Terence was late for school again. To be honest, Terence was late for school every day. But this was late even for him.
His form teacher had long since accepted that Terence ran to a timetable that nobody else could fathom, and that no amount of detentions, canings or extra homework would make the slightest bit of difference. But Mr Green liked to think of himself as a progressive. So it suited his image of himself to find a way to teach Terence, despite the obvious difficulties.
The facts that Terence was a genius, and his father was on the PTA, had nothing to do with Mr Green’s attitude at all. Or so he had persuaded himself.
One of his tactics was to tell Terence what classwork he had missed and ask him to research it himself, and present it to Mr Green after school the next day.
Terence was usually able to do this in a matter of minutes, and since he liked Mr Green well enough, he usually humoured the teacher.
But today, it had all gone wrong, in ways that neither of them could have foreseen.
Terence had arrived at school an hour and a half late. Mr. Green explained to Terence that he had missed the social studies segment on World Population issues. Terence protested, "Mr. Green, it is quite clear and reasonable that I cannot ride the bus anymore because Charlie Jenkins is tormenting me. My Mom is driving me now, and she had a run in her stocking yesterday morning, and..." "That's enough Terence", Mr. Green interrupted. "Nevertheless, research the topic and present it to me tomorrow after school." "Yes sir," Terence said with a sigh.
Mr. Green had been considering what to do about Terence, and suddenly came up with a plan. The new gifted and talented program was getting started, and if Mr. Green could get Terence into it, it would free him of Terence's perpetual lateness and perhaps challenge Terence enough to renew his interest in school. Mr. Green rubbed his hands together, "yes, a win-win to be certain". Mr. Green contacted Mrs. Proust and asked her to sit in on Terence's presentation after school.
Terence showed up for the presentation beaming, and Mr. Green introduced him to Mrs. Proust. Mrs. Proust said "It is wonderful to meet you dear, what have you there?". Terence had a thumb drive and asked permission to use the LCD projector. Mr. Green nodded, and Terence launched right in.
"That was a very interesting topic you gave me Mr. Green, I found so much information on the population problem. Did you know that the birth rate in the United States is only 1.81 children per woman? The number needed to keep the population number steady is 2.1, so we are headed towards the grey dawn, meaning there will be a very large number of elder... " Mrs. Proust interrupted, "whatever can you mean Terence? of course, we have made progress in reducing childbirth to sustainable levels, but there is still much work to do".
Terence looked at her with astonishment, "I mean Mrs. Proust that the numbers clearly state that the United States is dying". Mrs. Proust's eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth turned down, but she remained silent. Terence continued, while Mr. Green began tugging on his collar. "The population problem is in many Countries, here is a commercial from Singapore about "National Night", they set aside a specific night for couples to do their civic duty and make a baby. I'll play the video for you." The video began to play and Mr. Green began wringing his hands, sweat began forming on his forehead. Mr. Green powered down the projector abruptly. "Thank you, Terence, you have certainly brought up some food for thought. You certainly have taken the... minority view on this topic, and uh, we appreciate your effort, don't we Mrs. Proust?". Mrs. Proust nodded slowly, her arms folded. Terence packed up and left silently, clearly crestfallen.
Mr. Green began, "Terence wasn't here for the class, I merely gave him the topic and he ran with it, I can assure you I would never teach so irresponsibly about population issues". Mrs. Proust responded icily, "I will accept Terence into the gifted and talented program, his intelligence needs.... proper guidance for him to fulfill his potential. I will send you a form letter to forward to his parents. Will you be able to handle that Mr. Green?"
"Certainly Mrs. Proust, thank you so much for your time, and enjoy Terence". Mrs. Proust left the room, and Mr. Green laughed softly to himself, "make no mistake, a win-win".
Thanks for reading, this is my entry in a fiction contest by 
Image credit Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/en/read-book-boy-child-kid-student-316508/