Nix's favorite part of his job as the office manager, apart from the fact that he can sometimes go out for a drink over lunch, is that he's literally right outside Dick's office. When Dick was still teaching, they'd have to meet between classes and during free periods if they wanted to see each other at all during work. Now, though, Dick just keeps his door open unless he's got someone in there - he likes to be approachable, but he's also very protective of students' privacy. And if sometimes Nix wishes Dick would take him into the office and close the door, well, that's probably just some kind of side effect of his days at a strict boarding school. But the point is, Nix gets to see Dick almost all day and that, that is the very best part of his job.
Today, though, the door's closed. Dike's in there, but the walls are pretty solid, so Nix can't hear what's being said. He can make a few educated guesses, though, because Nix is the one that's been taking parents' calls of complaint about Dike's shitty teaching. Dick's probably telling him off as forcefully as he can without making things worse. Everyone knows Dike's got friends on the school board, but Dick really cares about the students, so they're probably pretty evenly matched. Unless Nix is willing to listen with his ear pressed to the door, though, the specifics of the conversation are beyond his knowledge.
Nix is still listening intently at the crack of Dick's office door when Lipton comes in to get his mail a few minutes later.
"Hey Nix," he says, flipping through his letters and memos. "Who's in trouble now?"
Nix sighs and straightens up, making his way back over to his desk. He hasn't been able to make out much of the conversation, anyway. "Dike again," he says and collapses into his wheelie chair. "Third time this month, but it never does any good. We all know he's going to just keep doing what he's does best- standing in front of the class with a blank look on his face and assigning chapters to read instead of lecturing."
Lip nods sympathetically. "I've had a lot of complaints, too. Apparently the last few tests he gave were incredibly difficult. I've offered to help kids study, but apart from that, there's nothing I can do."
"Dick's getting a lot of pressure from parents about it, too, but his hands are tied. If Dike weren't so busy kissing the school board's collective asses, maybe he'd have more time for his lesson plans."
Lipton huffs a laugh. "That's pretty much the impression I've gotten, yes. Well, anyway, I've got lunch duty in ten, but I'll let you know if I hear anything especially incriminating from the kids."
He gives a bit of a wave as he goes out, leaving Nix to watch the clock and play a rousing game of solitaire. One of his student aides should be in soon, and then he and Dick have lunch plans.
When Dick's door finally opens, not ten minutes later, Dike ambles out fairly quickly. Presumably he's in a hurry to go stare at students blankly when asked a question, or maybe he's going to call his friends on the board and complain about the harassment he's being subjected to. Nix watches him go, then turns to see Dick leaning heavily against the door frame. They stare at each other for a moment, in the way they sometimes do that Nix is sure means something important. Then Dick gives him a weary smile.
"Lunch?" he asks, and Nix is definitely on board with that. He takes a minute to write a quick note to Grant about what needs photocopied while he's out and grabs his wallet.
"After you."
Lunch duty isn't the worst part of Carwood's day, but it's not exactly fun, either. It's a seniority thing, he knows. Carwood's only twenty-five, three years out of college and the youngest teacher in the faculty. That means he gets the jobs no one wants: detention, lunch duty, locker room patrol, you name it. He doesn't mind, really. It gives him the opportunity to bond with the kids, and that's something he wouldn't give up for anything. It does, however, mean that he has to deal with a lot of minor disputes.
Today, it's Guarnere and Liebgott. Carwood isn't sure what they're fighting about, because neither of them will say, but he managed to intervene before any punches were thrown. It's a plus, because it means he probably won't have to write a report and can let them off with a warning instead of detention. He likes these kids, really. They mostly trust him, which is great, but he also commands a certain amount of respect, enough that neither of them will look him in the eye right now.
"Last chance, guys," he says, not unkindly. He was a student himself, not so long ago and knows that being too rough won't get the kind of response he wants. "What happened out there?"
"Nothing, Mr. Lipton," Joe says.
"We were just messing around," Bill adds.
They call him "Mr. Lipton" when they're in trouble, not "Lip" like he sometimes gets in class or during after-school tutoring. He lets them get away with it because he knows they'll listen to him when it really matters, like in detention or on test days. It would be nice, though, if they were a bit more forthcoming in this exact moment. The bell rings and he sighs.
"All right. You guys can get to class, but I'd better not see any more fighting from you two. Tell your friends to knock it off, too. Principal Winters has too much to deal with right now without having to handle a bunch of knuckleheads having a catfight in the cafeteria."
They both smile at the catfight comment but get gone pretty quickly. Carwood knows it has more to do with not being late for class than any fear of God he might have put into them. Still, he knows them well enough to say they won't be in any other fights this week, and Carwood feels pretty good about that.
Over lunch, Dick vents his frustration about Dike. As a rule, Dick doesn't talk to people about the problems that come with his job as acting-principal. He'd always been closed lipped about any sort of complaining, afraid it would bring shame upon the school or the teaching profession, or some bullshit like that. Even when he was facing down a suspension from Principal Sobel (before the entire faculty threatening to strike had gotten Sobel removed), Dick never complained. Now especially, though, when Dick is the public face of the school, Nix is the only one he can talk to about these things. Nix can't deny there's a part of him that glows a little under Dick's trust in him.
"The school board just isn't going to let me replace Dike because I've gotten a few complaints about him," Dick says. "And even if they would, who would I bring in to teach those classes? We've got a few substitutes that could, theoretically, but none of them are a good fit. Shames thinks he's a drill sergeant and has to yell at the students to get anything done. And Peacock, well, no one tries harder, but he's just not cut out to teach."
Nix nods along. He's seen each of the subs in action and it hadn't been pretty. "What about Compton?" he asks. Compton's really the only good teacher of the bunch and Nix calls him in more often than the others if he can help it.
"Compton's the only real choice. Buck's a great teacher, but you know he hasn't been the same since his wife left him. And besides, he's been talking about taking a job with a different district. Not that it matters, anyway, because I can't fire Dike."
He has a point, certainly, but he's also got a bias that Nix feels compelled to point out. "We all know who you want to be teaching the English classes, Dick, but that's not your job anymore. You have to find someone."
Dick sighs and nods, turns the conversation to things not related to work. "How's Kathy, anyway?"
Nix winces and thinks about pretending he hasn't heard the question. Dick smirks at him knowingly. "She wants to get a dog," Nix admits, finally. "She hates dogs, but she wants to get one. I think she's trying to con me into setting down to play Happy Families."
Dick laughs at that, and it's so nice to hear that Nix can almost forget his girlfriend troubles and just bask in being with his best friend. "I'm glad you're enjoying it," he says, dryly, "because when she kicks me out again, I'm going to sleep in your bed and you can take the floor."
That sets Dick off again, but he calms down after a while to say, "Don't be ridiculous, Lew. It's a big bed; we can share." It's a mark of how close they are that Nix doesn't read into it in a sexual manner. Well, he mostly doesn't. And if there's a tiny part of him that thinks of all the things they could do together in Dick's bed, he's managed to put it out of his mind by the time lunch is over.
Three days after Guarnere and Liebgott's fight, Carwood is helping Luz with his geometry homework, explaining sine and cosine again, when he hears a knock on his door and looks up to see Dike, completely out of breath.
"Mr. Lipton," he pants, "I need you to watch my class while I make an emergency phone call." Carwood thinks of refusing for a moment. It's not a request, more like an order, and Carwood is actually in the middle of something. But then he thinks of how much trouble a room full of students left alone can cause and he stands, gesturing for Luz to do the same.
As soon as he sees the movement, Dike's turning and bolting down the hallway. Carwood really doesn't want to know the kind of situation Norman Dike considers an emergency. "Come on, George," he says, keeping his irritation out of his voice. "Let's go continue this in the English room."
The room, when they get there, is as Carwood expected: students out of their seats, yelling and screaming. Skip Muck is in Dike's chair, feet up on the desk, getting dirt on his papers. "Hey, Lip!" he calls when he spots Carwood. "I didn't know you taught this class."
The shouting dies down a bit when he enters, and Carwood's relieved when most of the kids return to their own seats, or at least someone's seat – he doesn't have the seating chart and he doesn't much care either, as long as everyone's sitting. He shoos Muck back out of Dike's chair and directs Luz to pull another chair up next to it.
"Obviously, I'm not Mr. Dike," he tells the class, when it's mostly quiet. "However, he had an emergency he needed to deal with, so I'm here instead. He didn't leave me any instructions, so I'm going to declare this a study hall. You can do your homework or talk quietly, but I need to be able to work with Luz here, so it'd better actually be quietly. And yeah, Malarkey, I'm looking at you."
The boy in question laughs, but Carwood knows he won't cause any real problems. He doesn't know why, but most of the time, students are pretty well behaved for him. Kids can be little terrors, he knows, having seen them in action, but this group of kids in particular has a special place in his heart. The fact that so many of them are on the Academic Bowl team probably has something to do with it.
The Academic Bowl team had been Dick's idea, originally, when he first started teaching here. Carwood helped with the team last year as an assistant coach, but this year he's going to be on his own. Dick doesn't have time these days for extra projects, and a principal coaching a team would be highly irregular, anyway. Most of the kids will be the same, though. Bull Randleman, Skip, Malarkey, Luz, and Frank Perconte are all definite. There are probably a few new recruits he can wrangle, too, some maybe even in this English class.
"All right, Luz," Carwood says, eventually, finished with his survey of the room, "Let's get back to work."
The day Dike really, truly messes up is the day of the Annual District-Wide Poetry Reading. It's not a difficult field trip, really, but it is tradition and has been for four years, ever since Dick started the thing in his first year at the school. It's a day when all the schools in the district bring their junior literature classes together and allow them to hear local poets read their work aloud. It's one of Dick's finest contributions to the school, he thinks. Nix disagrees, but Nix is something of a philistine, so that's not unexpected. It's also not unexpected that Dike manages to mess up, but that doesn't mean Dick's not livid when he finds out.
The thing is, Dick went over the whole thing with Dike at least three times. The host school this year is only two towns over. All Dike had to do was take two headcounts- one before leaving the school and one before coming back- and keep the kids under control during the reading. Dike had seemed to understand all that, nodding along and yawning in that way he does. So it's beyond Dick, really, how the man managed to leave five of his students behind.
Dick gets the call at 2:15, fifteen minutes before the school day is over. The bus with all the kids is supposed to be back by that point so that those kids who take busses home can catch them. That's what it said in the permission form and that's what needs to be done. It's going to be a close call, probably, but he's not worried. That is, until Nix pages him on the intercom with a terse, "Dick, there's an emergency on line one for you."
Nix sounds worried, and that's what really catches Dick's attention. Emergencies in the generally-accepted definition of the word tend to amuse Nix. If Nix is concerned, it's probably reason enough to panic. But panicking never helps anything, so Dick takes a deep breath and picks up his phone.
"Dick Winters," he says, calmly.
"Principal Winters?" The voice on the other end is young, almost definitely a student. He can't tell who it is, but they sound pretty upset.
"Yes?" He pitches his voice low, soothing. "How can I help you?"
"Um, this is Popeye Wynn. I'm real sorry, sir, but we were at the, the poetry reading today and now we've been left behind and I'm sorry. We didn't mean to get left behind but the bus was just gone and now we can't get home."
It's exactly what Dick doesn't want to hear. He doesn't even know how this could have happened. Everything in him wants to grab his keys and run for his car, but he knows that isn't going to work. Another plan is already forming in his mind, though. "All right, Popeye. Calm down. Everything's going to be okay. How many of you are there and where are you specifically?"
"There's five of us, sir. We're in the auditorium, still."
"Okay, that's fine. I'm going to hang up now and I'm going to call the main office of the school. Someone is going to come find you guys and stay with you while I arrange for you to be picked up. I'm going to need you guys to just stay put, okay?"
"Yes, sir. We can do that, sir." Popeye sounds relieved rather than on the verge of tears, so that's one problem taken care of, at least.
Dick hangs up and clicks the intercom. "Nix," he says, and hopes his voice conveys his urgency. "I'm going to need the number for the main office of Douglas MacArthur High School."
Nix relays it within a minute. The other school's principal sounds pretty incredulous about the whole thing, but promises to send one his teachers to find the kids, so that's two problems down. Now the only thing left to do is arrange for someone to go pick them up. Dick knows just the man for the job.
Carwood gets called out of his class with five minutes until the last bell. It's slightly odd, but Nix sounded pretty tense on the phone, so he just puts Foley in charge of the class and heads down to the office, where Nix ushers him straight into Dick's office. He steps inside and is shocked to see Dick full-out yelling at Dike. It's odd, to say the least, because Carwood's never heard Dick even raise his voice before. Dike's pale and shaky, but there's something blank in his eyes, too, like he's not really in the room.
When Dick sees Carwood, he breaks off, mid-sentence and switches gears almost immediately.
"Lipton," he says, and he's not shouting anymore, but he still sounds angry beyond belief. "I need you to take one of the school vans to MacArthur. Five of our students have been left there without supervision and must be brought home as soon as possible. This is an emergency."
He doesn't explain the circumstances that brought about five kids being left alone at another school, but Carwood's heard his kids talking excitedly about the poetry field trip all week. He can put the pieces together easily enough.
"Yes, sir," he says and hurries off to the bus garage. The bus mechanics seem to have been informed of his mission, because there's a van already out and ready by the time he gets there.
Carwood doesn't exactly break the speed limit getting to MacArthur, but he cuts it pretty close. He can just imagine how those poor kids feel, all alone at a school that isn't theirs with people they don't know. Still, though, as bad as this situation is, some good of it might come in the long run. The school board can't just ignore Dike's faults, not now that he's done something like this. Surely they'll have to bring someone else in to finish the year. Maybe Principal Winters will even get some say in it, this time.
Children always fidget when he looks directly at them, Ron knows, especially for an extended period of time. These children, the ones who were left behind by their incompetent teacher, they're especially fidgety. It's nerves, probably. Ron doesn't get them, often, but he knows most people feel them all the time, especially in unknown situations like the one these kids are in. One of them tried to defuse the situation by beginning a conversation about the poetry reading, but he broke off into nervous giggles after Ron watched him for long enough. He'd even smiled at the kid, but that made things worse, just like it always does.
The children are all silent and scared by the time their teacher hurries in. He's not the lazy, stupid teacher Ron had made note of during the reading. He's someone else, someone new, and the first thing he does is check up on each of the kids, talking to them all in turn. He even actually listens to their answers. This man cares, Ron can tell.
He does feel something, then, but it's not nervousness. Instead, it's the dark, aching want that happens sometimes. The man is undoubtedly attractive, though Ron's seen better, but that's not what makes him desirable. It's probably his smile that does it. When he's sure the children are all okay, he smiles at them, and it's so sweet and soft that Ron can't help but to want it for himself. This man cares about these children. It's been a long, long time since someone looked at him that way.
When he's done with the kids, the man comes to stand in front of Ron. His eyes are very nice: gentle, like the rest of him. The scar running across his cheek should make him look rugged, but even that seems soft. "Carwood Lipton," he says, holding out a hand for Ron to shake.
Ron takes it. "Speirs," he says, curtly, the only way he knows how.
Carwood (and it's a nice name, too) smiles at Ron. It's a polite smile, not the same as the caring one he'd given the kids, but it's still so very soft. "Thank you, Mr. Speirs. I really appreciate you looking out for these guys. We have to get back, but seriously, thank you."
Then he leaves. He smiles and nods and leaves, taking the fidgeting children with him. Except, they're not fidgeting anymore, and Ron knows why. Anyone who's in the presence of a man like that would never need to fidget.
Nix waits an extra half-hour for Dick to be done with his meeting with Sink, the head of the school board. He could be at home by now, he knows. Dick knows how to lock up after himself. He's even done it on occasion. But they have dinner plans, and nothing gets in the way of dinner with Dick.
Sink's a tough bastard, to be sure, but he's fair. He knows that this kind of fuck-up can't go unpunished. There's no way in hell the school board will be able to keep Dike on after this afternoon, no matter what kind of connections he has. As soon as this meeting's over and the termination of Dike's contract has been finalized, Nix is going to make some very satisfying phone calls. After dinner, obviously.
Finally, finally, Sink storms out of the room. Nix would hold the door for him, but, well, he's off the clock. It's just as well, anyway, because Sink doesn't even look at him, just trumps off to have what's probably going to be a very difficult discussion with the rest of the board. Nix watches him go, mostly amused but a little bit pitying, too. Sink's not too a bad guy, really.
When he looks back, Dick is leaning against his office door. It's a position Nix has come to associate with hard days at the office. Hopefully, with Dike gone, there'll be less of those. "Come on," he says, grabbing for his coat. "Let's get Chinese."
Nix would never guess it, if he didn't know, but Dick is actually really fond of spicy foods. It doesn't suit his temperament or his complexion, but it's true. Every time they get Chinese food, Dick gets the hottest, most spicy dish they have. His face always flushes, too, when he eats it. He's a real sight, with his eyes closed in bliss and his cheeks tinged red. It's the kind of face he'd probably make in bed. He's probably a fox in bed, too, Nix thinks. He doesn't know, obviously, but that's just the kind of thing best friends can tell about each other. He clears his throat and looks away from Dick's face. He can feel his own face flush a bit, but that's just from the General Tso's.
"Dike's definitely gone, then?" He asks. They can't go a meal without talking about work, but Dick lives and breathes the place and Nix wouldn't even get out of bed if he didn't have Dick's passions driving him.
Dick swallows his mouthful of rice, because he's polite and would never talk with his mouth full. "Definitely. Sink confirmed in the meeting. I just can't believe he left those kids there. Their parents probably had kittens. You'd better be prepared to take complaints for the next few days."
"I'm always taking complaints, Dick. I've taken at least two complaints a day about Dike since the school year started. It'll be worth this shitstorm just to get rid of him."
"You haven't even heard who's replacing him yet," Dick says, with one of his rare mischievous smiles. "You just wait. You'll be fielding calls from now until May over this appointment."
That's pretty ominous, honestly, but Nix knows Dick. The man cares about the kids at school. He won't do anything that might hurt them, no matter what his smile might suggest. Still, a mystery kills Nix and he spends the rest of the evening trying to get the name out of Dick. Dick's frustratingly close-lipped, though, and by the time Nix is home, alone, in his bed, he still doesn't know who Dike's replacement is.
Carwood gets to school early the next morning. He's supposed to monitor two morning detentions Shames had given out while he was covering Dike's classes yesterday. They're probably baseless, but it's good policy for Principal Winters to back teachers up when they punish students, especially with something as minor as detention.
He drops his bag off in his room, then decides he has enough time to grab coffee in the teacher's lounge before the kids show up. Carwood remembers a time when he didn't drink coffee, but that was before he had to deal with things like morning detention or Norman Dike. By this point, it's a necessity. The school coffee always tastes slightly burnt, but he grabs a mug, anyway, and pours himself a cup. He's just about to take a sip when he hears a quiet sound behind him and turns.
It's the man, the one from yesterday. Speirs, Carwood thinks. He's watching Carwood with the same intense stare he had yesterday, the one the kids had told him he'd worn the entire time they'd waited for him to show up. It's a scary look, no doubt about it, but there's also something in it that makes Carwood pause. Something behind the man's eyes.
"Hi," he says, at last, when the man doesn't speak. "Coffee?"
Speirs nods and brushes past Carwood to get to the machine. He grabs a mug and pours, brings it to his mouth mechanically. He doesn't even seem to mind that it's still steaming. Once he takes a sip, he goes back to staring at Carwood.
Another awkward, silent minute passes, where they both stare at each other and drink coffee. Eventually, Carwood realizes he's going to be late for detention. "I have to go," he says, apologetically, though he doesn't even know what he's apologizing for. "I'll see you later." He grabs a quick refill and leaves the room. When he glances back, once he's in the hallway, the man's still watching him, silent and staring.
When he reflects on it later, while the kids in detention are doing homework, he realizes the man must just be shy. He never said and Carwood never asked, but he's probably here as a substitute, today. He'll be gone by tomorrow and Carwood will never have to have such an awkward silence with anyone else ever again. That's what really keeps him going until lunch, when he finds out the truth: Speirs isn't a sub, he's Dike's replacement. He's here to stay.