that he was under Mr. Harper’s intent gaze.

“Mr. Chasez?” he interrupted his student.

“Yes?” Josh said looking up to meet his teacher’s eyes.

“Is there a point in this?”

“Uh yes sir, I was um wondering why you gave me a... D” Josh said while he quietly placed the piece of paper in front of his teacher. Mr. Harper looked Josh over before he shifted his gaze to the paper in front of him.

“I was just wondering because Andrew has the same subject and…” he babbled while Mr. Harper looked at his paper.

“We are not here to judge other people’s work, Mr. Chasez” Mr. Harper cut him off.

“Yes, sir” Josh said softly looking down at his shoes.

“You got this thing all wrong” Mr. Harper said pointing towards the third paragraph on the second page. Josh remembered that piece, his dad had told him all about that period of that time, it couldn’t be wrong.

“But my dad told me all about that” Josh protested knowing it wasn’t wrong. The conversation between them grew louder and a couple of kids in the front row picked up on the conversation. Josh had deliberately waited until all his classmates were talking before he approached his teacher. The last ten minutes of class, Mr. Harper always retreated to his stack of papers and left the kids to their own device after writing down the homework for next class. Nobody ever worked on their homework in the last ten minutes of class and the class always ended in a chat room. It wasn’t any different this time.

They’d gotten their essays back just a few moments earlier and when Josh saw he had gotten a D he wanted to ask his teacher why. Instead of opening his mouth immediately, shouting it in class Josh had waited impatiently till the last ten minutes of class. He wasn’t the type of boy who’d disrupt a class by shouting his opinion, demanding why he had gotten a D, he was very shy and that’s why he had waited till everybody was busy talking amongst themselves and he would have the safety of the noise of his classmates.

“Well maybe you should have consulted a history book instead of asking your father” Mr. Harper replied calmly. Josh didn’t know why but he got the feeling this guy was mocking him, was mocking his dad. He was stunned and then he noticed that everybody was staring at him. First the kids in the front row had abandoned their conversation then the second row and now the entire class was listening to the conversation between the shyest kid in class and the most annoying teacher in school. Josh felt his face turn red while Mr. Harper continued,

“Besides that, you’re handwriting is almost unreadable which makes it very sloppy”

“Like your handwriting is any better, sir. It’s always really hard to figure out what you are writing, sir” Dave said to Josh’s defense.

“That’s to keep you busy” Mr. Harper said calmly, he always knew exactly what to say to shut his students up, the comments of his students had no affect on him at all.

“I’m sure it’s great, I just can’t read it” Mr. Harper said while he brushed Josh’s paper towards the edge of the desk and he shifted his gaze back towards the stack of papers.

“You can rewrite it during detention this afternoon” Mr. Harper said as a last comment with his attention already on the amount of work he still had to do.

“But…” Josh tried to protest but Mr. Harper cut him off,

“Or you can always settle for the D” he said without lifting his gaze to the young man beside him.

“Fine” Josh said through gritted teeth, he couldn’t afford the D. This paper would be a big part of his final mark and with a D he would flunk. So he didn’t really have a choice.

“Fine what?” Mr. Harper asked indifferently, still not looking up from his papers.

“Fine, I’ll rewrite it sir” he said politely, grabbing his paper from the edge of the desk before slowly shuffling back to his seat, feeling 20 pair of eyes looking at him.

“Ooh Josh,” his teacher called after him and Josh turned around halfway on his way back to his seat.

“Yeah?” he asked rudely since he was angry.

“Yes, sir?” he corrected himself when his teacher looked at him with a strict look on his face.

“You might want to check that paragraph again as well” he said indicating the paragraph which was wrong by his opinion.

“Yes, sir” Josh said softly before he sat down in his seat and sagged down while waving his paper in front of him, angrily eyeing his teacher every once in a while.

“Josh where were you?” his mother asked angrily but with worry in her voice.

“I was at school… I um… got detention” he said softly looking down at his feet.

“Why?” his mother asked, calmed down but curious why he got detention. He never got in trouble and getting detention wasn’t like him.

“Mr. Harper made me rewrite my essay” he said angrily throwing his backpack on the floor.

“What do you mean?”

“We got our essays back today”

“About World War 2?” his mother asked.

“Yes, he gave me a D!” he said already getting angrier.

“But you worked so hard on that”

“I know! The guy hates me!” Josh said miserably plumping down at the kitchen table.

“He does not hate you, Joshua” his mother soothed rubbing his back.

“He does too!” he protested getting up.

“Andrew had the same subject but he had a lot less information and he got a B!”

“Maybe the information that he did have was very good” she tried but Josh wouldn’t listen. He was determined Mr. Harper gave Andrew a better grade because he knew Andrew’s dad and his dad happened to have money.

“No he didn’t!” he yelled angrily.

“His dad is best buds with Mr. Harper, they play golf together”

“Well Josh that doesn’t mean that he would give Andrew a better grade”

“Yes it does! That asshole…”

“Watch your language young man” she warned, she understood he was angry but that was no excuse for using language.

“That… man,” Josh started again making sure he left out the word asshole.

“Gave Andrew a better grade just because he knows his dad and his dad is rich. He hates me, he made me rewrite it because my handwriting was bad. He was just looking for an excuse to give me a bad grade. This isn’t English dammit, it’s history and it ain’t fair!!” he yelled.

“That doesn’t sound fair no, but getting all worked up about it won’t help you so calm down, take a deep breath” she instructed while she pulled her son into a hug to calm him down. He relaxed in his mother’s soothing embrace.

“Alright now so you rewrote it?” she asked after a couple of minutes giving Josh the time to calm down.

“Yes” he said pulling out of her embrace.

“And you handed it in?”

“Yes”

“Alright now I know it doesn’t seem fair but just wait what grade he gives you this time and don’t let Andrew bother you”

“Alright I’ll try but it’s just not fair!” he whined a little.

“I know baby,” she soothed. “But the world is not always fair. Sometimes you come across people you’d rather avoid but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way”

“If he doesn’t at least give me a B, I’m going to tell him off…”

“No you won’t Joshua” his mother cut him off.

“But mom…” he whined.

“Joshua I mean it. You’re not going to tell him off, you understand?” she said in a strict tone of voice. He would only make things worse but he didn’t seem to see that.

“Yes” he said reluctantly.

“He’ll be your teacher for more than 5 months so you have to be careful. Your grade depends on him whether you like it or not. You don’t want him to turn against you” she said trying to make him understand how telling him off wasn’t a good idea. It would make him feel better sure but not for very long.

“He already did” he said miserably.

“He did not and I mean it, be careful what you say. Don’t get yourself into trouble”

“But he disserves it!” Josh defended.

“He probably does but there’s no use fighting those people, they don’t bother about other people so don’t risk your grade for it” she spoke to him, she’d dealt with that type of person herself as well and perfectly understood her son’s frustrations but she had learnt how those people were the hard way and she would like to prevent her son from learning it that way.

“This sucks” he sighed falling into her arms, resting his head on her shoulder.

“I know it does sweetie” she said stroking his hair.

“Mr. Chasez” Mr. Harper addressed Josh in the hallway two days later.

“Yes sir?” he responded politely turning to face his ‘favorite’ teacher.

“I looked at your paper…” he said, Josh waited impatiently till Mr. Harper handed it over. It was marked with a C. “You did better just check if the information you give is correct before you include it in your essay. Remember that next time” he said with a nod, eyeing his student.

“Yes sir” Josh said deciding to take his mother’s advice. As much as he hated to admit it, he really didn’t need to get on this guys bad side. He still had about 5 months ahead of him and angering Mr. Harper even more could cost him a bad grade and in the worst case he could even be repeating 8th grade.

He hated favouritism but there was no use trying to fight it, it would be a lost battle. The best thing was to walk away, at least in this case. Because people like that would always exist and they didn’t bother about other people so eventually the only person who’d get hurt would be you.