I screwed up all of my courage and offered as sincere an apology to her as I had ever made. I admitted my guilt, my surprise at my own behaviour and promised I would never do anything like that again. She sat back in her chair and smiled at me – not in a laughing way, but in that way, a trusted mentor smiles when she understands what you are trying to say. Then she proceeded to scorch my ears right off my head.

She scolded my behaviour, my recent attitude changes, my declining dedication and reminded me of how much promises she saw in me, how much she respected me and how she was not going to tolerate such poor behaviour from anyone in her class.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I could not do anything but nod at her stinging words. I muttered a ‘yes, Miss or ‘no, Miss’ as needed and counted the seconds before I could escape her wrath. Then she did something I had never seen her do before. She opened her desk drawer and took out a slipper.