Progress is impossible without change and these who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. - George Bernard Shaw
Upon entering the college front doors Jake had to sign in at the front desk. The front room was large with windows all around and a circular desk, which a woman was sitting behind. She asked him to sign and asked him what he was here to do so she may give him directions.
The school had many different blocks to it. There were blocks A to Z and each one had different courses and classes. Jake was to be in K block, the public services block. There were many different courses in K block, from being a policeman to being a fireman.
Jake was given a map of the building and found his way to the K block, however, while walking down the halls he saw no one else (In K block anyway).
After turning a few more corners, Jake found a classroom with 'Police force' stuck on the door. The auburn haired man scoffed at this, he really did not want to be here. After hearing no sound coming from the room his first thought was just to leave. Leave the college, Leave the city would be good too. He pushed the door open to an empty room, his icy eyes glanced around the room as he walked in, 'Yup no one' He thought a small smirk came to his face and again the thought of leaving came to his mind again.
"Who are you?" a confused voice started behind him.
Jake snapped his head around to see a man of around five eleven with dark blonde hair, styled so that his bangs were longer on the right. He had green eyes and a small amount of facial hair, he looked tired and annoyed, he was holding a few files of paper in his left hand and a coffee in the other.
"Unfortunately, I'm here for this class," Jake grumbled as he shifted his weight onto his rear foot.
"Oh," His expression softened and his shuffled his files and passed his coffee over to his left hand and held out his right to Jake, "I'm your teacher, my name's Leon Kennedy, you can just call me Leon, we're all adults here," He smiled, he seemed to be a friendly man.
Jake decided to accept his hand, he would usually but, seeing as Leon went to the trouble of holding everything in one hand, "I'm Jake Muller,"
"You sure you're in this class?" Leon asked as he walked over to the front desk and placed his things down, he began to open a file, "I just don't recognise your name,"
"Believe me, if I'm lost in the 'system'," He air quoted, "I really don't mind, I can be outta here in no time if ya like?" He asked with hope in his voice as he pointed at the door.
"No. I do have a Jake, But, Wesker not Muller…" He trailed off and looked over his shoulder at the man.
Jake's eyes darkened, let out a sigh (Which sounded almost like a growl) and looked down, "I am Jake Muller but, my dad's Wesker," He was annoyed, he never wanted his father's name.
"Don't worry, I don't really call anyone by their last name, I prefer to stay on first name basis anyway,"
"Thanks," His voice was still coated with annoyance, he still didn't want to be there.
Leon sat down at his desk and looked over at Jake, "It's still kinda early," He started to sort through his papers, "There's a coffee machine down the hall, you can go get some if you want,"
"I've just had some coffee," Jake replied bluntly, he still had not sat down at any of the tables, he was just leaning on one of them.
"I'm trying to make you get me a cup," Leon smiled, honesty in his voice.
"Yeah fine," Jake pushed off the table and walked over to Leon and held out his hand, "Money,"
Leon raised a brow, "Not too polite are you," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins, "This should be more than enough," He pass the money over and noticed how Jake, seemed to count it quickly.
"How'd you want it?" Jake asked just as he walked out the door.
"ugh, black!" Leon shouted to Jake as he walked out the door, panicked thinking he would not hear him.
Jake walked down the hall looking for said coffee machine, as he turned another corner and saw a tall machine right at the end of the hall, 'Finally,' He thought, and began to walk quickly down the hall.
As he reached the end of the hall a small frame made it's way around the corner quickly as if they did not know where they were going. Thinking quickly Jake, raised his hands and placed them on the small person's shoulders to stop them from crashing into him.
"Oh, I'm sorry," The small person looked up at Jake - who still had his hands on their shoulders -
It was a girl, she looked really young, maybe about sixteen. She had short blonde hair, big blue eyes, and pretty pink lips. She was pretty Jake had to admit. She was wearing skinny jeans and an oversized flannel shirt, that she had tucked into her jeans. She was noticeably short, maybe about a foot short than Jake.
Jake let go of her shoulders, "Yeah, look where you're going next time," Jake started, he sounding slightly mean but, his voice was mainly coated with embarrassment as he realised he had his hands on her shoulders longer than he probably should have.
Jake turned to the coffee machine and pressed a button, a cup dropped down and steaming trail of coffee followed it. He picked it up and turned to see the girl was still there and their eyes meet.
"How much is it?" She started, her voice was sweet and shy.
"A few coins," He grunted and tried to look away from her big eyes.
She looked down at her hand at the few coins she had. Jake then dropped the rest of the coins he had in her hand, "Oh no, you don't have to," She started and tried to give him the money back.
"No, it's okay. Here," He handed her the map he had been given, "You look kinda lost," Jake started to walk away.
"Th-thank you so much," She called after him.
Jake wave a hand at her. He really didn't mind giving her the money, it wasn't his anyway and he already memorised the map.
"Where's my money?" Leon asked as Jake handed him the coffee.
"I lost it," He joked and walked over to the table farthest away from Leon and sat down, leaned back in the chair and lifted his feet up onto the table.
"You're not gonna be easy are you?" Leon asked as he looked over at Jake.
Jake just smirked at the older and pulled out a book from his bag and began to read.
After about half an hour more students began to come into the classroom, most of them sitting in the front row and when they would try to sit in the back row, Jake would drop his book down and glare at them and they would move up a few rows, much to Jake's amusement.
Instead of starting 'war' with Jake, Leon decided to let him sit in the back row. Leon stood from his desk and shut the door but, not before looking around first to make sure no one was about to come in. He walked back over to his desk.
"Good morning everyone," Leon started his eyes darted around the room, "It's nice to see how many people want to look after our future,"
Jake scoffed quietly to himself, Leon however, did not miss the scoff.
"Today we're not going to be doing much work, we're going to get to know each other, I'll start," Leon took a sip of his coffee then started, "I'm your teacher Leon Kennedy, I started out as a policeman when I was twenty-one and for ten years I served but, I retired from the force and since then I have been running these courses," Leon leaned back on his desk, "Anyone else? I've noticed there are many different ages and backgrounds here, anyone else care to enlighten us as to why you choose this course?"
Most of the stories were boring and Jake didn't really care to listen to many of them, most of them had the same thing to say, 'They wanted to help people,'.
"I started serving in the military when I was twenty and served until I was injured in the line of duty. The military wanted me to retire from active duty and I did eventually but, I still want to help people, help the future," The man had short hair that flicked up in the front and from what Jake could see he had a sling for his right arm.
Jake scoffed again, 'He had an interesting story until he mentioned the whole future thing,' Jake thought.
This time more people then Leon realised he scoffed. Heads had turned and were looking at the auburn haired man.
"What?" He was angry and was glaring at them.
"Why are you here, Jake?" Leon asked with annoyance in his voice.
"This is a compromise," He stated simply.
Leon was not too happy with his answer, "That it?"
"Yeah," Jake smirked, "My I please be excused," Despite the polite way he asked there was sarcasm in his voice.
"Why? We've only been here for an hour," Leon stated, he really was not happy with him.
"I need a shit," There were a few quite stifles of laughter through the classroom.
"Fine," Jake stood up extremely quickly, "But, if you try to leave the college I'll have to call your father," Leon warned.
"Sure ya will," Jake pulled the door open and finally escaped the 'hell' he was in.
Even though Jake was being a jerk in the classroom he had completely calmed down and was now at ease and sitting outside on one of the benches, drinking a can of soda. He was still on the premises and said to himself that he would waste an hour or half outside and hopefully by then the whole 'get to know each other' thing would be over.
He took the last sip of his soda and then threw it into the trash can that was quite far away.
"Wow," A female voice started.
Jake turned his head to see the girl from earlier, "Still lost?" He asked sounding uninterested.
"No," Jake noticed she blushed slightly, "Here," She held out her hand, "Give me your hand," She asked.
Jake complied and she dropped some money into his hand, "You didn't have to give it back, I didn't mind giving it to you," Jake started trying to give it back. He was still sitting down on the bench and she was standing, she backed off slightly and lifted her hands in the air.
"No, please, it's okay," She smiled.
"It wasn't even mine in the first place," Jake shifted and put the money in his pocket, "But, if you insist," There was sarcasm in his voice.
She was still standing next to the bench, "You got nowhere to be? She asked.
Jake couldn't understand why she seemed to want to spend time with him. He looked at his phone to see the time, "Not at the moment," He leaned back and shut his eyes, letting his head fall back.
"Are you skipping class?" She asked as she moved to sit on the very edge of the bench.
Jake snapped open an eye to look at her, "You can sit on the bench like a normal person, I don't bite hard," She blushed at him again and looked away. Jake just chuckled.
"What's your name?" She asked turning to look at him again, her blue eyes full of interest.
"Jake Muller," He turned his head to look at her, this seemed to be the first time she fully acknowledged the scar on his left check.
"I'm Sherry," She smiled and looked him in the eyes, Jake was glad she seemed to not care for the scar, "Sherry Birkin," She held her hand out to him.
Jake just stared at her hand, it was tiny, 'My hand will probably break hers,' He smirked.
Sherry noticed his smirk and decided to withdrew her hand, "What are you studying here then, Jake?" She asked as she pushed herself onto the bench properly and placed her hands either side of herself.
"Don't really wanna talk about college," Jake stated bluntly and leaned his head back again.
The look on Sherry's face showed that she could see how difficult Jake was, "Okay," She replied in a quiet voice.
The two sat in silence for a little while. Not that Jake didn't enjoy the silence but, he kinda hoped that she would try and talk to him a bit more, he wasn't really one for good conversation, and a conversation would make the time pass quicker.
"Would you like your map back?" Sherry asked as she pulled said map from her back pocket.
"No it's okay, I don't need it anymore," He waved her off.
And just like that, he shot down a chance of conversation, again.
Sherry pulled out her phone and checked the time, she then sat up, "I should probably go. It was nice meeting you, Jake," She smiled and waved a goodbye to him.
"See ya," Was all Jake said back and when he next looked over she was nowhere to be seen.
Jake eventually made his way back to the classroom, he pushed open the door and Leon was the only one in the classroom, he was sitting at his desk and reading through some papers. He paid no mind to Jake as he entered.
"Hey, teach," He smirked and closed the door, "Where's my stuff?"
"I confiscated it," Leon put plainly, "Should I call a nurse? I mean you were gone a long time," He humoured with a rise of his brow as he finally looked at the auburn haired man.
"Nope," Jake started moving closer, "Just needed some fresh air," He stretched his arms above his head and smirked, "Can I have my stuff now?"
"Jake," Leon started his tone was stern.
"Oh boy," Jake grumbled. He grabbed the nearest chair and placed it in front of Leon's desk then sat, "What?"
"You have to start taking this seriously," Leon looked him dead in the eyes.
Jake scoffed at him, "News flash Pretty boy, I don't actually wanna be here!" Jake's voice was filled with anger. He sat up from the chair abruptly.
"Hey! Calm down," Leon raised his voice.
Jake slammed his hands down on the table, "Look, I don't wanna be here and I sure as Hell don't wanna be around all these types of people who think cause they live in this stupid city they have to serve in some sorta force." His voice was deep and rough, he stood up straight and shifted the weight to his back leg, his expression softened slightly, "You put up with me a lot longer than any other teacher I ever had and for that I must say; You're a man of great patience," Jake's voice was no longer as deep, huskier.
"At least try," Leon almost pleaded.
"Why do you care so much?" Jake grumbled and crossed his arms.
"Because I hate seeing people drift away from a path. You're smart Jake, I don't see why it's so hard for you to understand you have to work, that you have to do something," Leon explained eagerly.
"I know I have to work, I've had jobs before but, my dad kept bringing me back from them and forcing me into school. For him, he always wanted me to be a scientist like him, when I said no I then would have to go to military school, I said no again. This course was a compromise and I didn't think I would have to work hard here and skipping out would be easy. But once I have enough money I'm leaving this fucking city and never coming back!" Jake seemed determined and angry.
"So do you have some sort of job now? I mean you said once you have enough money," It was all too much for Leon, he had his head in his hands.
"Yeah, I still work where I used to, sometimes. It's harder to go there now that my old man had tabs on me almost all the time. I was working on cars and bikes, I was a mechanic," Jake explained, sitting back down.
"There are courses here that can help you become an engineer," Leon began.
"This was the only course I was allowed to do. Like I said my old man's got tabs on me, he decides what I do," Jake grumbled.
"You're an adult, he shouldn't be treating you this way,"
"You don't think I don't know that?"
"Jake take your things," Leon shifted and pulled Jake's backpack from under his desk and handed it to him.
"So, what? Am I off the course or what?" He asked, accepting his bag.
"No, I expect to see you tomorrow," Leon started, resting his elbows on his desk, "And every day this week, except the weekend of course,"
"But I though this was only a part-time course, three days at max?" Jake was honestly confused.
"Hopefully your dad doesn't now your schedule and hopefully, we can keep it that way. I'll change your schedule from part time to full time and you can take the days you weren't gonna be here as days to go to work," Leon smiled, "You schedule originally was Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, On Wednesday and Thursday come to the college, sign in and then go off to work, just make sure no one sees you leave,"
"Why are you helping me?" Jake was still confused, his brows were knitting together.
"Because I know the feeling of wanting to leave this place. This is a compromise, though, Jake. You come in and do your work here three days a week and I'll make sure your dad never finds out about your fake schedule, deal?" Leon tilted his head to the side as he spoke the last part of his sentence.
Jake looked down and let out a sigh, "Deal,"
"Good," Leon smiled, "Now get out, I'm busy," Leon's voice wasn't filled with annoyance if anything he had a more sarcastic tone. The blonde man went back to looking through his papers and writing some things down.
Jake pulled his backpack on and walked over to the door and pulled it open, he stopped, "Thanks," He grumbled quietly and left.
Hello, thanks for reading ^.^
I've just checked over it quickly as again it is late and I'm tired. I will check again tomorrow.
The next update might be a bit slow as I want to write longer chapters.
Please review!