Fighter

A dreary silence filled the room as he entered it. Rodrick was used to it by then. 20 years of teaching had probably given him a look of seriousness even when he, proabably, did not emote anything at all. The silence was odd but in some weird way he liked it. It gave him a sense of power, a sense of being respected; even though, being a teacher, he was obligated to be respected by his students but with changing times not many teachers could actually boast of something like that.

He kept his books on the table and looked around the class and observed the children. It had become his habit to count the number of students present in the class at the beginning of the class but he did that mentally, making sure the students had no clue what he was actually doing. In most cases they would believe he was ensuring perfect silence before speaking something but he was actually counting heads. The arrangement of desks made it easier for him to count the number of students present.

‘What we really have to understand about Newton’s third law is not what it says but where it actually applies in real life,’ Rodrick began from where he had left off the previous class. He did not waste time to start off with the subject because the quicker he began the quicker the class could adjust to what he was saying.

Why Rodrick was respected so much was probably not a big a mystery if you think about how he handled himself in front of his students. He made the subject fun, he talked to the students in a friendly manner but yet he had an air of authority around him at all times. Probably, the early years of his life which he spent training to be a national level boxer had something to do with that. The early boxing had gifted him a very strong fore arm and very confident posture, not to mention a scar above his left eye brow, which even though came during his boxing practice reign but was not directly related to boxing as such.

He had gotten it when he was cycling to the gym where he was supposed to train and he had gotten late. He knew his coach Mr. Davidson would make him run an extra 5 laps if he arrived late so he was pedaling really hard. He had almost reached the parking spot but did not see the loose rock on the ground. He had to withdraw from the district tournament and after that he gave up on boxing altogether.