MY PHYSICS TEACHER WAS ancient. He had to be the oldest teacher in the school district, maybe in the whole state. He couldn't hear a thing, so kids got away with murder. The class was a joke. Every time he turned toward the board paper airplane notes flew across the room. I peeked around the edge of the door. It was business as usual. While I debated whether or not to skip it, someone squealed my name and all eyes spun my way. Well, all of the students' anyway. Mr. Gordon continued to talk and scrawl equations across the board.