“Glad to see you, finally.” Ms. Heathers said through her smiling teeth. She wanted him to be late again so that the key could be up for grabs. She will succeed, but not today.
Mr. Potter saw one of his students gazing off out of the window, his eyes entranced in the flora and fauna of the forest. He tapped his desk, and activated the students desk with a “pager” button that had finely been set up after it had been set up in the normal learning center decades ago. Mr. Potter pressed the button wirelessly linked to the student’s desk, and the desk slightly convulsed as if it were in the first stages of hypothermia.
He believed that this double’s number was 82. Weren't doubles programmed into being teachable?
“82, please. Translate this sentence from Japanese.”
82 had no idea was going on, as if it weren’t apparent from the I-just-fucked-up look on his face. Mr. Potter moved on to another student who was paying attention. He paged 36, and she responded immediately.
“The sentence reads KU-SO-KU-RAE, and it translates to … err, expletives?”
Mr. Potter chuckled. The end of the school year was the time of year where state testing wasn’t the goal anymore. He could teach what he wanted.
“One would be the wisest not to say this phrase in polite company. It roughly means ‘Eat shit.’, and is usually pronounced with a little anger.”
36 had always knew that Mr. Potter was a fun teacher, but she never appreciated this until now.
“Other anger phrases such as SHI-TSU-KEN-DA-YO aren’t the best to say either. If you want to be left alone, your best bet is to go as formal as possible.”
When you’re the only teacher that knows as many languages as you do, you can freely teach your students anything, and only the neighboring teachers would know anything.
The final bell rang at the seventh session of teaching, and Steven packed his supplies. A student, this double’s number was 45, he stayed behind.
He often stayed behind on Fridays. He always had questions about the other languages that Steven knew. This time, he wanted to know more about Esperanto, a language slowly gaining ground as natural alternative to having to learn the dominant language of the dominant society of the era, like French in the 1800’s, or English in the 21st century.
Esperanto arose from the mind of one man in Europe, and it had been built upon in layers by other great language inventors.
Steven didn’t know shit when it came to this language. He tried to do the best that he could, but he simply couldn’t remember everything. Some of what he said had been repurposed morphemes from other languages that he knew, fused with Esperanto grammar.
The poor kid, 45, left the class thinking he knew what he was doing. Steven didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was a Class A Bullshitter (an official title he made for himself).
His table buzzed, and he checked his notifications on its big screen.
David entered the classroom and waved. He tried to say “Hi.”, but was cut off by Steven.
They had had a history with each other, full of only lust and temptation. That was not relevant to the moment. They had put those days far behind him.
At least, Steven did.
“I’ve been summoned to the Capital of Security.”
“What? Is there any reason listed, or are they just picking on you?” David asked as he poked Steven’s shoulder.
“It says that they need some sort of translator. No language listed, so I guess they need something in Japanese.” Steven stated this as if it were a question, trying to verbally communicate his confusion.
“Oh, well, I can take you!”
“Ok, but I sold my location history to the Capital. I got a pretty amount, but now doubles can figure out where I am.”
“Steven, the location lock is locked to your phone, right? You could just leave it here, and grab it in the morning.”
Steven rolled his eyes, and stuffed his phone in the right drawer of his desk. They walked out of the door together. David was excited, since he had never been. Steven knew what to do when they got there.
David found his bike in the garage, got on it, turned it on, and, jokingly, seductively patted the back seat.
“Come here, papi!”
Steven humored him and sat down. Off they went into the gentle good night.
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