Teaching

Corneria

Six months later...

There had been no sign of any disturbance since the Katinian invasion, and now that Reynolds had control over A Company, James had really nothing to do as a Major while being paid significant amounts of money. This was a good thing, because now he could spend more time with his family than ever before. He had the time of his life raising the now two-year-old Fox with Vixy. Every day, he imagined what they as a family will grow into. Maybe they'll have more kids, who knows? It'll be a lot of fun to raise more of them.

Of course, there were some negative thoughts that sometimes crossed his mind, such as the fights he and Vixy might go through, or even he and Fox as a teenager might go through. There was a sort of concern on how Fox might do in school; what if he failed some subjects? Or worse, what if he fell into peer pressure and started doing drugs? He stowed away those with more happier, less cynical thoughts. Wherever this journey was going to go, he was sure it would be well worth it in the end.

At the Cornerian Army Naval Base, he was signing papers that guaranteed Arwing #7 his personal property. Of course he couldn't fly it, but he'd rather keep it as his own than give it to another soldier. Maybe someday his son will be flying it, but for now, it was officially his. He met Peppy outside, who was taking a break from the usual grueling training procedures of Reynolds. He was a C.O., so he could do that.

"Hey James, have you seen Pigma anywhere?"

"No, why?"

Peppy had a worried look on his face. "Do you notice something here? It seems like Pigma keeps disappearing all of the time."

James looked at him, wondering what he trying to say. "What are you trying to say?"

"Well... Pigma's been our friend for a long time, and I could always trust him... but after he came out of rehab... I don't know. He just seemed, you know, different."

"I know what you mean. But hey, rehab can do that to you, I guess."

"Yeah, maybe..."

"I wouldn't worry about him," said James. "So what's going on today?"

"Reynolds is getting everybody pissed off, as usual. You know, we had a training exercise out in the country, where we would navigate through the lands without getting caught by another company we were training against. Within ten minutes, they spotted us."

"How?"

"Reynolds got us lost. We ended up on the opposite side of where we were supposed to be, so he decided to completely abandon our cover and find our way back."

James shook his head. "That's a shame."

"Jimmy, just think if that was a real battle. Reynolds would've gotten us all killed," said Peppy.

"I'll talk to Banks about it, but I won't guarantee you anything."

"I know. Banks and Reynolds are like best friends, he'll never kick him out."

"Sorry, but I think Banks is just going to have to witness Reynold's stupidity himself someday," said James. "So what's on my schedule?"

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you. You'll be teaching a class now."

James looked at him blankly. "What?"

"Yeah, some class for new recruits. General Pepper needed something for you to do, so he gave you this job."

"Huh." James wasn't too exasperated by this. It shouldn't be too bad teaching a class. "So what are the hours?"

"Well, next class starts next week at ten and ends at four," said Peppy.

"Ten to four? That lines up with Vixy's working hours perfectly," baffled James.

"Oh... well, um... hmm, that's unlucky."

"You're telling me," said James. "Hmm, can't just leave Fox at home like that. Don't want to pay for a babysitter. You're at the training center, Pigma is never around, Jack has Falco to take care of... I'll try and work something out with her."

"You know, Jimmy. Why don't you just take Fox with you to the classes?"

James paused for a minute. "I never thought about that. I hope he could behave though."

"I'm sure he would. Your kid is completely nonchalant about things. Remember you told me, the fire alarm went off in your apartment building once? Everybody scrambled outside, worried. All of the kids were bawling their eyes out except yours."

James remembered. "Yeah... He was telling Vixy and I not to worry and was trying to get all of the other kids to calm down..."

"He even made a ten-year-old kid stop crying, right?"

James laughed. "And it was a pretty big ten-year-old, too..."

One week later...

Fox sat in his own desk, which was twice his size, in the back of the classroom. He listened more intently at his dad's lecture than most of the soldiers in the room, which was about proper weapon care. All of the classes were an hour long, but Fox stayed for all of them. James gave him the option to roam around the building with somebody watching over him, but he opted on staying for each class.

James went through the whole day teaching multiple classes, repeating the same lecture over and over again. Fox never grew tired of the lecture, absorbing every word his dad was saying. The only break throughout the whole day was lunchtime. He would tell his dad what a great job he was doing, which James appreciated.

The whole week was the same. James taught lessons such as how to pilot a standard-class fighter, hand signals, first-aid, etc. He was aided with the help of different slide shows, which were prepared by Beltino and not by James. Since Beltino had no idea Fox was in the class as well, he could've incorporated any sort of graphic, disgusting, vile image into the slide shows.

During James' lesson on first-aid, there came a part where he had to explain how to treat a bleeding wound. When he switched on the slide show, an image of a red, juicy, oozing wound immediately popped up. Some of the soldiers groaned in disgust, while Fox sat there, staring. More images of blood, gore, guts, torn up skin, pus, internal organs, exposed bone, etc. followed, with Fox completely unaffected by the whole thing. James was shocked that his two-year-old son didn't even react to these images, while the soldiers' stomachs were churning. He reminded himself to check the child blocks on the T.V. when he got back home.

After classes were over and they arrived back home, Vixy would usually have dinner ready. They'd sit down and have a normal family dinner. Fox would eat anything that they had with no complaints. Well, anything that wasn't green, but that's normal. James would explain what he taught that day to Vixy, with Fox usually taking over after James had said only a couple of sentences. Vixy listened in amusement and amazement as Fox went through every single thing that James had taught that day (in stilted, incomplete sentences, of course). Every time James tried to cut in, Fox shushed him and continued on. He even corrected James on some occasions, such as the number of rounds a standard Gatling Gun can carry; James had said 100, but Fox corrected him with 200. She was impressed at Fox's memory and impressed at James' teaching abilities. "You must be a good teacher if you can get a two-year-old to understand what you're saying."

James grinned. "Yeah. He probably understood my lectures better than half the soldiers in that classroom."

"Damn straight," piped up Fox, with a mouthful of beef in his mouth. James shot a look at Vixy, who smiled weakly.

"He learned that from Robert."