[Life Goes On]
[Chapter One: Discipline]

Arrogant or not, the kid was a bum. In the mind of Seth Rollins, he was the worst kind of loser – the kind that made it look enviable, and as if he was doing the world a favor by not taking part in it.

He knew he was supposed to help all the kids in his class, but this kid didn't need help… well, he did - he needed discipline, and he needed it bad. At this point it wasn't unusual to hear other adults go on about certain students who would've turned out better if their parents had spanked them as kids. Seth didn't believe in corporal punishment, but...

But, damn, this kid brought out the worst kind of person in Seth.

See, school had already been in session for a month, and he had this kid pinned. Dean Ambrose was a kid who could be getting straight A's if he got off his ass, but got away without doing so because he had every single person convinced he couldn't do any better than he currently was.

He'd already had talks with other kids about living up to their potential – Alicia Fox, for example, was a very smart girl who was too smart for her own good. Her grades sucked because she wasn't challenged enough – she thought this work was beneath her.

Kids like her and Bo Dallas took great joy in having someone tell them they had endless potential; that they were special and could go as far as they wanted if they tried even a little bit –all Mr. Rollins had to do was remind them they knew they were better than what they were giving. These students hid his smirks every time he called them to his desk to have silent conversations about the effort they weren't putting in.

They reveled in the attention – in knowing that people knew they were better than someone else. They just needed somebody to push them. Now, Seth Rollins didn't mind being that guy. He would be that guy because letting them slip through the cracks would be seen as his failure; not theirs.

Dean Ambrose had flat out ignored getting called to the front, because nobody could actually tell when he was truly asleep – curled up in a hoodie with an arm hanging off his desk and into an aisle. And when he had gotten Dean to stay after class, the fifteen year old had done the most annoying thing yet.

He ran.

"Do you know why I called you up after class, Dean?"

Dean was obviously still waking up at the time of the conversation – he was at least polite enough to hold back a yawn and pretended to care. "Uh, it's mid… mid-phase… those three-week review things."

Seth was amused, despite himself. It would almost be cute, were he not dealing with a sophomore (junior?) in high school. "Yes, I want to talk to you about 'those things', Dean."

"Cool… can I have it?" He was reaching out, obviously waiting for his grade-sheet. He was not getting off that easily.

The papers were, instead, dropped in more frustration than even Seth knew he was capable of. "Alright, first of all – you don't try to grab something from someone with a hoodie, and—"

"This is my hand, coach."

"No, your hoodie's covering your palm and you have never succeeded in picking up anything handed to you in this class when that thing is covering your hand. You are too old for this, Dean."

"But I did yesterday—"

"Hyperbole, Ambrose! It's hyperbole!"

"I dunno what that means, sir."

Seth was going to strangle him – the boy had answered a question on a test about the definition of the fucking word on his fucking test three days ago.

Instead, he was the adult – he had to breathe in, breathe out, and count to three. "Dean… Your grades are all over the place. You do – what? - one in three assignments?"

"Sorry, coach."

"No, you're not – the stuff you turn in is always top-tier. AP-Level stuff!"

Dean rubbed the back of his head, intently avoiding eye contact. "Yeah?"

"Yeah! And it's always your writing assignments that are really well-done, so if you can grasp these concepts enough to apply them, why can't you get multiple choice questions on simple punctuation?"

The boy shrugged, averting his gaze to the teacher's desk. He was getting twitchy, but he always got twitchy whenever he was called on anything – another student had asked his name the first day of class, and Seth had seen him fidget and hesitate, Seeing the exchange made Seth realize he liked it better when Ambrose got mouthy. He'd learned from the kid's writing that he was quite the smart-ass, even.

Seth stood, running a hand through his hair. "Dean, I see you finish all that work in class," he paused at this point, expecting an argument of semantics; he was waiting for Dean to tell him he didn't finish all his assignments in class. When none came Seth had to work to reorganize his thoughts. ""Look, Dean – I see you finish all these assignments – I've seen you pull out completed homework assignments, and instead of turning them in you just… carry them off. Do you need help getting organized or something? We can work on that."

Dean froze, looking like a deer in headlights; but rather than answering, he shrugged. Seth was pretty sure he had gotten a shade paler in a few seconds time.

"Dean there's nothing wrong with that. If you need help, that's fine. You're a smart kid and you can get the grades."

Dean shook his head quickly, talking fast while occasionally darting his eyes to the open door. "Nah, I can do better, Coach. I'm just spacy. I'll start carrying a folder for this class. I promise!"

And with that, he bolted.

Indeed, Dean had started carrying a folder with him – he'd gotten organized. He even made a point of using it in front of Mr. Rollins. The kicker came when his turned-in classwork dropped from an average of one-in-three to one-in-seven… not that Mr. Rollins was paying attention to that sort of thing. It was just an estimate.

He took a willing backslide, and he was always bolting before getting called on it again - the few times Seth had gotten frustrated enough to call him on it in front of the class, the boy had simply scratched his head. No other acknowledgement.

The little shit was making an effort to stay a loser. He wanted to fail, and Seth's pride could never allow that to pass.

Authors Note: This chapter reads a bit awkward... sorry! As always, reviews and criticism would be great! I promise the story will speed up soon.