The Teacher [ON HIATUS]

4. I got the knives 🔪

TW: homophobic and transphobic slurs. summery will be at the bottom. please don't read if this very negatively affects you. no matter what anyone says, you are valid <3

Alexander made it just in time to drop off Philip and set up his classroom for the first period. Today, they were reviewing stuff from last week for a benchmark test. It was just to see how his students were doing. He wanted to see what they were doing well with, and what they were struggling with. Their glows and grows.

The first period went perfectly. Only 1 student was absent and 2 were coming in during lunch to finish the test. His next class was good too, there were 5 absent kids but everyone finished this time.

Right now, Alexander was heading into the teacher's lounge to pick up his salad. He brought his lunch into his classroom so he could watch over the kids and get some work done. Of course, he got distracted by a random thought. That thought turned into a key plot point for a story, and that plot point that turned into him writing for the rest of his lunch period. I mean, he still got work done.

The last period was an absolute mess. His copies of the test weren't where he swore he left them, so he had to go out and make more. That took way too long, leaving the kids with less time for the test. Half of the kids didn't finish, so he would be watching over about 14 students after school. He texted Peggy, telling her he would be late to the GSA meeting and asking her to watch Philip a little longer. Usually, Alexander would take the time between the end of school and the start of GSA to leave Philip with someone else, but he was too busy today. Luckily, Peggy was understanding.

He got there an hour before the club ended. All the kids were finished with their tests and Alexander got all of the paperwork sorted out for grading tomorrow.

The student's voices died down to a whisper as the door opened. Alexander walked in. He was happy to be there, of course. He was always happy to be supporting his kids, but today he was tired. Hopefully, this meeting would be smooth and he could go home with a slight smile on his face.

"Hey, Peggy."

"Alex!" Peggy smiled, and of course, now Alexander was smiling. She was literally the human version of the color yellow. Not to mention that was her signature color too.

"You're literally perfect. Thank you so much." Alexander hugged her.

"It's no problem, Alex. You know I barely get any work here anyway," she said. "And it's not like Philip's a huge problem. He's not a menace."

"Yeah, thank god. I could never handle that."

Peggy laughed. "Um, he's over there." She pointed to a spot in the room.

Philip was sitting in a chair drawing something. There were a few kids talking to him. Alexander smiled at the scene.

"Thank you again," he said before walking to his son. "Hey, Pip."

Philip looked up at Alexander, his face beaming. "Papa!"

After a few minutes of talking with his son, Alexander got in front of the class and actually started talking to the club. Since Alexander was tired, he talked about one of the things they touched on last week and left the kids to have their own discussion. He sat behind the teacher's desk with his laptop and began typing an intro to another chapter. With 2o minutes left of the meeting, Peggy had to leave early due to an issue in Eliza's classroom.

Alexander checked the time on the corner of the laptop's screen. 5 minutes left, perfect. He shut off the device and stored it away. He got up and announced to the class, "Alright, start packing up. The meeting ends in-"

He was cut off by a sharp knock at the door and a loud, booming voice, "Open the door."

Alexander recognized that voice all too well. It was a voice he didn't want to admit scared him. Why was he here? He wasn't supposed to be here. He started panicking. The man behind that door wasn't going to hurt anyone. Alexander wouldn't let him no matter what.

"Hey, guys, change of plan. I'm going to open the door and you're all going to go to Eliza's room. I'm sure one of you knows where it is. And take Philip with you," Alexander rushed out in a hushed whisper.

"Mr. Ham-"

"Just go. I'm going to open the door, okay?"

All the kids nodded and lined up behind the door.

Another sharp knock.

"Open up. No one's supposed to be in here."

Alexander took a deep breath. He slowly opened the door and let the kids run past the man.

"I apologize, Mr. Adams. I were- uh, was- um, holding them hostage," he tried to joke. "I, um, they were just finishing up a test for me and just wanted to get away I guess." His heart was pounding. Although they were the same height, Adams was towering over him with his menacing scowl.

"What is this?" Adams spat, throwing a cardboard sign at Alexander's chest. It was the sign he put up on the door during all the meetings.

🌈GSA Club!🌈

Anyone is welcome!

Alexander's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to answer but nothing came out.

Fuck.

Fuck.

C'mon, speak goddamnit!

"I asked you a question, tranny," Adams hissed.

Alexander's breathing started to pick up. This was a terrible decision. Why? Why? Why the fuck did he decide to start a GSA in a school with a horribly bigoted principal?

Alexander tried to defend himself. He wasn't going to let a man like this affect him so much. He was stronger than that. "You-you have no right to use that word, Mr. Adams."

"I'll use whatever damn words I please. Now, tell me, why must you destroy our school's image by defending these fags. Just because I'm not here doesn't mean you get to do these terrible things."

"Me?" Alexander laughed. "Sir, if anyone's ruining our school's image, it's you. I'm just trying to help our students."

"That's far enough, Naomi," Adams growled. "I'm done with you. I've warned you far too many times. Pack up your stuff and get the hell off campus."

Although Alexander had expected this, it was still unbelievable. What was he supposed to do next? He knew his parents would financially support him no matter what but he needed to be on his own. He already relied on them so much as it is. Fairly often, Philip would stay over with them when Alexander needed. Like when he needed to stay at school for longer than originally intended- today, for example, or when he just needed to be alone because he needed to clear his head. In those times he could barely take care of himself, let alone another human being.

"Mr. Adams-"

"Now, Naomi. You've had your chances to fix yourself. This whole agenda you have going on has gone too far. You're nothing more than a worthless little girl. A slut-"

Oh boy, this one was too far. Adams had no right to judge him. He knew who he was. His family and friends knew who he was. That's all that mattered to him.

"-you can come back once you've fixed your head. Until then, leave or I'll have to get campus security."

Alexander hardly knew what happened next after he threw the punch.

Summary: Alexander goes to work and things go smoothly for the most part. Until after school clubs. The principal, John Adams, comes back to the school out of the blue and finds out about the GSA. The students leave with Philip and go to Eliza's room. After a certain choice of words, Alexander gets fired. The rage gets to him after other certain words and Alexander throws a punch.

What if I just left you on a cliffhanger for like, a week? It's very tempting