'Kenneth Tucker' is based off my shop teacher, whose real name is literally the best thing ever. I don't know what you guys are expecting as you read (or skip over) this author's note, but get ready...
If there was one thing Kenneth Tucker hated about his job, it had to be those boys. Normally he'd have taken off running to stop an injury from happening, but he seriously considered waiting this one out.
Letting his common sense steer him – and the fact that he could very well lose his job – he yelled for the short boy to stop using the machine he was. When he didn't, Tucker groaned and smacked the red button on the wall. It brought all machines in the room to a halt at once, and sure enough, just like clockwork, some females screamed out of shock and the males started complaining.
Diego Rueda looked around, confused, goggles pressed tightly to his face. It was kind of hard to squint, he realized. When he caught Tucker's eye as he headed for him, Diego knew this wouldn't be good.
"Rueda…" Tucker said lowly, his large frame coming to stand in front of the student. "Do you even know what you did wrong this time?"
Diego tilted his head, letting out a high-pitched noise that resembled the answer "no". Usually he'd try to figure it out, but something about this man set him on edge.
"You didn't have the guard DOWN, Rueda." Tucker rubbed his forehead, agitated. "Do you–you know what." He turned to the bandsaw and gripped the knob, twisting it to unlock the guard. When it did, he all but slammed the guard down, nearly crushing Diego's CO2 car. He then locked the guard again and picked up the car, looking at Diego as he shook it in his fist. "Weren't you supposed to finish up using the bandsaw, sand, and then start hooking on the eyepiece yesterday?"
From his tone, Diego knew he should've. In fact, Tucker had to ordered him to do so the day before. Awkwardly, he rubbed the toe of his shoe into the growing pile of sawdust on the floor, muttering, "I'm a little lost on this project…"
He looked up when someone snorted. Quickly sorting out Andi "Man D" Cruz, he found himself wondering how they became friends to begin with if she ripped on him this much now. "Yeah, you're also a little lost in the downstairs department, but I wasn't pointing out the obvious."
Their classmates suppressed their grins and chortles while Diego fought the serious urge to throw a fireball at his old childhood playmate. Tucker didn't know it, but if he'd been allowed to take his CO2 car out of the shop he'd mostly likely have burned it in several places by now. What was the point of being a Kanay, Son of Fire, if he couldn't use it to help him out with a hard extracurricular?
As he tried to think of a comeback that wouldn't end in Tucker making fun of him too, his reason for joining the class was reinforced. Jax Novoa stepped toward Andi and used her shoulder as an armrest. "Andi," he started, looking down at her already murderous glare, "if we wanted to get obvious we'd bring up the fact you weren't allowed to ride the big kid rides at the fair last summer."
His grin boosted Diego's spirit. He sure had picked a good mancrush. His mind drifted to his girlfriend Maddie, and knew that if she was here – which she'd never be, of course – then she'd have gotten into a snarky argument with Andi herself. He picked a good girlfriend, too.
Before Andi could offer a rebuttal, Tucker joined in, completely ignoring the interruption. "You're behind. As much as I don't want to, I'll sign you a pass to come in tomorrow before we race them. You gotta finish this up, because right now…" He sized up the piece of junk in his hand and offered a kind regard. "It's crap."
No one knew where Daniel "Dawniel" "Dankle" "Danny" "Danny Boy" "Dickwad" and the occasional "Big Dan" Miller came from, but suddenly he was beside Tucker, proudly displaying his car. While he generally suffered in all of his classes, he did pretty well in shop. "What about mine?" he asked, attempting to be suave with his smirk but really only succeeding in making Tucker glad he'd been the one to call the cops last week.
He merely glanced at the car before barking, "Can it, Miler, I'm not up for your comments."
Daniel's face fell, while most people were trying to wrap their heads around the fact that yet ANOTHER teacher had used the nickname they'd created for his last name. They weren't sure who'd actually made it, but there was a long, extensive list of Daniel's nicknames, almost all being insulting. His middle name, Horatio, was often referred to as "Horation", or stylized as "Whoratio". All seemed pretty fitting for the lanky, awkward boy.
"Will that give me enough time to catch up?" Diego piped up, some hope laced into his words. He didn't particularly enjoy this class, but he didn't want to get a bad grade either. If he failed the car, he'd be certain to fail the entire course.
Tucker just stared at him for a second before allowing some laughs to escape. While most of the time he found himself wanting to go back to the average middle school in western Pennsylvania where kids were called Courtney when their name was Cody, this part of working at Iridium High School never failed to amuse him. He shook his head thoughtfully. "Rueda, you're good for a laugh." He patted the boy on his shoulder and headed away from the group of students. Without even looking at the clock, he announced, "Clean up!" and went back to his swivel chair near the door.
Tomorrow they started racing their CO2 cars. They were supposed to be smooth, air resistant, painted, and engraved – most of which Diego's was not. Daniel's was, but Tucker wasn't thinking about that creep. While he was sure to have his hands full when Rueda came in during study hall, he really was looking forward to the racing. He strummed his fingers against his desk as he recalled Cruz's car; if she…he…she went by Man D half the time, so he really didn't know…didn't win, he'd be disappointed and probably try to cheat. Anything so Dawn-Dawn didn't win.
The bell rang and kids started shuffling down the stairs. It took Tucker a few seconds to notice Daniel standing by his desk (either that or he purposely looked away to avoid vision impairment), but when he did he let out one of the most disgruntled noises Daniel had heard since the cops had to detain him for the fifteenth time.
"Uh, Mr. Tucker. I wanted to let you know I'm storing some stuff in the back room with my car," he informed his teacher, desperately praying to Buddha, his mother, that he wouldn't ask why. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't throw it out or something."
Tucker pointed at the storage closet. "That one?"
Daniel shook his head, scratching some unidentifiable area that Tucker would rather not think about. "No, with the bridges."
Tucker raised an eyebrow. "We keep the cars in the cabinets underneath the back sander."
Daniel sniffed. "Yeah, I know." With that, he closed the unfinished conversation by throwing himself down the stairs. Not literally, but Tucker would have been fine with that.
Tucker didn't get a chance to check out the back room until his eighth period had ended and the students had left. His curiosity had grown throughout the day, but when one ninth-grader had mentioned there were some questionable items in the other room, it had reached its peak. He knew that, with it being a student's items, he wasn't allowed to creep like Daniel himself did. But if other students were getting worried, he figured it'd be alright. And if it wasn't, well…he doubted Francisco would reprimand him.
Shuffling to the back room, he tried to clear his mind of the normal things he might find left behind by a regular student. Dawniel Miler was no regular student. Turning the doorknob, he scanned the shelves of ninth grade bridge projects, trying to find anything out of the ordinary. When he didn't, he stepped further into the room, ending up standing beside the window. Sure enough, what Daniel had left behind was very questionable.
It was mom jeans.
And not just one pair, as if that would make it any better. It looked as if Daniel had raided his mother's closet and dumped all of her jeans into this space. Tucker wasn't sure how Daniel could have possibly gotten these past him, but he wasn't always paying attention to his least favorite student so it didn't come as a huge shock he hadn't noticed.
Tucker brushed Daniel's car to the side and patted the pile of denim. Something was underneath it. He picked up one pair of jeans, then two, then three. At the very bottom…was a brownie mix box.
Dropping the jeans onto the floor, Tucker brought a hand to his mouth. He'd heard of a few rumors that had been spread about Daniel, but this one was relatively new. He wasn't sure who, but some student had mentioned that Daniel baked his mother's jeans into brownies so she'd have to wear skirts.
Tucker wasn't easily surprised, or disturbed, or concerned, but somehow Daniel easily made him all three collectively. Without a second thought, Tucker gripped the CO2 car in his palm and threw open the window, hurling it out. Next, he tossed the brownie mix box out, too. He was about to do the same with pants when he thought better of it. He'd have his wife give them back later that day. Right now, he picked the jeans back up and left the back room, worry etched into his features.
It was no secret that Daniel's father Rick Marcello (previously Miller) had left. Honestly, even if he didn't like the kid, he felt sympathetic to the boy. But now he knew it was for the best that Rob (previously known as Robbie), the second eldest Miller son, had taken on the father role in their house. He'd be able to handle this. Rick had his fair share of creepiness already.
The next day was met with a buzz of excitement in the air.
Most of the juniors were anticipating racing their CO2 cars, and while Diego's was nowhere near his design, it had been finished. 'Rush Hour', Tucker had dubbed Diego's manic state earlier that day. The boy really had run around the shop, probably endangering him and countless others as he frantically tried to complete his car. He had done it, though, so Tucker would give him that.
As each student climbed up the stairs to the shop room, Tucker hollered at them to grab their cars. They'd soon be heading to one of the abandoned hallways to test them.
Jax had sauntered in five minutes after the bell, and Tucker wanted to chew him out on that, but the smug look on the Australian's face along with the lip gloss marks all over his face made Tucker hold it back. It was no secret that Emma Alonso, Principal Francisco's daughter, and Jax were involved, and Tucker would be lying if their PDA didn't make him slightly uncomfortable on most days.
Man D was first down the stairs. Then went Sebastian the Camera Guy, Gigantor Joshua, ending with Rueda. Jax followed soon, and, not surprisingly, Daniel was last. He looked absolutely horrid, and Tucker didn't doubt he didn't use deodorant that day.
"Uh, Mr. Tucker?" he started, running a hand through his froppy hair nervously.
Tucker spun in his chair, savoring the petrified tone in his voice. His wife had talked to Christine Miller the night before when she'd returned her jeans, and that poor woman was about a whisker away from a nervous breakdown. Daniel deserved to feel scared out of his mind. "Yeah, Miler?"
Daniel cleared his throat, blinking furiously. "Did you, uh, did you move my supplies that I told you about yesterday?"
Tucker grinned, standing up and starting for the stairs. He waited until he was right on the edge before answering, "Of course I did," then tramping down to the hallway.
He reached the landing and rounded the corner, seeing that Man D had gotten the races set up for him. Tucker clapped loudly, gaining the students' attention. "Alright. Two people will go at a time, and I don't want any fighting about who–"
"AHHHH!" Tucker hadn't even finished his second sentence before Daniel tumbled down the stairs, pants bunching and hair crumpled.
Half of the class burst into laughter and tears while the other half literally ran for the lives, away from the race setup. Tucker put his hands on his hips and waited for Daniel to stand up. "Miler, go get your car," he demanded, knowing very well he'd find it nowhere.
Daniel shook his hair, appearing one second away from bursting into tears himself. "But it's not there! And neither are my supplies!" He stomped his foot, but his fall from the shop room had shook him up, so he nearly fell down again.
Tucker lifted one shoulder. "Too bad. Guess you fail." He turned back to the remaining students, not bothering to go after them yet. He didn't blame them for getting as far away from Daniel as they could, and he wouldn't be surprised if Francisco had helped them escape the school by now. "Man D, Novoa! Line up!"
Man D and Jax walked to the opposite end of the hallway and set their cars down, CO2 cartridges filled, ready to start the race.
Daniel stepped closer to Tucker, prompting him to take a huge step back into a row of lockers. "But where'd my car go?!" he cried (not actually cried, but he seemed even closer to that point now). "And what about my other stuff?!"
In that moment, Tucker honestly couldn't tell if Daniel's eyes were red because of a mixture of unshed tears and sawdust, or if he was high. Both were very plausible reasons. "Novoa! Man D! You ready?" he called out, waiting for their reactions.
Daniel's hair moved. "Mr. Tucker!"
Tucker whipped his head around to look at the thing and spat, "I'll buy your mother jeans MYSELF if she isn't safe from the likes of you."
Daniel's jaw dropped – whether it be out of shock or utter despair – but right at that moment, both CO2 cars flew off the floor and hit him in the face. Man D and Jax had started the race as soon as Tucker had asked if they were ready. Daniel yelled out, clutching his more messed up face. As if a big wind had suddenly arrived, he did a flip and painfully slid down the cement ramp leading to the gymnasium.
Tucker looked toward Jax and Man D. Strange things happened in IHS a lot, this undoubtedly being one of those events. Instead of questioning it, he yelled out, "One hundred percent!" to the two men, ushering Diego up to the line. Boy, did Kenneth Tucker love racing days.
lovethatignites and I came up with a whole plotline a LONG time ago about my (and her old) shop teacher with the boys of EWW before, but it's been so long I could only remember bits and pieces. Needless to say, I'm sure whatever we had in mind before was just as creepy as this.
Review if you didn't die!