5. Authority

Challenging a teacher had never been a good idea, especially when that teacher’s subject happened to be french.
Perhaps Alex should have simply accepted defeat when Mr. Colombe had made it pretty clear that he would not be tolerating ‘gender propaganda’ in his class. On the other hand, it was close to impossible to lie low while your childhood best friend and soccer buddy were ready and about to take on a fight for you. It had started small with some bickering after class or an annoyed glance whenever Mr. Colombe was facing away from them. Bad impressions and angry doodles, portraying his newest and steadily worsening arguments, followed close behind. Even so, it became much worse when he took it upon himself to use Alex’s full name just to spite him. ‘Nicknames are inappropriate for professional settings,’ Mr. Colombe had abruptly announced that day.
After the first semester, he alternated the seating arrangements due to an overflow of non school related conversations. In short, that meant placing Bailey, Alex and Mark in different corners of the classroom, so they could no longer discuss his disrespectful behavior. Unfortunately, he had not been aware of Alex growing up with deaf siblings, which lead to him being more than capable of communicating in nonverbal languages. Having been best friends since they were toddlers, Bailey shared that ability without a doubt and found pleasure in angrily signing whenever Mr. Colombe said something particularly uncalled-for.
Towards the school year’s ending, Mr. Colombe took the opportunity to proof his lacking compassion and clarified some grammar in the process. ‘Remember that you need to add an ‘e’ at the end of certain adjectives to make them feminine,’ he declared. Putting on a polite smile, he turned towards Mark and defined his statement. ‘When I would want to say that you are distracted,’ he announced, ‘then I would use the word distrait.’ Whirling around, he pointed at Alex. ‘If I would want to say the same thing to you, however, I would use the word distraite.’
A heartbeat passed in deafening silence before he strolled back to the board and casually continued his lesson. One glance across the room was enough to confirm that Bailey was about to say something that they would later on regret, hence, Alex tried to get their attention by throwing crumbled pieces of paper.
Once Bailey’s eyes had locked on him, he shook his head while locking his index fingers and thumbs together and moving his hands upwards in a circular motion. It’s not worth it. Right after, he opened his palms and crossed his arms over his chest with a comforting grin on his lips. Relax.
Bailey had backed down with a frown, but containing his friends from starting a futile protest had been Alex’s toughest challenge for the rest of the semester. Plainly to make his situation even more difficult, Mr. Colombe turned out to again be their french teacher in the following year. This time, though, Bailey presented them with a secret weapon who was none other than their new friend Audrey. She fit into the group perfectly and was just as mischievous as Bailey themselves. Never will Alex forget the grin that spread over Audrey’s face when she mentioned that she got along swimmingly with the guidance counselor. Even better was that he, in turn, shared regular meetings with the principal. It was more than a delight to hear Mr. Colombe address him as ‘Alex’ a few weeks later.