CHAPTER 20

TEACHING AT A NEW SCHOOL

COLE'S POV:

The weekend was pretty much a drag. I spent most of it cleaning the house, cooking food that I had to keep buying over and over again and trying to make the yard look decent. I didn't want people to think I lived in a pigsty. I was tired and exhausted. That's not the worst part, but I'm starting to hate Monday's. In fact, I'm starting to hate the person that even made up that phrase. I had to wake myself up at five in the morning to freshen myself up for the day. I was finally able to find some soy milk from a different village and had the energy to make myself some cereal. I didn't see anything else that needed to be cleaned up or put away, so I slung my bag full of supplies over my shoulder, grabbed my briefcase and started to head out the door when the phone rang. I dropped everything on the couch and went to answer the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hello, Cole, this is just Cyrus Borg saying good morning," Borg said, "I was just checking in on you to make sure you were doing alright. Did you have any trouble moving in?"

"Nope. Not at all." I said it quickly and decided to make the call short. "Sorry to have to cut this short, but I need to head out to work."

"Oh, I almost forgot you were starting your new teaching job today. Well, I don't want to keep you for too long. Looks like you've got everything under control. I'll call you another time."

"Goodbye, Mr. Borg." I slammed the phone on the receiver, almost breaking it in half. I have got to control my anger when it comes to having issues with certain people.

I grabbed my things and headed out the door. I wish there was an easier way to travel than just walking somewhere with a bunch of stuff attached to you and a way to get somewhere faster. Although, I shouldn't be complaining considering that the village isn't really that big. By the time I got to the school, I was practically sweating and I usually would care less if I was sweating. When I'm fighting, I wouldn't care. When I wasn't, I just felt uncomfortable and a bit sticky. I would care less right now. I walked down to my classroom and set my stuff down on the desk. I had to admit that it wasn't a bad classroom. The only thing about it was that it was just plain and dull. I just needed to spruce it up a little bit.

Before I even got started, I heard a voice from the door. "I might as well go ahead and guess. Your having first day jitters."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, turning around to see Headmaster Lawrence in the doorway, "All I'm trying to do is decorate the classroom. I'm not nervous or anything. Maybe a little bit, but not a whole lot."

"I can see it from the inside. You like teaching kids, don't you?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Well, anyone who's passionate about teaching kids may plan on having kids of their own."

"I wish those were my plans, but I'm not married. I don't even have a girlfriend. I don't think I ever will."

"Of course you will. Every teacher that's ever worked here has found a special someone and married them. Some of them that I know still work here now at this very moment. I hope your ready to teach today."

"I'll try to enjoy it as much as I can."

"Great. Well, the students should be arriving any minute. Better start getting prepared."

I decided to just drown out every word he said. I'm passionate about teaching kids. That's the truth right there. Do I wanna have kids of my own? Of course I do. Why wouldn't I? There's just one problem. I don't have a girlfriend at the moment, so those plans will just have to wait. To be honest, I don't think I'll ever get a girlfriend. Right now, I just have a crush on the most beautiful girl I ever saw just a couple of days ago. I can't get Carol out of my head. I know she gave me her phone number, but I just don't know if I should call her. I don't even think I told her what my name is. How stupid can I possibly be?

The students started piling in the halls. I heard the bell ring and knew that was the first bell. Second bell means your late, which means I need to make sure to count those who walk in afterwards tardy. I hate to do it, but I must. I have the courage to just be nice today and let the people who come in late slide. It's my first day. It'll cut me a little slack and give the students a break from normal routines. All the students that came in had smiling faces or came in laughing after someone planned a joke on someone else. As far as I was concerned, mostly everyone had a good temper except for one person, who seemed to never be happy at all. I can already guess who that might be.

Richard Laker was the last one to arrive in class. He came in thirty seconds before the second bell rang. By the time he came in, everyone else had already placed their backpacks in the back, lunchboxes outside in the cubby holes and their books were already inside their desk. He was a bit slow when it came to all that, so I decided to wait up on him while he put everything away and let the rest of the class continue their conversations until I was finally ready to begin class. When Richard sat down, I got up.

"Good morning, class," I said, "I'm not gonna spend my time writing my name on the chalkboard, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. My name is Mr. Cole Brookstone. You can either call me Mr. Cole or Mr. Brookstone or whatever works for you. I'm pretty sure you already know the rules,regulations and procedures, so I'm not gonna go over that with you. In fact, I'm gonna write down two extra rules. You, as the students, are gonna write them down."

I wrote down the two rules that I've thought were the most important. "Always stay true to yourself." It means to believe in something that your heart tells you to do. Just make sure it's the right thing. "Always believe in yourself." It means to believe that you can achieve anything no matter how hard it is. I've had to do it all my life. Look how much I believe in myself and say true to my word. Sometimes, I blame that for getting me mixed up into exile.

"Now, the next thing I want you to do is tell me what these two rules have in common and what are their differences." While the students did that, I walked over to my computer and called roll. Looks Luke everyone's here except for someone named Zoey Stallman. I've never heard or seen her before. I'm not sure she ever went to Sensei Wu Academy. I went back up to the board. "Now, I want you to write a paragraph about each of these rules, making it a total of two." None of these kids were liking the idea of having to write about rules, but it's always great to learn something new.

After they were done, I took them up and started off with the English routine. I don't know why we're learning about English. This is Ninjago. We should be learning about the Ninjian language. Afterwards it was math and then intervention, which I finally figured out was a time for student to work on something they didn't know, but I took that time to tell them to never be placed under exile. Well, I didn't put it like that, but I told them that the only way to stay away from it would be to follow the laws and respect others. The bell came for recess and all the children ran out of the classroom like a herd of cows. The only person remaining was Richard. Just like old times.

"I see your still shielding away from recess," I said, closing the door.

"I'm shielding away from everybody," Richard said, "I still haven't made any friends since I got here. Don't need them. Don't want them. Don't really care."

"I'm sure you still stay in contact with your other friends."

"I don't talk to them anymore. I'm sure they don't wanna speak to me."

"What about your family? I'm sure you keep in touch with them."

"I haven't spoken to my family since I left."

"You've been here since January, right?" He nodded. "You haven't spoken to your parents in months? That's ridiculous. You need to talk to them."

"What's the point in even talking to them? I'll never see them again. Mr. Borg won't give me any passes until I'm sixteen. As a child, I have to be disciplined."

"You know what I think of Borg right now? I think of him as a selfish guy. A child not being able to see his parents until he's sixteen is a hard thing to do. Borg called me this morning and I cut it short by telling him that I had to go to work. I didn't wanna talk to him at all. I can't stand him."

"Can I go to the restroom?"

"Sure thing."

The moment Richard left the classroom, I went to my desk and grabbed my phone. I pulled out Carol`s number and placed it into my contacts. Once I did so, I punched her number in and her phone started ringing. When it stopped, an answer came to me.

"Hello?" they asked.

"Hello, there," I said, "Would you happen to be Carol?"

"Yeah. Are you the guy that came to the stand wearing a brown vest and has jet black hair?"

"That's me."

"I knew it had to be you. No one else has my phone number except for my boss and a friend of mine that helps me with my home. They're both old, though. By the way, I never did catch your name."

"The name's Cole. Cole Brookstone."

"Nice name. Why are you calling me? Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I am at work. I'm on break. I wanted to call and ask you something."

"Okay. Ask away."

"Do you mind if we could hang out on Friday night? You seem like a pretty nice girl and you also seem to need a friend that's your age. Besides, it gets kind of lonely when your an exile."

"I can understand that clearly. I know some people. Sure, I don't mind hanging out with you. My address is in Ellis Farm Village Homes."

"Ellis Farm? That's where I live. I thought only exiles lived there."

"Not everyone does. It's the only house I could afford when I came here. Not everyone has a million dollars."

"Your right about that. I guess I'll see you Friday night."

"Pick me up at six. See you then."

"I will. Bye."

I did it. I had the courage to speak to her. Finally, after all these years, I asked a girl out. Even though Carol won't end up being my girlfriend at the end of the night, it's always good to know a girl. Best of all, she'll be my first friend in exile.

COLE STARTED HIS FIRST DAY AT HIS NEW TEACHING JOB. HAD A TALK WITH A STUDENT WHO'S ALSO IN EXILE. THAT LITTLE BOY HASN'T SPOKEN TO HIS PARENTS EVER SINCE HE WAS PLACED UNDER BANISHMENT BACK IN JANUARY. SO UNFAIR. HE CAN'T EVEN VISIT THEM. CURSE YOU, BORG.

COLE ASKED CAROL TO HANG OUT WITH HIM ON FRIDAY NIGHT. I WONDER HOW THAT'S GONNA GO.

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