Jack smiled, study hall with Alex was next, he did admit it felt strange to call a teacher by their first name...but it almost felt alright with Alex. He wasn't exactly much of an authority figure over the teen anyways. They'd become more of friends at this point rather than having the typical student-teacher relationship. That really didn't help with his developing crush but Alex was just too damn intriguing to shy away from.
Jack strode into Alex's English class room since the teacher had managed to relocate his study hall officially into his room. The teen would probably be the only student who showed up at study as he had been for the past week and a half.
"Hey, Alex." Jack beamed with a smile.
"Hey Jack." The teacher beamed right back as he looked up from yet another book, Jack could have sworn he finished a book every two days no matter the length.
"What're you reading?"
"Nothing much, its pretty boring. Just music theory broken down for alto clef instruments and their connection into the human psyche I'm hoping to start the bass clef one tomorrow."
"That sounds horrific." Jack said with a glazed over expression as he sat in the desk closest to the teacher's.
"Hm, maybe I'll make your class read it." Alex joked and shut the book.
"Alex if you think its boring then I definitely don't want to read it. It'd probably kill me."
"Oh, don't be such a baby. I'm actually quite fond of my job and wouldn't want students hating me." Alex rolled his eyes at the expression on Jack's face that said yeah right. "Did you check out the song I gave you?"
"Yeah, I'm shocked I hadn't started listening to Sum 41 earlier." The teen admitted, blood crawling up to his cheeks for no real reason. "Could you maybe make me a mix tape?"
"Already did." Alex laughed and reached for the disc on his desk, handing it over to Jack. "Oh, did you start your paper draft? I'd like to do something somewhat productive between now and ninth period."
"Oh, I'm so hurt. Talking to me isn't productive enough for you?" Jack faked a pout and leaned back as far as he could in his seat. He sat back up and laughed at Alex's un-amused face and raised eyebrow. "Yeah, I finished it. You helped me make like a final draft like the week you assigned it, remember?"
Alex shrugged "Can I grade it? I know they're not due until tomorrow but I've been bored shitless every day having nothing to grade other than those in class responses, which might I tell you are often painful to read. Faking the response with me is unnecessary, I thought I'd made that clear."
"No offence but Alex no one really takes you all that seriously, like you're still just another teacher to everyone, but me obviously, even if you're cool and stuff they're not gonna open up to you."
"Well then Barakat, how do you suggest I get your classmates to fall madly in love with me like I've done to you?" The teacher asked, obviously joking, but making Jack uncomfortable in his own skin. Alex had no idea he was making Jack fall, let alone how hard either.
"Just be yourself. Don't lecture, and is it okay for me me to swear?" Alex smiled and nodded. "Don't be a dick. You really aren't one and I doubt you'll turn into one but giving less than a week on a paper, we'll automatically vote you worst teacher and put your face on the dartboard at our years summer party."
"Wait a second, did you say you guys throw darts at teacher's faces at your summer parties?" Jack nodded with a small smile. "I'd hate to be that teacher this year. Plus I'm not even that old either. I was right where you guys are a few years ago."
"And it sucked, didn't it?"
Alex laughed and nodded, his eyes crinkling at the corners in the most adorable way, not to mention that smile that was slowly driving Jack to insanity. The hook he'd gotten on the teacher was so not okay and he needed to put an end to this before it got out of control. Alex was packing up, his ninth period class had bolted out of the door as soon as the bell rang, not even one straggler was left behind. He sighed and shoved his book into his messenger bag along with his laptop, on the bright side he'd get to grade Jack's paper tonight. Not that grading it was a very big deal, he already knew that the paper was A worthy since he'd helped Jack with the layout and later critiqued the paper itself on ways Jack could improve. But that didn't stop him from being excited about having something to grade since today he gave out nothing for in class other than participation points.
The teacher looked up to find Jack standing in his doorway with that damned adorable grin on his face.
"Hi Jack."
"Hey. Uhm my paper...there's one little thing I remembered was wrong with it, can I pencil it in now?"
"Sure." Alex reached into his bag and took out the folder he kept student work in and handed it over to Jack.
"Thanks." The teen mumbled as he set the paper on the desk and pulled out a pen scribbling something on the paper and shoving it back into the folder.
He handed it back over to it's owner and smiled. "See you tomorrow Alex." Jack said a bit louder this time but still quiet as he made his way to the door.
"Yeah, see you Jack." The teacher replied and put the folder back into his bag before leaving the class room. Alex opened the door to his book cluttered apartment, he could probably stock an entire library with how many books he had, there were at least eight on his coffee table which he'd finished in the past two weeks. He dropped his bag by the front door and went into his kitchen, which was just as cluttered with news papers, he made a mental note to clean those up before he set the place on fire while cooking.
He grabbed a bag of chips off of the counter and traipsed back into the living room flicking the floor lamp on. Alex went over to the couch with nothing but stacks of books around it, the coffee table, and an armchair. He'd never properly decorated his apartment having moved there over the summer. Kyle had bugged him about it constantly while he was staying with the teacher, helping him get settled into his new home over the summer. But Alex only painted the living room a dark blue-black color and added a small table with four seats around it into the dining area. He was perfectly happy with having only seats and bookshelves in his apartment, as long as he had somewhere to live and keep his books dry through rain and snow he was perfectly content. Alex sighed, he'd finished his book on music theory within half an hour of being home. The end was a complete bummer, he'd hoped for more depth during the last chapter, yet it only went over the mere emotion that music may draw in people which a fourth grader could have explained to him in much more entertaining context than the book had done. But it was good nonetheless, better than the first book he'd picked on alto clef instruments that he'd abandoned after the first chapter.
He got up reached over to his bag and took his folder and grading pens for it. This would by far be the highlight of his night, grading was something he actually found to be fun. Sometimes painful to sit through, but fun. He pulled the paper out of its place in the orange folder and smiled at the sight of Jack's name. He'd taken quite a liking to the teenager, Jack wasn't only funny and genuine he was absolutely adorable. Just in how he blushed each time he saw the teacher and laughed the things he said drove Alex a lot crazier than it should have. He wouldn't call it a crush on the teen, not yet, but he had the inkling that Jack liked him in that way too. Alex had gone through reading Jack's paper and adding his own takes on what the teen had written fully and already decided that it was getting an 'A' until he stopped at what Jack had scrawled out in his class room earlier that day.
Check out Jack's Mannequin and tell me what you think of them.
With the boy's number written beneath it...Alex couldn't fight back the smile that crept onto his lips. Now he was sure that Jack liked him and he knew he should have been completely uninterested, Jack was still a minor for christ's sake, but he wasn't. Instead of doing the right thing, which he wasn't sure would've been, he scrambled off of the couch to retrieve his laptop.
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