Truth

On a Tuesday night you would find Jack in his classroom, triple checking that absolutely everything was precisely correct for the first day of school tomorrow. He never knew why the beginning of each year got to him so badly; always just blames it on the fact that he's still considered relatively new in the teaching field. This is Jack's third year as a teacher, and three years had nothing on the amount of time that every other teacher had spent doing the same job at this high school. He knows that he's over thinking it, but the brunet figures that he's better safe than sorry. His boss could be harsh sometimes.

"Tough day at the office?"

Jack looked up from the stack of papers he was thumbing through as he sat against the front of his desk, seeing Carissa leaning against his door frame. Well, Ms. Smith. She has been teaching Biology in the room next to Jack's ever since he got the job.

Jack laughed, looking back down at his papers, "I look that bad, huh?"

"You look like you've seen better days," she answered honestly, slowly taking a couple steps into the room as she started to glance around, "You ready for tomorrow?"

Jack shrugged, staring at the attendance list for his seventh class of the day and seeing an all too familiar name printed in capital letters halfway down the list. He glanced back up towards Carissa, who had a small smile on her lips that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"As I'll ever be."

She nodded, emitting a small laugh before her gaze traveled towards the papers Jack was holding. She made a small gesture towards them before asking, "See any familiar names?"

Jack hummed, nodding as he set the stack of papers on the desk behind him, "Just a small handful. Nothing that I'm not looking forward to, of course," he replied, crossing his arms over his slim torso.

She nodded solemnly in return, still staring silently towards where the papers once were in Jack's hands, "Well I'm gonna head out. Are we still going to meet in the lounge for coffee tomorrow morning?"

"Of course," Jack grinned, "It's tradition at this point, isn't it?"

Ms. Smith nodded in agreement as she started to back back out of the classroom - a small smile still present on her lips as she bid Jack a silent farewell. Carissa was an individual, that's for sure. She's typically extremely silent, and Jack had always wondered whether or not that persona shines through when she's dealing with a classroom full of teenagers. He'd obviously never gotten the chance to observe her in that environment, seeing as Jack had his own classes to teach - but he should really start to invest in a camera to set up in her room, or something.

Expect he actually shouldn't. Because that would be weird on so many levels.

The setup of Jack's classroom wasn't as simplistic as others. Most of his bells had no more than fifteen students, and he enjoys having debates about whatever they happen to be learning at any given time. So, he figures that the best setup is to line the desks in a semicircle. That way everybody could see each other; plus the room felt much more spacious. He's been doing it every year now, and no one had scolded him for it yet, so he planned on doing it until he was told otherwise.

Jack pursed his lips, hands settling in his back pockets as he stepped towards the middle of the room - scanning everything over with a bite of his lip. He assumed, from the look of it, that everything was in place and he was in the green to just head home. He spun back towards his desk, more of a bounce in his walk as he packed his folders together and tucked them under his arm; leaving the classroom and locking the door behind himself.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay? Seven-thirty sharp,” Jack pointed at Carissa as he poked his head through her door, receiving a small nod and a wave in return before he was on his way.

---

“So,” Zack hummed from where he was hanging off of Jack’s couch, said man’s paperwork in hand, “Alex Gaskarth, huh? how many times have you even had this kid in your class?”

Jack sighed, continuing to fidget with his new coffee pot. Jack had met Zack in high school and they had ended up going to the same college together, except Zack went for sports rehabilitation. If the two were still in high school, he would've never thought that the pair would end up where they are now. Jack used to be an angsty teenager who was always mad at everyone and he always thought that Zack did drugs. He really doesn't even remember how their friendship formed, always just remembered that the two only had a mutual love for concerts. Maybe they did run into each other at one of those-

“Hello, earth to Jack,” Zack hollered from the other room, “How many times have you had him?”

“This is the third,” Jack replied, slightly agitated before throwing slamming his hands against the counter top, “I don’t know how to work this stupid coffee… thing!”

He heard some movement from the other room before he saw Zack enter the kitchen out of the corner of his eye, “How many times is someone even allowed to take an introduction class?” he spoke up, lightly shoving Jack to the side to stare at his new coffee machine, “It’s just a Keurig, Jack. How hard is it to make a single cup of coffee?”

“Anyone can take any class an infinite amount of times if they fail it every year,” Jack replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That’s not true, don’t they kick you out of high school as soon as you turn twenty one, or something?”

“Well, yeah, but that wasn't the point that I was trying to make,” Jack trailed off, mouth gaping open once Zack successfully got the machine to work, “How did you do that?”

“You can’t close the top until the buttons start glowing,” he replied, vaguely pointing to different parts of the Keurig before shrugging and leaving the room to reclaim his spot on the couch.

Jack huffed, turning off the machine before falling back into a plush chair sat beside the couch that Zack was sprawled on. The two of them had been roommates ever since their third year in college and decided to continue their living situations until they were both financially stable. Despite them both being very well off in terms of money, they had yet to go their separate ways. The two of them had never necessarily talked about when they would both get their own place, but then again they never established an exact time that they would. Jack figured it would happen when one of the two decide to settle down with a significant other, but relationships weren't a priority and they probably never will be. Jack put his career before almost everything.

“Wanna order carryout?” Jack asked, picking at a loose string on the cuff of his cardigan, “I’m kind of feeling Chinese, but I’m up for anything.”

“Chinese is fine,” Zack replied, still going through everything that Jack had organized for work tomorrow and most likely screwing up just about everything that was perfected prior to Zack coming home.

“The usual?” Jack asked, already dialing the phone number to the restaurant.

“The usual.”

Notes

This should have been posted earlier but homework and my job threw up on me.

But hey, thank you for subscribing! This is just a bit of a filler and introducing characters before actually starting the real part of the story. Thoughts/feelings on Zack and Carissa's character would be cool. Thanks for reading!