"If you hate your parents, the man, or the establishment, don't show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really hate your parents, out earn them, out live them and know more than they do." -Henry Rollins

Seth nearly tripped on his own two feet trying to run down the long narrow halls passing an array of big colorful posters and trophy cases exhibited proudly on the white walls. The whole scenery seemed extremely welcoming and that helped him run a little bit faster. He was late as was not the usual, ever. He was always on time but that morning had turned out a lot worse than he had expected it to. The shoes his parents had ordered for him online had failed to arrive on time, so he'd ended up getting the old ones out of the garbage can outside his home because he only had that pair left. Summer shopping had been delayed due to dad's work, so his closet was a lot more empty than he'd been accustomed to. His parents usually giving away their clothes each season was a way to "help out in the community" as they usually put it. Community helping this year, however, would have to wait.

"We must get you new clothes Seth." His mother had yelled out from the kitchen as she cooked supper, "I promise you we will go as soon as your father is unoccupied."

His mother.

Ever the nice, composed lady. Her wardrobe screamed no fools allowed, her talk was something out of a 20's politician movie, if there even was such a thing Rollins did not really know. Ever the gentle lady, someone a man like his father would easily fall hard in love with, having a job as prestigious as him, recently named the Chief Operating Officer of McMahon Enterprises. Such a position made him a really influential man in the town of Santa Fe, the place they'd chosen to live in right after their precious son was born in Davenport, Iowa. Their one and only son. He was madly in love with his "Little Flor" as he called her. Seth didn't know why he decided on that alias as her actual name was Stephanie, not really having anything to do with Flor at all.

"Ok mother. It's alright. Gives me more time to get my Summer homework done." He yelled from the gigantic, decorated living room, in their equally gigantic home, as he finished his work.

His mother sighed, while on the phone with Hunter, Seth's father who spoke, "Isn't our son amazing my dear?"

"Oh that he is my dear. That he is." She smiled to herself and continued stirring the pot with Hunter's favorite meal, chicken stew.

Seth finally arrived to his destination, a classroom, at Nation High School. It was first day of junior year. A junior. He was going to be a fricken junior and he couldn't be more excited about that. All those years in school would finally pay off once he graduated the next year. Now his life would really kick off as he would get to go to Carnegie AU, the most prestigious university with the best education in all of the States.

His big smile could not be contained as he entered the classroom and everyone of course looked away from the woman at the podium to grant him all their attention, some eyes curious, others that couldn't care less. Seth got a bit nervous under so many stares but did his best to ignore them. World History. First day of school was officially in session and that made Seth's smile grow even more. He loved school it was his favorite part of the day. All his life had revolved around getting a good education, his parents helping in the process.

"Mr. Rollins." Ms. Maverick called for him, interrupting his thoughts once again with a huge smile on her face at the mention of the young boy's name. Seth usually got along really well with almost all his teachers, hell, he got along with everyone who was staff. They absolutely loved him, and Ms. Maverick, his 50 year old history teacher was no different. Apparently being a too-good-it's-almost-illegal kind of guy would do well. Not like Seth ever had any trouble behaving well. He was a complete bundle of likeness to older people, specially teachers. He got along quite good with them to the point where he would get to skip final exams due more in part to his behavior rather than how smart he was, not that he wasn't smart, but being well-liked was a bonus. He took pride in that which caused him to make a promise to himself that every one of his teachers would also love him this year, even more if possible.

Ms. Maverick stood down from her tall brown podium to grab a few sheets of paper from her desk. The classroom was extremely homely-looking, with even a pot of coffee and an assortment of cookies on top of the bookshelf in the back of the room. He noticed most students with a foam cup and a plate on top of their desks filled with the yummy snacks and hot drink. He also noticed there was not really anyone he knew in that class with him causing some unease for the boy, but of course decided to extend the courtesy of a smile and handshake to his teacher, who had her small hand extended towards him, "I am really happy to also have you this year Mister." She motioned for the table in the back with an even bigger smile and said, "There's all kinds of pastries, coffee and hot chocolate in the back so please," she handed him a packet of papers stapled together, "make yourself at home Seth." She winked at him and let him go so he could get settled.

Oh yes, this year was going to be good.

The day went by pretty quickly and now was time for lunch. The cafeteria was pretty packed that day with all sorts of new and old faces Seth would instantly recognize. People pushed each other playfully and high-fived one another in hopes of, once again, a good school year. Despite it being pretty full, the place was still organized and that pleased the young teen well, who despised when things got too wild. The school system was quick to handle any indiscretion so everyone made sure to always be their very best as nearly no nonsense went unnoticed. There were school guards by each door on that big room as the youngsters were served healthy assortments, from veggie-filled sandwiches and fruit to high-in-fiber chips and salads. Yes the school was a jungle filled with not only well-behaved, but healthy individuals too.

Seth sat in one of the many tables on the edge of the cafeteria with a tray of food in front of him. A very scenic view of the town from one of the big windows right where he could see. The tables in the middle were usually reserved to all the jocks, cheerleaders, activity people and just popular, well-liked kids in general. The rest sat around them. Seth had no idea where that trend had started or why but he went along with it, just like everyone else did.

"Seth! Hey Seth!" A voice called him from a close distance and Rollins had to look around to see who it was, although he already had a pretty good idea, "Over here buddy!"

He looked over to his right and there was Sami Zayn waving at him like a madman. Next to him was their other good friend, Adrian Neville, smiling and waving as well, though not as loosely or cheery as the other boy.

"Hey, hey guys!" He couldn't help but wave back, one thing he couldn't do however was be too loud. He already knew Sami was pretty loud, but not him, he had to keep his cool, avoid being stared at too much by judging eyes.

Sami went over to him getting him up by his elbows and greeting with a gigantic, tight hug. Sami Zayn. The nicest kid you would probably ever meet, not only in school but in your lifetime. He was always so gentle and caring for others. Seth was glad to have him as a friend even if he could sometimes be a little out there and loud. This occasion, however, called for that type of behavior as they hadn't seen each other since school had ended, Sami having gone on vacation to some exotic place being the reason.

"I am glad to see you Seth how's it going?" The smile never leaving him, after the particularly long hug he set his tray of food on their table and sat down next to Rollins.

"Great Sami, how about you?" He proceeded to extend the same hug to Neville, a lot quicker this time, the English boy not being as affectionate as their buddy. He'd also just seen Seth the week before.

Sami nodded and chuckled, his face a deep shade of red as if a pissed off someone had punched him hard in the face or was just overwhelmed around this amount of people. Though, if someone had no problem handling individuals, it would be the redhead. Probably just fresh out of gym class, Seth thought.

"Junior year huh boys?" Neville also sat down next to Sami, brown paper bag in hand.

"Yes." Rollins with a huge smile on his face couldn't help but get excited about even the mere mention of their grade. He loved hearing about being a little bit closer to graduation, to starting life as an engineer or surgeon or... anything he wanted to be. Literally. He was ready for it.

"In that you are right my dear friend." Sami now unwrapping his sandwich said, "Hopefully this year doesn't kick our behinds too hard."

"Oh of course not!" Seth immediately added stretching his arms behind his chair, "This year will be the best one yet."

"You said the same thing last year stud." They all turned to look at Hideo Itami standing in front of them. He wrapped his arms around Rollins from behind and started applying a not-too-hard wrestling hold. Seth struggled under his weight playfully as Sami laughed maniacally and Neville pretended to be an announcer of sorts.

"And now he applies on the hold. OH WHAT A HOLD! SOMEBODY STOP HIM!" The English boy yelled out, waving his burrito in the air.

They continued that way for a couple more seconds until Hideo finally let him go, the laugh never leaving them even after he sat down next to Rollins. Sami started choking on his sandwich.

"SOMEBODY HELP THIS DYING MAN!" Neville once again decided to blurt out, "BY GOD HE IS DYING!"

The staff and students all stared at them, some with incredulous looks on their faces, others laughing their butts off at the little show the boys had given them. One of the door guards started making their way over to them.

"Is he alright?" The tall jacked up dude asked referring to Sami.

"Oh yes he is absolutely fine just playing around that's all." Rollins had to say. He didn't want to get in trouble because of Sami nearly dying.

Neville started patting Sami on the back as the older teen nearly coughed up blood, "Yea mister. I sense he probably chocked on a piece of celery or something."

"This fool!" Hideo continued in a thick Japanese accent, "We always tell him not to eat if he's going to bust out laughing every 5 seconds, which is always. Like usual he does not listen." He shook his head with pretend disgust but his expression turned serious when looking at the guard who was now walking away, "Our apologies officer."

"You kids be careful now." He motioned to all 4 boys and left back to his place. Everyone else went back to their business.

"You alright now?" Neville asked Zayn, who was rubbing his throat but still chuckled a little bit, his face even redder than before, if that was even possible. Adrian smacked him in the back of the head slightly, "You fool!"

"Hey." Sami made a hurt expression and looked around their table, puzzled.

"You nearly got us sent to the office or worse yet, to the hospital with your corpse on the stretcher." Seth spoke as the 2 other teens laughed out loud at this remark.

"It was just so funny."

"Look, we know we are awesome and funny and amazing. You almost dying is not cool however." Hideo motioned to Sami who simply shook his head muttering a "whatever" under his breath, faint smile still present on his lips though, "But anyway," Itami continued attempting to change the now overdone subject, "how's classes going so far eh studs?"

Seth nodded taking a sip of his orange juice, "Pretty good. I would say it's even better than last year."

"Same here." Adrian took another bite of his burrito speaking with his mouth full. He pointed to Rollins although his mind was obviously on his food, "I am with Seth on this."

"Yea well, see if you guys say the same thing after you meet the new professor."

That sparked a level of curiosity to Seth who put both his elbows on the table, intrigued.

"New teacher?" Adrian scoffed, surprised as well.

"And who might that be?" Seth asked.

Sami was the one to answer this time, "Apparently, this guy moved here from some place in Europe or something."

"Europe?" Adrian chuckled, completely ignoring the fact that he was also from Europe himself, "What would someone from Europe be doing here?"

"Same thing you are." Itami butted in and directed his gaze to Sami who was now finishing up his sandwich, which had previously attempted to murder him, "And no he is not from Europe you doof. He's from the States. Don't know much about him other than his name is Roman Reigns. That's all I know so far."

"What a weird name." Sami giggled.

"Yea." Neville followed up.

Rollins just stared at Itami in confusion, trying to see if the Japanese teen had more on this new teacher. Seth had to know who he was or if he would be having him later on in his remaining periods. He'd memorized the school schedule the days before but his 8th period class had not had a teacher written on it yet, unfortunately. Could it be that maybe this Roman guy would be his teacher? Possibly. He didn't have a single problem with that at all, however. He would win him over easy, just like he had all his previous new teachers so that didn't worry him much.

Still he had to ask, "And this Roman guy, have you had him already?"

"3rd period, yes."

"How was he?" Sami asked.

"Pretty cool stud. He's really young probably in his 20's or something. Nice guy. All the girls were creaming their panties over him. Good looking dude." Itami mocked as he opened his backpack.

"Hopefully he doesn't end up being a dick." Sami once again spoke, "Because I am not handling that. No matter how good he looks."

"Ha!" Adrian butted in, still extremely focused on his half-finished burrito.

Seth turned to look at the Canadian, "You have him?"

"For 7th. Mr. Roman Reigns. College-Level Algebra."

"Holy crap. COLLEGE-LEVEL ALGEBRA?" Neville blew out, once again scoring the group a few more looks from the surrounding students.

"Sure you can handle that?" After careful examination, Itami crumpled up a paper and attempted to throw it into the trash only to miss, "Dammit." He stood up, backpack in hand, making his way to the trash can.

"I don't know." He raised his eyebrows, "Which is why I want him to be nice." The redhead sighed, "This is why I hate new teachers."

Seth stood up and grabbed his now nearly empty tray, "Well I love them."

"Where are you going?" Asked Neville.

"The bell's about to ring." And just when he said that the bell rang.

"Jesus, Seth." Sami looked around as people began getting up dumping their trays in the garbage near Hideo who was still standing chuckling at Rollins' prediction, "Are you like a psychic or something?"

"Nah." He laughed, pretty loudly for his taste, "But try reading the schedule nearly 100 times then come back to me."

"You memorized that damn thing?" Hideo blew out a whistle, "I couldn't even bare look at it this morning without wanting to puke. Doesn't surprise me though. You are quite the weirdo stud." He pointed at him.

Seth rolled his eyes, "Whatever."

All 4 boys chuckled, grabbing their backpacks and heading to their respective 6th periods, Itami giving Seth a pat on the back.

The rest of the day went on like a blur. More papers, more student introductions, more faces. More faces he didn't like, more teachers to please and more teachers he had already pleased the years before. Same old, same old.

Rollins headed to his 8th period which he was sure would be an interesting scenario. All his teachers this year had been people he'd seen or had before in a class. Now if what the boys and his schedule had told him was true then having the new teacher Roman Reigns would surely be a challenge and Seth loved challenges like that. He was sure, however, he would have him won by next week.

"Greet your new student Seth Rollins, Mr. Reigns." Seth spoke quietly to himself as he was the last one to leave 7th period, "Your NEW favorite student."

He made his way to the classroom, room 10. Unlike his 1st period that morning, he wasn't late so he would have the chance to start getting to know his teacher already. Testing him out. Seeing if he would like him.

He entered the room and the first thing he noticed was the lack of decoration. All his previous classes had been so welcoming, with various teachers even offering them food. Now this... this was different. The walls were pretty lonely and the front desk was pretty neglected as well. The room might as well not have been anyone's. Seth even had to check his schedule, see if he was even in the right place. He turned his back to the door staring down at the piece of paper in his hand.

Then he heard footsteps behind him. Entering the room.

"Welcome."

He quickly turned around and immediately all his thoughts went away. His mind going as blank and bland as that place.

And what a distraction that was.

The man starring back at him in front of the classroom was something... truly something to behold. He was tall, dark and extremely, almost illegally, handsome. Like some sort of beacon of light he stared down at him, gray eyes to brown. Seth couldn't help but blush deeply, as red as Sami had at lunchtime. All thoughts of Sami, however, were not even a thing in that moment as they both locked eyes. Teacher to student. Handsome god-like creature to weird, skinny, frail-looking being.

"Welcome to Calculus kid." The exquisitely good looking man smiled up at Seth leaving a plate of food on his teacher desk in the process, all while making the young teen nearly fall on his face.

"H- hi." Was the only full sentence he could form, completely stupefied at the man's handsome nature. His skin was a nice warm caramel color, his eyes as gray as the moon, his jet black hair neatly tied in a bun behind his head, which Seth could guess must be long and luscious. He had to admit he had seen some good looking people before, in school and out, but nothing, nothing quite like him. In that moment he could go as far as to say there was no one that looked quite like Roman Reigns.

"How are you liking school so far?" The man went to hang his jacket on the chair behind his desk. He was wearing a suit, an actual suit. A all-black number with a gray shirt underneath the jacket he was now taking off revealing the shirt sleeves tucked back and a full, intricate tattoo making an appearance. Black tie and black shoes to match. He looked... glorious almost.

Seth had to shake his head a little, shake away from how stupid he must look to Reigns, "I- um. I- I am liking it so far." The chuckle that came after that sounded like a boy being hit hard by the puberty bus, even though Seth had already gone through that 3 years prior when he was 13, "It's alright so far... I mean well you know first days, you usually can't tell so- yea." He smiled apologetically then went to go pick a seat giving his back to the professor. He didn't want to look stupid any longer.

"You're right about that." As Seth sat down he noticed Roman grabbing something from his portfolio, a packet of papers it seemed. He approached Seth, his stance something majestic, his walk a result of confidence. He exuded so much reassurance, but at the same time and for some odd reason something told Rollins that he was a really wise person, really wise for someone as young as him. He must've been in his 20's or something.

Roman placed the papers on Seth's desk not before extending his hand which the teen took, "Hope everything continues going well for you, uh..."

He gave Rollins a look and that was his queue to speak, even though he was completely taken aback, "Rollins- Seth. Uh, Seth... Rollins. Seth Rollins." He looked down and felt his face go warm, oh crap. He was probably a wild strawberry color by now. Great, he thought. All he could do was smile up at this good looking being.

To his relief, Roman only smiled back shaking his hand and with a wink said, "Nice to meet you Seth. Everything will be fine I reassure you, at least in my class it will."

Seth only nodded like a complete dummy. Reigns walked back to his desk as the room started to fill up. He tried to make sense of the way he was feeling at that moment, not like he came up with anything other than the aura Reigns gave. He was intimidating as hell but he wasn't at the same time, it was all so... intriguing to Rollins. He wanted to run and hide somewhere after his terrible showing but he couldn't stop starring at him. Wow, what was happening?

A few more minutes passed and as Roman finished writing something on the board: the usual stuff such as his full name, email address and the name of the class, along with other basic info teachers usually gave. The man waited until the bell rang, he then proceeded to close the door and address the bunch of young people in front of him, "Good afternoon students. My name is Roman Reigns, but of course you will address me as Mr. Reigns or Professor Reigns, whichever you prefer." He held his arms up in front of him and smiled, "I don't judge."

A few of the students chuckled, including Seth and many, many, high-pitched giggles. Hideo had been right, a lot of the girls in class were also in complete awe of Roman, Rollins was just glad he wasn't the only one. Seemed Mr. Reigns had that effect on people and why wouldn't he? He was glorious.

The professor continued talking about the class and what they could expect from him but also what he expected of them. He made eye contact with Seth a few times and smiled down at him but didn't really address him in front of the class until he was calling out attendance, "I apologize if the names are not in alphabetical order." He shook his head while smiling along with more high-pitched giggles, "They gave me the dumb version of the list, but I promise you by tomorrow I will make sure I get the smart one." More high-pitched giggles and batting eyelashes followed after that. "Uh let's see." He looked at the list, "Dean Ambrose." He looked around the class waiting for someone to claim the moniker. Seth looked around as well, not impressed at all.

Ambrose? Really?

He would be having Dean fricken Ambrose in the same class as him? Why this stuff always ended up happening to him he did not know. Him and Ambrose were not the best of buddies, hell, Seth didn't like the kid at all. He was a rebel, an anarchist, pure trouble and he went the complete opposite way of what Seth considered right, of what he knew was right. They just... they just weren't compatible, at all, and he made sure to stay as far away as possible from people like that. He didn't need that kind of attitude in his life. But of course he would now have to be stuck with the kid in a class once again. Whenever he didn't want someone or something in his life there had to be those rare occasions, those rare unfortunate instances, where he did have to associate with them, there just had to be those times. And now he had to see Ambrose everyday, if the kid even showed up. In the past, the classes he'd had with him, he had barely shown up constantly ditching and stuff doing god knows what. When he did decide to show up it was only to cause mayhem, pissing off teachers and students alike, including Seth. Yes they'd had their little encounters before, and not good ones.

The young teen only sighed at the mention of the name. Poor Roman didn't know what he was getting into, hopefully Dean would just decide school was not his thing after all and drop-out, forever, do the community a favor. Hopefully him not even showing up on the first day of school was a sign of that happening.

"Do we have a certain Mr. Dean Ambrose in class today?" Nobody raised their hand or made a sound, some people even rolled their eyes or scoffed at the name. Seemed not a lot of people associated with Ambrose either, "No? Ok. Well, then absent I suppose." He marked the absence on his sheet with a frown, still looking good of course, and continued, "Seth Rollins is here." The handsome teacher looked up and smiled at Seth before marking it down on his sheet. In that moment Seth could've swore all eyes of the world were on him. Everyone in that classroom stared and even though there were people behind him he could sense their eyes, burning eyes on him. He hated being stared at but smiled back either way, trying his best, and failing, to ignore everyone and their mothers looking. People were clearly shocked of the way the man had addressed him, as if they'd known each other for quite some time, which was unfortunately not the case. Roman, who seemed not bothered by it all spoke, the smile never leaving his pretty face, "Everyone please say hi to Seth, who I am sure will be an excellent student." A unison of "Hellos" and "His" followed after that making Seth feel even worse. Ok could he move on now?

Reigns continued on while looking intently at the teen, "So Seth do you mind if I ask you to tell the class and myself something about you."

"S- something?" There it was. That dumb stuttering rearing it's terrible face once again.

Roman spoke as if nothing was happening, to the envy of the teen, "Anything you want." He stretched his arms towards the class, "The floor is yours buddy."

"Um, well." He chuckled dryly, unsure of what to say, he'd been caught off guard for sure. Still, despite the awkward situation he was now faced with, something made him get up. What it was he had no idea, but he just stood up thinking of something to say, blurting out the first thing that came into his mind which didn't come out too bad at all, "I have amazing parents. I am really happy to be getting an education and happy to be here. I- I hope this... this will be good for us- for me. A good experience for me." He rubbed at his sides feeling so weird. It was strange having so many people look at him. Not like he'd never introduce himself to a class before, as matter of fact he'd done it in pretty much every class prior to this one without a problem. Now, however, for some reason he felt super awkward. Was it Reigns? Was it the way he was now looking up intently at him with the most focused look on his face? Examining him? Nearly sucking the oxygen out of the room with that deep gray-eyed stare? Maybe. Most likely yes.

Roman nodded and once again smiled, "Thank you Seth."

The teen sat down and nodded back. That had been... interesting to say the least. Awkwardly interesting.

Roman continued with attendance and the rest of the class had gone on without much more hesitation. Without so much as an interaction between them, Seth not deciding fully whether that was good or bad given his previous reaction to being talked to by the man. When the bell rang all Seth did was give Reigns a slight nod, the professor had gotten a phone call by that time, though he also nodded back with a big smile on his face, "Goodbye Seth. See you tomorrow." The young teen smiled back and walked out, strangely happy at the "see you tomorrow" part. If this day was any indication, that class was going to be interesting for sure.

His mother was already waiting outside the building, asking him a million and one questions about his day and his teachers and how it all had gone as soon as he'd opened the door of the car. Going on and on about every little detail with his parents that evening, Seth was exhausted from conversation by the time he went to bed, after excusing himself from dinner of course. He hadn't told them much about Roman other than the fact that he was really nice, they didn't need to know of the wild way his mind had gone on about the man's looks. No they did not need to know that. He plopped down on his bed after putting on comfortable pajamas. He stared at the ceiling for a few more minutes. Maybe it was because it'd been the first day of school and the exhaustion of it all, maybe he had grown unaccustomed to the drill, but for some reason he fell asleep instantly. So many nights before insomnia had shown up at the foot of his bed, waking him and leaving him that way until his alarm clock played loudly some rock metal toon. That night however, insomnia never showed up, not once. And for the first night in a long time full of consistent sleepless nights, Seth slept quietly and peacefully, as peaceful as ever. Dreaming of attendance sheets and gray eyes.