𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧⌇ bear & bodman54

[HeyThereLittleBear]

High school had been the worst part of Amanda's life, so why she had chosen to become a high school teacher escaped her to this day. It was in times when she was dealing with the petty drama of teens again that she questioned her decisions, worse when she dealt with the parents that always thought their children were perfect creature that fell directly from God's anus. The kids had been, as a rule, nearly insufferable to her though they were rather close in age, her mind often tending to wander as she taught her class. High school had been rough, but now she was determined that the power was in her hands.

Since her own high school years, Mandie had flourished from being the quiet but intelligent girl that had stuffed herself down enough to stifle all of her personality into a woman that knew precisely what she enjoyed in life. As a teen, she'd kept her hair pulled back in a taut ponytail, worn glasses that had only made her look owlish, paired with baggy clothes that had taken any and all attention from herself. Getting away from the town she'd grown up in and the kids she'd known since kindergarten had given her an outlet to escape from the safe and familiar she'd known. She'd spent so long suppressing who she was that it took years to find her own personality again.

Now that she had, why in the hell was she back in a high school again? She could have chosen a less difficult age of student to work with, a less volatile student body or even a more innocent one. But no, there wasn't any challenge in her eyes to teach younger kids. She needed to face her own fears and explore the world without the haze of her own self doubt. It was easy to make a new version of yourself in an entirely new town, a fresh perspective. It was near the end of a semester of her first year as a math teacher here and it had been... Better than she expected.

The students weren't the worst she could have imagined, or even bad students really. She enjoyed them and found herself rooting for their success. It was the kind of thing she needed to remember the basic fact: it was different because she was above them now. Mandie wasn't a teen anymore, she wasn't one of them. She was older, smarter, more experienced. They were the same type of people she'd been in school with but she wasn't he meek girl she was anymore. Amanda had blossomed into Mandie. She's quite literally let her hair down and come to accept her body as it was instead of covering it with baggy clothes, had replaced glasses with contacts and worn heels despite already being tall for a woman.

She'd grown, but not so much she'd lost perspective on the life of the students she taught. It was easy for her to spot a student that hadn't been paying as much attention as they should have, and notably so was David Lynch. He'd been falling behind in his classes and she'd noticed that he failed to pay attention most days. She couldn't let it slip by. The student was a senior and she couldn't let his chances at college fall through the drain. Now wasn't the time for him to be lax. He needed to buckle down.

It was because of this that she pulled him aside as he started to leave her class that day, her voice low, "Mr. Lynch, please come by my classroom after school. I need to speak with you privately in regards to your grades." She didn't want to embarrass him in front of his classmates, her gaze only on him for a second before she returned to her desk, turning her attention to the papers she'd collected there. The boy's academics had fallen behind and she needed for him to get back into the game. But she also needed for him to let her know if something was affecting his ability to pay attention in the classroom.

By the time the final bell rang she had set aside and sorted his grades out and assembled a small stack of papers for them to go through. She waited on him patiently, skimming through the papers as she twirled a pen idly in her free hand.

 

[bodman54]

David sat at the back of the classroom, doodling in his notebook instead of paying attention. What was the point? It wasn't like it mattered in the grand scheme of things how he did in school. They were all going to die one day. Some sooner than others. The only reason he was here was because his parents refused to let him drop out. But he had just turned eighteen and was now technically an adult. So it didn't matter what they thought anymore.

He hadn't always been this way. When he was younger he had been a good student. Not a great one, but good enough to pass all his classes with a bit of effort. Hell. He'd even enjoyed school for a while. What a fool he'd been. School was just here to make you a brainless sheep, ready to push you out into the workforce. He would joke with his best friend Brad about how they would become the next Gates or Zuckerberg, developing the hot new software that would make them rich. Those guys didn't need school. They had an idea and a drive to succeed. David and Brad thought they had similar smarts and were just biding their time before they came up with their brilliant idea. Even though, objectively, neither was anywhere near as smart as the men they looked up to.

But then it all came crashing down. Brad's father got laid off of his high paying job, the victim of "downsizing". David and Brad thought nothing of it at first. His mom was still working and his dad was searching for work. And he found it. On the other side of the country. So then Brad was gone, his belongings packed in a moving van and a goodbye that wasn't at all tearful was the last memory David had of Brad. Sure they could still talk and game online together. But it just wasn't the same. So David became disenfranchised before he even had a chance to become enfranchised.

That affected his schoolwork in a big way. The way he saw it, there was no point. The company you worked for didn't care how you did or how much time you put in for them. Once you became replaceable you were gone, no skin off their back. So David figured there was no point in trying because all that work didn't get you anywhere.

The bell rang and he flipped his notebook closed, stuffing it into his backpack and standing up. Ms. Peters called to him, asking to see him after school. He rolled his eyes but nodded, knowing he had nothing better to do and didn't want her tattling to the principle. So he walked out, ready to suffer the rest of the day.

--

School ended and the rest of the students streamed for the exits or their extracurriculars, leaving David as the sole student walking the halls back to Ms. Peters' room. He could hear yelling and laughing from other parts of the school but this hallway was eerily quiet. His sneaker squeaked as he scuffed it on the tile, the sound sounding a lot louder than it should. He arrived at her door and knocked, pushing his way in.

"You wanted to see me Ms. Peters," he asked, his voice low and uncaring.

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

David looked every bit the typical of a sullen high schooler that wanted nothing more than to be done with everything she had to say and frankly, she knew more or less where he was coming from. She'd worked hard in school to get out of it, but he seemed like he'd rather be anywhere else other than in school. He walked with the slumped shoulders of someone whose dreams had been crushed, though regular depression or lack of interest in school it was hard for her to tell. A lot of students were sullen when they were his age, but this felt different.

"Yes, Mr. Lynch, I did. Have a seat." She stacked the papers and straightened them, sliding out from behind her desk to stand next to the desk she'd indicated for him to sit at. In her own opinion, she felt like getting to his level would help the conversation to go over a bit better, so instead of sitting behind her desk as an authoritarian, she sat on the desk next to his, legs crossed neatly at the knee as any good professional would do.

"Your grades have been falling behind in class this semester. I took a look at your grades from previous years and it's not adding up." She didn't state any of this as a question because it frankly wasn't something that could be debated. Instead, she extended her hand, her dark green eyes on his, "Hand over your notebook, please. I'd like to see the notes you took down from today's lesson."

There wasn't much give in her voice, though warm and professional, there was a stern feel to it that didn't accept backtalk or attitude. She'd cultivated this tone in her last year of college and into her shadowing of other teachers, had become someone that was seen as confident and calm while not lacking her own emotion.

 

[bodman54]

He listened to her with a bored expression, his legs stretched out in front of him as he crossed his arms across his chest. He watched as she stood up and came over to sit next to him. He didn't need her pretentious fake concern. He knew teachers didn't really care about their kids. They just showed up for a paycheck and went home. He didn't know why he was here. Was she just going to rub his face in how badly he was doing?

He sighed as she asked for his notebook. FIshing it out of his backpack he handed it over. As she flipped through it she would see random doodles. Lots of stars of various designs. Circles covering many pages. As she got further in the notebook he began drawing animals. He wasn't going to be making any money selling the drawings but they weren't bad. He focused mostly on cats. Lions, tigers, jaguars. He drew them in a variety of different poses, usually using his phone as a reference as he didn't pay attention in class.

"What's the point," he said as she flipped through the notebook. "It's not like I'm going to go to college. I'm too dumb for that."

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

Mandie's face was blank as she flipped through the book, not surprised to find more drawings and doodles than she found any sort of notes. She wasn't shocked that she didn't find much in there, she'd seen how little he paid attention in class, even when he thought she wasn't looking. "You're... Too dumb for college." She repeated his statement back to himself with a hint of blunt confusion, the woman smiled softly.

"I thought you might would say something similar to that," She shuffled through the papers and set one of them down on the table in front of him. It wasn't in a format that he saw since it was a teacher's copy of it, but she had presented him with his own record of grades. "I'd like you not to mistake stupidity for lack of effort." She said, running her finger down the line of good grades that ended with his current low score in nearly all classes. "It's a shame that your other teachers seem satisfied to let you continue on this path of self destruction. I'd like to know... Why? Why is it that you're content with this when you - and I - know that you could do better?"

She had a point, and that point was in his own work. He'd given up on himself and given up on life since something had apparently happened and now she was having to figure out what was going on with him. "Now, I know that you're content to sit here and give subpar answers on the tests, but I'm not okay with having a student fail themselves. Are you going to work with me or will you be working against me on this, Mr. Lynch?"

 

[bodman54]

"Why does it even matter," he shot back stubbornly. "We're told to go to college to get a good job. And then the job just fucks you over in the end. There is no point to going to school. You're just going to end up sad and alone like everyone else." He crossed his arms more over his chest, sliding down further in his chair. "Why do you even care. It's not like you'll remember me once I leave. No one will."

It wasn't just that Brad was his best friend. Brad was his only real friend. David had been painfully shy growing up and Brad was much more outgoing. One day when they were younger Brad just decided they were friends and the rest was history. So with him gone, David was very much alone. He ate lunch alone. He walked to class alone. He rode the bus alone. Sure there were others he talked to occasionally but they were more like acquaintances than anything else. No one he'd call a friend.

"All I want to do is get out of this school and never come back. What has it ever done for me?" He reached out and snatched his notebook back, stuffing it into his backpack. "Are we done here," he demanded, wanting to go home to play video games and eat junk.

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

To say the boy was stubborn was to underestimate him, the defiance in everything from his body language to the way he talked. It leaked from his pores and she could almost smell it on him with how acridly he was seething in his bitter emotions. "I care because you're better than this." She stated, letting him have his notebook back and watching him act almost like a child as he shoved it away and seemed to daydream about walking out the door against his wishes.

"I don't have to pull you aside like this. I could do it in class next time instead of speaking with you privately. I could have called on you to answer every question that we worked on today in class and let the entire class know you haven't paid attention. I could have handled this in ways that would make you not want to return to my classroom ever again. I chose not to do that." Instead of letting his dreams come true and let him walk out the door still sullen, she set out one of the first sheets of paper.

The paper was labeled Extra Credit, but aside from that it was blank. "We aren't done here. I'll keep you after class as long as I can every day until we come to a mutual agreement of some sort. So, you can either write down things on that paper I can do to help you. Or, we can sit and stare at each other. Legally speaking, I can hold you here until 5:00 tonight." She slid off the desk, the click of her heels loud in the quiet of the classroom as she sat back at her desk, sliding out of the blazer and folding it neatly on her desk. She may as well get comfortable if they were going to be here until she broke him of his defiance and got him back on track.

He wasn't the worst person to be with. Though sullen, he wasn't the worst student in her class.

 

[bodman54]

Of course, she wasn't letting him leave. That would be too easy. So she wasn't mocking him. She was one of those white knight savior complex people. Why couldn't she see he didn't want her help. "So what if you did," he shot back. "I don't care what other people think of me. Haven't before. Won't now." She said that she could have made him not want to return to her class. Well she was doing a great job at it right now.

And to make matters worse she wasn't letting him leave. She put the paper out in front of him and explained what she wanted before sitting down behind her desk. He sighed and rolled his eyes, sitting up a bit more. Mainly due to how uncomfortable it was, not because he cared.

Deciding to humor her he pulled out a pencil. But then he just twirled it around his fingers as he sat there, sullenly staring at her. The clock continued to fuck away as they silently stared at each other. But it turns out the willpower of a sullen teenager wasn't as strong as someone who'd already made it through highschool and college, reinventing herself in the process. He sighed again and finally put pencil to paper. I just want someone to care, he wrote before putting the pencil down.

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

There wasn't a question in Mandie's mind on if he would break under the pressure of sitting in silence, but when. The when took longer than she'd expected, what with him still being a teenager, but she was shocked when he did finally write something down. Her brow raised for a moment before she slid out from behind her desk, silent as her heels clicked their way over to him. The only sound was the slide of the paper off the desk, her eyes reading the simple message he'd left for her there.

At first she wasn't sure how to process it, mostly because it was written with a raw desire. He wanted something very basic in life - someone to care. She bit the inside of her cheek and folded the paper neatly before setting it on her desk to be put into his folder. "Very well." She didn't turn back around to face him, instead letting herself still process his simple request.

"I expect to see you here again tomorrow, Mr. Lynch. You may leave for today." She stated simply, "Do you have any questions before you go?"

 

[bodman54]

The response to her question was the scuff of his sneakers as he grabbed his bag and beat a hasty retreat from her room. Grabbing his keys he went to his car and drove home. He didn't say anything to his parents, instead just rushing into his room and slamming the door. His time with Ms Peters had shaken him a bit and he needed a bit of normalcy. Just like everyday he logged onto his game system, checking to see if Brad was online yet. And just like all the days before, he wasn't. He would log on later but they would only get a few hours to hang out before David had to log off to get ready for school the next day.

So he just began to play by himself, trying to not think about how lonely he was.

--

The next day he dreaded going to Ms Peters class, not sure how she was going to call him out this time. He slunk down and sat in his usual seat in the back of the class, not talking to anyone as they all talked about a party or football game the upcoming weekend. He didn't do anything, instead just opening his notebook to begin to doodle again.

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

The day following their first true encounter, David looked just the same as he'd been the day before. Hell, if nothing else the boy looked a bit more ragged as if he wanted nothing more than to piss her off with his disobedience and disheveled appearance. He looked to her like someone that had simply given up on everything - his appearance, his school work, his social life. She'd noted that with the drop in grades had also been a decline in his social skills, turning the good student into a sullen creature that reeked of angst of a boy that didn't even quite feel like he was going to evolve into a man.

It was disheartening to see someone kicked so low so young, but also something that she felt she could work against. He wasn't a total lost cause. As she taught she found herself lingering on him, small moments but ones that felt an eternity to her. He wasn't a bad looking young man to look at, but it was his spirit that needed nurturing. He'd laid himself out plain to her in written form, though his words had been brief.

Someone to care.

She almost couldn't focus on the lesson she was supposed to give. Mandie found herself drudging through the last fifteen minutes of class, walking up the aisle to him as he packed his items into his backpack. "I'd like to see you after school today as well, Mr. Lynch." She was curt but not cold, trying to seem indifferent as she turned away from him, smoothing non-existent wrinkles from her black pencil dress. She'd thought over their little conundrum while she was at home the previous night, rustling through the papers that were his previous tests and the decline in the work he'd put forth. It ended with the single folded paper she'd kept, turning it over in her hands as if words would appear in the blank spaces.

The end of school couldn't have come sooner for her, the woman cleaning her white board in preparation for him coming to meet with her, if he did indeed come. She half expected that he wouldn't join her, but she was prepared if he did choose to come. She'd pushed the desks out of their usual formation, pulling a large table to the room and setting a chair on each side of it. Mandie set herself in one of the chairs, her legs crossed primly beneath her as she sat... And waited for him to make his choice.

 

[bodman54]

He was only half listening as Ms. Peters spoke in class. But he did notice that she seemed off. She kept stopping and starting the lesson, seemingly getting distracted by something. Not that he really cared. He had figured that after the night before she would have just given up on him like everyone else seemed to. As he listened a little more he just figured she was worried about some guy she was dating.

As the bell rang he began to gather his things, stopping and sighing as she told him to come back after school. He didn't respond, shoving his books into his bag and walking out of the room. He wasn't going back there. He knew it. There was no point.

So why was he walking toward her room after school was out again? Why was he opening the door and walking in? He saw her sitting there at the table, a lone chair across the table from her. He walked over, pulling the chair out and sitting down, crossing his arm as he stared at her with a bored expression. "Ok. I'm here. What do you want?"

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

Waiting was the worst part of this entire scenario, the quiet question of if the boy would come to meet with her, the moments ticking by in relative silence until his sullen form made its way through her classroom door. Her lips ticked up briefly in a smile before she let them go neutral once again. He looked every bit as closed off as he had been previously, his arms crossing to keep her out physically as his poor attitude kept people out emotionally. Mandie didn't let it phase her, instead adjusting herself in the chair just a bit.

"I'm glad you chose to come join me," She said after a moment, letting her arms rest on the table between them, her eyes looking over his face quietly, "I spent quite a deal of time last night thinking about the answer that you gave me on what you want... And you're right." She slid out of her chair, stepping behind her desk to pull out what had been nestled there most of the day - a cooler. Inside it were two plates that had been carefully laden with food, nothing too heavy but enough for them to each pick at while they spoke. She set one of them in front of him with a wrapped set of utensils before sitting back in the seat across from him, slowly undoing the thin plastic that had kept the food fresh.

"I'm not going to play the part of someone who is going to save you from yourself. I'm not going to force you to sit here and work on test after test until you can get it right. But I am going to ask that you sit with me and enjoy a meal. I made most of it myself. I cheated with the recipes, but I don't think you'll mind much." She stated, pushing the pasta salad around on her plate for a bit before taking a bite of it.

"Aside from doodling in your book, what else do you enjoy doing?"

 

[bodman54]

When she stood up he sunk lower in his chair. He figured that she was going to like try to tutor him or something. He didn't want that at all. He could do the work but just didn't see a reason why he should. But what he didn't expect was for her to pull out plates of food, setting one down in front of him and then taking the other for himself. It was certainly a different approach than he had expected and as he unwrapped the plate he realized it was a welcome one.

Picking up his own set of utensils he began digging in. Something about eating food that was made for him, not because Ms. Peters had to but because she wanted to, seemed to stimulate his appetite. That and it was more difficult to talk with a mouthful of food. He was just glad to hear that her plan wasn't to try to make him take tests to challenge his knowledge. That was a surefire way to get him to never come back. But this. This might work.

When she asked what else he enjoyed doing he shrugged. "Video games," he mumbled through a mouthful of pasta salad. "Surfing the internet." When Brad was still around they would go outside and explore. He had taken an interest in film making when he was younger so the two boys would go out into the woods and shoot terrible home movies that they would then force their parents to sit through. But like most of his hobbies, once he was forced to try to do them alone he could never gather much interest in them. Not that he was going to tell her that. He still didn't trust her that much because he still didn't understand why she cared. So he wasn't going to give her any ammunition for whatever she had planned.

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

With the introduction of food, the boy seemed to be less leery of the situation, digging in to eat as if he hadn't eaten all day. Her expression softened just a bit as she watched him, picking at her own food delicately. Even with the food he was still sullen, his attitude quiet and words mumbled while he chewed through the meal. "I'd like you to not speak with your mouth full of food. I do expect manners even when you're in my classroom." Her voice was stern but not unkind as she reprimanded him lightly, setting out the first of the rules she would expect from him.


Mandie twirled her fork softly as she chewed over her food as much as her next question. "What video games do you enjoy?" It was a simple enough question, but it would be telling for her on an idea of what kept his mind stimulated. Even more so, it was going to be a point of conversation for them at least She wasn't opposed to including video games in her lessons in order to get him motivated to pay attention in class, though there were plenty of other ways to get the attention of a young boy.

"How is the meal?" She added after, nodding at the food on his plate that had almost been emptied by his teenage appetite. "I thought to go with something safe enough that it's enjoyed by everyone, so I hope I selected something that you enjoy at least a little. If you have requests or suggestions on something I could make, I'm open to hearing them."

 

[bodman54]

He rolled his eyes as she asked him not to talk with his mouth full. She was sounding like his mom. Or at least sounded like her when she felt like talking to him. Which wasn't often these days. They would just eat dinner silently before splintering off into their own little areas. Some days it got so bad that from the time he got home from school to the time he went to bed not a word was said in the entire house.

When she asked him what games he played he shrugged. "Shooters mostly," he said with an empty mouth as requested. "Some MMORPGs but not as much as I used to. Overwatch. Apex Legends. COD. Things like that." He wasn't sure how much she understood him but since she asked he was going to give her an honest answer. He was pretty good at them but never spent enough time on any single one to get like really good. He just found himself getting bored of one game so he'd cycle it out for another. And around and around he'd go, getting back to the original game a few months later.

"It's fine." It wasn't like pasta salad was his favorite meal but at his age, he'd eat just about anything that was put in front of him. Except asparagus. Fuck that vegetable. Though it sounded like she was going to try to make this a regular thing. He paused in taking his next bite, looking at her. "I don't know. I just thought this was going to be a one time thing. Why are you trying so hard to be my friend?"

 

[HeyThereLittleBear]

Even if he acted like a typical teen boy with her reprimand, she still noted quietly to herself that the firm reminder had gotten him to obey at least a little bit when it came to following his table manners. Mandie made a mental note that he was not an utterly untrained boy and not a complete lost hope when it came to finding a person beneath the sullen demeanor. A less than gentle touch would be necessary to keep him in control, if he was going to succeed at much of anything in her classroom.

Video games clearly weren't anything she was interested in, but it was something that had caught his attention. A lot of stimulation was needed to keep him fully rapt, it seemed, and how could her class as uninteresting as it was compete with those games? They wouldn't, unless he was given a reason to feel competitive. And right now he was... Well, frankly, utterly blank. He had no feelings towards anything at all and didn't seem to have a reason to care about anything.

His question did bring up a valid enough point, why was she trying so hard? Was it because she saw potential in him or was it that she herself was bored enough in her own life that spending time with a student was the only thing here for her? It was true that she hadn't had much of a social life lately, but there wasn't much point to being with someone so much younger than herself. "I feel like beneath this exterior of..." She motioned to him in a whole, "Well, whatever look it is you're trying to go for, is someone that is really quite interesting. I think you need a patient hand to bring that out. If it takes feeding you then, I guess my pockets are going to suffer a bit."

Mandie forked a piece of pasta and twirled it, though didn't lift it to eat it just yet. "Are you opposed to being fed and talked to like a person, or would you prefer to go home and play video games?"

 

[bodman54]

Pushing the food around on his plate he grimaced as she waved her fork at him. He knew that he didn't dress the best but did she really have to call him out like this? He shoveled another forkful of the food into his mouth as he shrugged. "I'm not that interesting," he said, after swallowing his food. "Never was. Never will be." This time it was his turn to play with his food, spinning his pasta around on his fork.

This whole thing was a bit ridiculous for him. He was sitting in a classroom after school, eating with one of the teachers. One of the very attractive teachers. He was depressed. Not dead. He felt a stirring down below and did his best to hide it. "I mean I guess this is ok," he said, not wanting to admit how much he enjoyed the company. It was certainly better than sitting at home rage at strangers over the internet.

"What made you want to be a teacher," he asked, not sure how to continue the conversation.