A Textbook Case of Sanders

Chpt 1: Hello Class!

Patton woke up early that morning, practically jumping with excitement. He had just moved to Gainesville, Florida last week and he was elated to be starting his new job. The new English Professor at Sanders High, the most prestigious High School in the country. So prestigious, some people thought it was an Ivy League school, it was close, but not quite there.

Patton got dressed in his normal garb, a baby blue button down, jeans, and a light gray cardigan tied around his shoulders. It wasn't that professional, I'll give you that, but Patton wanted to make a good impression on his fellow teachers, it was the week before school started after all. He made his bed and walked out of his room and into the small kitchen in his apartment to have breakfast.

The apartment was small, one bath, one bed. The kitchen was very small, especially for Patton who loved to bake and cook, but the meager apartment felt like home. Patton ate his scones and coffee then grabbed his bag, locked the front door, and drove off to his new job.

Patton got to the school an hour early. He checked in at the office and he set off towards his new classroom.

He had been waiting all summer for this, preparing, taking extra teaching lessons, and he had even memorized the school just so that he was ready. He opened the door to his new classroom. It was bare and plain, as all classrooms were the week before school, but Patton had brought some decorations to change that.

Patton arranged the desks so that they were in groups of 4. Then he brought out white Christmas lights and draped them around the edges of the ceiling, he liked either sunlight or Christmas lights better than the ceiling lights. After he turned on said lights, he continued to decorate.

I should probably clear something up, Patton was a child. Not literally, of course, but he acted like one. And that was the reason such a high-end school like this one hired him. He was a child sure, but his child-like teaching had made him one of the best English teachers in the Mid-West, (He moved here from Mississippi).

Patton tapped cute grey paw prints on the light blue wall as if a dog had walked on it. Then he put a couple cat and dog posters up around his room. "That should just about do it!" Patton said to himself.

"Hey," Patton jumped and turned around to see one of the other teachers leaning in the doorway. The teacher had a purple button-up on, but the top buttons were undone. He had his shirt untucked, was slouching a little bit, and dark bags under his eyes."Sorry, didn't mean to scare you,"

"No! It's okay!" Patton nervously laughed. "It's my fault!"

"How is it your fault?" The other teacher asked.

"Well...I wasn't paying attention because I was decorating!" Patton said.

"It's still my fault, but okay," the teacher said, he walked over to Patton and holding out his hand. "You're new, right? I'm Virgil, I'm the history teacher,"

"Patton, the new English teacher," Patton smiled, shaking Virgil's hand.

"Cool decorations," Virgil said cooly, looking around. "You a dog fan?"

"Actually, I love all animals!" Patton said cheerfully."Except, snakes...and spiders," Patton shivered. "Spiders are creepy crawly death dealers," Virgil chuckled.

"Ya know," Virgil said. "I think I'm going to like having you here. You might actually be able to control Roman's ego,"

"Roman?" Patton said, tilting his head like a confused dog.

"Roman is the P.E. coach and the Drama teacher. He has a very big ego-"

"Ah! Virgil! Come to see our new knight as well I see!" Another teacher burst through the open door, gesturing dramatically.

"K-knight?" Patton asked.

"That's Roman," Virgil said. "He thinks we teachers are all knights for some reason. He also is referred to as 'Princey' by the students because of his obsession with the Renaissance period,"

"Yes! 'Tis I! Roman! And what is the name of our brave new soldier!" Roman said. He pranced over to the two of them. Virgil put his hands in his pockets and rolled his eyes.

"I'm Patton!" Patton smiled holding out his hand. Roman shook it.

"Well, aren't you the cheery sort! Maybe you can bring this Emo Nightmare out of his shell!" Roman said. Virgil sighed.

"Roman also like to call me names," Virgil said. "Well, he calls everyone names,"

"Settle down now Sherly Temple," Roman said. "There is only one person who is more boring than you. Logan,"

"Logan? Who's Logan?" Patton asked.

Virgil started to speak, "He's the-"

"You don't want to know," Roman stated.

"-the Math teacher here,"

"He is stiff and has no imagination at all. I'm not even sure if he has emotions either!"

"He teaches all levels of Math here. He opted out of a prep period," Virgil said. "Roman is being a pain again. Logan is a nice guy, but doesn't show his emotions much,"

"Ugh! But he is so boring! Virgil and I had to go into his classroom to see how he taught and ah! He droned on and on-"

"-Sounds familiar," Virgil said sarcastically.

"-And he just kept talking! I don't know why the students like him!" Roman complained. Patton smiled. He liked these two, he was used to being the only teacher that was 'out there'. Not anymore. Patton just knew he was going to love it here.

Patton, Virgil, and Roman kept talking for a while, getting to know each other. Patton was learning a lot about them. Virgil liked to teach about the gory, dark side of History, and the kids loved it.

Apparently, last year, when the students were learning about the Knights of old, the boys in the class had gotten really excited and rubbed it in the girls' faces. Then the girls asked him to talk about Joan of Arch and other female Knights and the girls rubbed it in the boy's faces.

Roman told Patton this story about his students last year, where the girls weren't being passed to. He had made it so that the boys were on one team, and he and the girls were on the other. The girls felt so confident that Roman didn't have to do that much work.

Virgil and Roman kept arguing too, but Patton didn't mind. He had made some friends and more than that, he was going to love his work.