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First days were easy enough for Raleigh– he had been through so many. Explain his seating rules, do attendance, hand out his syllabus, which he had tossed together a week earlier, just in time for the preparing faculty meeting. He had two freshmen classes to start the day, and an extra ten-minute nutrition break that he spent at his desk, scribbling notes on his classes onto a piece of paper to help him get them started.
Someone cleared their throat.
Raleigh looked up quickly, and couldn't stop from smiling as he saw Ms. Mori standing there. "Ms. Mori," he addressed her, standing quickly. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. For real."
She smiled as well, shaking his hand. "The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Becket. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction earlier."
"No problem. The school's got a weird system for room numbers anyway."
She tilted her head in a way that was a question and Raleigh found himself looking at her bared neck for longer than necessary.
"Technically the Languages Department is two buildings; this one and yours. But, since this building only has the library and the English classes, it's technically the English building."
"Ah," she said. She smiled again. "I suppose that students are not the only ones who have trouble the first day."
He waved a hand, dismissing her comment. "It's no big deal, really. We've been getting on Administration for years to clear the issue up."
There was a bit of a silence as both of them wondered what to say. Then, a curious student poked their head in the open door, and Raleigh waved him inside, motioning him to take a seat. Mako turned to leave.
"I'll see you at the faculty meeting after school?" he asked. She only nodded, although she did it with a smile still on her face. Raleigh couldn't help but grin in return.
"Yancy." Raleigh collapsed face-first onto the cot in the nurse's office.
"Good afternoon," Yancy countered, his smile somehow audible as he looked at his younger brother, stretched out on the small bed in the corner of his tiny room. "Come on, get up and eat your lunch."
"You're doing it again. The mothering thing."
"Better than doing the catatonic thing," Yancy countered, and crushed up his brown paper lunch bag in one hand, balling it and throwing it at Raleigh's head with incredible accuracy. With a sigh, he dragged himself out of the bed and into a chair set up in front of Yancy's desk, grabbing a sandwich from the table.
"So what's the problem?" Yancy asked, biting into his own food and watching his younger brother closely. Raleigh was frowning at his sandwich with a furrowed brow.
"Yancy, I'm…" he searched for a word. "Good-looking, right?"
Yancy blinked. "You're kidding."
"I was just concerned that—"
"Raleigh," Yancy cut him off. "No. Not today. You are not asking me if you're hot today. Eat your sandwich."
Rather glumly, Raleigh did as he was told. Yancy withstood the silence for a few more minutes before bursting out, "Why does it bother you anyway?"
"Never mind." Raleigh crumpled up his sandwich rapper and tossed it into the garbage.
"Raleigh!"
"I said never mind. Forget I brought it up." Raleigh suppressed a smile as a vein appeared in Yancy's forehead.
"God, you're a child," Yancy huffed. "Get out of my office."
Laughing, Raleigh ducked out quickly, into the main office. Tendo paused his work to call him over. "Hey! Becket-boy!" Once he was close, Tendo dropped his voice to a secretive tone. "So, how was the announcement, huh?"
"You nearly shocked my freshman class to death," Raleigh told him honestly.
"Yes." Tendo punched the air in triumph, a few beaded bracelets clacking. "Always a great way to start the year."
Raleigh grinned and was about to go into how one day Tendo would be reduced to rapping the morning announcements, but in the three seconds it to for him to phrase his sentence and open his mouth, a queue of students had already formed behind him, jostling for Tendo to alter their schedules or locker assignments. Raleigh left him to his work. "See you at the faculty meeting."
Tendo saluted him.
Raleigh strolled through the quad aimlessly, waving at a few of his old students who shouted his name. He was passing by the shop class, whose door was open as usual, and paused at the loud crashing from inside.
"You're all a bloody disgrace!"
He walked over and leaned in the doorway. Chuck was pacing red-faced in front of his desk, addressing a line of teenaged boys with their heads bowed.
"The world isn't a place for half-assed layabouts like you all," he said in a dark tone. "I expected more, for whatever reason. Now you buggers get the hell out of my classroom before I need to sandblast away the stains you're making on my floor." They began to troop out past Raleigh.
"And don't come back until you're all ready to apply yourselves!" he shouted after them. Raleigh got a good look at their faces. Flushed, repentant, but also with a bit of defiance in their eyes. When they were gone, Raleigh entered the room and approached Chuck's desk.
"I don't know how you get away with talking to students like that," he said honestly.
Chuck shrugged. "They're not the lot to go running to their mums about what a hardass their shop teacher is. They're good kids. Talented. Hopefully they'll sign on for the right level this time." Raleigh looked over his shoulder towards the open door and did in fact see the students joining the line to talk to Tendo.
"Now I don't know why you're snooping around," Chuck spoke up, "But I'm glad I caught you. I was wondering if you could spot me a few morning detentions once football season starts up. I want to get morning practices going this year."
Raleigh made a vague noise, not quite an agreement. He knew better than to promise Chuck anything in advance, ever since he had been saddled with organizing a bake sale for the football team. It had taken him almost a month to finish cleaning his kitchen, and he still couldn't show his face in Home Depot.
He changed the subject. "Are we finally going to win the Payload Award?"
A vein popped in Chuck's forehead. "We'd better. It's the fourth goddamn year we've come up empty."
At that Raleigh beat a retreat, the five minute warning bell going off to signal the end of lunch and the beginning of sixth block classes. As Raleigh was leaving, he saw girl after girl, most of them in clusters of two or three, giggling as they entered Chuck's class. Raleigh couldn't keep an amused smile off of his face as he looked back over his shoulder to witness Chuck's face going a shade pale.
Raleigh walked quickly past the Math and Science Buildings, hearing a loud argument taking place inside Dr. Gottlieb's room. But it wasn't a normal Newt-I-hate-you argument, either. There was a third voice.
"Dr. Gottlieb, I honestly don't think that I am qualified to—" Mako stood between the two, hands raised as if to keep them from coming to physical blows.
"Nonsense, you are an unbiased source—" Hermann was saying, and Newt was actually agreeing.
"Yeah, he hasn't infected you with complacency and stuffiness," Newt said. Hermann sputtered and continued his rampage.
Raleigh winced, feeling bad, and considered diving in to try and save her. Then he saw something shift in her countenance, a tightening of her jaw and a straightening of her back.
"Dr. Gottleib!" she said loudly, cutting him off. "Newt!" They both fell silence and looked at her.
"As an unbiased source I am also uneducated as to the nature of your argument," she said, and then held up her hands for silence as they tried to speak. "Allow me a few weeks of scientific observation before I form my educated conclusion?"
They both looked anywhere other than at her and muttered their support. Newt twisted his mouth and stomped out of the room like a child being sent to his room, and Hermann sniffed, flexing his fingers on his cane and lifting his chin.
"Thank you, Ms. Mori," he said stiffly, and she was quick to nod and walk out of the room with long, purposeful strides. She exhaled, relaxing, and Raleigh fell into step beside her.
"That was impressive," he told her honestly. She smiled proudly, lifting her chin a little and showing off the blue streaks in her hair.
"Thank you," she said.
"I was just about to go in and help you out," he said without thinking, awkwardly feeling heat rise up the back of his neck, "but I think instead I'll call you for help next time I get trapped."
They reached the hallway between their classes and stopped. He looked down at her and saw that she was looking up at him. They both quickly looked away.
"See you after school," he said. She nodded and headed to her classroom.
Raleigh stood there for a few more minutes, watching her go.
"I can't do it," Chuck groaned. "Every time I turn around someone is whispering about my ass! And then I turn again and they're muttering about my chest! For chrissakes, I'm not a piece of meat!"
Raleigh arrived late to the faculty meeting, having had his free seventh block taken up by old students visiting him and abusing him about how the previous year he had more often than not appeared first thing shirtless and covered in sweat, poking fun at how his passing twenty-eighth birthday had made him more modest. He slipped into his seat at the table unnoticed, Chuck's rant taking up everyone's attention.
"You really should learn to take a compliment," Tendo deadpanned, a corner of his mouth twitching in amusement.
Chuck pointed an accusing finger. "You did this on purpose."
Tendo pulled his mouth into a baiting smile. "If I knew that it would bother you so much, I would have."
Their voices grew louder and Herc shouted over them. "Oi! Doesn't matter. Let's get back on topic." He glared at his son, who fell into a bitter silence. Herc, the vice principal, stood at the head of the table that they were all sitting at.
"First off, welcome back, everyone," he said. "And welcome to new faces." He nodded at Mako, sitting across the table from Raleigh. "This week, keep an eye on your rosters for class drop-outs and switches. Contact Tendo to double-check anyone not arriving to class. Over the next two weeks we have club sign-ups, so if you sponsored a club last year and do not wish to do so this year, make sure to tell your students and find a replacement sponsor. If you are requested to sponsor a new club, direct your students to the proper paperwork back in the main office."
Raleigh had been asked a few dozen time last year to sponsor clubs and always turned them down gently, his lunches too filled with visits to Yancy to host a club in his classroom.
Chuck wasn't paying attention, folding a piece of paper into a sharp triangle. He flicked it, aiming for Tendo, but hit Raleigh instead. The point of the paper football caught in his sweater and stuck there. Chuck smothered his laughter. Herc shot him a look.
"As for sports tryouts," he said, making Chuck sober up, "We'll have sign-ups for days and field use in the faculty lounge. First come, first serve, as always. It's up to you to get a date and then communicate it to Tendo in time for him to make an announcement. And that seems that's all for this meeting," he said, checking a list on a piece of paper in his hand.
"Not quite."
Everyone straightened in their chairs as Principal Stacker Pentecost entered, wearing a perfectly pressed blue suit like it was a uniform. Chuck none-too-subtly moved a napping Max underneath the table with his foot, the bulldog snoring softly.
"This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the Payload Award," he said, "but you all know this."
"We've got it in the bag this year," Chuck bragged, leaning his chair back. Stacker looked at him.
"This year, the award is not only for the school's morale. It contains a cash prize of ten thousand dollars for use around the school. Winning it this year is of utmost importance."
Chatter began up and down the table at the announcement. Raleigh found himself looking at Mako, who had an expression of delicate confusion as she listened in on snatches of conversation. Then there was a loud coughing and he looked at Yancy, who was moving his eyes back and forth between Mako and Raleigh, trying to communicate something. Raleigh sought out his foot under the table and then stepped down, hard. Yancy winced.
With that, the conference closed, a few of the departments moving to different classrooms for more personalized announcements and plans. Chuck picked up his slumbering dog and carried him in his arms from the room, Herc next to him as they talked brusquely about the upcoming football season.
Raleigh was about to leave when Stacker spoke up.
"Becket. Mori." They both stood still as he approached them.
"Ms. Mori, I would like to welcome you formally to the school," he began, and said something in Japanese. She eagerly replied and he nodded. He then turned to Raleigh.
"As the head of the Language Department I expect you to make Ms. Mori fully welcome. Help her learn the ropes of the school."
Raleigh nodded. "Yes, sir."
With that, Stacker left them. Raleigh glanced slyly at Mako, who was gathering her note-taking material and placing it neatly into her briefcase. As she bent over the fringe of her hair moved to conceal her face and reveal more of her bare neck.
Raleigh mentally punched himself, picturing Yancy's face during the meeting to help squash any half-formed thoughts in his mind. Focus on the important things.
First this new teacher, and now ten thousand dollars.
This year was getting interesting.
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