Mentally cheering to myself that I hadn't managed to completely screw up the interview, I stand up to shake the headmistress's hand, the older woman is much shorter than I am, barely coming up to my chest, I would find that pretty cute if I was into older women. "Thank you, I know you won't regret hiring me." As I take her petite hand in my own.
"Yes now, we are a boarding school, so you will be accommodated a room to stay in as well," As Ms. Grimwood passes by me and motions with her hand that I should follow. "The girls will be returning tomorrow morning, but since that would be Saturday, there won't be any classes, but that time could be used to get to know one another." The old woman seemingly gliding down the hall as I followed her.
"That seems like it would be a good idea, it might be a bit shocking to have a teacher who must be closer in age to them than the last few." I offer my opinion, which only causes her to chuckle.
"I would expect your age to not be the only shocking topic of conversation." She stops at a door. "Now I know you must have had a long trip so if you would like to rest, this will be your room for however long you stay at my school."
Stepping in I am pleasantly surprised, the room looks like it could do with some dusting and cleaning, but otherwise it's very roomy with a large four poster bed and antique furnishings from the Victorian Era. "Wow, this is pretty nice."
"I do try to keep some level of class in my school," she laughs at her own pun as I focus my attention back to the middle-aged, I think, woman. "If you do need anything else and you can't seem to find me, my Handy Butler will be more than capable of assisting you."
As I shake my head at the need for more assistance the kindly woman leaves me to unpack, which considering how I had only brought a few of my belongings, didn't take all that long. I decided that I would need a nap to make it through the day, and possibly a shower, something in the house is making my shoulder itch. When I next awaken, it was some time around noon and the house itself was quiet besides the creaks and groans that came with its age.
As I passed through the winding halls, I have the sense that I am being watched, but each time I turn to where it seems like there would be a person, I only seen the suits of armor lining the walls or the paintings of past students and teachers. I make my way back through the way I had come up on the way to the kitchen, I hear a voice through a door.
Leaning my ear against the wood to listen in, I know eavesdropping to be wrong, but I did hear my name. "Now I don't want you scaring this one off either Matches, you've grown up but you still treat newcomers with such disdain, and I can't afford to not have another gym teacher this year, so you need to be on your best behavior."
After her remarks I hear growling in a response, so I assume she's scolding her dog or something and it sounds pretty large, so it might be a bit territorial if it goes after the new teachers enough to scare them off. I figure I will be fine; a mean dog isn't really all that frightening after what I have been through. As a result, I put the thought of the woman's pet out of my mind while I enter the kitchen for lunch.
I had brought in the last of my road food and put it in the fridge, so I would need to head into the nearby town to stock up on food, since she gave me a stipend for that as well, seems that I will need to handle my own meals. Which is fine for me, I've been cooking a while now.
After going through the cabinets, with hinges that squealed from rust, adding that to a mental list of things I would need to do around the school, I find the skillets and begin to make a large lunch, the sound of sizzling meats and the smell of melting butter as I craft a couple large po'boys with the last of the ingredients I had.
"Mmm," I hear the sound of Ms. Grimwood's voice behind me, startling me. "That does smell good." She comes into the kitchen, which I puts me on guard, for some reason this house sets me off in weird ways, the feeling of being watched has my senses going crazy, so I'm having a hard time keeping as relaxed as I normally would be.
"I did use up the last of my food, so I made more than I would eat if you would like some as well." I offer her up one of the sandwiches I had made.
"Oh, why thank you Stevan, that's very kind of you." She takes the plate with the still steaming sandwich on it. I join her at the table.
"Yeah I was going to head into town to stock up on some food stuffs, and it would help me get a lay of the land, so to speak." As I take a bite of my sandwich.
"That sounds." Her eyes glazed over for a second as she sinks her teeth into the warm bun, and then she swallows. "Oh, that's good." I grin at the compliment, I am a man of many talents, cooking being one of them. Ladies love a domesticated man, right? "Like a good idea, there is another thing I had forgotten to mention, since your room and board are all provided for you, I will require that you help around with the chores in the house."
I figure that's reasonable enough, "Sure thing Ms. G." I smile back at her. "I'm pretty handy and patching up holes and stuff, made enough of them myself to know how to make it look nice too." Growing up with violent people meant stuff broke pretty often so I got handy with home repair.
"It would save me some time, money and a fair share of embarrassment of having to ask the Calloway Cadets to come over so often to help with the chores." She sighs as her eyes trace the window.
"Calloway?" I question.
"Yes, the military academy on the other side of the hedges." I follow her finger as she points out the window to the large building next door.
"Huh," I realize I didn't pay much attention to the surroundings as I came up the path to the school. I decide now would be a good time to make small talk, "I almost got sent to military school once."
"Oh, were you a wild child like some of those cadets?" Ms. Grimwood teases me, fluttering her eyes in an effort to make me blush. Which won't work on me, I'm made of tougher stuff than that to let a few kind words turn me into a bumbling moron.
I shake my head before answering, "Nah, I didn't even start the fights, but I damn sure ended them." I wave what is left of my sandwich at her.
She quirks her eyebrow at my answer, "You got into a lot of fights in school?" she questioned, obviously this changed from lighthearted chatter into an extension of the interview. I can't really blame her though, she has her students to worry about and I did just say I had a violent past, but I'm not dangerous. Okay I am dangerous, but I won't be hurting the girls, probably.
"I wouldn't like to say a lot," I think my next words carefully, "not quite sure what a lot would be, I knew most kids didn't seem to get into any fights at all, so maybe even one fight is enough to be abnormal," I try to seem a bit more innocent, sure I put people in the hospital before, but I'm not a bad guy, most of the time. "however, all of the times I was just defending myself, I don't go looking for trouble, it just happens, and I believe it's better to be able to take care of one's self instead of hoping someone comes along does it for you, because sometimes it's too late." I finish grimly.
Ms. Grimwood sizes me up for a moment, before sighing again. I think to myself she must be really desperate to force herself to keep someone like me on if she is that concerned. "I," she pauses. "I just need you to promise that you control yourself and that the girls are safe."
Raising my hand, "I swear, I will do everything I can to keep them safe, even from myself if I have to." I like her, she really cares about the girls she's in charge of, better than any other teacher slash principal I had.
"I'll hold you too that," she said as she finished her sandwich and put the plate in the sink. "A few years ago, I almost lost the girls, if it not for the gym teachers at the time, so I hope you can be as honorable as they were." Before leaving the room.
"Wow heavy stuff," I said to myself before cleaning up the dishes I had used. "But it's fair I guess, I would be worried too if someone like me were to want to work with children."
Author's Notes: It's chapter two, you learned a little more about Stevan, also I swear this is not a Self-Insert his name was what started all of this. It just happened to work out as a play on words.
Not much happening but me just setting up the board, going to be a bit more of that and it's going to be less chess and more chinese checkers with how people run their motivation.
Also if you are wondering the daughters of the alien, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Godzilla will not be in initially, they did show up at the end of the special anyway.
And I using my vast knowledge of giant monsters, geometry and MS Paint. Have concluded that based on the image shown of Godzilla's daughter at the end of the special, you can, assuming that TCftBL is around six feet tall, adjusting for some slight distance in drawing style and using the Toho bodystyle of the Godzilla 2000, I have concluded that in the Ghoul School tv special that Godzilla is somewhere roughly in the height of 21-23 feet tall, which is very short, but I know my monster knees, so if someone else who loves to do that kind of work would double check, I would appreciate it.
I did the Math.
I did the Monster Math.
I'm done, you can all hate me now. Leave Brutal Reviews.
