I don't own Bleach or it's characters.

My brain is like swiss cheese. Seriously, this is a laugh at yourself moment. I went to post chapter 4 of this story, wrote all these notes to my readers in it, just to find out my dee-da-dee self had not posted chapter 3! Haaaaaaaaaa! Well, here it is, my amazing readers. Do take note of the author's notes in the next chapters, and enjoy your 2 for 1 post, after all this time! =D

Chapter 3

Ichigo managed to squeak into the conference room with eight minutes before the interviewee was due to arrive. His face was a little flushed from his mad dash from his classroom where he dumped his outerwear, to the office; skidding across the aging linoleum in the staff lounge to toss his container full of eggs into the run down fridge before slipping in through the conference room door. Principal Unohana smiled warmly at him in greeting as he went around and shook hands with the other people in the room, Vice Principal Isane Kotetsu, Superintendent Shunsui Kyōraku, and the school counselor, Miss Haruko.

He accepted a packet of paper from Principal Unohana and sat down in a faded gray chair, disregarding everything about the applicant and looking to see where he went to school and what were his qualifications. He arched his brow upon reading Bachelors- Major Biochemistry and Major Physical Education at Seireitei University. Holy shit, he double majored at one of the most prestigious universities? Ok, definitely well-versed in his content area and more than likely to be able to handle high stress environments then, Ichigo thought to himself. He himself attended the education program and the university held high and rigorous standards for all their degree programs.

He read down the employment history, seeing the applicant worked throughout college at a fitness center as a life guard and swim instructor. Well, he had some type of instructional experiences then. After college, he was hired at Los Noches Research Facilities as a biomedical engineer in the pharmaceuticals division. That really piqued Ichigo's interest, and he jotted a question down on his notepad he pulled from his bag. He'd just finished when there was a knock at the door and the tiny, white haired office secretary led in the applicant.

Ichigo set down his pen and stood as the others did, looking up finally to assess the applicant and was floored. The man applying was huge. Not huge as in obese; the complete opposite in fact. He was about 6'2" and easily close to 200 lbs of pure muscle. He was wearing a short sleeved, crisply pressed white dress shirt that displayed a broad set of shoulders and sculpted arms; undoubtedly his entire body was fit, judging from his trim waist and the way the guy's dress trousers hugged all the right places.

And his hair…Ichigo thought his blazing orange hair couldn't be more shocking, but this guy had blue hair. It literally was Caribbean blue with subtly darker highlights when the light wasn't hitting it dead on, just like clear waters. It was short and spikey, a few errant strands falling messily to his forehead. The man's eyes were only shades lighter, piercing and feline in shape, amplified by teal, cat-eye tattoos beneath both uniquely colored orbs. He had an angular jaw and high cheekbones to match.

Ichigo had to mentally shake himself, his thumb spinning the tungsten band on his left hand. Well, he reasoned with himself, there was no harm in appreciating a nice-looking man, it wasn't that often that one like this appeared. Looking at the menu was allowed, and he certainly had no intentions of ordering from it, he wasn't that kind of guy. He smiled politely and shook the man's hand, introducing himself and his title, ignoring the flush of heat he felt rush down his spine when their hands touched, quickly seating himself and busying himself with readying his notepad as the man sat down before them, ready to begin.

And so it began, Superintendant Kyōraku firing off question number one.

"Please tell us," he asked in his smooth, low voice, "why you are interested in this particular school."

The man, Jagerjaquez, Ichigo read on the paperwork, was sitting straight in his chair but looked so at ease. He remembered how nervous he felt in his interview and had to clasp his hands together to make sure he didn't wave them around when talking.

"I choose this school because I grew up here in Hueco Mundo. I know this program is fairly new, only six years old, conceptualized and brought to fruition after my public education. I was a lot like some of the students who come here: poor, a not so great family life, and mad at the world. I can tell you for certain looking back, if this school had been here in my time, I'd have been a student here. I feel that my experiences being a part of this community for most of my life gives me a great understanding and foundation for building relationships with the students."

Great answer! Ichigo mentally cheered, jotting down a quick note on his pad. He met eyes with Unohana, reading her approval so far. It was she who spoke next.

"Mr. Jagerjaquez, what do you believe are appropriate or best practices in physical education?"

Ichigo's pen was at the ready, highly interested in this answer.

"Appropriate instructional practices are those that recognize students' development and ever-changing movement abilities, as well as their individual differences. My approach is student centered; I determine where students' current skills are at, in anticipation of developing lessons that address their developmental needs. I take that data to plan and implement differentiated instruction that maximizes the potential for each student to develop in all domains in a safe, motivating environment. It is also always a priority for me to scaffold skills across grade levels."

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! Ichigo's inner game show host was dancing in delight. If this guy kept it up, they might have found the best candidate for the position they've ever come across.

"How do you ensure the safety and well-being of the students in physical education class, particularly across multi-grade classes and, er, outside affiliations?" was asked by Miss Haruko in her quiet voice.

"Upon being chosen for the job, I will be inspecting the quality of all equipment I'm planning to use as well as ensuring the proper maintenance for said items. Students will be expected to have the proper attire to participate and will never handle any equipment or engage in any activity without being properly instructed how to do so and given time to practice the skill. My lessons are all standards-based and driven by physical maturation and skill development levels. I'm fully prepared for differentiation for any medical issues because I believe in creating an environment where everyone is included."

His eyebrow arched as he continued, "As for outside affiliations, standard school policy applies in the gymnasium. No affiliation attire allowed. I intend on doing community building activities once a month at minimum; until I meet the students and gauge the severity of situations I can't know exactly what I'm dealing with, although I'm assuming it's 6th through 8th that's experiencing the tension?"

Both Miss Haruko and Principal Unohana nodded at his question.

"Well, I have great expertise in this area as well, sharing at expense of losing this position, but I've got nothing to hide. I am ex-Espada myself."

This did not surprise Ichigo or Principal Unohana, but Miss Haruko's eyes widened considerably in shock.

Ichigo quickly cleared his throat, drawing the glacial colored eyes to him.

"Mr, Jagerjaques, how do you intend to deliver physical education to students with a variety of development and special learning needs?" Ichigo asked clearly, his eyes challenging the other. The man's eyes stayed locked to his as he answered, clearly not intimidated at all.

"All students do not necessarily practice the same skill in the same way. Differentiation of stations, equipment, and activities will be used to meet individual student needs. Ongoing formative assessment will support dynamic and varied decisions all along the instruction continuum, after all, data is an educators best friend, is it not? As you are the head of the special education department here, I'd like to put it out there that if hired, my door is always open for collaboration and constructive feedback where our exceptional students are concerned."

Ichigo nodded at him, trying to keep his face a cool mask of nonchalance. Another question was asked by the superintendent, but Ichigo was too busy signaling Unohana with his eyes, once they were free of Jagerjaquez's steely hold, to please hire this guy! If he wasn't all talk and had the action to back his words up, he'd be the perfect addition to the Academy, one who understood differentiation was part of his job as an educator and not all on Ichigo's shoulders. To have more colleagues that understood his student's needs weren't solely his problem would be a blessing to Ichigo.

Grimmjow smashed the rest of the interview, but it got down to the conclusion and Ichigo ended up beating Unohana to the million-dollar question.

"Mr. Jagerjaquez, I think I speak for all of us when I ask, why would you leave a biomedical engineering position to be a school teacher? I don't mean it to sound incredulous," he added, a little panicked the other man would find it rude.

A soft, but genuine smile came over the man's face, making him even more handsome.

"At Los Noches, I specialized in research to develop all natural work out supplements, combining two of my passions: biochemistry and fitness. I'm a firm believer in what we put in our bodies is what we get out of them, and so many products contain chemicals that aren't necessarily the best things to be ingesting. I had great success and patented my product, and it was approved by the Seireitei FDA and Organics Division. It's one of the brands paving the way for the industry."

"Now that I've achieved and am maintaining that success, I want to come back and make a difference in the place where I grew up. I've told you already I'm ex-Espada, and if you know anything about this place and these kids, you know that it chews them up alive. They need role models, people who authentically understand what they are going through and can show them that success can be achieved, that they aren't limited by their socio-economic status or learning exceptionalities. These kids more than anything need adults in their life that are going to give them a chance."

He had leaned forward in his seat, his voice hard with passion and it made his eyes shine. Ichigo felt his heart swell with comradery; that was why he was here, why he stayed in a job that was an everyday challenge and low salary. All for the kids. Miss Haruko looked like she was going to swoon and Ichigo smirked a little to himself. Kami save him when he got hired, because Jagerjaquez already had a lady admirer. And Ichigo was prepared to do whatever he needed to do to get Jagerjaquez hired.

Later that afternoon, Ichigo was in the back corner of his classroom with four lift-top desks pushed together in a group. His uppermost math group was working on multiplication. They had mastered multiplication by 2s and by 5s, and were now moving onto 3s. He had his students using dry erase markers to write with right on the desktop whatever math problem they had on their card. He was demonstrating how they'd be doing their math practice as they watched.

"So, my card says 3x4," he said, holding up his card and showing it to each student. "You will make a straight line going across your desk like mine," he said as he drew with an orange marker. He waited for the students to copy what he did before continuing. "Now, you will move over on your line, leaving some space, and draw a straight line down your desk, so it makes this sort of T-shaped chart." Again, he drew and waited for the students to copy.

"Now I write my 3 on the side of the line going up and down and then were the lines cross in the corner you put your multiplication sign." While his students complied, Ichigo did a quick scan of the rest of the students who were either doing a math program on the Ipads or working on their individual math packets. So far everyone was on task.

"Excellent! Now, here's the part where everyone will have something different. My card said 3x4, so I put my 4 on the top of the line that is going across the desk. Each of you will be putting the second number on your card, so no one will have the same number on their top line." He watched as each student wrote their respective numbers.

Grabbing a plastic baggie with small, colorful plastic cubes, he grinned at his group.

"This is the fun part! Now you are going to build your math problem and figure out the answer! This is how it works. My number three is telling me how many cubes I need to have in each of my rows. 3 is how many cubes I'm putting in each row. How many cubes am I putting in each row, Jinta?"

"3," answered the red-haired boy lazily.

"Spot on, Jinta, you were paying attention! Tell your friends."

"We are putting 3 cubes in each row," he said in a bored tone but not looking at the other two kids in the group.

"We know the 3 is telling us to put 3 cubes in each row. Now, I have a 4 for my second number. The 4 is telling me how many rows with 3 cubes in them that I need to make. The second number you have, the one at the top of your chart, is telling you how many rows to make. Look at your chart and tell me, Ururu, how many rows are you going to make?"

She blushed and looked at her problem.

"I'm making 5 rows, Mr. K," she said shyly, tugging on one of her pigtails.

"Fantastic, Ururu! And you, Hitomu?"

"Seven!"

"You are all on fire today, I'm very proud! Let me show you mine as an example and I'll leave you to it. Be sure to watch how I do it. See, I need 4 rows, so I'm putting down 1,2,3,4 cubes going across. Now I need to make sure I have 3 cubes in each row. I already have 1, so I put down 1,2 more cubes. I'll do the same thing for all the rows."

Ichigo filled his desktop array and sat back to look at it.

"Now I have the answer to the problem, 3x4. All I have to do is count all of the blocks!"

He counted them and then wrote out the full equation under his array, speaking it as he wrote.

"3 times 4 equals 12!"

"Now it's your turn. When you are finished, raise your hand so I can check your work before you clear your array and make a new one. You have 10 minutes and then we are going to switch stations."

The students scrambled to open their bags of cubes and get to work, and Ichigo started walking around the room and checking answers in packets as the students finished a page, surreptitiously eying his students on Ipads to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be. A knock at the door had everyone's eyes turning to see who it was, the student's eyes lighting up at seeing their visitor.

"Good afternoon, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade!" Principal Unohana said cheerfully.

"SURVEY!" the class collectively shouted at her.

"Well, of course, thank you for not letting me forget!"

She approached the daily survey, a cookie sheet that Ichigo mounted on the wall with a clear paper protector sleeve taped to it. Every day he typed up a new class survey and inserted it into the sleeve. When the students came in at the beginning of the school day, they used their name magnet to mark their answer to the survey. It was one of the ways he fostered a classroom community. It served as a visual representation to commonalities the students shared.

Principal Unohana made a point to go to every classroom at some point in the day to just check in and say hello. She often forgot to move her name magnet so the students in Ichigo's class had now gotten accustomed to shouting her a reminder when she appeared.

"Would you rather read one book that was 800 pages long or 4 books that were 200 pages long?" read Principal Unohana out loud.

"My my, what a hard choice, because I do love to read. If they were 4 different books, that would certainly be fun, but reading one very long story is great too. And since it's easier for me to remember to grab one book, I think I'm going to go with the one book that's 800 pages long."

She placed her magnet next to the others who had also chosen that answer, which was only Ichigo and one other student. Many students made disbelieving faces at her choice and turned back to what they were doing. She motioned at Ichigo to come over.

He joined her in the corner by the door, holding his breath and hoping for good news.

Principal Unohana leaned in close, speaking in a low, hushed voice.

"We are hiring Mr. Jagerjaquez, the panel was unanimous. I just got done giving him the formal job offer, which he accepted on one condition."

Ichigo let out his breath, but arched a brow in confusion.

"He had a condition?"

"He only wants half the offered salary, with the other half going to you."

Ichigo's mouth dropped open.

"But I don't understand! Who gives away half their salary to somebody they don't even know?" Ichigo asked back, his eyes frantically scanning his working students out of habit before falling back on Unohana.

She simply smiled.

"Well, his reasoning was that he's wealthy enough and will be putting his share back into the school and students, and he also said he understands how underpaid you must be and can tell how much you do for this school if you are regarded with enough esteem to sit in on interviews. Apparently, you made an impression."

Ichigo didn't know what to say. He raked his hand through his hair for what must have been the fortieth time that day.

"So, do you accept? If so, I need you to stop by and sign a few papers after school for the financial board so we can get everything adjusted promptly. Mr, Jagerjaquez will be trialing in two days, his final hire contingent on his performance. I'm assuming it will go well, and your pay increase will be reflected in your next paycheck."

"I mean, I guess so, I certainly could do with more money, but I feel a bit weird about this," Ichigo admitted, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Unohana smiled.

"Ichigo, there's no reason to feel guilty or weird about it. You know I haven't had the budget to give you the pay increase you've deserved for years. It's my worst nightmare that some other school will steal you away. Look at it as the increase you deserve and not where it comes from."

"It's not about the money at the end of the day. Renji makes more than enough to support us-"

"Exactly, Ichigo," countered Unohana, cutting him off. "This is exactly why you do deserve this money. I expect you in my office once your students have boarded their buses and I won't hear another word on the matter."

"Yes ma'am," Ichigo replied like a chastised child.

Unohana smirked.

"And since you decide to accept this offer, you'll have no issues with being his mentor, I'm presuming? I don't want to dump yet another responsibility on you, Ichigo, you do so much already. But he seems highly capable and I think the two of you will work well together."

"No problem," Ichigo agreed, smiling when Unohana gave him a squeeze of thanks on his shoulder and breezed out of the classroom.

Never a dull day, Ichigo thought to himself.

End Chapter. Well, well, that Grimmjow is an outstanding guy, isn't he? Comments and reviews appreciated! 3