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For many people, school days didn’t go by without witnessing awkward moments, whether it was an ignorant phrase someone blurted out or an innocent door that got in the way. It can feel uncomfortable in the moment, but after many years, they become memories that former students can fondly look back on and laugh about.

Recently, people in the AskReddit community have been discussing just that—the cringeworthy things they've observed in the classroom. Scroll down to find the most popular stories that may remind you of your own similar experiences. And if they do, share them in the comments below!

While you're at it, don't forget to check out a conversation with social psychologist, management consultant, and executive coach Crystal Clarke, Ph.D., who kindly agreed to give some pointers on how to deal with awkward moments.

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#1

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School I was doing a presentation in 6th or 7th grade about my family and kind of stumbled to remember my brother’s age. This loud girl in the class started to make fun of me (while I was still up there presenting…) asking me how I couldn’t remember my own brother’s age. I just said “he’s dead so I have to do the math!” Everyone went completely silent and I still remember her face.

matchachakath , Brett Sayles Report

Final score:
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#2

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Two guys who were bullying me for being gay got caught jerking each other off under a table in 8th grade. At least they stopped bullying me, lol.

LevelAd5898 , Keira Burton Report

Final score:
260points
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#3

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School A friend walked up to the front of the room to ask our teacher if he could go to the restroom and was denied. So he stood right there and pissed his pants in front of her. He got sent home.

DesertGoldfish , Feliphe Schiarolli Report

Final score:
253points
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Social psychologist, management consultant, and executive coach Crystal Clarke, Ph.D., tells Bored Panda, "When people find themselves in situations they see as awkward, they are often experiencing some form of social anxiety, maybe feelings of shame, fear, confusion, embarrassment, or self-consciousness."

According to Clarke, something that can help us deal with life's inevitable uncomfortable moments is reminding ourselves that often the awkwardness is just in our heads.

She further explains, "Feeling awkward is typically the result of 1) how we imagine ourselves to appear and 2) how we imagine others are judging us. These two beliefs are usually simply that, beliefs! Given the negativity bias many of us have, sometimes what we believe others think about us can be inaccurate."
#4

A girl kept putting her hand up to go to the bathroom, and the teacher refused. So after maybe the fifth time she just yanked something out of her skirt and slapped it on the window.

Her heavily soiled sanitary pad.

Fair enough.

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Final score:
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#5

Teacher of a BS class (Music Appreciation) who was known as an absolute terror. I wasn't the best student in school but took the class super seriously despite being tone deaf. I honestly wanted to melt through the floor every time this woman spoke to me.
Her final was two days - one listening to music pieces and answering questions the other a big multiple choice, 100 questions in all.

We take the first part and come in the next day to get our tests back before she administers the second. Hands them out by decreasing scores because she's a c**t. I didn't expect to be first but still thought I did pretty well. She hands out all the tests and stands in front of me berating me for being the worst student she ever taught and making her want to quit teaching. I got a 8/100 on a multiple choice test.

My head is spinning, and I'm trying to figure out how well I need to do on the second part to pass. I start looking around to ask people to compare answers. Get a test from another girl and my answer don't match up. Expected but they don't even match the correct answers the scantron gave. And then it dawns on me - there were two tests (A/B) and she marked mine wrong. I start to open my mouth and she flies over to my desk and drags me to hers. Sits there regarding because I figure she realized what happened and didn't want to be called out. The whole class was dead silent the whole time starting at me. I'm the color of a tomato and want to melt through the floor again.

I got a 92 on the test and no apology from that skank.

MrFunktasticc Report

Final score:
200points
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#6

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School There was a girl in my math class that would fall asleep with her feet up on the seat in front of her usually wearing short skirts. One day she farted so loud it woke her up. The entire class died laughing our teacher was facing the blackboard and I could see his shoulders shaking.

ChanceTight , RDNE Stock project Report

Final score:
191points
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Even though awkwardness is often the product of people's minds, such an emotion can have real-life negative consequences, including decreased confidence. "From a social theory called "the looking-glass self," we know that humans may base their sense of self on how they believe others view them. In situations where we believe others see us as awkward, we may interpret that as something being wrong with us, which over time can eat away at our sense of self and our self-esteem," says Clarke. 
#7

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School We had mandatory dance classes, including partner dance (think waltz and things like that). All in ballet clothes. One of the boys got a boner which is impossible to hide in ballet tights, and thought it would be best to put it up behind the waistband of the tights. I think in an attempt to hide it? Instead the tip just... poked out. Like a naked molerat popping out of the ground. When he realized, he panicked and ran out of the room. They made groin guards mandatory after that, but tbh I don't think it really helped.

Koevis , Danielle Cerullo Report

Final score:
182points
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#8

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School A teacher was out for a few days. Upon returning one kid questioned "what, did your grandma die?"

She indeed did die. The teacher just broke down.

_Moregone , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:
168points
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#9

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School A girl loudly called out a boy who had his hand in his pants in class. Dude was nearly frozen in fear.

EventWonderful55 , Pixabay Report

Final score:
150points
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That said, embracing it can also be beneficial. Clarke tells us that seizing awkward moments, silences, and unmet social expectations allows us to experience something very human. "No one is perfect, and embracing or acknowledging the awkwardness can oftentimes be a way to connect with others, as awkwardness is a common experience, and they've likely had an awkward moment or two," she says.
#10

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School We had a teacher who had a miscarriage and was explaining that she was going to be gone for a couple weeks for mental health reasons when this one kid just said: “Well, it isn’t all bad, at least you’ll be skinny again!”

You could’ve heard a f*****g pin drop.

Realistic_Cupcake_56 , Alex Green Report

Final score:
148points
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#11

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School One time a girl got mad and went to storm out of the class room. She was making a big scene, doing everything angrily and loud. She goes to open the door to step out, but her hand slipped off the knob, and just ran into the door.

redditgiveshemorroid , khairul nizam Report

Final score:
147points
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#12

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Our math teacher was in a bad mood and held us back for a few minutes to lecture us. She saw one of our classmates outside the classroom chatting with some other kid. She went ballistic on him only to find out that was his twin waiting for his brother.

zool714 , Max Fischer Report

Final score:
144points
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If you're stuck in an uncomfortable situation, Clarke suggests trying these three strategies:

  • Breathe: In those moments that feel awkward, take a deep breath and remember that it's not the end of the world. Try keeping in mind that this feeling is common and very human. 
  • Laugh: Finding humor in the awkwardness of the moment can be a great way to handle the situation. It can also allow for connection with others, as they have probably also experienced similar moments or feelings. 
  • Try a more positive perspective: Feeling awkward is often rooted in what we believe others think about us. Instead of evaluating the moment negatively, try to put a more positive spin on it. Often, others are not evaluating us as harshly as we may believe. And we should be easier on ourselves too!
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#13

In middle school, our science teacher was pissed that kids didn’t put away the lesson materials (crayons, rulers). He didn’t tell us he was upset though and instead asked everyone to bring in their “most prized possessions”.

We all thought it was a lesson plan so people brought in photos of deceased loved ones, priceless family heirlooms etc.

He collected everything in a box and said “when you treat my class materials better, you can have these items back”.

The girl I sat next to, her best friend died in a freak snow mobile accident a few months prior to this. She had one half of a “best friends” necklace; the other half was shared with the deceased girl. He took that necklace even though she was sobbing. I myself brought in a photo of my deceased father. We had explained this to him & he did not care.

All of this over unboxed crayons.

Throwaway9283838p Report

Final score:
136points
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#14

Kid used to audibly make fun of me for being in a dance class cause it was gay.

He’s married to a man now.

Smart-As-Duck Report

Final score:
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#15

Few of the chavy/jock lads thought it funny to block the door to the loos. One of the quieter "keep to themselves" boys in the year below really needed to go. Started crying, kicking and pounding on the door, denting it, and then sh*t his pants. Waddled into the girl's bathrooms, to which we all heard screams. He then came out again and curled up into a ball on the floor. Bell rang and the few teachers shooed us all into class and/or away and dealt with it.

The guys who blocked the door weren't punished from what I understand. They were in there, just leaning against the door keeping it shut, they didn't barricade it. I guess they jumped out the window and walked around as if nothing had happened when the bell rang.

We didn't see the poor kid for a week and everyone got a bit scared. But he rocked up the week after. Didn't speak to anyone for like 2 months. If that's not the beginning of a villain arc, I don't know what is.

Confused-Raccoon Report

Final score:
125points
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#16

When I was in 7th grade, I was the new kid in school and bullied pretty hard. There was a kid behind me who kept throwing paper balls at my head. When I called him out and told the teacher, I was told “not to interrupt class”. I got so f*****g mad after a while, I stood up to go punch his a*s.

Instead, I stood up and slipped on the floor, falling on my face. I tried to recover and charge at him, but I slipped again and fell on the dude ar his desk, then proceeded to girl-fight slap at him like an idiot before the teacher broke it up. I was a really heavy kid too so I’m sure it was ridiculous. This was 2007 so a little bit before every teenager had a phone to record and post it, thank god.

TheRedZephyr993 Report

Final score:
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#17

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Kid got caught writing s**t on the wall and when the teacher caught them they tried to get out of it by tickling the teacher.

toon_84 , Jakob Rosen Report

Final score:
115points
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#18

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School When I was in the 11th grade a girl came to class drunk. She was usually very quiet and kept to herself. She did this day as well but she smelled heavily of alcohol. We were all whispering about her and she put her head down on the desk for a while. The teacher came over a tapped on her shoulder. She stood up and spewed out the most vomit I have ever seen to this day. Teacher was in the blast area as well as other students. Horrifying rainbow of puke. Then the smell afterwords was insane.

Parking_War_4100 , Vinicius "amnx" Amano Report

Final score:
113points
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#19

Classmate brought her grade school sister to our high school Spanish class to help with a presentation about family that day. It was the first one of the day and their mom arrives with the little sister. The whole class is seated and facing the room door in the front next to the teacher.

Once the kid enters the classroom, our teacher greeted her and the mom. The kid blurts out “wow, Sandy (her older sister, my classmate) you were right…his breath stanks!”

Our Spanish teacher was known to have crippling coffee breath.

RipErRiley Report

Final score:
102points
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#20

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School A girl got up from her desk after being called to the front of the class to write an answer the dry erase board and there was a pool of blood on her chair from her period.

Greedy_Shine_ , Jeswin Thomas Report

Final score:
101points
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#21

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Guy in my humanities class was meant to be in an english class. he didnt know he was in a humanities class for a solid 40 minutes.

Useless_Raider , Taylor Flowe Report

Final score:
99points
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#22

I tried to fart silently but it doesn't go as it planned.

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#23

We had an "active" shooter lockdown in high school once (not really, the girl just was posting depressing things on Tumblr or something). Our math teacher runs to the door, tries to lock it, and breaks the key in the lock. She then decides to run to our corner yelling "This is too much stress for a pregnant woman".


And that's how she told us she was pregnant. .

somebodysbuddy Report

Final score:
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#24

6th grade...guy had to do a math problem on the chalkboard. He had a boner so he used his boner and the lip of the bottom of the chalkboard to balance his math book open to see the math problem.

JonnyP3283 Report

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aragornjauncey avatar
cerinamroth
cerinamroth
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have to admire his acceptance of his predicament and his tenacity to see his maths problem through to the end! Well done, wee guy! :D

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Robert T
Robert T
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I just kick mine out behind me and form a tripod to sit and take a rest. ;-)

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Evan
Evan
Community Member
6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this has nevdr happend to me( duh, never been a boy), but I have three sons, who I think this will be happening to soon. It would be so great if schools started icluding the the first signs of puberty and the normalcy of it all. its 2024, its not like when our parents were kids, when everything was hush, hush. it must have been horrifying to go though puberty, not know why you body is doing that and being told it was wrong to get a hard on.

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#25

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Sophomore year science class two girls got into an argument about something I can't remember. They are going back and forth until the one girls says "At least I kept my baby, b***h!". That's when the hands came out and they were rolling around on the ground. Our teacher who was a smaller, but younger teacher jumps in and gets thrown off like a bull rider. Eventually one of the guys sitting on that side of the room separated them. Once they left the room that's when you could hear the whispers of the one girl getting an abortion. Someone else spoke up and said "She didn't abort her kid, she gave it up for adoption.". I don't think we accomplished anything that day in class.

SafewordisJohnCandy , Anastasiia Chepinska Report

Final score:
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#26

There was a girl sitting in class, who was clearly distracted, because she was looking in a mirror, picking food out of her braces. To be honest, it was kinda gross, because she already didn’t have great dental hygiene. Most of the class lost focus during the lecture, because we were all so distracted by her “picking” (she had her mouth wide open, and was staring in and poking around with her fingers). We were all just watching her do this, while silently giving each other amused facial expressions, trying not to laugh. After noticing this phenomenon, the teacher stopped lecturing, and we all just silently watched her and waited until she noticed that everyone was watching her. Once she noticed and bashfully put her compact back into her backpack, our teacher resumed teaching.

I still get really bad secondhand embarrassment whenever I think about it.

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Final score:
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#27

Our 3rd grade class president stood in front of the class to go over some administrative things. Then this conversation happened:

Student: (looking really nervous) I need to go to the bathroom.

Teacher: For goodness sakes, you can go!

Student; I already did.

All the kids lurched forward to look and there was a puddle on the carpet.


Also, I have no idea why we had a class president in 3rd grade.

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Final score:
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#28

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School My dad drove his scooter into the front gate and took the gate off the hinges.

Human_Pepper_2880 , Let's Kick Report

Final score:
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#29

In 8th grade, one day during study time a girl had full on diarrhea in her seat. She didn't say a word and was somehow quiet enough that the teacher didn't notice until another student called her over.

We got to skip the rest of the class.

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Final score:
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#30

A girl in my english class sat is something wet then sat in a wooden desk. She got up to sharpen her pencil and the stain on the desk rubbed off on her wet butt making it look like she s**t herself. She went to the bathroom and when she came back she was beet red and wouldn’t show her backside to the class. She sidestepped around the wall to the back to get to her desk. I.

Kiplicious80 Report

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#31

My 11th grade history teacher had a breakdown in the middle of class. Trigger was a kid who didn't do his homework. She started screaming, crying, and ended up hiding under the desk and not letting anybody leave. Obviously she had a lot going on in her personal life that had very little to do with us. It was pretty sad to watch. As far as I know she still works there, but if I remember right the school gave her some time off to recuperate. I hope she got the support she needed.

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#32

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Happened to me with my health teacher. We normally had a pretty fun rhetoric in class joking back and forth. This day she was particularly stressed out because she was trying to get her test results to see if her cancer had come back or not. She had the whole class sitting in silence as she was on speaker trying to get her doctor on the phone for her test results. I tried (failed) to empathize with her as her doctor’s office kept sending her to voicemail by saying “I know doctors offices are the worst” to which she replied screaming “YOU DONT KNOW (my name) YOU DONT HAVE CANCER” and ran out of the class with her belongings. Didn’t see her again for weeks. The whole classroom looked at me like I was a murderer.

big_driver , Pixabay Report

Final score:
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#33

It was at graduation no less...

There was this headmaster of our school who was known for being a racist prick to pretty much everyone, who after a black pastor gave a speech encouraging the graduates came to the podium and said:

"Well, in the immortal words of W.C. Fields, it's hard to follow an act with children or animals, but here I go..."

I looked around and no one seemed to catch the complete what-the-fuckness of what he just had said, like they must have thought they misunderstood what he meant, but after the ceremony my Dad said "You know, you were right about that headmaster, really is an a*****e..." and yeah, my Dad heard it as meaning the same thing I understood it as.

Edit: I should add that I don't think W.C. Fields actually said that now.

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#34

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School In 1st grade the principal came to our classroom to paddle a kid in front of the whole class.

MeatyUrology , KLTV 7 Report

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25points
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#35

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School In 10th grade, a girl I was sitting in front of had gotten into a argument with the teacher, the teacher was so fed up with her the teacher told her to go to the ISS and stay there for the entire year, but the girl simply said "it'll be a lot better smelling than your crusty attitude" and every other student thought it was a a huge roast for some reason, then the teacher called the student the N word (the student was Asian, and there was only one black kid in the class) class was silent for the rest of the year.

shabowdiadlo , Ivan Aleksic Report

Final score:
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#36

Back when I was in 4th grade, throughout the grades students were making a list of swear words, they even had kids who spoke other languages writing words in other languages. Principal found out, had assemblies and displayed the listen in front of the whole school, even the kindergarteners. She got fired.

Key-Investigator-879 Report

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#37

In 6th Grade (in 1991)we were hosting another school for a wrestling match. We were in the cafeteria when all of a sudden over the PA the principal said “teachers lock your door immediately and do not open it until we give the all clear. Do Not Open your Door!” All of a sudden they were chaining and locking all the doors in the cafeteria. Turns out there was a guy who just killed his wife across the street and had a gun and ran on campus to try to kill her son who was in 3rd grade. We weren’t allowed to leave the building until hours later and our parents had to come to personally pick us up. Cops got the guy and my mom actually got called for jury duty on that trail but she was excused when she told them she was biased based on the fact that I was attending that school that day.

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#38

30 People Share Painfully Awkward Moments They Witnessed In School Kid got FULLY pantsed in the lunchroom after his girlfriend had just been sitting in his lap.

2gecko1983 , Pixabay Report

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#39

On 9/11 we were all watching the live news on the classroom TVs and this one kid kept insisting to everyone that it has to have been the Japanese because “they’re the only country trained in kamikaze techniques”

It really didn’t suit the mood of the classroom… and was really dumb.

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#40

My 8th-grade English teacher told us she was diagnosed with HIV. Everyone gasped and was worried for her, but also thinking about every occasion they came in contact with her. We all looked at each other like, “What's going to happen now?”

Then she told us that she DIDN’T have HIV and wanted us to think about our reactions and biases.

Then, she introduced us to a grade-wide experiment where some kids had to wear the Star of David and those who didn't wear one were supposed to be treated better, etc. We were reading The Diary of Anne Frank in a white-privileged school where kids' parents were pilots, lawyers, doctors, and one who was the coach for a major league baseball team. The experiment was a failure.

This was in 2000.

mandiexile Report

Final score:
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#41

There was some leakage problem in the restroom so the janitor called the local plumber. For no reason whatsoever our restroom was more than 10 feet and leakage was on the higher side and there was little to no support to climb up.
I went to the restroom with my friend and saw blood coming out. Went inside to check and found the plumber's dead body. He fell on something sharp. Police showed up and we all were sent home.

WalterWhite69_123 Report

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#42

It was time to present. He goes in front of the class:

“In this hand… is my sword.”

The teacher plays music from his boombox. Fantasy epic. He rolls all over the floor swinging his hands around. An overweight dude showing the peak of his power. A f*****g performance that can only play well in the mind.

The class was absolutely silent.

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Final score:
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