Hope Nukeing

“Bored, Bored, Bored.”, was all I could read in his face, especially how Nathan's head rested on his arms. Like every lesson he was almost passing out on the table and appeared unable to follow the lecture. His brown eyes fixated the flickering light above him and he seemed to flinch a little, every time it jumped back on.

Poor Nathan. But I couldn't judge him for his lack of motivation. After every summer our teacher went through the same topics like every teacher. The dates of the first tests, destinations of excursion, what had changed over the course of the holidays...

Overtime, his ranting became so predictable, that even the most reliable students had a hard time following. And he himself seemed bored of it. At least that was what I thought, given how monotone and lifeless he spoke. I tried my best to follow him, yet I could see how he was unaware of this, since resting your head in your hand doesn't exactly shout interest to most teachers. I looked straight through him.

I sighed, stretched and looked over to Lucas. In contrast to Nathan, he leaned with closed eyes against the back of his chair, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He didn't even tried to look as if he was paying attention. From the four of us he was the one who cared the least about school. But his indifference wouldn't keep me awake for long.

Next to me, James lay – as usual - on his paper and sketched and doodled. Sometimes he pushed himself away from the table to get a better view of what he was doing, only, so he could let himself fall back down again, so far that his blond hair almost touched the table. And that should mean something, I suppose, since his eyes were fine. To be fair, maybe that's how you're supposed to draw, how would I know.

I observed him for a while, how his pen moved over the paper, he sometimes stopped and darkened some lines that I thought looked perfect no matter what he did.

Drawing was weird.

“And the next test will be tomorrow in a fortnight.”

Even though nobody seemed particularly interested; his announcement triggered a sore reaction in almost everyone around me. Those, who didn't paid attention still grunted. I leaned over to James and whispered: “I think the real test is to survive his stupid lecture.”

He grinned and replied briefly: “And I'm failing it big time.”

I chuckled amused and looked out for the teacher, or classmates that could snitch on us.

“Next time I'll prepare some snacks. And playing cards as well.”

“And some coffee for poor old Nathan over there.”, he filled in and pointed with his pen in his direction. Nathan didn't even noticed.

The teacher caught up on us and interrupted our conversation by simply looking at us. “Oh no it's his death stare!”; James hissed unimpressed yet paid attention, that the teacher wouldn't catch him talking again.

As he finished scanning the room for talking students, he continued with his program. In the meantime, I tried my best to suppress laughter, which wasn't particularly quiet.

“Guys, if this is an homage to your behavior from last year, you will leave me no other choice than to divorce you.”

He tried to threaten us with this, yet what he said seemed way friendlier. I knew this was completely intentional.

He wasn't really old yet. He used to complain about how he would have to work until he could finally retire. By now he needed to work 15 more years and I felt a bit sorry to know, that we would leave school before him.

On the other hand, for five years he gave us an update on how many years he had left (and this year wasn't an exception) which made me feel less sorry.

If he wouldn't complain, maybe the years would pass quicker, who knows.

As soon as he turned his back to us, James pushed himself towards me again.

“Was that a threat or a challenge?”

I nodded grinning and looked around again. Nathan was smiling in our direction, with visible excitement. Everything, that prevented him from school was exciting for him. Meanwhile, Lucas didn't moved one muscle. He was really asleep.

Behind the two of them was the window, that granted us a look on what was waiting for us at recess. It was early August, the cherry blossom tree in the yard was still blooming. James sketched it form time to time and as I looked over at his paper, I noticed a small one scribbled in the corner. Nathan yawned audibly and started to rock in his chair. Usually the teacher would acknowledge his bad habit but he seemed to gave up at this point.

“For the next year, remember, you have to re-select your courses.”

“Death, I select you, oh sweet liberation.”, smirked James sheepishly without looking up for one second.

I was the pure lack of emotions in his voice that made me laugh so much. I secretly wished he could write that on his selection paper. Even though James never talked particularly loud, his words made his way to Nathan, who had stopped testing his luck with gravity and grinned over to us once more. Some other students next to us had heard him as well and began to giggle.

The teacher had given up at this point and chose to just sit in front of his desk again, slowly muttering through his program. He knew, that if someone wouldn't know important details, he wasn't responsible for it. But we weren't dumb either. We could always ask other teachers or other students, even. It wasn't as if he was the well of knowledge or anything.

It was almost sad, that we didn't took him all too serious outside of physics class. As soon as we entered that one, everything would change. Once he was able the fulfill his passion, he suddenly wasn't Mr Abt with the weird glasses and the even weirder goatee anymore. He suddenly became the best physics teacher there was, that could answer you every question you had in mind. At least that was the case for me and James. Nathan and Lucas couldn't handle that he didn't taught out of the book and lost every interest in the subject. They would be those, that disturbed his lessons there, by touching every tap they could find.

Besides physics he was lecturing history. But that wasn't held in the physics lab. And with that Mr. Abt became the weird guy again.

The bell rang.

Lucas flinched by the sound of it. I knew that he slept. Dork.

Mr. Abt packed his books in his case and left the room. That was it for today. And he would go now and be a kick-ass physics tutor for some other kids.

On his way out he spoke with two girls before he left for good.

As soon as the door closed behind him I heard a dull bang. It was Nathan's feet on his desk. Bigger Dork.

If he only would know that their favorite teacher would come through the door in just a few minutes. Lucas would be awake at least. Nathan looked as crumpled as always, even if you really couldn't tell for sure with his curls.

The infamous teacher was Mrs Persarek, who everyone lovingly called “Pest is back”. That says a lot about her personality.

I already had her a few years in English and Chemistry and never been that bad in those subjects. She hated everyone equally and especially me since I hated her too and didn't held back on it. James was slightly afraid of her, which was also an reasonable reaction.

“Nathan, are you sure your feet on the table are a good idea? Your best friend is coming.”

James tried his best to convince him to play it cool at least for one lesson as he turned around in his seat. Nathan made a derogatory gesture and rolled with his eyes. He didn't seem to care all that much.

“Oh Jesus Christ not her!”, sighed Lucas annoyed.

Angrily grunting he sank together in his chair.  He was the one who suffered the most with her. He was dyslexic but Mrs. Persarek talked his already strict parents into “curing” him with extra work. Strict was an understatement. If he would come home with a B on a test, they would already be disappointed. He was the black sheep of the family, in their eyes dumb and antisocial. Yet their son should definitely become a lawyer or a doctor.

“Old hag can suck my dick if she wants to. Teams up with my parents. I'm toasted.”

For someone who just took a nap, he was really mad. Despite the fact that he had all right to be.

“I doubt you would want that, loudmouth.”, Nathan grinned cheeky and looked over at him.

“Careful, or the next thing on the table will be your head instead of your legs!”, he hissed back while James shook his head in incomprehension. He knew that they would tease, until they're brotherly kick the shit out of each other. It was the way they rolled. But it was completely against James' nature.

But we knew that for the two of them it was what they needed. They where inseparable by heart, maybe because both of their homes sucked that badly.

I didn't had time to indulge into the thought too much.

“Nathan, feet off the table!”

Every conversation died, as entered the class. She wore a pant suit as always and never looked at any student until she reached her desk.

“Good morning to you too.”, mumbled Lucas quietly and shifted his weight in his chair.

Nathan tilted his head to the side before he asked cheeky: “Why should I? We have at least 40 seconds left of our break.”

With a quick movement Mrs. Persarek turned behind her desk and fixated him with cutting eyes.

“Because I am positive, that your aunt won't be pleased to know, how her nephew a behaves in school.”

He went completely pale and if I wouldn't know better I would say, that his heart stopped beating in his chest. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but closed it almost immediately, moving his feet off the table slowly before dragging his hands through his dark brown curls. You could feel how much she just stabbed him. And all she did was standing there with a very slight, triumphant smile on her face.

She really was the pest.

To use his Aunt against Nathan was the worst she could have done. She was fatally ill, he never mentioned what exactly she had, but she stayed at home most of the time and her nephew was the one caring for him. It was the least he could do, since she cared for him the last 14 years. His parents dropped him off at her place when he was two years old and they wanted a weekend without him. They never called and vanished that same day.

And you didn't had to be Einstein to know that he wanted everything but to distress her.

“That's blackmailing.”, hissed Lucas and suddenly sat very straight in his chair, fists clenched on his desk. “You know exactly about his family situation, and it's disgusting that you are holding this against him.”

His voice shook in anger.

Maybe he should become a lawyer.

They stared each other down as if the one, who looked away first would be publicly humiliated, which wasn't far away from the truth. Mrs. Persarek was not the kind of woman who would back out of a verbal argument that fast, neither was Lucas that kind of guy, that would only watch when a friend was being mistreated. No wonder they would clash constantly like this.

“For someone with your grades I would be more careful.”

Mrs Persarek titled her head and stretched her mouth into this ugly grin of hers. As Lucas flinched at her remark, she chuckled faintly and removed a hair off her suit.

“How about you would consider seeing me after class as well, so we can talk about weather you had troubles with your worksheets that where due to today.”, she added before turned to pick her bag up, while all courage left Lucas' body. Now he looked just as defeated as Nathan, who fixated the table in front of him

“Do you plan on doing this to all of us?”

It was just James against her and everything else seemed to stop mattering.

I was caught by surprise to hear anything from James, since he admitted, that he was scared of her for good reason. I couldn't classify his tone of voice. Hands in his lap and collected as always – he couldn't sound mad that way. In fact, he didn't sounded distressed at all. Even Nathan's eyes dismissed his table, fixating the blond guy that spoke up, merely to defend him. Under normal circumstance you wouldn't be able to hear him. He never spoke loud.  Somewhere I could hear someone hiss 'Oh I never knew he could talk!' but they didn't seemed to get any response, killing their chuckle before it even started.

Mrs. Persarek appeared genuinely as surprised as everyone else. Her movements froze and she stared at her bag as if she was scared to turn around to face him.

“I'm deeply sorry, Mr. Turson.”, she said in a hushed voice as she finally turned around to look him straight in the eye. I saw him swallow, yet he didn't flinched as Lucas did. He was braver than he thought.

“I really hoped, that Mr Bradley wouldn't be such a bad influence for you.”

She looked over at me and shook her head as if I told him to speak up. She hated me and I knew this for a fact. She hated everyone except James. And she even hated James because he never spoke during class and just doodled or talked to me. But apart from that she always liked to believe that he was the good boy, what he certainly was. This seemed to be over for him now and he knew it. To this day I am wondering if he sometimes regretted his decision.

“What are you looking at me for like that?”, I asked her, a bit quieter than I wanted it to be but I didn't felt like letting James down at this point. If she wanted to believe that I am the cause of this, she should keep on hating me and leave him alone.

To my disappointment, she completely ignored me.

“I think I am afraid I have to let you switch seats with someone.”, she continued and shrugged, as if she really felt sorry.

“Mrs. Persarek, I doubt this will change my believes.”, James exhaled and looked more fed up with her than angry.

“What about that whole 'Mister' stuff? anyways”, he added and I knew he meant to say it to me but she had good ears. Unfortunately.

“Because it's about time, you get used to being called that. Sooner or later you will leave this school and have to deal with people calling you that way.”, she explained as if she waited for an opportunity to tell us her grand plan.

It was none of her business and no other teacher besides her felt like doing this either. It was a waste of maybe good potential. I rolled my eyes. The teacher started to walk in front of our desk. The way she did it infuriated me. She didn't walked, she paced like a panther. And we where her prey. No. Lucas, Nathan and I where her prey. James was just a tool for her. And she didn't cared if he got hurt in the process. She was awful.

“If you don't have any more questions, I would advice you to switch seats with Mrs. Roberts.”

Cornelia sighed and started to fetch her pencil case form the table. If she wouldn't be a straight A's student, she would have said something to protest this. Usually she did that anyways. She was this kind of girl who always opened her mouth with everything. She was in every schools club and probably best friends with half the teachers as well. But she just sighed again and stood up.

James did the same and sighed. He would sit at the front row now. The worst penalty for him.

Him and Cornelia glimpsed at each other with the sorrow of the prisoners in their eyes as they walked past each other. She weakly greeted me with a smile as she sat down.

Mrs Persarek made it back to her own desk in the meantime and looked at James with a proud expression on her face.

“This place is perfect for you, Mr. Turson. This year might be your year to shine, if you would stop drawing during my lectures.”, she said, as James turned around to me for a split second which she generously ignored.

“By all means, I doubt this, Mrs. Persarek. It is dependent on the teacher, rather than on the students.”

I admired how he stayed so calm like this.

Meanwhile, every ugly smile fell out of her ugly face and she had to sit back on her chair just so she could answer him.

“Mr Turson, I can only advice you, to watch your behavior. I know about your mother as well and would be devastated if you would follow her path. Great things are awaiting you, if you start to prior-”

He cut her off.  He never cut anybody of in the ten years I knew him.

“And I advice you, to stay out of other people's business, especially concerning my mother, my friends, or anybodies family. The principal would be devastated as well, knowing what some of his teachers are doing.”

She just grinned her ugly grin.

“Who do you think the principal is more likely to believe? A random student or a long year employee?”

James started sulking in his chair. He knew she was right. I could see, how his hands started shaking under the table. I couldn't watch this. Yet, she was quicker as I was.

“I am very disappointed in you, Mr. Turson.”, she sad as she shook her and pulled a green book out of her bag, turned a few pages before writing something down.

“Very disappointed. I'm afraid detention is the only reasonable penalty. Scratch every plan you had on Saturday.”, Mrs. Persarek concluded, as she looked up from her writing and fixated him with her eyes.  He refused to look up or to say anything.

“Then you better make room for me too.”, I said then, shifting her attention to me. Her eyes where pierced through my guts yet I felt the need to stare her down as well. Lucas did before now it was my turn.

“Andrew, you don't have to.”, James almost whispered from the front row. I ignored him, I had to stare her down.

“If this is your will, Bradley.”, she shrugged and wrote, supposedly my name down.

“What about me then?”, Lucas asked loudly and crossed his arms in front of his chest before Nathan joined him, mimicking his pose as well as his tone of voice.

“I started this, so let me hang in there as well.”