Chapter Text
Bridge POV (Sergei)
The week of Christmas has come to plague this school once more. Everywhere I look, decorations from a fantasy wonderland haunt me. In the cafeteria the showpiece, a ginormous Christmas tree, towers over the students, who are all waiting impatiently in line to buy candy canes for their friends. At my school, it’s tradition to buy little cards, sign them with your friends’ name and class (this includes teachers), and letting the Holiday Committee deliver them during the lessons. I always ask if they have one for me when they start randomly chucking them at the students, but they never do. I wonder if Daniel gets any. He must, plenty of students love him for his nervous and bashful demeanor. Then again, I’m one of the most loved teachers at this school, and I take great pride in that. I even learn the newest slang words so I can call myself a skibidi alpha! Being the ingenious genius that I am, I start developing a quick-witted plan. A few students cast me their famous side eyes as I join the candy-cane queue. When it’s finally my turn, I gently tap my credit card against the terminal. It’s only fifty cents, and all proceeds go to a good cause, said cause being both a charity and my beloved. The confused girl behind the counter (table) hands me a little green note. I quickly write down the asked details before dropping it into the ‘teachers’ bin.
To: Daniel Mullins
From: Your secret admirer xx <3
Because:
All I want for Christmas is you
My plan’s success becomes evident a few hours later by the flustered look on Daniel’s face when he sees me. He’s sucking on his candy cane like a happy little child and gives me a playful push. ‘I’m getting you back for this, Jesse Bridge!’ He says before walking off with Cowell. As expected, I am interrupted in my Greek lesson by the upbeat holiday committee who are all wearing their uniform santa hats. They start shouting out names and throwing candy canes in every direction. This class must be popular, some students have gathered upwards of four candy canes! One of them puts one on my desk and winks.
To: Jesse Bridge
From: The Hyacinth to your Apollo
Because:
You’re mine forever ♥️
My plan has backfired horribly. I try to soothe my raging heartbeat by taking deep breaths in and out like my online parasocial therapist suggested (he has social anxiety). Leave it up to Daniel to make my heart melt so sweetly. His ideas are so much cleverer than mine! He’s perfect in every way…I lovingly consume my candy cane as I continue teaching 3E.
Bridge POV (Silly)
It’s Wednesday, and Mistletoe by Justin Fucking Bieber is blasting through the main hall, although I can already hear it from one of the very last classrooms in this hallway. I want to kill myself when I hear this forsaken song. At least I get to chat up Daniel now. I smile to myself knowing I get to see his cute face again. Luckily my students decided to fuck off fairly quickly. I’m currently in a state of perpetual hatred for just about everything. Not only is it Christmas week at school, I also have a useless meeting from four to seven this afternoon. I already know we won’t discuss anything useful and I’ll just stare longingly at the window half of the time.
I’m grumbling to myself when I almost bump into Daniel closing up his classroom.
“Oh, hi,” I say, happily knocked out of my slump. I can see him glancing behind me before smiling at me.
“Hey, honey,” He beams at me. I clasp his hand in mine, taking advantage of the fact that nobody’s around. Seeing as nobody’s around anyway, I rock onto the balls of my feet and give him a kiss on his cheek. Together we walk to the teachers break room (although we do let go of each other’s hand before we walk into the hall).
The students are buzzing. In the middle of the hall there’s two students on a ladder with another two holding the ladder. I quickly recognise them as Ezra and Sergei on the ladder and Venus and Destiny (I believe, I have had her as a student, but that was two years ago). I think they’re trying to hang up a mistletoe… Daniel is willfully oblivious of this fact.
“Wait! Daniel!” I grab his wrist to stop him as he walks under it. It’s too late. When he stands still the girls are deviously giggling while holding the mistletoe above his head.
“What?” Daniel asks me foolishly.
“Oohhhh, now you kiss Bridge…” Ezra and Venus say simultaneously, I swear they’re twins or something! The other girls also start “ooh-ing”. Daniel looks like he’s either thinking way too hard about this or he’s not thinking at all.
“Come on, sir, it barely counts as a real kiss, it’s only a mistletoe!” Destiny says happily.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Sergei chants, and the others soon join in. Daniel looks panic-y. I sigh and decide we’ll never hear the end of it either way. I take the last step, carefully cup his jaw, and finally close the gap. We go on autopilot, all too familiar with this. The kiss only lasts a few seconds, and I instantly let go of his jaw and his wrist.
Daniel looks very flustered and cute, but the damage has been done. The students are shocked. Ezra and Sergei fall off of the fucking ladder.
“Oh my god…” Ezra says in a forced high pitched voice, probably some kind of reference. A hush has fallen over the surrounding student populace. I look towards the end of the hall and see Amira and Marina among other teachers. Oh, we’re fucked…
Bridge POV (Sergei)
I’ve made a horrible mistake.
In the flurry of exaggerated reactions and bewilderment, Daniel storms off, pushing through the pupils and teachers. I follow my first instinct, which is to chase after him. He leads me through hallways and corridors until finally we arrive at the teachers’ breakroom. The place is barren and empty because all of our other coworkers are out in the cafeteria celebrating. All of our coworkers who just saw what we did…Daniel walks up to the kettle and grabs two mugs, clearly he’s spotted me already. I carefully walk up to him, as if he’s a wild animal that might run away at the slightest provocation. ‘Hey Daniel…’ Daniel does not respond, instead grabbing the packet of Nesquik and shaking some of the powder in both mugs. In one, he puts a generous two tablespoons. The other contains barely a teaspoon. He pours the boiling hot water in both and hands the mug with significantly less flavor to me. ‘I’m sorry.’ I try, but Daniel shakes his head. ‘Drink up.’ Is all he says. I begin to worry. ‘I really am, I’m so sorry, how can I make this up to you?’ He just sighs. ‘You’ve really done it now, Jesse Bridge.’ Unlike last time when he said my full name, he’s serious. I take a sip of my nearly flavorless cup of hot water. ‘I want you to understand what you’ve done wrong and learn from your mistakes. You can’t fix everything by repeating that you’re sorry over and over.’ Daniel’s tone gradually picks up volume and grows less calm. ‘Because you may not care what those people think of you, but I do. Ever since I started teaching here it’s been hard for me to connect with both the teachers and the students. That’s on me, I’ve never been the social type. But before this happened, I felt like I had finally reached that special bond, I was actually a part of this school’s community! And now…this incident is all I’ll be known for. My reputation is ruined!’ I try really hard not to laugh, and carefully console him. ‘They’ll forget all about it in…I give it a month.’ Daniel looks up from his hot chocolate. Maybe this is the right time to tell him… ‘My ex-girlfriend broke up with me in front of the school. It was the eighth hour, and there were SO many students, who all saw and heard it. Sure, it was the talk of the school for a week or two and even now people who I’ve never taught somehow know about it, but my social connections didn’t change one bit.’ His eyes have widened. ‘Why did she break up with you?’ Daniel asks with disbelief in his voice. ‘She wanted to travel the world, I wanted to stay put. We just weren’t meant for each other in the end. Not to mention things were so serious with her. A few months in and she was already blabbing on and on about marriage!’ I dramatically roll my eyes. ‘I’m really happy with you, more content than I’ve ever been with her. And I really hope I haven’t ruined our relationship with this. I’ll be more careful from now on and discuss everything with you, I swear!’ My puppy eyes make him melt at last. ‘That is actually really comforting, thank you Jesse. I have one request for you though. How about you make up by taking me out to dinner on Christmas?’ Relief washes over me. ‘It’ll be the best dinner you’ve ever had, my love!’
Paarse vrijdag dingetje
Mullins POV
It's 1,5 weeks after The Mistletoe Incident* and I haven't entirely forgiven Jesse yet. At least not in public. In private he almost cried while, once again, begging me to forgive him. I eventually gave in. His pleading certainly looked good to me, but also annoying sometimes. The man can be a bit pathetic, but he's my pathetic man, I suppose.
[* AN: “No, it’s not fair [balakbalam]”
“what happened?” “Nothing, just an inchident… on the track”. Velder is kinda lestappen coded, trust]
Although it's not actually Christmas week anymore, the decorations are still up. But the purple friday decorations are also up today. I'm wearing my purple jumper again, and somehow Jesse got convinced to wear a purple GSA bracelet. It's a small thing, but it pleases me. We don't openly speak to each other for the majority of the day though. Students come up to chat with us during the breaks and I had to stop several conversations due to said students asking me about The Mistletoe Incident. A quick glance at my texts tells me that Jesse is suffering from the same problem. Although he can probably change the subject much more smoothly than I can, the smug bastard.
I have a free period during the fourth lesson. I'm exhausted, and knowing that I'll have to stay at work until after the seventh period isn't helping. Usually the last period on Friday is the sixth, but for some reason Matteo decided to screw the fourth form Greek classes over meaning that Jesse still has to teach during seventh period, and I have to wait for him. When this change first happened my ears nearly started bleeding due to the amount of complaining I had to listen to at home. At work I obviously also had to hear all the complaints from the fourth form Greek students. Most of them take both classical languages so I also have a lot of them in my Latin classes. When they're not complaining about Caesar, they're whining about Loukianos.
I'm mentally thanking Fama for the fact that the dating rumours between me and Jesse are starting to die down when the man himself walks into the breakroom. Jesse pretends he doesn't notice me despite Marina being the only other person in the room, but she's on her phone right now.
“Ah, Daniel! Just the man I wanted to see,” Jesse says happily. Marina looks up and quickly grabs her stuff and leaves, deserting me.
“Hello, Jesse,” I say, nervously glancing next to me to the window looking into the cafeteria.
“I just wanted to apologise again to you. I knew you weren't comfortable with me kissing you out in the open like that, and I still did it. I'm sorry,” Jesse looks sad again.
“It’s… Well, it's not okay actually. But, I do forgive you. Just like how I've forgiven you about five times now, just for this one thing,” I stand up and walk over to him, grabbing his hands, “I've thought about it, and I don't think I care all that much. You can tell everyone whatever you want. You can tell people we're dating, even the students. But only if you want to, of course!” I look Jesse in the eye and his puppy-like expression makes me huff a laugh.
“Yeah, my Greek class is gonna freak out, big time, haha,” Jesse laughs.
Just then, the door opens again and Marina, followed by a nervous looking Ezra, trying their best not to gawk at us.
“Oh yeah, the students still think I'm mad at you,” I whisper, purposely keeping my mouth close to his ear.
“It’s purple friday, right?” Jesse shouts after Ezra. Then he quickly kisses me. She looks horrified as a very pissed looking Marina shuts the door to the small meeting room.
“I guess, you feel like sharing,” I say smiling. I happily sit back down at my computer while Jesse starts to work next to me, printing some essays.
Ezra and Sergei sit at the two desks infront of the teacher’s desk during fifth period. This is where they usually sit, with Venus and Destiny sitting behind the two, but today it feels like it has more intent. The two students very pointedly glare at me and whisper to each other when I’m explaining the text on the board. I finally let the students go on with working on the text and sit down.
“What’s up with you and Bridge?” Sergei hisses across the tables and stacks of papers and books.
“I’m traumatised by that display of yours’ in the breakroom, so you better have some answers,” Ezra adds, her voice kept low enough just for us three to hear. I feel like I’m being interrogated, by two teenagers half my age no less!
“Uhm. Why is everyone so interested in my relationship status all of a sudden?” I nervously ask.
“Well, it’s not like you have a facebook account with an up to date relationship status that we can stalk,” Ezra says. This does nothing to minimise my fear for teenage girls’ investigative skills.
“...Right. Well, because you two really want to know-” Venus and Destiny lean over their desks to listen in, “I am in a romantic relationship right now,” I try to stay vague.
“With Bridge, right?” Sergei asks. I don't want to lie to my students.
“Yes. Yes, I am in a romantic relationship with mister Bridge, your Greek teacher, if I'm not mistaken,” I nod to Ezra, fairly confident in the knowledge that the other girls don't take Greek. Only Ezra is crazy enough to take both classical languages.
“I knew it,” Sergei and Ezra say simultaneously and high five each other. Venus whispers to Destiny that she owes her 5 bucks. Atleast all of them are keeping quiet enough as to not alert the other students.
—-------------------------
15.02
Jesse Bridge
They know
The fuckers
You
Who know what? Is this about Ezra and Co.?
Jesse Bridge
YES THIS IS ABOUT THE BOLEYN SPAWNS
One of them snuck into the lesson and they don't even take Greek!!!!!
You
That sounds rough, love. What did you tell them when placed under their scrutiny?
Jesse Bridge
I told them I'm doing their mum…. Then I realised one of their mothers is my coworker and they cornered me (verbally) and I told them abt us…
After that I threatened to give them more hw so they stopped bothering me🙏🙏
You
Hmm… Well, no taking it back now! Good luck, my sweetheart, I'll see you after class.
—------------------—------
Bridge POV
“Sir, you're not even wearing any purple today! Shame on you, honestly,” Valentina gives a disapproving look from the front row, next to Ezra.
“I'm wearing a bracelet!” I give an indignified squawk, and hold my wrist up, proudly showing off my GSA bracelet.
“That barely counts,” Valentine scoffs.
“Well. He did kiss Mullins, that's the spirit of purple friday, right?” Ezra asks Valentina.
“Are you guys still ooh-ing and ah-ing over last week? Seriously?” I try to act nonchalant.
“No. Today, fourth period. You called for my attention, saying it's purple friday, and then you kissed the guy! On the lips!” Ezra informs.
“On the lips?! Damn, on the cheek or the hand I would understand, but the lips… yall must be close,” Valentina gasped, very obviously pretending and being overly dramatic.
“I don't have an active memory of doing that… And besides, I'm already doing your mum, so how could I also do Dan- Mullins,” shit, I almost slipped.
“Sir… my mother is the section head of the Classics… And she behaves like a mother to you,” Ezra says, a challenging glint in her eye. FUCK FUCK FUCK.
“Okay, so maybe not your mother…”
“There is no heterosexual explanation for you and Mullins, sir” Valentina simply said. “AND that's okay,” she added, like rubbing salt in a fresh wound.
“Eh- Ugh, fine! Yes. Me and Mister Mullins are dating, happy now?” I give in.
“Almost. Who's gonna take the other's last name? Personally, I would prefer it if there were two mister Mullins’, it would-” I'm quick to cut Ezra off before she can finish this.
“Alright, enough, enough! I'll make sure you two get extra homework if you don’t stop. For Greek and Latin!”
“Right, ‘cuz you're gonna see our Latin teacher again at your next date,”
In the last 15 minutes of the lesson, there's a timid knock at the door.
“Come in,” I don't bother to look at the newcomer.
“Uhm, I had to give this to you, and this to Ezra,” Sergei walks over to my desk with a couple of books in her arms, and places the one on the top on my desk and the rest on Ezra’s. A brand new copy of The Princess bride is placed upon my desk.
“Congratulations on your relationship, by the way,” Sergei nervously adds.
“Thanks,” I say through gritted teeth. How the hell does this kid know! Sergei nearly runs out of the classroom, and I look inside my new book.
For my Apollo
Xx your Hyacinth