The Teacher's Aide

Part 41

The next day both Ryo and Kazuya were extremely excited, as the "subbie" we had yesterday is now the new English 4 teacher. Not only them, but everyone who are in that class are happy now. Even Levine seemed happy now that there will be no more yelling in the hallways anymore.

It felt like the ending of Matilda, where the kids chased off the bully principal off of school grounds, never to be seen again. 

He's older than Luca, maybe in his 40s, but his youthful appearance made him look like he's in his 20's. Still, he's better off than most of the younger teachers here, that get mistaken for the kids of the school. Even that includes Wilson, Luca and Levine. Especially Luca and Levine, and like I said one time before, if they got lunch and sat down with us, they'd easily blend in with the kids.

Turns out he's already worked here before, before switching to part-time substitute teacher, because he let his teaching license lapse. The principal told him he can recert and get his license back, since he's already got his degrees for teaching. I kind of thought he looked familiar somewhere.

At the very least, Ryo and Kazu can now sleep easy.

Not so much for poor Kim, though. And he's already going through a lot as class president. And he looks a bit worse than yesterday, as he went to sleep on the table, his head resting on his crossed arms as he had them on his backpack.

"Geez, I didn't realize being senior class president would be that bad." One of the kids say behind us. "Glad I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now."

"He comes in from the city. He's the only student representative that doesn't live close by." A girl says, still looking at Kim, who's now almost soundly asleep.

"Yeah. He drove in today, like always." 

"Come on. Show some respect to our president. He works really hard representing us." Another kid says, giving the kids behind us a stern look, as he held his tray. "Besides, your grades aren't that stellar yourself, Randolph."

"Shut up!" The boy named Randolph says, banging hard on the table then standing up as his fists were balled to his sides, ready for another fight.

Oh crap! Here we go again... 

"Hey! No fighting over there!" A security guard yelled, and rushed to the table behind us. 

"What's going on over here?" he asked.

"They're talking about the class president there." He points to Kim, who's still sleeping.

"Hey, at least we're not making fun of him. Not remotely, anyway." the girl say, looking at Kim's arched back.

"He's a good one. But yeah, he does look like he has too much going on for him. But the rest of you, quit fighting." With that, he left, but he didn't go far, as to prevent them from fighting. The kid with the tray left, and joined his own circle of friends across the commons. Once more, it was just Kim and I, until Elisha came next, and just sat down at our table.

"Morning." he says, carefully putting his bag on the table.

"Morning," I tell him back, and Kim slowly woke up, while he looked at us, and his eyes weighed heavily, as if he was trying to open them. Both Elisha and I didn't say anything further, as Kim's head fell back on his bag, and drifted off to sleep once more. At least he still had another 45 minutes of sleep before classes start. I felt Ryo's hug from behind, and his head on my head, before he went to Elisha, and did the same, before sitting down, and digging through his stuff in his bag. 

I guess I had forgotten he was here even earlier than I thought, including Kazuya, while I paid attention to only Kim, who's sleeping once more. And Elisha. Ash came from the other side of the commons area, towards the entrance of the gym. His shoes and the bottom of his jeans were covered in mud and bits of grass, which made me think he made a short cut through the meadow from the road to the school.