Max whimpered as he heard a sickly crunch behind his left ear, as his arm met his back. The pain hadn't come yet, but he knew it'd soon follow; his short breathy gasps were getting faster as he began to panic. Wriggling around, Max tried to get his mouth close enough to the large hand holding his arm back, close enough to bite….
"Stop moving you piece of shit!" hissed a deep voice. Max flinched and a heavy hand came down onto his back, knocking the air out of him as he fell to the floor, tears spilling over, tracks forming on his face.
He lay face-down in silence as a scuffle (presumably the man's shoes) sounded behind him, every inch of his body cringing, his eyes clamped shut. Max prayed for a miracle as He dropped to his knees beside him; he tensed, his eyes still refusing to open.
One hour earlier
"Hello... My name is Mr Chandler and I'm going to be your supply today" the man with the loud voice announced upon entering the room, in absence of Miss Freeman. "I used to be an army major, so be careful not to cross me" he continued, baring his teeth in a smile, to show he was joking.
Lofty felt a tense sensation in his throat, but chose to ignore it, crossing his legs under the table and rocking his feet a little, to distract himself. He knew what the feeling was, it was something called "anks-uty" that he got after being rescued from Julia, but he also knew that nothing bad was going to happen. Dylan had promised him that, and Dylan never broke a promise. Lofty focused back on the man now handing out their English books and got up to help hand out the pencils like he always did.
"Excuse me young man, sit back down!" Mr Chandler said sternly, frowning at Lofty and approaching him. His face had gone a bit red and he looked quite angry, so Lofty turned around and sat back down.
"'m sorry" he whispered, looking down.
"Good." Was the reply that followed, making Lofty feel even more ashamed and Robyn reached out to take his hand.
"'scuse me sir" Max said, waving his arm to get Mr Chandler's attention.
"Yes?" he sighed sarcastically, faking a smile in Max's direction.
"I-it's" Max was a little put off by the look on their new teacher's face, but forced himself to continue, "It's Lofty's job to hand out the pencils" he explained hurriedly, trying to control the shake in his voice.
Mr Chandler sighed. "Well today, 'Lofty' is going to have to sit in his seat." He said in a high pitched voice before turning back to the whiteboard, pen poised to write the next sentence.
Max side-hugged Lofty to say "sorry" and felt him shake slightly under his touch. He gripped his pen and carefully spelled out 4 words, his tongue sticking out in fierce concentration as the nib of his pencil pressed deep into the last page of his exercise book. He pushed it slightly to face a nervous-looking Lofty.
Lofty bent his head slightly, careful not to draw attention to himself and read Max's sentence slowly. "do you need dylam?" .
As Lofty read the last word a heavy hand slammed down on the desk in front of him and his head shot up in surprise. Two steely grey eyes pierced into Max's innocent green ones, and then flicked to the side to catch Lofty staring aswell. "You two…" Mr Chandler sneered "Were passing notes?". The threat laced through his voice made Lofty squeeze his eyes shut with worry.
The teacher snatched Max's book off the desk, making Lofty flinch and read the note out nastily. All of the children looked at him in a mixture of hate and shock, while Lofty's lip quivered as he fought back tears.
He could feel the "anks-uty" getting worse and he wanted to be with Dylan. Dylan had promised it would be okay, but he wasn't so sure now. He wanted to get out and get Dylan.
Just as Mr Chandler slapped the exercise book back against the table, the bell rang for break time. The class sat in tense silence, unsure of how Mr Chandler had come to be so angry when they hadn't really done much wrong.
"Right" he announced, addressing the class with deep breath and a slightly annoyed look. "You can all go… except for you" he said nastily pointing a harsh finger at Max, forcing a smile from playing across his lips.
"Go!" he shouted, when no one moved. Everyone all but ran out of the room, leaving Max with a very angry Mr Chandler.
Mr Chandler turned to hold the door open to the children hurrying out of the room and Max noticed a small piece of rolled up paper left on Lofty's seat. His little hand shot out and he unfolded it, grateful for his reading ability as his eyes shot across the words scattered across the strip.
"I am getin dylan and I luv you"
Relief washed over Max's tense frame and Mr Chandler whipped around to face him, closing the door menacingly.
20 minutes earlier
Lofty ran through the hall, trying not to think about how he wasn't supposed to run inside, or even be inside, during break time. When he reached the staff room, he doubled over, gasping for breath before knocking the door loudly.
"Lofty are you okay" asked Dylan's voice from behind him as he approached the staffroom.
"Dy'an help!" Lofty cried as Dylan scooped him up in his arms, "Meanie Mr Chand-er got Max"
"What do you mean?" Dylan asked, "Miss Honey's meant to be your supply teacher today" he looked down at the small boy gripping his shirt, confused as to who Mr Chandler was. "Is this a game the Gang's playing?" he asked, hoping they were just asking him to join in. Immediate regret flowed through him when he saw the betrayed look on Lofty's face.
"Daddy, no, Mr Chand-er shouted at me for tryin' to help and shouted at Max for askin' if I was okay when my anx-uty got bad and now he has Max out of break for not lookin' at him." Lofty said desperately, tugging Dylan's shirt tighter.
Max immediately screwed the slip of paper up and shoved it in his mouth, chewing fiercely.
"Oh is that how you're going to play it?" the teacher said, grabbing hold of the small boy's jaw in between his fingertips. Max froze in fear. Teachers weren't allowed to hurt children. Did this count as hurting? Because his jaw hurt as Mr Chandler held it.
The small whimper he let out seemed to trigger something inside of the man who stood before him.
"Well" he hissed threateningly, his face going red once more, "now that you've put paper in your mouth, I think you ought to swallow it, don't you agree? Waste not, want not" he continued, his face almost touching that of the young boy sat in front of him.
Max shook his head desperately, watching the classroom door in the hope Lofty would return with Dylan "I-I can't" he said around the paper, his eyes pleading with the brutally icy ones combatting his.
"You can and you will" Mr Chandler said, reaching for the small boy's neck, causing Max to swallow the paper in panic, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
"Now perhaps you'd like to tell me what that said?" the man sneered, smirking at Max's fearful expression.
"'T was empty" Max lied, desperate to protect his boyfriend and to get help. He was almost certain that even men in the army weren't treated like this: what if this teacher was lying? Teachers weren't supposed to scare children.
"Don't fucking lie to me, I hate lies!" Mr Chandler screamed, grabbing Max by the front of his collar and pulling him out from where he sat at the table. "Now say you're sorry and tell me the truth!" he continued, holding the small boy's collar tightly.
2 minutes earlier
Outside the staff room, Dylan looked down at his adopted son, seeing the same fear as he had the day he'd come to adopt Ben; it was flooding through the small boy as he shook, trying to hold back his tears. A thumping noise sounded from upstairs, flaring a sense of alarm through him.
"Well it seems very harsh to keep him in for that, shall we go up and have a look to see if Max is okay?" Dylan suggested, receiving a fierce nod from Lofty.
Max had refused to tell him what the note had said and now he lay on the floor, bracing himself for whatever was going to come next. "Mr Chandler" couldn't really be a teacher could he? Max prayed for a miracle as He dropped to his knees beside him; he tensed, his eyes still refusing to open.
Dylan threw the door to the classroom open as soon as he saw the man pin Max's arm behind his back, before holding Lofty back in order to tackle the man, unfortunately not before he'd sent the small boy tumbling to the floor with a sharp smack to his back.
Lofty had run away to get Miss Dixon, too scared to watch what was happening to Max. Upon reaching her, he hurriedly told her what he'd seen in the classroom, before his emotions took over and he burst into tears, clinging onto her. She scooped him up into her arms; "it's okay possum, let's go and help your daddy yes?" she whispered soothingly, rubbing the small boy's back, saddened by the way he flinched at her touch, yet also enraged by what she had heard of this "teacher's" behaviour.
"'kay" Lofty sniffed "do we need t' call the p'lice?" he asked earnestly.
"Yes I think we'd better do that now" Miss Dixon replied, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she began to speed-walk down the corridor, leaving Mr Hide and Miss Beauchamp on duty on the playground.
As soon as Dylan had thrown the larger man to the floor he realised who it was who lay writhing on the floor beneath him.
"Brian you pathetic excuse of a man!" he screamed, adrenaline fuelling him as he pinned him to the ground, spitting his words with fury, before turning to where Max lay. He appeared to have fainted and as desperate as Dylan was to check him over, his instincts told him to continue to hold the older man down, so as to prevent any further harm from coming to the child, or God forbid any of the other children.
"Dylan, police are on their way" Dixie's frantic voice called into the classroom and Dylan twisted around to see where she stood in the doorway, Lofty in her arms. She placed him onto his feet and he ran over to where Max lay, grabbing his hand.
Brian roared, shifting Dylan's weight off him and jumping up, running towards the doorway and making Lofty whimper and cover his head from where he crouched beside his boyfriend. Just as Brian approached the doorway, Dixie stuck her fist out and clipped the side of his head, sending him falling into the doorframe.
Two hours later
Both boys sat beside one another on the sofa in Dylan's boat watching Tom and Jerry and sipping hot chocolate from mugs, one red and one blue. Dylan and Max's grandma sat in the kitchen talking and Lofty hadn't yet left Max's side since the incident in the classroom. It had left each of very tearful and unfocused, so Miss Beauchamp had suggested they go home early, but with one dilemma: Lofty's refusal to leave Max.
In the end, Dylan and Max's grandma had decided the boys would be best off together for the evening until they'd both settled down and then Max would go home; they were glad it was the weekend, so they wouldn't have to face school until Monday.
Lofty put his arm around Max, hugging him, but being careful of the bruise that had formed on his back. Max reached for the remote and paused it momentarily, turning to Lofty.
"Lofty?"
"Yeah?"
"C-can I ask you a question?" Max seemed nervous and Lofty listened intently, nodding to indicate that he could. "It's just, I was wonderin', is that what it was like with your mum?" Max blurted out the last few words and a silence hung in the air for a few seconds as Lofty formed his next few words in his head.
"Y-yeah, it was a bit" he said nodding, not going into detail. Max lunged forwards and grabbed Lofty in a hug.
"I love you" he declared, nuzzling his face into Lofty's hair as Lofty squealed with happiness.
"I love you too!" he answered as they hugged fiercely.
Dylan smiled in the room next door, shaking his head lightly at the two boys as he watched them hugging through a gap in the door. It was like they were made for one another.