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Michael Collins

So there I was, standing at the front of a class of thirty-three sixteen year olds, tongue-tied and terrified The boss had volunteered me for one of those &039;Industry into Schools&039; days One of those days where instead of sitting listening to their teacher drone on for hours, children werethem hoonderful the job they really despised was I hated it I hated speaking in public I hated co that if I didn&039;t do this and I didn&039;t do it well, my end of month bonus would be reduced My boss believed that his ureheads of his company In reality ere just there for hi

I&039;d made some notes which I held in front of me like a shield I felt quite calm inside, but the way that the end of ive the class the impression that I was paralysed with nerves The sadistic sixteen year olds quickly seized on hed and tripped on a word I was history

&039;The e do at Caradine Coan, lying through my teeth &039;We&039;re responsible for&039;

&039;Sir,&039; a lad said fro his hand in the air

&039;What?&039;

&039;Why don&039;t you just give up now,&039; he sighed &039;We&039;re not interested&039;

That stopped me dead I&039;d never have dared speak out like that at school I looked to the teacher at the back of the class for support but as soon as we&039;d made eye contact she turned to look out of the

&039;As I was saying,&039; I continued, &039;we look after a wide range of clients, from small one-man firms to multinational corporations We advise them on the software to use, the systems to buy and&039;

Another interruption, this ti out in the corner of the room One boy had another in a headlock

&039;James Clyde,&039; the teacher yelled across the classroom, &039;cut it out Anyone would think you didn&039;t want to listen to Mr Collins&039;

As if the behaviour of the students wasn&039;t bad enough, now even the teacher was being sarcastic I didn&039;t knohether she&039;d meant her words to sound that way, but that was definitely how the rest of the class had taken the from all sides, hidden by hands over mouths and pierced by the occasional splutter from those who couldn&039;t keep their hilarity in check Within seconds the whole rooive up and walk out when it happened A girl in the far right corner of the roo Farand hacking screa the very insides of her throat apart with each painful convulsion I took a few steps towards the girl and then stopped Other than her painful choking the rest of the room had become silent I watched as her head dropped down and thick sticky strings of blood and spit dripped and trailed into her cupped hands and over her desk For a second she looked up at e terrified eyes She couldn&039;t breath She was suffocating

I looked towards the teacher again This tiht back at me, fear and confusion written clearly across her face