Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter nine

"Tony Riersack? It's Calum Hood speaking." Calum hums down the phone with a smirk, settling into his office chair and ready to give this man an earful about the ineffectiveness of his school's anti-bullying policy.
"Hello Mr Hood, what can I do for you? I was simply told it was an urgent matter you wanted to speak with me about." The man seems a little grumbly and well, Calum thinks, he's not going to get any happier.

"As a public school, in the interest of the community, does your school have an anti bullying policy?"
"Why yes of course Mr Hood is-"
"And would you say the policy is effective?" Calum cuts him off.
"I believe so Mr Hood, do you have a specific concern? We do take allegations of bullying very seriously." Mr Reirsack explains, growing increasingly defensive.
"As a matter of fact I do-"
"Before we continue Mr Hood, may I ask what your connection is to any of my students in question? As I'm sure you can appreciate, I have a level of student confidentiality to uphold." Calum doesn't exactly appreciated being cut off but he complies anyway.
"Of course, I'm the newly assigned dominant to a student of yours."
"Oh-"

"Now. An intelligent man such as yourself surely understands that the DFD does not make mistakes."
"Mr-"
"And so it is obvious, in the eyes of any mature adult like you and I, that my submissive -a student under your care- is of course my submissive."
"Mr-"
"My issue lies with the fact that some of your students, my submissives peers, do not understand these facts. Tony, if I may, do you have a submissive or a dominant?"
"Mr Hood I do not believe that is relevant." The greying man mutters bitterly.
"Perhaps it isn't. You know what, it isn't at all. If you choose to not share with me your relationship status then that is totally up to you. A personal decision between you and your partner."
"Mr Hood would you please make your point, as I am a very busy man." The older is close to snapping.
"Yes, very busy turning a blind eye to targeted harassment." Calum says nonchalantly.
"Mr-"

"Let's say, for argument's sake Mr Riersack, that you are a dominant. That you have a submissive. How would you feel if you were to discover that your submissive's peers were bullying them? Telling them they are a bad submissive. That they are not worthy of you, their DFD assigned dominant."
"Mr Hood, if you do not make your point, I will have to hang up the phone."
"Mr Riersack. If you do not listen to the fact that Ashton Irwin, my submissive and one of your students, has reported to me on multiple occasions that he is being targeted and harassed by the majority of his cohort since school resumed last week then I will hang up this phone call and dial the state education department."
"Mr Hood. I am so very sorry to hear about this. We as a school-"

"You will do everything you can to stop this because I cannot tolerate my submissive feeling less than, uncomfortable and even unsafe at school simply because of his relationship status."
"Of course Mr Hood, I understand that. I will speak with Ashton personally-"
"And by doing so you will make things worse. Mr Riersack, the moment teenagers are called out for their disrespectful conduct they simply move the whole operation further underground and continue their attacks. You, frankly, need to readdress your curriculum and the things your pupils are privy to. Heaven forbid this were to happen to another student."
"If I may Mr Hood-"
"Go on." Calum muses, causing the man on the end of the phone to huff a little at being cut off again.

"Whilst I do very much appreciate your call and you bringing this very serious matter to my attention, do you have any proposed solutions to the immediate issue that you would be content with me carrying out?"
"I will be speaking with Ashton after school today about how he wishes to move forward. Please just make sure all your staff are aware of this issue. I'll call you back tomorrow to discuss a long term solution. Is there a time that suits you?"
"Of course Mr Hood and no specific time, I'm free anytime from 10am onwards. Don't hesitate to step into my office personally if you would prefer to discuss the matter in person."

Calum concedes that may happen before they exchange final goodbyes and Calum is hanging up the phone with a sigh.

"Maggie." Calum calls out, not particularly loud but loud enough for his assistant to hear. The door to his office was open and her desk was right next to it so he didn't exactly need to yell.
"Do I need to get up?" She replies, causing Calum to chuckle a little.
"What's tomorrow's schedule like?"
"At 9am you have a lesson in how to use your calendar. Or we can do it now. Grab your mouse, move the cursor over the calendar icon at the bottom of the screen. Open it. Then click on whatever day's schedule you would like to see. Isn't technology wonderful?" She deadpans sarcastically, not moving from her chair.
"Would've been quicker for you to just tell me." Calum quips as he opens the calendar.
"Maybe, but less fun. And if I can prevent you from asking me in the future then I've definitely saved time."

7:30am: phone call with manufacturer (one hour)
9:30am: meeting with engineers (one hour)
12pm: meeting with supply team (two hours)
3pm: meeting with designers (two hours)

Calum sighs and gets up from his desk, walking out of his office and stopping in front of the desk of his assistant. He leans his elbows on the top bench and clasps his hands together.

"Can I help you?" The blonde raises an eyebrow, slowly looking up from her computer screen.
"I need a free block of minimum three hours tomorrow."
"And I need to get another manicure, but it's not happening tomorrow."
"Maggie."
"Calum."

"You want three hours?" She sighs dejectedly, refocusing her attention to tomorrow's schedule.
"Need one hour completely free but I can have one hour either side of that for phone interviews. I'll be driving." Calum replies.
"If I move the engineer meeting to Wednesday you can have 8:30-9:30 free, be back by 10:30." She hums.
"Sorry, my one free hour has to be after 10am."
"God dammit you have a more full schedule than this fucking principal." Maggie gripes.
"How-"
"It's like you forget I set up the phone call. Honestly." She rolls her eyes.

"I either move one meeting to a different day or decrease the one hour of prep for each meeting I'm not a miracle worker. Pick."
"Option C, become a miracle worker." Calum says hopefully.
"Get away from me I need space to perform my miracles." Maggie grumbles after a beat of silence. Calum grins before looking down at his watch.

"I should get going out to Ashton's now anyway. I wanna duck home and get changed first. Call me with updates." Calum says as he walks back into his office and grabs his things before walking back out and heading to the lift.
"Will do but Cal," Maggie stops herself, waiting for her boss to look at her and understand she's about to say something serious. He turns to look at her as he waits for the lift. "We need to get this sorted. It's 3:30 and you're leaving. Tomorrow you need to head out for three hours. I'm glad you've been matched, I really am, and I'm in no way saying this isn't important. It is very important. It's just that if it's gonna be like this for the next six months while he's still in school then we're gonna need to find ways to spread your workload. I'm not saying we can't do it. Just letting you know."

Calum nods as he steps into the lift. When the doors shut he leans back against the mirrors with a sigh.
"I know." He mumbles to himself.

A/N: heyyyy chapter nine is looking fine! Idk what to say I hope you enjoyed this and I'll see you on Saturday :)

-Grace Williams xo