Chapter 7

Breathing deeply, I whip up a perfect fake smile and walk into the classroom. Students don’t even bother to lift their heads or pay attention, and honestly, fair enough. I don’t expect anyone told them they’d have an actual teacher from now on.

Clearing my throat, I put down my bag on my desk a little too heavily, making it clunk loudly. It effectively gets their attention, and many head turn to look at me. They look surprised to see me, and again- they probably don’t know I’m the new teacher, plus I look about as different from their substitute teacher as possible.

“Hi guys, I’m your new law teacher. I’ve heard this position has been empty for a long time, so today’s lesson isn’t going to be going straight into heavy, complicated law stuff. We’ll be getting to know the course a bit, and going through what’ll be expected of you. Sound good?”

As expected, I either get blank stares back, or people looking confused. A girl at the front immediately puts her hand up, and I nod at her. “Are you seriously our new teacher?” She asks, and I keep my hands in my pockets to hide their shaking.

“Yeah, this is my first lesson so don’t bully me, ok?” At least that gets a few laughs, and people seem to be realising that I’m actually their teacher. “First things first, let’s get to know each other. Can you all write your names on a piece of card and place it at the front of your desk, folding it like so,” I demonstrate on a blank revision card, with my own name, good old Mr Ardis, written on it.

The kids seem to be warming up to me slightly now, and all actually do as I ask. I feel bad for them - I mean, they signed up to do a subject only to have the teacher instantly leave, and by then they were stuck and couldn’t even change subjects. Talk about shitty.

I walk around the class, picking up the spare card, and reading a few of the name cards. Luckily, my good memory saves my ass here, and I manage to have a pretty good idea of who everyone is. The fact that it’s a fairly small class also helps.

By the end of the class, the students look quite relaxed and dare I say it- happy. So, I consider it a success. I make sure to say goodbye to each of them as they walk past, and they all seem rather surprised that I actually remembered their names.

The girl who asked the first question, Annie, stops in front of my desk. She’s the last one to go, as she took forever organising her pencil case before packing it away. There’s two more girls waiting by the door, looking rather impatient. They weren’t in my class, so I’m assuming they’re Annie’s friends from a different class.

“Annie; can I help you with something?” I ask, looking up at her as she stands awkwardly in front of my desk. “Oh, I just wanted to um, say thank you,” she says, a shy smile on her face. “I really like law, but as you probably know, the teacher left like, instantly. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for teaching us.”

Aw. She’s sweet. A genuine smile creeps on my face, and I nod at her. “Thanks, Annie. I hope you enjoy next lesson, we’ll be starting on the actual law stuff.” She nods excitedly, thanking me again before running off to meet her friends.

Clearing off my desk, I shove everything back into my bag, before heading to the office. I have a half hour break before my next lesson, but right before I go into the room, something occurs to me - Mr Hastidal will be in there.

And I’m still feeling pretty guilty about being rude earlier, so like the mature person I am, I run away and hide in the staff toilets instead. For some reason, this seemingly very traditional school actually has gender neutral toilets, which is nice, so I go in there instead, hoping no one else will come in, and I can just sit in silence here for a bit.

Unfortunately, two people enter. And just my luck - one of them is Mr Hastidal. And judging by the voice, the other is- Miss Jerries? I still don’t know what she looks like, which is pretty trippy to be honest.

“Ugh I can’t believe it, this ink seriously won’t come off,” Miss Jerries says, and Mr Hastidal laughs brightly. “Here, if you scrub the soap like this…it should come off more easily.” Miss Jerries gasps, before laughing. “Woah, thanks Dray. You’re seriously a life saver.”

Dray. So Mr Hastidal and Miss Jerries are close enough to go with first names, huh?

Mr Hastidal sighs, and there’s silence for a moment before he speaks again. “You know Mr Ardis?” Oh shit. I really hope he doesn’t bitch about me, that would be literally the worst right now. I just want to get through today.

“Yeah - you two have practically been joined at the hip since yesterday, I’m surprised you’re not with him now,” she says with a laugh. Yeah, well I fucked things this morning.

“Hm. Well, I think I messed things up,” Mr Hastidal says, sounding rather…gloomy? It’s not his fault, I totally overreacted this morning. Well, no, I automatically thought he was going to stab me, so maybe I didn’t overreact, but still.

“Why do you think that? He seems intimidating, sure, but I thought you said he was a nice guy?” Miss Jerries says, and her voice gets a little louder - shit, she’s right outside the door to my cubicle.

“He is nice, he’s a chill guy. But- ugh Sylvia he was totally freaking out this morning, I think he probably has anxiety or something, and I meant to comfort him - you know what I’m like, whenever I’m about to freak out, a hug goes a long way, but I guess being touched by a stranger wouldn’t be helpful to anyone.”

Miss Sylvia Jerries gasps, and I file another piece of information away - when Dray Hastidal is about to freak out, give him a hug.

“You tried to hug him?! Yeah no, he definitely doesn’t look like a massive fan of hugs.” Mr Hastidal sighs again, and I swear they must be leaning against my door, what with how close they sound. 

“No, I touched his arm, and I kid you not, he looked terrified. He properly flinched away and everything, and then asked me to leave. Now he’s definitely not coming out for drinks tonight, because he’ll be too busy hating me.”

I admit, I almost laugh. I thought he would be the one hating me, but now I have to go for the drinks, just so I can apologise. “Dray, you’re totally overthinking this - and who cares if he comes out for the drinks or not? Just because you’re into bad boys, doesn’t mean you should go for a bad boy who actually looks like he could shoot someone.”

Oh. Cool. So now I know Mr Hastidal’s type too, apparently. Good to know. I really feel creepy for listening in now.

Mr Hastidal splutters, and they both start to walk away. Checking the time, it’s only a few minutes until my next lesson. “I am not going after him or anything, I just think he’s interesting!” Miss Jerries laughs, and says “you just think he’s interesting? Stop lying to yourself, you think he’s hot!”

I feel a little smile creep onto my face, and I scratch the tattoo on my neck. “Yeah, ok, you probably think he’s hot too!” Mr Hastidal says, and I’m about to start blushing from the compliments they’re unknowingly giving me. “Yeah but so what? He’s not my type, and I have a boyfriend. You, on the other hand…well, the same can’t be said for you,” she says with a laugh.

Cool. So, he’s single huh?