Most oft he students were in the cafeteria, so the hall was pretty much empty and lifeless. "Betty? Hey! Betty!" someone called for her by the nickname she hated the most and there was only one person who called her like that. The steps were becoming louder and Beth turned her head to the person that was approaching her. "Betty, I missed you!" Before she could even say anything, he was hugging the life out of her, while she just stood there, not moving an inch. "Mike, let me go." Beth said deadly serious. "What? Aren't you happy to see me?" he asked with a small pout. "I'd rather see you in a puddle of your own blood.", "I see you're as straightforward as always, Betty." He said with a chuckle, not caring about Beth's statement at all. "You're even more beautiful. Did you lose some weight? You look better than 3 years ago." He quickly said while observing her from head to toes. Beth wanted to kill him at the moment.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, already annoyed, while staring into his green eyes with an indifferent voice. "That's right, great news. For the part of the college research, I made a contract with school for a two-month experimental math teaching. I get to work with some guy… What was his name again? Sebastian?"
Beth literally felt like a thunder struck her. "You're kidding me, right?", "Nope. I'll be some kind of substitute teacher, while he will observe my classes and grade me. Isn't that great?" When Beth didn't say anything, Mike chuckled. "Well, I'll be going. I'm starting from the next week." He made a few steps and then stopped. "By the way, you shouldn't wear glasses. You look better without them." Beth really wanted to kill him. "Too bad I need them only for my sight."

Sebastian had to stop eating his lunch because he was called by the principal. He was introduced to a college student who needs to do this project for college and the school is willing to help him. He remembered when he had to do stuff like that. Useless bother, really. The bad thing was that he got to have him. The good thing was that it's only one hour a week. 'It should be entertaining, especially with seniors.'
After Ms. Walker, the principal of the school, gave him the table in which he was supposed to write his estimates about the boy's teaching, Sebastian went out of the office and headed back to finish his lunch.
On his way back, he stopped by a wall and leaned on it, quickly looking through the papers. While standing there, he overheard that student Michael, if he remembered his name correctly, was talking to someone. It was a girl and he talked to her like they were old friends. "I'd rather see you in a puddle of your own blood." The girl said to him and Sebastian figured that it was Beth. "I see you're as straightforward as always, Betty." 'Betty.' he repeated in his mind and chuckled. "You're even more beautiful. Did you lose some weight? You look better than 3 years ago." 'So, they are friends.' "What are you doing here?" Beth asked him as she was tired of his shit and Sebastian thought that he should better go. It was none of his business and there was a lunch waiting for him.

Every Tuesday they had Michael as a substitute teacher. Isn't that great? A substitute teacher to a current substitute teacher. As far as Beth understood, he showed up just in right time because they were going to repeat stuff from the 9th to 12th grade for the state graduation which Michael will be teaching.
Sebastian is going to be in the back part of the classroom and watch his abilities, but he will also teach the new stuff on Thursdays. It wasn't much of a problem to Beth; she knew practically everything from the past years, but it wasn't the case for others.
Girls were delighted by Michael, just as Beth was 3 years ago. He was handsome and tall with a flashy smile, but self-centered as fuck. Heartless, too.

While he was talking about something, Beth leaned her head on her hand and stared out of the window, remembering the past. She was a freshman and he was a senior, basketball player, popular among everyone. Yes, Beth was seduced by his looks, but decided to ignore him because he seemed like a flashy guy and she simply hated flashy guys. They think everything is about them. So one day after two months of school, Beth found him standing next to her locker, alone. Completely ignoring his existence, she replaced her books and continued her route. With a chuckle, he stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder, followed with words 'Am I that unbearable?'. That started everything. He was talking with her more and more often, even walking home with her because just then she found out they lived in the same street. Little by little, she fell in love with him and they started dating. Even her parents loved him. One night they were watching movies together at Beth's house when she got a call. It was that call from the hospital about her parents' death. Beth told him to go home and that she'll explain everything to him later. She wasn't capable of anything at that moment. But since that night, he didn't talk to her anymore, nor even looked at her. He broke up with a text message and continued living like she never happened.
And now he showed up and practically jumped on her overwhelmed with happiness, calling her with that stupid 'Betty' nickname he made up. Even though she's been called various nicknames people took from her name, 'Betty' was the worst one. She couldn't help but think of Betty White every time she heard it. Betty White is a great woman and all, but nuh-uh.

While sitting in the back of the classroom, Sebastian had a clear view of everyone. He adjusted himself as comfortable as possible in those small chairs and started to take notes. It was a bothersome job to do, but it had to be done. Michael seemed used to getting the attention and had no problems at explaining the problems. He was also very calm, without a track of nervousness.
After half an hour Sebastian wrote all the positive comments, because the kid was good, and got lost in his own thoughts. Without thinking, he started drawing on the paper. When someone screeched with a chair, his reflexes woke up and he had to chuckle at the dicks he drew. He also did this in his high school on math classes. They were boring as well.
He didn't even realize, but Michael already gave them task sheets to work on. 'Boring…' Sebastian thought while looking around the classroom. He looked just in right time to see Brian poking Beth with a pen and her handing him the paper without turning around. 'This explains so many things.' He remembered how disappointing it was to see Brian solving the task on the board without a problem and then having barely average points in the test.

A second after Beth finished her sheet, she felt a poke from behind. Brian didn't even have to ask anymore, poke in the back was enough.
"Okay, who would like to solve the first one?" Michael asked, but no one even twitched.
"No one? Then how about… Elizabeth?" he chose Beth from the list of names he had on the paper. 'That son of a bitch.' Beth thought as she was reluctantly getting up from her seat. The task was already written on the board, Beth just had to solve it. It was easy and short and she was done in half a second. "Thank you, Betty." Michael said with a smile, causing Beth to press the long chalk against the board so hard it broke in half and flew to the middle of the classroom, bouncing from the floor three more times. There was a deafening silence which Beth used to correct him. "It's Beth, not Betty. B-E-T-H. Beth." She said with a cold voice and went back to her seat.
'This is like a series of unfortunate events.' Beth thought and leaned in her chair, sensing that the next two months will be a total catastrophe.

"I see that you're still mad at him.", "He did that on purpose, Deb, on purpose. I'd give my life to confirm that. I despise him." Beth calmly said and then started furiously eating her lunch.
"That is Mike? Your ex? He's totally changed." Emily said while sitting down. "By the way, that last part that happened was a little bit creepy. I think we saw a tiny trace of your dark side.", "Believe me, you didn't." Deb quickly said while shaking her head. "I know the best.", "Can we please stop talking about him? I'm losing my appetite." When an uncomfortable silence appeared, Beth sighed and apologized to them. "Sorry, I think it's PMS, no hard feelings.", 'As if. I'd be happy if it was PMS.' "Oh, we understand." They said in unison and smiled.
After finishing her plate, Beth stood up and went with an excuse she had to look through chemistry notes. In fact, she just wanted to be alone, but the chemistry excuse seemed like a good idea. Tests are getting closer and she doubted she'll do any studying.

"Bett- I mean, Beth! Hold on a minute, please.", 'Here we go again.' Beth took a deep breath and waited for Michael to come closer. "I need a favor." He asked with puppy eyes. "What now?" Beth slowly asked, looking aside. "I'm kind of busy right now, so could you please bring the files from the classroom to the teacher's room?", 'Anything to get you off the hook.' Beth nodded and he handed her the key. "They're in the closet. You should better hurry. Thank you." He quickly said and stormed off.

While dragging her feet, Beth finally came into the classroom and unlocked the closet. 'I knew that something was fishy.' She thought and looked at the two piles of 2-inch files. 'There's no turning back now.'
Beth was carrying all 20 of them in her hands with a great care. Yes, they were a little heavy, but real women do it in one trip.
She had to walk a little crooked because that was the only way she could see where she was walking.

Sebastian told Michael to bring the seniors' files to the teacher's room, but he probably shouldn't. Even though he was busy with printing the tasks for practicing, Sebastian went to check if Michael even went for those.
Before he reached the stairs, loud thuds echoed through the hall and Sebastian hoped it wasn't Michael.
Well, he was close.
True, files were all over the stairs and floor with an extra person getting up. "Oh, fucking shit…", "What happened? Are you alright?" Sebastian asked while practically running downstairs. No one except them was in the hall, so there weren't any witnesses. "I'm sorry… I was hurrying so I think I tripped and fell down.", "Beth, is that you?" he asked when he got closer. "Uhm, yes. Do you see my glasses anywhere?" she asked while tapping around. "Why are you carrying this?", "Michael told me to do it because he was in a hurry.", "He did? You specifically?", "Well, I was the only one there, so yeah. Why?", "Because I told him he can go eat when he's done with these. Here they are." Sebastian said and handed her the glasses.
Right after she put them on, he saw that she was bleeding from a wound on her forehead. "You're bleeding.", "What? Where?", "Forehead.", "Whoa…" Beth said and wiped the blood with her hand.
"Why don't you go to the infirmary? I'll take care of this.", "Because of this? Nonsense.", "Go." Sebastian sharpened his voice and Beth gave up. "Fine…" she sighed and slowly went while Sebastian quickly picked the files. '
There will be problems.' He thought and remembered the scenes with Michael from the hall and the classroom.

Whoa, this is not what I imagined, but it has a purpose, I hope.
By the way, ever since I made this guy up, I hated him.