Sticks and Stones J3T x DM
This is the second of three one shots that I planned to explain some of the little storylines that happened or got mentioned in To Love a Teacher. It is not necessary to read all of TLAT to understand this one shot but if you would like to just search for it on my profile and it will be there.
On a side note, who is loving V so far? I know I am. We Own the Night came out just as I started writing this and I freaking love it already like I do all of the songs which have come out so far.
Danny p.o.v
I am currently waiting for Jorel to come and pick me up from the emergency department in the UCLA Medical centre. I don't remember exactly what happened but according to Grace who phoned the paramedics on me I got to the top of the stairs and then fainted and fell back down and landed on my left arm which has resulted in a nasty fracture. I can't write anymore but I am still going to go to school and get the students to help me or something. Most of my lesson plans for tomorrow and next week have been written up and have power point presentations for anyway so I could easily use those and just give handouts for the students if I need to. "Danny, how are you feeling now? I got two different calls saying two different things about what happened," Jorel says when the doctor told him which bay I was in. I wasn't allowed to go home until they had someone to come and look after me for a few days as well as drive me home tonight.
"I have no idea, I mean at least I am not in pain right now but I don't remember getting home or anything related to how I hurt myself. Grace does tend to exaggerate things sometimes," I tell him and he comes to sit next to me and rubs the bright yellow fall risk bracelet on my wrist. So, whatever actually happened did involve me and at least a flight of stairs or some kind of fall. "Yeah, the doctor was telling me it was more like you were attacked on the top of the stairs instead of fainting. He said you have a slight concussion from a blow to the head and the CCTV showed some shady mother fucker following you," Jorel explains so it was more like I was knocked out and then fell down the flights of stairs to my apartment. That makes more sense to me.
"I don't really care what happened any more, I just wanna go home now. I have to go to work in the morning and I know I have to wear this bracelet for a few days," I tell him and he just pulled me into a hug. "I know Danny and I think they said they'd let you leave in half an hour. I'm gonna stay with you and Dylan might do a day as well. I only just got here and they want to do more observations on you before they let you leave," Jorel says and I sigh, I seem to have spent half of my life in and out hospitals and today was going to be no exception. It is like nine o'clock in the evening so time wise it isn't that bad. I have had to stay until half eleven at night before because the ER was so busy and I wasn't as high priority as most of the other patients that arrived that day.
"I'm just texting Dylan and Jordon to let them know where I am and that I am staying at yours tonight. I am not too happy to take you to work tomorrow but I gotta do some rehearsals for tour so I kinda don't have a choice. You'll be safe in school right?" he asks me and I nodded. I was feeling fine now, just tired and I was just waiting to go home. "Yeah, Grace would probably have told the principal her version of what happened tonight and they'll all be checking on me throughout the day. I won't be able to be on my own especially since I'll have this fall bracelet on and they'll see it. It's casual Friday tomorrow," I tell him. I can't get any form of long sleeve t-shirt on over this unless I borrow some of someone else's clothes because all my long sleeve t-shirts are tight on me.
"Yeah but by Monday you won't need it anymore which will be fine and if they ask just say you fell down the stairs cause you tripped on your laces, you don't have to say you were attacked or say anything to make them think Grace was telling the truth," Jorel tells me and then he passed me a bottle of cherry Tango from his bag. "I'll open it in a second for you. I just bought it for you when I heard from Grace that you collapsed because I was guessing that you needed some sugar in you," he tells me and my eyes lit up. I love Tango so to get some from Jorel was like it was Christmas for me. I did feel a little embarrassed that he had to open the drink for me but then again this is going to happen for the next 6 to 8 weeks so I better start getting used to it. Jorel took the bottle from me so he could open it for me and then handed it straight back so I could take a big swig from it. I nearly drank half the bottle in one go.
"Yeah, I think you needed that," Jorel tells me and I chuckle at him. I handed it to him so he could put the cap back on and put it on the little table where I had an empty cup with a straw in it. It used to have water in it but they made me drink all of it not long after I woke up. "Yeah, I know I needed that. Thank you Jorel," I tell him with a smile. I watched Jorel shuffle on the bed so he was next to me and I decided to rest my head on his shoulder. He rubbed my shoulder with his hand, he knows I always hate these places and it is worse when I am on my own. "You're welcome Danny, hopefully now we can get you home and in bed soon," he tells me as we are approaching 9:30 pm. I am still waiting for a doctor to come back and tell me that I am fit enough to go home now. I was getting sick and tired of waiting in here.
It was ten o'clock before the doctor came back to see me. He did a head to toe check on me and asked me a few questions on my memory and things like that. I passed all of his tests to go home but he was worried about the slight amnesia I have but I don't have a concussion which is good. They said that the police couldn't get a statement off me if I didn't remember what happened but if my memory was to return then I should go to the nearest police station as soon as I had the time to so I could give my statement in even though they will be charging him for assault and bodily harm anyway. I was just happy to go home. I had finished my Tango a little while ago and snuggling with Jorel on the hospital bed was just getting uncomfortable now.
"Do you wanna go to bed straight away when we get back or do you wanna watch a film first?" Jorel asks me as we are now in his car on the way back to my apartment. I wasn't sure because maybe Grace was waiting up for me to get home so she could be the mother hen or something. "I kinda want to watch a film but if Grace comes please don't let her in to mother hen me please," I reply, almost begging for him to make sure the woman leaves me alone for at least a night. Jorel had stopped at a red light so he had the chance to stop and rub my arm for a moment. "Alright Danny, that's what we'll do. We will watch a film until you get tired enough and fall asleep and should Grace wanna stick her witchy nose in our business then you can pretend to sleep and I will deal with her," Jorel tells me and I let out a small sigh of relief.
Getting into my apartment was easy and when I first walked back up those flights of stairs I fell down Jorel was right behind me with a hand on my back to make sure that I didn't fall on him or something. Grace was nowhere to be seen but Jorel swore he saw her little curtain move just as he closed the door behind me and then waited a minute before following me into the apartment. That's a thing that put people off this flat and possibly made the one I live in so much cheaper for me to rent. She had a little window installed so she could keep an eye on her neighbours and call for help if she needed and there are like ten apartments on this floor including ours. I went to sit on the couch straight away while Jorel went to grab my pyjamas and some stuff of his in here.
I was dozing off on the couch almost immediately so when Jorel helped me into my pyjamas it helped with the whole possible pretending to sleep act I might have to do soon. Jorel had put a film on then about 20 minutes into it like we predicted Grace knocks on the door. "Don't make a sound and lie down, also pretend to sleep," Jorel whispers to me and I followed his instructions straight away. Then he grabbed a blanket and covered me with it and tucked it in around me a little bit while Grace was still knocking on the door. Jorel made himself annoyed when he opened the door and I was just going to go with his acting skills. "What's wrong Grace? It's like eleven at night and Danny's sleeping," Jorel says to her, even sounding annoyed. I was going to keep up the pretending to sleep so that if she forces her way in then she could see that Jorel was telling the truth.
"I was just making sure that Danny was okay after what happened after work," she says, not going into specific detail into what happened which is making me believe that her story of me fainting is definitely a lie. "He's fine, he was tired when I met him in the hospital and he has two fractures to his left arm and he is perfectly happy with me and Dylan taking care of him while he needs us," Jorel says which was him trying to hint at her that she wasn't needed. I was still keeping up my acting part which was pretty easy because I was actually falling asleep on the couch. I don't think I am going to last the whole duration of the film before I fall asleep. At first, I didn't think she was getting the hint because she was still talking to Jorel about me and how I shouldn't be living on my own anymore and I should have someone look after me 24/7 because apparently, I can't take care of myself.
This pissed off Jorel the most because he and I both know I am quite capable of taking care of myself as I have had to do it my whole life. The only thing I can't do is defend myself from sneak attacks which lead to one punch knockouts which leads to me falling down the stairs. "Danny is more than capable of looking after himself, he doesn't need someone like you around to mother hen him. He isn't your son, he is an adult who can look after himself," Jorel says and I could feel the anger radiating from him and the hurt from Grace. He burned her good, that stupid witch. I think it took another five minutes of them arguing back and forth before Jorel finally won and Grace gave up. I actually fell asleep a couple of times only to wake up when Grace started shouting.
Jorel closed the door behind him and sat down next to me quietly, in case he thought I had fallen asleep. "Danny, are you awake?" he asks me, speaking quietly to me. "Just about, I got quite comfy and would have actually fallen asleep if it wasn't for Grace shouting," I tell him and he smiles at me. I had my eyes closed until I started talking. He lifts me up slightly so he can sit down and my head will be on his lap. "Do you wanna continue watching the film and then go to bed or go to bed now?" he asks me. Now both sound like very tempting options. "I might as well stay up a little longer and finish watching the film all though there is the chance I'll fall asleep before the film is over," I tell him. He ran his fingers through my hair a couple of times.
"Okay Danny, if that's what you want to do then that is what we will do. I just gotta text Jordon to let him know I am still staying with you tonight, he's getting super whiney," he tells me and I chuckle. Jordon and Jorel are soulmates and are practically joined at the hip most times that I have seen them. Or I could say that they are joined at the lips more often than not. "Okay, he can come over you know if he gets that desperate," I tell him, knowing how much Jordon hates being apart from Jorel. I looked up to see Jorel smile at me and for a moment I forgot that I was hurt and that was the reason why he was over. "Nah, he'll be okay for one night. I'll be seeing him in less than twelve hours anyway so he can suck it up this once while I keep an eye on you," he tells me and I chuckled again.
One of Jorel's nicknames for Jordon is his little buttercup so suck it up buttercup is one of the ways that Jorel can tease Jordon if he needs to. "Okay," I reply, knowing that he is here to help me get changed and then keep an eye out for any symptoms of a concussion and to be my driver. We continue watching the film and I managed to stay awake until it was over before my eyes started to shut on their own and Jorel noticed. "Come on, let's get you into bed," he tells me and he watches me walk into my room before he follows me to help me get changed. Soon I was in bed and fast asleep under the covers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~next morning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Come on Danny, you have work in an hour," Jorel tells me and I groan as I open my eyes and squint at the light. "Okay, okay I am awake dude," I tell him and he chuckles. I am gonna let him make me some coffee and some breakfast since I can't really do much for myself last night. "I'll be back in a minute Danny. I will just make some coffee and some waffles for breakfast," he tells me and I smiled at him. I went to grab my glasses from the nightstand and put them on. Jordon was calling Jorel and I heard my older friend sigh as he heard his boyfriend's ringtone blare out his phone. "Danny, you talk to clingy for me please? I'll never get breakfast done with him nattering down my ear," Jorel asks me and I chuckle and hold out my hand so that I could have a conversation with Jordon while Jorel cooks breakfast.
J: Jorel, I miss you so much.
D: Morning to you to Jordon.
J: Danny, how are you feeling now?
D: Been better, I am a bit tired and sore but that is to be expected after what happened.
J: Yeah, is Jorel making you breakfast and looking after you?
D: Yeah he is, I can't use my left hand for six to eight weeks now.
J: That's good. Dylan will come over later and then I will come tomorrow to look after you.
D: Yeah, thanks Jordon. So Dylan will be coming to pick me up after work yeah?
J: Yeah he will be, he might come and pick your car up first and then come and get you at half past three or something like that.
D: Cool, I trust he is going to pick me up on time and stuff. I do need to avoid Grace today though. Man she was a bitch last night.
J: Yeah, I heard about what she said last night and what she thought happened.
D: Yep, told the cops I fainted even though everyone else knows I was knocked out and I fell down the stairs and broke my wrist. I felt a bit dizzy but I am alright now. I just don't want to have her mother hen me especially since Jorel told her I am more than capable of looking after myself.
J: Fair enough, you are more than careful of looking after yourself and she needs to know this more than one time. Try and take care of yourself okay Danny? We don't want you to be in hospital again.
D: Yeah, I am planning not to end up in hospital again but you never know with these things.
J: Yeah good, I am sure we will make you stick to it.
D: Don't worry I am planning on trying to stay healthy. I gotta go now though, Jorel's cooked breakfast.
J: Talk to you later Danny.
D: Talk to you later.
Jorel called me through to my kitchen so I could eat my breakfast. Luckily, I got use the fork to eat the waffle piece with my right hand instead of the left once since I can't use the left right now. He smiled at me as I dug into the food right away, not noticing how hungry I was. "It's casual Friday today in school, right?" Jorel asks me, double checking on what I told him last night. "Yeah, just need a shirt and some jeans," I reply. I had trainers on everyday so that wasn't going to be much of a difference in that. Jorel was going to have to help me get ready for school again. He already ate his breakfast and washed the dishes after I had finished mine so we could get ready for the day. I was sipping on the mug of coffee while Jorel was whistling while he washed the dishes.
"Jordon wasn't too clingy on the phone?" Jorel asks me when I handed him back his phone before we walked into the bedroom so we could get changed, I shook my head to let him know he wasn't. Jorel had a change of clothes in his backpack and I secretly hoped he would let me borrow one of his hooded check shirts to attempt to cover up the fall risk bracelet and the wrist cast. "Hey Danny, just this once I will let you borrow my favourite shirt but only this once. I know you want to hide the wrist stuff," Jorel tells me and I have to resist the urge to hug my friend very tightly. "Thanks dude, if no one sees it then no one can comment on it," I tell him, feeling a lot better about the day then when I first woke up this morning. Jorel chuckled at me because he found it funny how I felt that his check shirt had just saved my life.
"Well, I'll quickly do you hair how you normally have it and then I'll let you try and brush your teeth before we have to leave," Jorel tells me and I sit down on the bed. He carefully brushes my hair and works some of the knots out without hurting me too much and I was sitting on the bed calmly the entire time. Then he got some of my hair gel and made a very smart looking quiff before we went to the bathroom so I could brush my teeth with his assistance while he did his at the same time. Maybe I could get George to do some marking for me over the week while we have mentoring sessions so I could get some help there. "Dylan says he'll help with the over the weekend marking for you," Jorel tells me after he looked at his phone.
I went into my room and grabbed my phone to see he had texted me the same thing he had texted Jorel. I fired a quick text back to say that I was grateful and that would be the best help he could offer me at the moment. It was hard to type with just one hand on my phone's keyboard but luckily, I installed a swipe keyboard a couple of months ago so it made it a little easier on me but not by much. I then followed Jorel down the stairs without either seeing Grace or falling so it was starting to be a good morning. Jorel said when Dylan comes to pick me up from work later he would take me to Dunkin Donuts as a treat after what happened yesterday which is nice of him. Jorel was going to take my car but he needs his to get to work and it's a long walk back to mine so he decided to use his car to take me to work and let Dylan drive here and pick up my car later if he wanted to.
Work was going to be a nightmare for me but I was hoping that if I could get through the day without anyone trying to baby me too hard then it should be fine. Something that made my morning a bit brighter was after Jorel helped me get into my classroom the principal walked in and handed me an ice coffee. "Morning Danny, how are you feeling?" she asks me and I smiled at her and took a good sip of the ice coffee she gave me. "I'm feeling okay now thank you, I don't know what you know about last night though," I tell her and she was happy that I seem to be in good spirits. "Grace send me a weird text about you fainting and falling down the stairs or something like that," she tells me and I sighed. I think that woman is close to retirement now.
"I didn't faint, I got attacked and when I got knocked out last night I fell down the stairs and that's how I broke my arm. There was no fainting involved as far as the police are concerned," I tell her, using what the police have told me to help with my memory issues which seemed to be very present at the moment. I still can't remember making it home at all last night after school. "Yeah, all I ask of you Danny is that you tell me when you feel like you need to go home and that you feel like you can't teach. I am not sending you home because Grace is pressuring me too, I will send you home if I see reason to," she tells me and I sigh in relief. I knew she was the sensible one and she knew how to do her job.
"Thanks, I think for today at least I should be fine. I know I have all of today's lessons planned out and most of the resources I need but if I need to get more printouts I can send one of the students to go and get them for me. My friend Dylan will help me plan and make stuff over the weekend I think so I am trying to make sure I stay on top of stuff while I have the cast on for the next eight weeks," I tell her, Jorel had left when I got into the classroom so he could go to work. She told me all my classes would be in here so I wouldn't be struggling to lock and unlock two doors during the day I'd only have to unlock one during break times and lunch if I left the room at all which I didn't think I was going to because of Grace and her mother hen action. She's probably told half of the staff that I have fainted when that isn't true.
"I'll send an email out to all staff to say that what happened to you is a police matter and shouldn't be discussed between staff. I will also say that all of your lessons are in here for the next six to eight weeks since you can't really do much with that cast on and this will be your main classroom from next year onwards anyway," she tells me and I never felt so grateful to have this conversation with her in my life. She was sorting out all of the issues that were going to arise before I had even said that they would become issues. "Yeah, I apricate this a lot. I know that Grace is going to cause a lot of trouble today," I tell her. I hate that the only thing that was going to be an issue was the old lady who should have been caring towards the rest of the staff.
"I know you will Danny, just take it easy today. You can ask me at any point if you want to have someone to cover the lesson if you are in too much pain," she tells me and we talked for a little while longer before it was time to have lessons start since we talked over the time that we would have had if I had a form group this year. She left and I waited for the class to line up outside of the door. My first class of the day was George and the rest of his grade which was nice. The only person I don't like is Tai but I felt it was inappropriate the way that she behaved towards me during the lessons and how she tried to force herself upon me. She is certainly not my type and I wouldn't date her even when she left the school.
I let the class in and for the first fifteen minutes of the lesson no one had noticed that I had broken my wrist and I can't right anything at the moment. George had come up to the desk to ask for me to look over his work and to see where he was going wrong and then he noticed that my left sleeve looked weird because of the fracture and the cast. I let him know that I had fell down last night and landed on my wrist but I was okay. Then I told him how to do the work that he was struggling on. He went back to his seat after I told him to come back at break time so we could start working on some of his tutoring issues but I wanted him to get something to eat first. The rest of the lessons up to break went well and I didn't even see Grace yet which was good for me at the moment. I knew I couldn't avoid her forever though.
She showed up at break time and I tried to make myself not look too annoyed at her because of the comments that she made against me last night and some things I have been receiving in emails from other members of staff throughout the first and second lesson of the day. She is trying to make me out to be someone who is very incapable of looking after themselves and it pissed me off the same amount that Jorel was last night. "Hello Grace," I tell her, neither sounding pleased or displeased to see her. "Morning Daniel, I trust you are feeling better this morning," she says and I was starting to show my displeasure. I hate it when anyone and I mean anyone calls me Daniel, not even Jorel can call me Daniel ever. "I'm feeling fine thank you Grace," I tell her. The way that I answered her even showed how upset I was getting.
"Are you sure? You don't sound like it?" she asks me and I sighed. Well I guess that it is rant time. Maybe I could use some of the words that Jorel used last night when she thought I was sleeping when I wasn't really. "Maybe I would be feeling better if I wasn't getting emails from people asking me what happened last night and why I seem to be not able to take care of myself when I full well know that I can. I have been independent since I was too young for that to be a thing. I am NOT your son Grace, I never have been and never will be. The only mother I had left me for dead on a daily basis. I got attacked last night and I fell down the stairs you don't need to be going around trying to get people to treat me like I am an invalid when I am freaking not," I told her, not caring how hurt she got compared with how people's opinion of me has changed over the course of a morning. I hardly ever rant like this. I almost swore which as well is something that I don't usually do but I almost felt like it was needed here.
She was hurt but it was nothing compared to how I was feeling. "Did it ever cross your mind once that people were going to know you lied and what implications your lies have had on me and my already shattered confidence Grace? I can't be living my life always wondering how I am going to be treated next because something is always going to go wrong," I add wanting to leave my own freaking classroom so I could go cry like a baby somewhere because of how much this had hurt me. She was now understanding and knowing how I really felt about all of this and I hoped she was ashamed of herself. "You're right Daniel, I shouldn't have lied and I shouldn't have said all those things about you. I know it can't repair your confidence but I am sorry," she says and shortly after she left, leaving me in a mess an emotional mess. I didn't know whether I wanted to cry or scream about all of this.
George came at just the right moment to distract me from the madness which is going on inside of my head. "Mr Murillo, are you okay?" he asks me and for a moment I didn't mind him calling me Mr Murillo this once. "Been a lot better if I am honest with you George. Grace has been saying a lot of stuff about me which isn't that nice and now I have to deal with that," I tell him, not feeling afraid to tell him stuff like this because I feel like we are becoming friends now even though it is not recommended to become friends with your students. He sat down on the floor with me and we just talked about anything that could make us laugh and to be fair George was pretty good at cracking jokes. He improved my mood which was pretty good and I did teach him some things while we were messing around a little bit.
George managed to pick my mood up off the ground and I was good to go for the rest of the day. He came to my class at lunch time and ate his lunch with me so I wasn't on my own. Dylan came in during my last lesson and helped me teach because I had to do some correct spellings on the board for some for the students and I couldn't do it. They appreciated the spellings being on my whiteboard and I could have typed them up but while Dylan was here I might as well get some use out of him. After school Dylan took me to Dunkin donuts in his car like he promised me and it made my day even better. "Was your day okay then Danny?" he asks me while we were on the way back to my house and suddenly I felt tears spring to my eyes.
"Not really Dylan, I feel fucking awful. Grace made my school day a lot harder than it was supposed to be. She just made a lot of lies about me and trying to make everyone treat me differently," I tell him and we arrived at my house in no time. I had tears in my eyes and Dylan took me into the apartment as soon as possible. As soon as he closed the door I started bawling my eyes out. Dylan just picked me up and I cried on him while he was trying to calm me down and get me to stop crying. "Grace was being a jerk Danny. You don't need to feel bad about anything you told her today. If she messed up the on her head be it. You are the strongest most independent guy I have ever met and that is not going to change just because you broke your arm this time yesterday," he tells me and I started to feel a little bit better about myself and the situation in general.
He also helped me feel better with a phone call from the other guys he sings with and they were messing around trying to get me to laugh and it worked. I am so grateful to have these guys in my life right now. I would have done something regrettable by now if it wasn't for them. They even suggested me spending the day at theirs tomorrow then Jorel and Jordon would come back with me to spend the night with me so I wasn't on my own. Dylan made me tacos for dinner and I was so hungry by the time I got them that they were gone pretty quickly. I asked Dylan to help me get changed after dinner and we spent the evening watching cartoons before I fell asleep in his arms.
And that is the end of another one shot and almost the end of the TLAT one shot series. I hope you enjoyed. Leave requests below.
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