But to his disappointment, I wasn’t afraid in the slightest. I stayed completely calm.
“Mr. Miller, you don’t have the authority to force every student to shave their heads—especially not when you’re clearly acting out of personal spite.”
“If you think wearing a smart bracelet is wrong, you can take it up with the principal and propose adding a rule banning them, instead of threatening to punish other students just to get at me.”
“If you really dare shave the entire class’s heads, I’ll be happy to report it to the principal. And if he doesn’t handle it, I’ll call the education bureau and ask exactly who gave you the power to trample on students’ dignity!”
The smug look on Mr. Miller’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a flush of humiliation and rage. He was breathing heavily, clearly never expecting me to embarrass him in front of the whole class.
“You little brat!”
He raised his hand high, but I quickly said, “If you dare hit me, that’s corporal punishment. Are you sure you want to bet your teaching career on this?”
My words stopped him cold. His hand hung awkwardly in the air before he finally slammed it down on the desk instead.
“Get out! Go! Back to your dorm and reflect on your actions!”
I thought for a moment. With only two self-study periods left in the day, going back to the dorm to relax didn’t sound so bad. I nodded. “Alright, sir, I’ll head back then.”
I packed my things and started for the door. My desk mate kept his head down and whispered, “Alex, that was badass—standing up to the tyrant like that. You don’t know… some graduates said every year he picks someone at the start of the semester to make an example of. Several students ended up transferring because they couldn’t stand it. One girl was even pushed into depression and nearly jumped off a building. Now that you’ve gone against him, he’s definitely going to come after you even harder.”
I just smiled faintly. “I haven’t done anything wrong. If you walk straight, you don’t fear a crooked shadow. The one who should be afraid is someone like him—someone with a bit of power who thinks he can do whatever he wants.”
“The teacher-student relationship is equal. We’re not his slaves. If he really ignores school rules and does something excessive to me, he’ll be the one in trouble.”
I thought the matter would end there.
Even a fool like Mr. Miller should realize I wasn’t someone he could mold at will.
But I was wrong. He really did start his retaliation, just like my desk mate had warned.
This time, though, his methods were subtler and more vicious.
In class, he would deliberately ask me questions far beyond the scope of the curriculum. When I couldn’t answer, he’d mock me and send me to stand in the back for the entire period.
When I turned in homework, he’d claim he never received it, then publicly berate me for being a liar and tell the class to be wary of me.
During exams, he checked every single answer I wrote, and because the crossbar on my “7” was slightly short, he deliberately marked every “7” as a “1,” docking me over thirty points on my math test.
Holding my exam paper, he stood proudly at the front of the class.
“Some students have really disappointed me. You placed in the top three on the entrance exam, yet now you’ve dropped more than twenty places. Makes me wonder how you got those original grades.”
“If our class had taken first place in the grade this time, I would have rewarded everyone with an afternoon off to watch a movie. But no—someone had to drag down the average!”
“Alex Carter, are you spending all your energy on your appearance? I’ve told you before—that’s not what a student should be focusing on. Especially you, a boy. Do you want to end up like a girl and find a man to marry?”
