Perfect Miss Tomlinson
This week's prompt:
Write a story about Miss Tomlinson falling off her chair.
Once upon a time, in a mystical land, lived the most perfect teacher that ever lived. All of the children in her class agreed she was perfect. Everyday, she turned up to school perfectly punctual and impeccably dressed without a hair out of place. She never made a mistake and everyday passed in easy perfection. Her name was Miss Tomlinson.
The day it happened felt no different to any other day. Miss Tomlinson arrived at precisely 8 o’clock, not a second before nor a second after. It was as she sat at her perfectly organised desk that the first incident happened. Leaning down to turn on her computer for the day, a lock of hair fell in front of her eyes. Confused, Miss Tomlinson stared at the offensive strands impairing her normally excellent vision. Luckily, she always kept a stash of hair pins in her cupboard for emergencies such as these. She had never needed to use one of course, but the very messy and unorganised Mrs Anderson was always needing to use them. Miss Tomlinson was happy to help. After all, she was perfect, which meant she was perfectly helpful.
The next incident happened at break time when the very sleepy Mr Stephens was making his seventh cup of coffee. Miss Tomlinson of course never drank coffee. She always slept for a perfect eight hours every night and woke every morning perfectly rested. Mr Stephens however, ran on coffee. If he didn’t fill himself up every half an hour, he stopped functioning completely. As Miss Tomlinson was filling up her water bottle (she of course drank a perfect two litres every single day), next to her, Mr Stephens was adding water to his coffee. When the scalding water hit the mug, a drop bounced up and splashed onto her, leaving a brown speck on her perfectly white shirt. Luckily, as it was a Monday, Miss Tomlinson had her PE kit in the cupboard - of course she had never forgotten it in her entire teaching career.
Freshly dressed in her PE kit, it was during her English lesson that the third incident happened. Deep in a discussion about Subordination, a child in her class forgot what a verb was! Never before had that happened. Unlike Miss Miller, who barely knew what a word was, let alone a word class, Miss Tomlinson, being the perfect teacher she was, had explained word classes so clearly to her class that they never needed a reminder. Eyes wide, Miss Tomlinson breathed deeply to get over her shock. Thankfully, Miss Tomlinson, being as perfect as she was, was able to calmly and clearly help them to remember.
At lunchtime, the fourth incident occurred. Reaching into her rucksack, she was shocked to find she had forgotten her lunch! Miss Tomlinson, being as perfect as she was, never forgot her lunch. Every day, she packed a perfect meal with the correct balance of savoury to sweet. Luckily, Miss Tomlinson always kept a spare meal in her classroom. This was the first time she had had to use it, but she made sure she brought one every week as the forgetful Miss Emmerton was always forgetting hers. Miss Tomlinson, of course, was happy to help.
It was back in her classroom that it happened. The incident. With her lunch balanced on a plate in her hand (Miss Tomlinson of course had perfect balance), she made her way to her desk to sit down and eat - she could never eat off her lap like that slob Mr White. He always had food down his shirt. As she went to sit, she accidentally nudged the chair and it rolled out from under her. With a mighty crash, she fell into a heap on the floor and sent her meal soaring into the sky. Seconds later, her perfectly balanced meal landed on her head with a wet splat.
In a damp, saucy puddle, all in a heap, Miss Tomlinson wept. Her day had been perfectly terrible! And worst of all, she had no more spare pins to sort her hair, no more spare clothes to change in to and no more food to replace what she had dropped!
From that moment on, Miss Tomlinson was never perfect again.
Start writing here…
