The Senior, Part Eleven

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Part Eleven

It took quite a while for me to come down from the experience with Jade.

Of course, I was tempted to ignore her parting words and pleasure myself anyway. I doubted she would really be able to tell. At least, not physically. However, I could see her asking, and then reading me like a book. Considering how direct she was when we first met, I wouldn’t put it past her to meet my eyes and greet me with the question within the first few minutes of her arrival.

I also did enjoy the game. Though I would have preferred to fuck her when she was literally naked in my bedroom, we had already done so much more than the average pairing would do on a ‘first date.’ I could wait one more day, especially since she had basically invited herself over twice to fool around with me. Besides, I had plenty to take care of that didn’t involve fucking a hot girl.

Once I had settled down from everything, I got to work on the ongoing moving-in process. That wasn’t going to happen overnight, but I could at least chip away at some of the boxes and start finding places for things that were more obvious. Tomorrow also marked the first day of my teaching job, so I had my lesson plans to review for that. I actually wasn’t really stressing over that. There was only so much teaching I would be doing at the beginning, as I would mostly be doing introductions, as well as going over the syllabus and expectations for the semester. Of course, I still had to be prepared for Tuesday and beyond, as that was when I’d really be diving into each class.

All in all, it was a rather uneventful evening. While it was impossible to truly get Jade out of my mind, there were enough distractions along the way. And something told me that tomorrow would fly by. Between the various classes, as well as acquainting myself with the other faculty members, there wouldn’t be a lot of time to breathe. I was excited for the day itself, of course; I was just also looking forward to the afternoon afterwards, where Jade and I would be picking things up where we left off.

I never enjoyed waking up early.

At the same time, I had resigned myself to painfully early mornings when choosing a career in education. It was easily worse than a 9-5, as students got to school well before that. Naturally, teachers ended up arriving even earlier, to prepare for their day of classes and be present for homeroom when the first bell rang.

I had been to the high school several times already, to get my classroom in order and to get the lay of the land. Being fresh out of college meant that I was already at a visual disadvantage due to my age; the last thing I needed was to look lost and/or clueless on the way to the teachers’ lounge. As I had learned as a student teacher, earning the respect of teenagers could be quite the difficult line to walk. Being too friendly or relatable could lead to unprofessional dynamics, while being too much of a hard-ass would mean being the teacher that nobody liked. Ideally, I’d land somewhere in the middle, where students actually enjoyed my classes without trying to walk all over me.

Thankfully, my professors had taught me well. Between what I had learned in undergrad, as well as my experience assisting in classes, my first few classes were a success. I managed to maneuver a few curveballs in the form of students that were testing the water, showing that I was both quick on my feet and a little more intimidating than I looked at first glance. That being said, it was definitely more daunting being in front of the classroom by myself, rather than having the support of someone who had already done the legwork of setting a healthy dynamic with their students.

By the time my lunch break rolled around, I was tempted to just eat at my desk. Being the new guy, however, I did want to introduce myself to whomever else was free at the time.

I did my best to energize after socializing through the entire break. After getting back ten minutes before my next class, I braced myself for the afternoon. My day was frontloaded, so I only had two periods left. As a teacher with basically no tenure or official experience beyond my diploma, I was responsible for the general literature classes across all four grades. The AP classes and more advanced subjects were taught by those who had been at it for longer than I had and/or with some higher education under their belt. Not that I minded; I was fine sticking with the more accessible material for the time being, so I didn’t have to tackle excessive curriculum prep on top of figuring out how to run each of my classes. As I had already learned, each collection of students was unique.

My coming class was going to be primarily seniors, which was certainly going to be an adventure. While they’d probably be more mature than the years below, I could also see them being more difficult to win over when we were fairly close in age. And, based on my own experience from four or five years ago, so many students ended up mentally checking out when graduation was on the horizon. Maybe not on the first day of senior year, but still.

There were a lot of things I had been anticipating throughout the day, including the five or ten minutes of prep time I had given myself for the coming class. However, not even taking the full break would have prepared me for what I was about to be dealing with.

As I was politely greeting students as they trickled in, and handing out a copy of the syllabus to each one, it wasn’t long before I ended up face to face with Jade as she stepped into the classroom.

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The Business Trip, Chapter Six

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