It's Only Temporary by Jamie Pearson

should stick with Marcus? That way you can be sure I’ll respond.’
    ‘You’ll get used to it Prof.’ he said slapping me on the shoulder and sitting down. ‘So what we doling then? I don’t wanna do nothing boring.’
    Stacy took this as her cue to leave.
    ‘Well I am told we’re supposed to be studying ‘Employability’.’
    ‘What’s that mean?’
    ‘Errm, good question actually,’ I said, he smiled at that. ‘Looking at the course materi… the stuff we have, it seems it’s mainly about helping you have a greater chance of gaining employment.’
    ‘Help me get a job?’
    ‘Yeah, basically.’
    ‘Sorted.’
    As we waited for the others to arrive I gave Kurt a verbal breakdown of the day’s activities and what we aiming to achieve over the next four weeks.
    ‘Ok, so the English we’re gonna do. Can I use that to write a whatchamacallit?’
    ‘A what?’
    ‘Y’know. A thing that tells the boss what you have done?’
    ‘A res… a C.V.?’
    ‘Yeah that’s it. Can I do one of them?’
    ‘Absolutely.’
    ‘Cool.’
    What was happening here?  Where had the snarling lout from Friday gone? He was showing an interest in what he was going to be doing and making some relatively astute connections. I started to feel a sense of optimism about the next few weeks. Successfully teaching the “Hard to Reach” as Kurt and his group were affectionately known would be an interesting addition to my own resume.
    The remainder of the group arrived all of whom were young men of a similar age and disposition to Kurt, with the exception of one young lady who informed me her name was Jade. I was anticipating some sexist banter from the group but this failed to materialise. Jade it seemed had managed to earn their respect; I assumed I did not really want to know how.
    ‘Ok, errr, guys. Jade are you comfortable me calling the group guys?’
    She just nodded at me.
    ‘Yeah she’s really a bloke anyway!’ one of the group whose name was Tommo called out. This was what I had been expecting; now I needed to deal with it.
    I saw Kurt turn to face him but before he or I could say anything to Tommo Jade had left her seat and stood over him.
    ‘Saying something?’ she challenged.
    ‘It was a joke J.’ Tommo responded in a much less confident voice.
    ‘Was it funny?’ Jade snapped.
    ‘No?’
    ‘Then what do you say?’ she growled.
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘That’s a good boy. Now act like a grown up or do one. I ain’t got the patience for you if you are gonna mess.’ She turned and moved back towards her desk.
    ‘Alright calm down!’ Tommo quipped at her back. She quickly turned and headed straight back to him. He visibly leaned away from her as she approached his bravado evaporating.
    ‘What?’ she barked.
    Tommo looked terrified as Jade glared down at him.
    ‘Listen you dork, we are here to learn and I wanna learn something. You mess with me and you won’t be coming in again, got it?’ The threat was clear and Tommo simply shrank into his chair as much as he physically could.
    As Jade sat down she said ‘Sorry,’ to me.
    I had spent the whole episode transfixed on the scene and made no contribution to the outcome. As a university level educator, classroom management meant ensuring everyone had and appropriate task to undertake. Here it seemed to mean something totally different and I had just failed in my first test as I should have taken charge of the confrontation, I just didn’t know how.
    ‘J, we call him Prof,’ Kurt advised Jade.
    ‘Prof? What does that mean?’ she asked.
    ‘Professor, ain’t that right Prof?’
    ‘Yeah that’s right,’ I sighed.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 9.
     
    ‘Ok, so has anyone got any questions before we begin?’
    I had spent the best part of half an hour going through the course with the group, explaining what I was planning to do and what they could expect to achieve if they