The Plot Thickens

Cody Balfour was slumped at his desk. It was about 10:00 at night. His office and adjoining apartment were located on the vast property held by St. Reginald's, and he had long since completed moving in. Though he was only a student teacher now, if the last months of the school year went well, there was a possibility the chairman would hire him back for the next year.

Despite Cody's excellent work ethic, he couldn't help but absentmindedly stare through space as he spun a pen around his thumb. Cody had already finished preparing for the lesson on Monday, but he was avoiding grading the papers Chad Adkins had dumped on him earlier that day. Even if Chad was the real teacher of the class, it still pissed Cody the hell off.

"I don't think that geezer's graded a single paper since the beginning of the school year." Cody mumbled aloud to himself, an unfortunate habit that had embarrassed him somewhat frequently in the past. About two months had passed since he began work as a student teacher at St. Reginald's (a boarding school for boys), and yet still Chad somehow kept finding ungraded papers to foist off to the inexperienced instructor.

"Agh! I've just about had it with these papers! Every day, more and more. They keep getting dated from earlier in the school year - soon enough they'll be from September! Do those kids even have any grades entered?" Fuming, Cody stabbed his pen into the corner of a paper, waiting to be graded. Feeling tired and crabby, Cody continued his tirade. "The school lunches are awful too. The morning assemblies are always a massive joke. And those two bratty dorks..." Cody propped his chin up on the desk and stared at the nib of his pen. Cody was, of course, referring to Nicholas Brown and Worick Arcangelo, two high school seniors that managed to turn every literature class Cody had with them into a frat party.

"What am I saying…" He sighed, tipped his head to the side, and smiled wearily. Cody couldn't believe he was forgetting how important this job was, and how good it had been to him already. Deciding to tear himself from the negative thoughts, he started listing any reason he could think to be satisfied with his job. "It really, really is awesome here… I mean, all those students call you Mr. Balfour. How cute is that? Plus most of them respect you sort of, which is a relief." Cody had been very anxious that he would become the running joke to all the bratty rich boys who attended the school. His expectations had successfully been broken, however, as many of the boys ended up being fairly amusing and sympathetic.

"That old man is pretty fun to work with too, even if he dumps all the busy work on you. Besides - you get to immerse yourself in literature every day." Cody yawned. "You just spent the last three hours annotating readings, and being paid for it too. Which, speaking of, the pay isn't anything to sneeze at either...for a teaching job." He trailed off, lost in thought. "And, I guess...Nicolas isn't so bad either… he's kind of cute."

Cody started to drift off, his eyelids becoming heavy. Mumbling now, Cody spoke in a softer voice. "He makes things interesting...at least. I wonder what he thinks of me?" Before Cody could investigate the thought further, he fell fast asleep.


Cody woke with a start to the sun streaming onto his face, tie still loosely fastened to his neck from yesterday, and an ungraded paper stuck to his face. Despite it being a Saturday, Cody had slept in longer than he usually would.

"I haven't fallen asleep while studying like that in ages…" Cody yawned himself awake. "Brings me back to college pretty quick." Cody sleepily walked to the shower and stripped, not bothering to put his clothes in his hamper. He was in the middle of singing a long and passionate love ballad when he heard a knock at the apartment's door. Ignoring it, he sung on (though quieter), and finished up his shower. The knock came again, this time impatiently. Someone called through the door.

"Mr. Balfour! I need your help!" Cody was surprised at the familiar voice, filled with distress, and ran to the door. Cody only stopped to slide on a pair of light blue boxers and sling his towel over his neck.

Cody slammed the door open. "Worick? What is it?" Worick was a little surprised at his student teacher's appearance (especially Cody's unexpected abs). "This better not be another stupid pran-" Before he could finish his sentence, Cody realized Worick was trembling, and his remaining eye was blackened alongside numerous other bruises and scrapes. "Oh God, what happened?"

"O-of course it's not a prank! It's about Nicolas… he's going to do something really stupid!" Though Cody knew Nicolas and Worick were close friends, it was surreal to see this side of the usually unbearable smart-alec named Worick. At the mention of Nicolas, Cody clenched the door handle tighter.

"Explain to me what's happening. Let's just stay calm, alright?" Cody motioned for Worick to come in, and then went to the business of getting dressed. "Keep talking."

"Well…" Worick began nervously, gingerly touching his eyepatch. "My... dad and I have never exactly been on the best of terms…" Cody could tell this wasn't a topic Worick talked about often. He glanced at Worick's bruises suspiciously.

"Hold on- you do know that as a teacher I have the responsibility to report any and all suspicions of abuse to the administrator, right?" Cody said with concern, as he began buttoning up his shirt.

Worick looked up at Cody, disgust in his eyes. "What do you do when the top administrator is my father? Then what do you do?"

"Chairman… Arcangelo?" Cody's eyes widened when he realized the connection. How had he not realized that earlier? "I… don't know what I'd do then…" Cody eventually conceded. "But… how does this involve Nicolas?"

Worick sighed. "I… well… my family may be ridiculously wealthy, but Nicolas'… isn't." Worick avoided Cody's gaze. "The only reason he can even afford to come to this school is because my father allows him. And… father only allowed that to happen because I promised to keep quiet about, well, things." Worick swallowed and clenched his fist. "But, last night, father found out about Nicholas's pranks… sounds like a passing janitor reported him. Father called me to his office and informed me he would be throwing Nicolas out of the school the next morning, just to rub it in." Worick looked down in loathing.

Cody, who had been listening as calmly as he could, halted at this statement. "It's almost the end of the year though. He can't do that."

"He can, though. And I could tell that… the bastard meant 'thrown out' as in preventing Nic from graduating at all, even if he went elsewhere!" Worick slammed his fist on the table. "Well, I… I heard this and, well, I snapped… kind of. I mean, most of the time the pranks are my doing! It's only now with you that Nicolas pays special attention…" Cody blinked for a second longer at this information. "And… that's where all this came from." Worick gestured to his swollen eye. He laughed bitterly. "I know better than to fight, but I couldn't help myself. Without me… Nico has nothing." Worick clenched his jaw.

"So Nicolas is in trouble, as in… he's going to be expelled?" Cody straightened out his tie carefully as he considered this. While it wasn't fair any way you looked at it, the most concerning of the matter, was that of preventing Nicolas from graduating anywhere. Cody considered it further. This was especially damning for a disabled person in the ableist society they unfortunately lived in. Not having a high school degree would be life or death for his student.

Worick interrupted his thoughts. "No. If that was all, it would maybe be okay…"

Cody turned sharply to Worick. "What? What else is the matter?"

"Nicolas woke up in the dorm to seeing me like this… and I think he went after my father to fight." Worick looked pale. Cody was suddenly filled with an indescribable feeling of anger. Yanking on his hideously argoyal socks with seething rage, Cody hissed at Worick.

"As if being expelled wasn't enough, the idiot thinks he can get away with making an ass of himself like this too? When I get around to grading those papers, I'll fail him so hard he'll have to return to the second grade!" Cody hastily put on his jacket and headed to the door.
"Where are you going? It's not like we can do anything!" Worick shouted. " My father will kick you out of the school too! I was only telling you, so we could patch him up afterwards!"

Cody whipped around to face Worick. "I'm not going to just sit around when I know what that idiot is going to do. Come on, I'll do the talking." With Worick in tow, Cody stormed across campus to the center administrator's office.