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Hal blinked his eyes blearily open to the tinny J-pop song that clicked on as his alarm informed him it was time to wake up. He promptly hit the snooze button. Maybe, maybe if he didn’t move, didn’t give into the urgent pressing of his bladder, maybe he could still be asleep. Maybe the world would just kindly cease to exist around him and he could be at peace. Maybe he could continue to pretend that he had been allowed to pursue his dreams and that the name Emmerich hadn’t forced him off any worthwhile trajectory in the scientific field. The ache of his bladder seemed to worsen at the thought. Trapped in the waking world by the ever-worsening need to urinate and his alarm finishing its snooze, Hal forced his body to move. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad; maybe if there was a God, he would take pity on him and let him get hit by a bus.
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Dave sat bolt upright in bed, sweat dripping down his body and face, his eyes stinging from it, that and the tears, forcing their way out of his eyes. His sheets were soaked, he should shower. He opened his bedroom window, overlooking the back garden. His bare feet slammed onto the cold, damp grass. His body followed, dropped to the floor easily, and then just as easily, back up. After 50 push ups, he slowed. Got to his feet and reached inside the window and withdrew his hand with his only solace. A crumpled pack of lucky strikes. The lighter stored inside had seen better days, but it had served him well through his last tour. He blinked away another bout of tears threatening to spill. He inhaled, held in the snoke and blew it out, aiming upwards to fool himself that the prickling in his eyes was from the smoke.
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After a relatively calm ride in, despite some idiot almost walking in front of him as he drove past the last shops of the high street, Dave found himself arriving at his new job. Pulling up to the high school, Dave sighed heavily as he took in the crowds of kids bumbling aimlessly about, laughing with their friends and pushing at one another teasingly. They were all so care free and he couldn’t help but feel resentment curling in his gut, and shame quickly following at such a thought. He pulled his motorbike into the reserved bays and went about locking a thick chain around the frame and rear wheel. Several eyes were on him now and he forced himself to focus solely on the task of looping the padlock through the chain loops, feeling a new sick feeling take over.
“Yo Emmerich! Nice shirt” The voice was sarcastic, obviously mocking whoever this Emmerich person was. Dave took an instant dislike to the speaker, committing the voice to memory and deciding he’d keep an eye out if this miscreant ended up in his class. Deciding to put a face to the voice, he turned, seeing a gaggle of boys, probably seniors by the look of them, all squaring up and blocking another guy from entering the building.
The guy trying to get through was wearing what Dave recognised distantly as a cartoon animal of some kind, with shocks of electricity sparking out from it’s tail. He’d paired the top with a blazer that was cut short on the arms and looked as though it had been a staple in this guy’s closet for many, many years. Taking pity on the poor nerd, Dave decided it was time to introduce himself. Forcing himself to walk casually, Dave swallowed the disgusting mix of glee and excitement at the prospect of a fight, no, not a fight; it’s his first day, he’s not going to fight one of his students. He make the little jackass run laps until he melted into a puddle on the floor, but physical interventions were sadly not an option.
“Hey. Something wrong with the door?” His voice came out rough, the first words of the day and the guy wearing the cartoon shirt gaped at him, cheeks turning pink and looking as though he was wishing the floor would swallow him up. The group of boys had mostly dispersed as they caught sight of him walking over, but one guy, big and burly, (‘built like a brick shithouse’ came to mind), stood his ground. He puffed himself up, chest jutted outwards, trying to look tough; Dave thought he looked like a fucking moron.
“And what’s it to you?” The moron asked, clearly not worried about an adult causing him any trouble. Dave cocked his head to the side and smiled sardonically. “Well as a new member of the faculty, I’m fairly certain its my job now to prevent bullying on campus.” Cartoon shirt guy squeaked. The moron guffawed and threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Woah, easy big man. We’re just playing – he rides us hard to earn a grade we need to stay on the team and we tease him for basically being more of a kid than any of us despite being the actual teacher. Or did you think he was just another kid too?” A sly smirk spread over his face and he looked to guy, no, the teacher, standing next to Dave. “Woah sir. Think he thought you were jailbait? Nah. You’d have to actually be hot to be bait.” He laughed at his own joke and entered the building just as the bell rang and Dave hung back.
He wanted to go after the kid and get him to apologise, but he hadn’t finished his step forward when a hand grabbed his wrist. He looked at the guy, Emmerich, he recalled, and saw glassy eyes, huge with desperation staring back at him.
“Please. Please stop. I have a hard enough time getting my students to listen and take me seriously.” Dave nodded once, guilt taking over as he realised that where an intervention would have probably been fine for a student, defending the other teacher had been humiliating. Emmerich nodded back, pushing wire-rimmed glassed up his nose before promptly following the path that the bully had already walked. ‘Well. That could have gone better’
Dave sat dejected in the most out-of-the-way chair in the staff room, not listening as the principal droned on and on, welcoming them all back and making some announcements that he probably should actually pay attention to. All he could do was replay that morning back in his head, over and over. He could see Emmerich sat next to a toned red-headed women, their heads pressed close as they whispered furiously back and forth, neither of them paying attention to the droll presentation either, it seemed. Actually, Dave realised, none of the staff appeared to be paying attention. A rather severe looking woman was giving a look of utmost concentration to a tangle of wool as she tried to pry the needles through the mess, hushed curses interspersed with what his ear thought sounded a lot like Russian.
The man who was stood next to him was staring dreamily over at the redhead until she made eye contact and gave a small, tight smile. Dave was sure he heard the man’s stomach grumble loudly and him give a little groan before dashing out, holding his middle. Emmerich smiled softly at the exchange and gave a teasing jab of his elbow into the redhead’s side; she responded with a quick finger striped across the lens of his glasses, no doubt leaving a large smudge. Dave fought a smile at their antics, finding himself wishing he too were part of the shenanigans. ‘Foxhound was like this once.’ The way Fox would sneak up behind tiger and tap a shoulder, expertly ducking from side to side, tapping either side until Tiger would inevitably catch wise and snap to the side, slamming his hips into Fox. The way Bear would run after his giggling comrades after waking up covered in urine and his hand in a warm bowl of water. Childish pranks and interactions, but sometimes that was the only way to make it through training. They were a family of sorts. But they were gone now, only David left from his unit. The bell rang again and David snapped himself out of his thoughts and followed his colleagues out into the hall before they dispersed to their assigned classrooms.
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Hal was not having a good day. It was the first day back after Christmas break and not a single thing was going right. His heating had broken in the night and trying to wrench himself away from the warm of his duvet was practically a herculean effort. He had been so anxious about the first day back that he had forgotten to go grocery shopping and realised he had butter, wilted lettuce and an expired can of tuna as his only ingredients. Sighing heavily, he resigned himself to a ridiculously overpriced breakfast on his way into work, then perked up as he remembered his new favourite haunt on the way. The good mood didn’t last though; as he dressed, he realised his last-minute laundry from last night was still in the machine as a damp crumpled ball of work shirts.
“No. Seriously?” Hal grumbled to himself, raiding his closet and realising that he only had his anime shirts as the only wearing options. His students, although listening to his teaching, never really respected him as an actual authority figure and now they probably never would. Immediately dismissing anything that may appear lewd or inappropriate, he was left with few options. Sighing for what must have been at least the tenth time since waking, he pulled on a pikachu shirt, hoping that it wouldn’t get too many comments. On his way out of the door, Hal double back on himself three times; first forgetting his phone, then his wallet and then, last minute, deciding to grab his old faithful blazer with the hope it may pull his outfit back to something resembling a semi-professional.
Another blow came in the form of his favourite bakery, Les Enfants Terribles owned by the sweet couple who claimed to have moved to town after their sons had enlisted in the military, was closed. Eva and Jack were an intense couple and very odd, but they had the tastiest pastries and the most reasonably priced coffee anywhere in town. Hal checked his phone, definitely after six Am, they should definitely be open. He peered through the glass, heart sinking and saw that, yep, no lights, no signs of life. Chairs on tables and alarm system light flashing away. No one home.
Grumbling to himself, Hal crossed the street and went into Starbucks. Emerging an annoying amount of time later, with an overpriced drink and a slightly stale but claiming to be fresh pastry, he realised that he was now running late. Almost running into a motorbike as he went to step into the road without checking, he jumped back, spilling his coffee all over his laptop bag and just barely missing scalding his chest with the boiling hot liquid. “God dammit, stupid bike”. Hal mourned his lost coffee and the fact he didn’t even have time for a replacement and half shuffled, half ran to the school. It wasn’t much further, but given that his hobbies were relatively stationary – watching anime or running lines of code – Hal wasn’t in prime fitness condition. He slowed as he reached the gates, heart feeling like it wanted to explode in his chest and lungs on fire, even as he tried to breathe normally.
Hal noticed a very physically fit man chaining what he suspected may have the same bike that almost killed him that morning, idly wondering what brought him to the school, and was so distracted that he didn’t notice he was drifting towards his worst pupil until he heard the sneered “Yo Emmerich! Nice shirt!” Bradley Shaw was a nightmare come true. Embodying every cliché jock bully stereotype, it was like the boy had been created to make Hal wonder why he had ever decided to return to high school as a teacher, when his years there as a pupil had been torture enough. Trying to ignore him and enter the building didn’t work either, as Shaw’s cronies grew emboldened by his flustered state and form a wall, pushing him back from the door and barring his entry. Hal went from flustered to mortified as the guy with the bike, no, the God with the bike, decided to intervene. He wondered if there were a more extreme word than mortified as he realised that this was a new member of faculty and he thought that Hal were a student. In retrospect, he probably should have been more polite, perhaps grateful, but all he could manage was pissed.
“Hey Hal. Why the face?” Meryl flopped into the seat next to him, arm going around his shoulders and tousling his hair. Hal shoved her off pathetically and returned to his sulk.
“Stop Meryl, I’m not in the mood today.” He sipped his coffee, grimacing at the taste of burnt coffee and washing up liquid. Whoever had washed up the staff room mugs last, clearly hadn’t rinsed them. “This isn’t because the terrible children café is closed is it?” Meryl asked, tilting her head and offering him a cupcake from seemingly nowhere. Hal smiled grateful and took it, eyelids fluttering slightly as he bit into it. “No. But that may have been a factor and stop calling it that. The French is cool, but the English is just creepy. Honestly Meryl, today has been a shitshow and it’s barely even started.” He finished the cake, folding the casing into a small ball and fiddling with it. He noticed the biker god sat in the corner, looking as good as he remembered but also like he was as uncomfortable as Hal felt.
“He’s a hottie right?” Meryl faux-whispered in his ear. Hal jumped and shot her a shocked loo. “Oh come on Hal, it’s obvious you wanna jump him so why don’t you see if he’s into guys?”
The only problem with being friends with someone as confident and awesome as Meryl, was that she believed everyone else was just as confident and awesome too. She had no issues walking straight up to a guy and asking him if he wanted to go out sometime. Even when she’s been shot down by Johnny – in the surprise of the century- she’d rallied. Hal still didn’t believe the lovestruck Maths teacher would reject Meryl, but she insisted that he claimed he couldn’t go out with her because he was going to be busy that night without elaborating or offering an alternative. But anyway. Confidence wasn’t exactly a word well associated with Hal Emmerich.
As the principal began his usual tirade of welcome backs and reiterating policies and procedure that they’d all heard a million times before, Hal quietly filled Meryl in o his morning and his encounter with Bradley Shaw and the biker god.
“I dunno Hal, sounds like an honest mistake.”
“Maybe, but it was embarrassing. He’s so…”
“Hot?”
“Yeah. Duh, look at him. But I actually meant, intimidating. Kinda reminds me of Jack”
“My weirdo cousin?”
“No, not Raiden. Jack as in Eva and Jack.”
“Ohhh. Yeah, I can see it. Both super hot. And stop calling Jack by his Discord name”
“Meryl, Jack’s like sixty, that’s gross. And I know like ten guys called Jack, Calling him Raiden helps me keep it straight which one we’re talking about”
“So why does coffee Jack get to be called Jack?”
“Because when I asked if he had a nickname, he told me to call him Big Boss and Eva looked kinda horny and it was creepy and weird.”
“Ewww. Fine. But I’m not calling Jack Raiden, it’s too weird. You know he and Rose just got engaged? Rose won’t shut up about it and now they’ve set the date. I swear if I hear the words April 30th one more time, I’m gonna introduce her to my desert eagle.”
“Shut up. Johnny’s looking at you. What the fuck is that smile?”
“Shut up, at least I can make eye contact. You’re so obviously avoiding looking at him, you may as well not be able to see and don’t jab me”
“Meryl, stop. You know I hate smudges. It’s not that simple.”
“Just ask him out”.
“He thought I was a kid Meryl. Not exactly sexy, is it? Fairly certain if he expresses interest now I should be concerned”
“Well maybe he didn’t look at your face? You are kind of wearing a shirt that I’ve personally only ever seen out students wear.”
The bell cut their talk short, and they drifted apart, Hal to the science block and Meryl went to the gym.
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Walking round the side of the building, Dave looked a the garage-like setup that he would be teaching in. It was a new programme apparently, one that his dad had informed him of when he told them he was looking for a job. The programme consisted of reintroducing classes for life skills, with multiple teachers to teach things like finance, home management and business skills. But Dave’s part was life skills – how to change a tyre, how to do simple DIY. He was also to be managing a mechanics workshop for seniors. Dave huffed, seeing that there was already a small group of students shivering at the doors of the garage, waiting for him.
“Go on in” He instructed, watching a few jump in surprise at his gruff tone. No sense in freezing outside while he waiting for everyone to turn up. Once everyone was present, he looked out at them and noticed they seemed apprehensive. Maybe he should smile. They looked even more nervous. He sighed. Maybe he should have made some kind of plan beyond the actual lesson itself.
“Right, so ground rules. I ain’t looking to be your drill sergeant, had enough of that in my time. I respect you, you respect me. You respect your classroom and your peers. Other than that, go wild. Wanna listen to music when doing your practicals? Fine, just use headphones and keep one ear free. If I ever raise my voice, listen. I don’t like to shout, so it will be a safety issue.” A few people sniggered and Dave thought he should speak plainer.
“You’re all sixteen and seventeen correct?” Nods around the room. “Good. Then you should know you’re almost adults and I’m gonna treat you like it. I don’t talk much, and shout less. If I am ever raising my voice, it’s because there is a hazard. This class is to prevent you being another generation of clueless idiots that were never taught basic life skills. There are hazards in this class. Like there are hazards in life.”
Dave stopped and looked at them gravely. So young, all of them. He was that young once, when he first started thinking about what to do with himself after graduation. Maybe if he gave them the right tools, they wouldn’t feel useless like he did, enlist to prove themselves like he did. Seeing them all staring back at him, he nodded, and moved on.