"Should I tell you another story?" Mr Palmer aka Oogly glasses had drummed his fingers creepily on the table.
"No sir. Please…" we trembled in our seats, holding firm the edges of our tables. One of my classmates, Tilly had rushed outside of the class and grooo grooo sounds followed as she threw up into the waste can.
My eyes twitched in anger as Mr. Palmer rubbed his mustache in pleasure. "That's what you all get for reporting me to your parents and the headmistress."
Well, you are probably wondering what is going on? Let me start from the beginning of the story.
It all started when Miss Owen, the fourth-grade teacher, relocated to Vegas after her wedding. She came to class with all smiles to give us cookies and sweets. After she broke to us about her leaving, we all cried our eyes out begging her to stay. Miss Owen, the teacher with blue eyes and a very kind heart had cleaned our tears assuring us that she would be replaced by a more kind teacher.
Well did we get a more nice teacher? No. We didn't. All we got was a big round man with pot belly and glasses that seem eager to run away from his eyes. He was a very scary man that constantly found reasons to pull our ears or scratch the back of your necks. We tried reporting to our parents and our headteacher but what we got were just promises that the teacher would be changed but we knew we were stuck with this monster kind of teacher till we finished grade four.
"So what's your name little girl." He had poked my nose in such a silly manner.
"Tilly." I managed to speak back angrily. Mr Palmer was such a bully.
He told us scary stories, then he'd say his horrible characters would hunt us in our sleep. Most of the time, he would turn off all the lights and lock us up in the classroom. In one word, Mr Palmer was the weirdest and most scary human being that ever lived.
"We've got to teach him a big lesson he will never forget." I said to my gang during lunch. We all formed a circle_ I and Herry and Mina.
"Let's toss him down the hill." Mina had chuckled. She stuffed a doughnut into her mouth. It was suppose to be funny but nobody laughed.
"That will be toxic and besides that's something our five year old body can't do."
"I've got a better idea." Herry's eyes widened with delight. "Let's scare the hell out of Mr Palmer."
"How?" I asked. It was obvious I was no longer the master planner. Herry whispered something into our ears and we grinned so wide to our ears.
You're probably asking what he told us… Well, you'll see.
The next day, I informed everyone about our plan and they all agreed. We would all wait till it was time for teachers meeting and then we would strike. Herry already had a plastic container filled with cockroaches waiting to be released. At exactly twelve noon, Mr Palmer dragged his feet to the door and walked to the school hall.
"Who would carry this to his bag?" Herry said as he lifted up the cockroach-filled container. It was time for action but no one could move close to his bag.
No one volunteered to take the can and we all looked on as the clock chimed one o'clock. The meeting would soon be over and we hadn't done anything.
Slowly, I took the container from Herry and walked to Mr Palmer's table. Seconds felt like hours as the table loomed closer. I got to the table, walked to where the bag was and tried opening it but the zip was too hard. I pulled and pulled but it wouldn't budge. I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I didn't hear when the door opened and Mr Palmer walked to his table.
"Cathy…" Herry tried calling but it was too late. "What are you trying to do?" Mr Palmer had held me by the arm. While my right hand struggled with him, my other hand struggled with the zipper of the bag. My teeth dug into his skin and he let out a groan and freed his grip from my arm. His glasses fell off from his face and the cockroaches were freed and were scattered all over the place.
"Switch off the lights now!" I ordered Herry as I ran outside the class. Herry jammed the door and turned the lock. We could hear Mr Palmer struggle with the knob.
I gave Herry a hi five and we all clapped happily for ourselves.
"Please open the door. It's too dark in here." Mr Palmer pleaded from inside. "I promise never to scare you again.
" Never…all we want you to do is tell the principal that you don't want to ever work here again..agreed?" I sneered.
Well, well, well, what you don't know is that Mr Palmer who told us scary stories and locked us in the dark was actually our common fear, he was afraid of the dark too!
How did I know? Well, that should be a story for another day, A story I will never tell you.
What later happened to Mr Palmer? Well, we let him dance in the dark with the cockroaches for about twenty minutes. After that day, he never returned to our school.
And what happened to us? We got reported to our parents and got grounded.
"Boo! Well my story didn't scare you."