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Conrad Johnson propped his feet up on his desk and inhaled deeply. This had been by far the hardest teaching year of his career. The worst part of the whole deal was that it wasn’t even Christmas break yet. He had never in his life thought a fourth grade class could be so tough to teach.
            At least Calvin hadn’t been here today. That had made teaching this day a breeze in comparison.

Conrad Johnson leaned back in his chair enjoying the last few moments of his workday. He knew that Calvin would be back gunning for him tomorrow.

He sighed again just as Bob Roberts came into his classroom for a chat.

“Hey there Conrad,” Bob said.

“Hey Bob,” Conrad replied in a wistful voice.

“What’s going on?”

“Calvin,” Conrad said and inhaled deeply smelling chalk dust and the lingering odor of fourth grade unwashed bodies that seemed to hang around elementary school classrooms.

“Tough egg to crack.”

Conrad sighed for the million time in the last few moments. “He’s getting to me Bob.”

“He’s getting to people who haven’t even had him in class yet,” Bob replied.

“You know what he did last week?”

“No,” Bob answered shaking his head.

“He shoved a kid into a urinal and pissed on him.”

“What happened?”

Conrad rolled his eyes. “Three days out for fighting. Mr. Gordon thinks that I can reach him. They need to expel the little animal!”

Bob nodded. Little animal was a perfect name for him.       

            The little animal was Calvin Hill. Calvin was a big, smelly, mean white kid with buckteeth and straw brown hair. His large stature and thick arms made him a handful even at his tender age. There was no one to blame for Calvin Hill’s over-all jerkiness. His parents were a smallish farm couple and the nicest people on the entire planet.