"Hey, Gee" A man behind the desk counter smiled and waved after he saw Gerard walk into his weed shop. There were just a few people there and the room was dim, making the only source of light come from the light up signs inside the store.
"Hey, Alex" Gerard smiled back as he walked over to the counter and leaned his hands on it. "Runnin' low?" He asked, turning back to his selection of cigarettes and other 'fun stuff'. "Yeah,.. you know the drill" Gerard replied as Alex chuckled, grabbing a pack of camels from the shelves behind him, throwing it down onto the counter.
Gerard stuck his hands in his jeans pockets, trying to look around for his wallet - or any money at all, really. "Fuck,.. can you cover for me?" Gerard asked as Alex nodded. "I'll put it on a tab for you" The taller man said as Gerard thanked him and grabbed the packet of cigarettes.
He opened the thin plastic wrapping and got out a cigarette from the thick paper box. "Got a lighter?" He asked, sticking the tube filled with tobacco in between his lips. Alex reached under the counter and handed the black haired boy a green translucent lighter. Gerard grabbed it and lit the end of it, blowing out some smoke.
"How's Mikey doing?" Alex asked, placing his hands down on the desk. "He's good, I guess. Still pissing me off about the whole job thing" Gerard said, placing the cigarette back in his mouth. "I mean, he has a point, Gee. You're twenty-two and you haven't found a job yet. Get your shit together man" Alex furrowed his eyebrows.
He wasn't wrong. Gerard was in fact just twenty-two years old and still unemployed. He's an addict and lives alone in his tiny-ass apartment. He always steals money from his parents to get through bills -and gets away with it- and Mikey used to always bully him for not getting a job. He always told him that he was wasting his life and didn't really approve of his whole drug addiction he had.
"Look, I don't give a fuck. I'm happy with my current situation and I'm not gonna get a job that wakes me up at six every goddamn morning so I can sit down at a desk and do absolutely nothing but still make my brain physically hurt at the end of the day. It's not worth it" Gerard said, huffing out smoke.
"But you get paid. That's the most important thing, right?"
"Sure but I don't want to do it. I know I'm lazy and I'm not gonna change"
"Alright, then. Suit yourself" Alex sighed as Gerard grabbed the pack and stuffed them in his front pocket.
"I gotta go" Gerard said, waving at Alex before leaving the store. He walked to his house, finally relieved that he was in his safe space.. until his phone rang. He sighed heavily, grabbing it and answering.
"What do you want, Mikey?" Gerard said, sitting down on his bed.
"Nice to hear from you too, asshole. Listen, I've got news for you. I managed to get you a job. Just hear me out-"
"But I don't want a job"
"Didn't I tell you to hear me out?... Anyway, I have this friend who works in that all boys, christian private school downtown. He talked about how they needed an English teacher in the school.. so, I told him about you. You're pretty good at English literature so it wouldn't be much of a problem" Mikey said as Gerard mentally cursed, wanting to punch Mikey in face so hard that he couldn't feel it the next day.
"What the fuck, Mikey! I hate kids" Gerard said, laying down onto the semi hard mattress.
"I know but these are aren't kids. They're sixteen" Mikey said through the phone as Gerard smiled, grabbing the mostly used cigarette out of his mouth as he crushed the lit up part on an ashtray, on his nightstand.
"You start tomorrow. So pick out a good suit and be there on time, okay?"
"Fine... I want to fucking murder you for this.." Gerard said as he ended the call, throwing his phone onto his bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~
He didn't want the next day to roll around but there he was anyway. He just wanted to stay in bed and turn on his TV, watching any random channel that came on, not worrying about anything.. but he couldn't do that. Not when his shit brother got him a job he didn't even want.
With full force, he stood up from bed and went to the bathroom. Once he took a shower and brushed his teeth, he dressed up into a pair of black skinny jeans, a wine dress shirt accompanied by a black tie and a black trench coat. It was the most professional thing he had in his closet so he decided to go with that.
When he was done, he wore socks along with shoes and prepared a small case filled with a small pencil case, notes and most importantly snacks.
He looked at himself in the mirror, making sure his black messy hair was partly in place and he didn't have anything in his teeth.
He walked downstairs and opened the front door, walking to the school.
He already hated it once he walked in. The school was quite big and spacious but the children in it were actually fucking horrifying. The kids wore a white dress shirt, buttoned up all the way to their neck -probably suffocating them-, a red tie, grey pants with black shoes and to top it all off, a navy blue blazer with their hair all slicked back with gel. They were spoke with proper English to each other and walked around the halls with posters about God and Mother Teresa stuck onto the walls around them. The posters said stuff about how they were created with the image of the big guy in the sky in mind.
Gerard thought it was bullshit -all this religious stuff. He didn't believe in anything and always thought that these Christians were all hypocrites. It annoyed him to death. He couldn't stand it.
He quickly sighed to himself and walked to the principals office, hoping he walked into the right room. He knocked on the door and there was a normal looking guy with a stubble sitting in a swivel chair. He was wearing a suit and wore a wooden rosary round his neck.
"Umm.. hi" Gerard awkwardly said as the man smiled, motioning for him to sit down across from him. "Good morning. You must be Mr. Way, correct?" He asked, putting his hand out for Gerard to shake. Gerard nodded as leaned back onto the uncomfortable chair. "Thank you for deciding to start teaching English here. I'm Mr. Adams by the way. You see, we're running low on teachers so to have you with us is a blessing" He spoke with kindness as Gerard smiled back.
"I'm glad I could help" He lied, trying to hide it.
"Fantastic. The kids are wonderful here so there supposedly would be no trouble. He're you're schedule and a list of rules that you and the students must follow. If you catch a student doing something that is not allowed, report them to me" He said, handing Gerard two sheets of paper.
He nodded and grabbed them, eyeing both pages. He had only five lessons everyday so it wasn't too bad from what he thought it would be. "Any particular questions you want to ask before heading out?" He asked, placing his hands on the desk.
"No, I'm good" Gerard said, standing up to leave. "Great, if you need anything just talk to me but other than that, welcome to Queen of Peace high school, Mr. Way" They shook hands for the last time before Gerard exited.
He looked down at the sheet of rules he was handed, starting to read the first few.
Students are not allowed to:
1. Get any piercings and/or gauges
2. Wear jewellery, bracelets and/or chains
3. Dye their hair another colour or get highlights
4. Have an unusual hair style
5. Come to school with a messy uniform
6. Bring mobile phone into the school
7. Get tattoos
8. Have hair cover their eyes (Always neatly gelled back)
His eyes widened to the words on the paper. This is why he hated private schools. The kids aren't allowed to express themselves in any way, shape or form. There was no room for self expression and creativity, and he thought it wasn't at all fair for the students.
Once the bell rang, all the students ran to their bags and neatly filed up in lines according to their class. Gerard slowly walked to them, seeing the blank expression on everyone's face as they waited until the teacher told them to go up to class.
"In the name of the father and of the son.." A teacher started saying as each student made the sign of the cross.
"Dear God, may today be a good say where we can have support and care from each other. Amen" She continued as they said the 'Our Father' right after. Gerard just stayed in the middle of the doorway, thinking that they looked like they were in a cult.
They closed off the prayer as the bell rang, making everyone walk up to class.
Gerard shook the thought about the cult out of his head and went up the stairs with them, trying to find the first class he had to teach.
After quite a few minutes of asking other teachers where room 233 was, he finally figured it out and walked into the room, seeing every student seated. There was nothing but silence and Gerard was slightly intimidated by that. Everyone sat up straight and had their hands by their side,.. then you see Gerard. A drug addicted twenty-two year old who hadn't had a proper job for about four years. It only made him look worst than he already was in comparison.
"Hi" Gerard stepped in the class slowly. Everyone stood up, making Gerard jump a bit to the sudden movement. "Good morning" The students said in unison. "yeah,..Umm.. why did you stand up?" Gerard asked, slightly scared about the literal robots standing in front of him.
"Cause' that's what we're supposed to do whenever a teacher walks in. To show respect, sir" A random kid with blonde hair and blue eyes spoke. "Oh.. okay. You can sit down, then" Gerard said, swinging his case over to the desk as he got a whiteboard marker out of his small pencil case.
He looked back up at the boys who looked at each other in confusion. "Did you hear what I said?" Gerard raised an eyebrow. The same kid cleared his throat and spoke, "Sir, aren't we supposed to say a prayer before we sit down and the start the lesson?"
Gerard just sighed, thinking of what to say. "In my lesson we don't say a prayer. You already said one downstairs so no need to say another. Now sit down" Gerard slightly smirked as everyone nodded and sat down on their chair. Gerard cleared his throat and turned to face the whiteboard. "So, If you don't know who I am, my name is Mr. Way and I'll be teaching you English for this semester" He wrote down his name in big letters on the whiteboard.
"Okay, I need a quick round of names starting from the back" Gerard pointed to the kid at the back. Everyone said their name until they got to the front row. "And last but not least.." Gerard crossed his arms and looked at the kid with black hair and hazel eyes, sitting at the end of the row.
"I'm Frank Iero" He smiled. Gerard smiled back as he opened the cap of his marker again. "Great, now.." He said, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention again. "I'm gonna write down what you need on the board then I'm gonna explain some class rules" Gerard said, writing down a list of book they needed to get.
Gerard was actually quite good at this teaching stuff. I mean, you can't blame him, he did teach a class for a whole year when he was nineteen. He volunteered to be a substitute teacher and surprisingly he got the job.. though after a year he quit from having too many headaches and papers thrown at him from the eight year old's he was teaching. The boys he was educating now were much better and well-behaved than the ones he taught before but it didn't mean that he was enjoying work. He still hated it but tried to make it work out somehow.
When he was done writing, he closed his marker and placed his hands on his hips, looking back at the whole class.
"So, class rules. Don't interrupt me when I talk. Respect others and especially me. Don't talk amongst each other when we're working. Clear?" Gerard said as everyone nodded. Gerard smiled to himself as he placed his marker down on his desk.
This was going to be fun.