Work Text:
Nobody dared to even move as the wall clock ticked loudly, each tick signifying one second less they had to spend with Mr. Haywood. Some said he was scary, others said he was downright fucking terrifying.
The 6 in the back, delinquents, as Mr. Haywood called them, seemed to be the only exception as they lounged comfortably in their chairs, their heads together as they talked in hushed whispers.
"Sh." Mr. Haywood shut up the ones in the back with a menacing glare and a single, forceful shush and gave them a glare over his glasses. Two of them were nearly his age, but then again, he was a very young teacher. He applied for a job straight out of college for his old high school's Technology/Science department teacher position. He was so advanced in this field that he graduated two years early from high school to attend a prestigious college in Texas, and later on scored the job he had now.
Austin High School was full of kids of all types: jocks, nerds, burnouts, preps, and the coolest people you'll ever meet, or so they called themselves. They sat at the back of the room now, having earned detention from causing a ruckus in Mr. Haywood's class with their made-up, competitive, and very loud game called "Versus", or simply "VS".
Mr. Haywood was not a very forgiving teacher. Sure, he had his good side, and anyone lucky enough to get on it was spared from his cold glares and threatening taunts. But most students annoyed him to no end, much like how it was when he himself had attended high school.
The kids he had the most trouble with were the delinquents sitting casually at the back of his room. He had been best friends with all of them in his high school days, but now, they took this as a free pass to do whatever they wanted to in class and detention. He was always needing to-
"Shh." Mr. Haywood said again, quieting the tall boy with dark hair, eyes like he never got enough sleep, and multiple tattoos covering his arms. Geoff was the "leader" of their friend group, always organizing activities and usually the disruptions they caused. He just smiled back lazily, waving an uncaring hand at Mr. Haywood's stern face.
He was a senior, and was just itching to get out of the stuffy classrooms and into real life, like most kids of that age. Jack, the larger boy with ginger hair, a full beard already, and wire-framed glasses, was also a senior. Geoff was actually older than Mr. Haywood, but since Mr. Haywood was a teacher, it gave him seniority.
Another one of the kids, a boy with curly auburn hair, freckles, and glasses, leaned across one of his friends, the cute, red headed girl Lindsay, to whisper to another boy who giggled and accidentally banged his knee on a desk while laughing.
"Ow!" He whispered, squeaking quietly.
"Fucking moron." Michael, the freckled one, whispered back, shaking his head and smiling.
Gavin, the clumsy one who banged his knee, leaned back in his chair and ruffled his shiny brunette hair, still laughing softly about what Michael had said earlier.
The boy next to him, a slender and short kid with dark hair, Puerto Rican descent (sometimes affectionately called the Puerto Rican Thunder), and thick framed glasses leaned over to inquire what Michael had said. Gavin attempted to whisper it to him, but kept breaking down into giggles as he explained it.
"Just fucking tell me." Ray, the one Gavin was talking to, said in an annoyed voice.
"Shhh." Mr. Haywood said again, pressing his finger to his lips to silence his class.
Gavin tried again, but managed to only make Ray laugh and squirm slightly from the tickling sensation of Gavin's breathy chuckles into his ears.
"Ray. Be serious." Gavin said, attempting to be serious himself. He just giggled at the exasperated look Ray gave him.
Michael had been watching all of this happen, so finally he decided to take over and tell Ray himself.
"Ray, c'mere." Michael beckoned, twisting around in his seat as Ray moved silently behind the desks to crouch behind him.
"No, I can tell him!" Gavin squeaked, clawing at Ray's arm to drag him back.
"Obviously not, dumbass. You can't stop laughing!" Michael whisper-yelled, only half trying to be quiet.
Lindsay was watching all of this happen with an amused glint in her eyes, smiling all the while at her boyfriend and best friends' antics. She was used to her fellow sophomore's silly dispositions, but it didn't make them any less hilarious. She broke down laughing when Michael told Ray what he had Gavin, and Ray gave one loud "ha" and proceeded to shoot Gavin a disbelieving look at how amused he was by the comment.
Lindsay leaned her head against Michael's shoulder as he sat back in his seat once more. He sighed lightly, leaning his head on top of hers. She closed her eyes briefly, exhaling and inhaling comfortably.
Gavin watched this cute exchange and looked over at Ray, grinning mischievously.
"No way, man." Ray said, crossing his arms.
"Aw, c'mon, X-Ray." He pleaded, which earned him another "shhhh" from Mr. Haywood.
Ray sighed and shrugged. "No homo, right?"
"Pshh, full-on homo." Gavin said, leaning his head on Ray's shoulder.
"You're an idiot." Ray said, his laugh reverberating through his body.
"Aw, how cute." Jack cooed, looking over at the two boys. Ray just gave him a middle finger and put his head on Gavin's.
Lindsay patted Gavin's arm reassuringly, giggling a little at how adorable they were. She cuddled closer to Michael: even though she was already wearing his jacket, she was still freezing cold. Mr. Haywood always kept his rooms cold and clean, like an isolation center. This never bothered them, though. They were still friends with Mr. Haywood, or to them, obviously, Ryan. They knew that he acted this way to them because he had a classroom to uphold and had to keep it free of troublemakers. That, of course, never stopped his favorite delinquents, though.
Obviously, they weren't the only ones he gave detention to. There were others who hung out with this bunch and for this, they got frequent detentions as well. Caleb, Kerry, and Kdin sat in front of them, fiddling around with paper footballs and flicking them at each other.
Caleb tried to throw one like a mini frisbee, but it hit Kerry right in the cornea and he crumpled in pain, clutching his eye and cursing profusely. Caleb was initially worried at this, but he, along with Kdin and everyone watching, soon collapsed into muffled laughter. Kerry looked up blearily with a muttered, "Fuck you guys." and shot a paper football at Miles and Chris, his best friends, in the row in front of him.
Naturally, he missed, and it instead hit Griffon, a senior like Geoff and Jack, with many tattoos, a septum ring, and with her blonde hair shaved on one side. She turned around, and Kerry whispered an apologetic, "Sorry, Griff!". Griffon smiled at him and waved her hand, brushing it off. She twisted in her seat until she was facing Geoff, who was three rows behind her. She waved cheerfully at her fiancée, grinning at his adorable crooked smile.
"Come over tomorrow, I'm working on a new piece!" She whispered. Griffon was a master when it came to woodworking with her chainsaw. She was pretty much a certified badass.
"Sure, sounds great!" He replied, giving her an enthusiastic thumbs up. He elbowed Jack when Caiti, his fiancée who happened to be sitting by Griffon, turned around to converse with them as well.
"We're also having a barbecue on Saturday, so everyone's invited." She told all of them. Everyone made a noise or nod of agreement. She smiled kindly under her white and black glasses, flipped her long brunette hair to the side, and settled back into her seat again, along with Griffon.
"Ow, that hurt." Jack whined, rubbing his side.
"You fuckin' baby." Geoff said, giving Jack an exasperated look.
"We're having shrimp on the barbie?" Michael said, with a terrible impression of Caiti's Aussie accent.
"Michael, don't be a pleb!" Gavin scolded, hitting him on the arm.
"I was kidding, dumbshit." Michael shot back, rolling his eyes.
"Shhhhh." Mr. Haywood said again, not giving up on the relentless attempts to straighten out his favorite students.
Geoff rose his hand lazily, beckoning Mr. Haywood over when he quirked an inquisitive eyebrow. He came over and stood by Geoff's desk, leaning his hands on it.
"We're having a barbecue at Caiti's Saturday." Geoff told him, playing casually on his phone.
"Okay, call me when you get more details." Ryan replied, already strolling away. He knocked a paper football out of Kerry's hand as he passed, chuckling softly at his disgruntled expression.
"Hey, Gav." Michael said, summoning him over.
"Yeah?"
"Wanna come over for swimmy bevs tonight? Linds and Ray are coming, if anyone else wants to come, too."
"Sure, sounds top."
"Yeah, Griff and I aren't doing anything, we can come."
"Caiti and I are free as well."
"Aw, Michael, can we come too?"
"Sure, Kerry."
Kerry, Caleb, Kdin, Miles, and Chris smiled giddily and squeaked about it like the freshmen they were. Everyone rolled their eyes, but they were glad the boys were excited about coming.
"Hey, Barb?"
Barbara, a pretty girl with curly blonde hair sitting in the front row due to her excessive talking, turned around quickly, bored out of her skull and ready to talk to someone.
"Yeah?"
"Shhhhhh."
She gave Ryan a dirty look and he gave one right back, shrugging unapologetically.
"We're having swimmy bevs tonight, and a barbecue at Caiti's Saturday."
"Sounds great!" She said, smiling enthusiastically and giving him a thumbs up.
"Kara, Arryn, you in too?
"Yeah, we'll try!" Kara, a small, blonde girl sitting a few seats away from Barbara, replied cheerily. She didn't bother to interrupt Arryn, a fair girl with dark hair, who was reading silently.
Mr. Haywood once again made his way around to the back of the room, stopping when he reached Michael's desk.
"Mr. Jones, I would appreciate if you didn't distract my students during their detention period."
"C'mon, Ryan."
"If you don't, I will--"
"What? Put me in another detention? Send me to Burnie?" He smirked, knowing Ryan didn't have any way to punish him that would actually effect him; detention obviously did nothing, and Burnie, their principle, was a softie. The delinquents were by far his favorite students. "There's no way to punish us."
"Michael, shut up or he's gonna eat you." Ray muttered, a small grin flitting across his face. Ryan gave him a half-startled, half-menacing look while Michael just looked confused.
"I'm a cannibal now? Why- never mind." He said, shaking his head and not even bothering to ask.
"You know detentions and being sent to the principal's office don't work on our delinquent asses, Ryan." Michael reasoned.
Ryan had realized that these students would never really ever listen to him long ago, although he still tried. "Yeah. I know," He started to stroll away from Michael's desk, but stopped and turned back after a few paces. "But you're all still gonna have detention tomorrow anyway."
"For fucks' sake, Michael." Geoff groaned.
"Oh, he would've given us one anyway. That's the only thing that he can do to punish us." Michael replied, not really bothered. He was in a class for two hours with his best friends, doing nothing, which suited him just fine.
"True." Geoff mumbled, burying his face in his hands. Jack patted him consolingly on the back, smiling sadly at Caiti when she gave them a forlorn look. There was rarely a day where the delinquents didn't have detention. They theorized that Ryan just wanted some company, even if he was always welcome at the Ramsey's or anyone else's house.
"Okay, class, you all know why each of you is in here." Ryan stated to the room, standing impressively at the front of the classroom with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
"Some of you didn't turn in homework," He glanced around at some faces, which shied away from his stern glare.
"Some of you talk too much," He gave Barbara and Kara a hard stare; they gave each other high fives over Arryn, who continued her reading as if Mr. Haywood hadn't said anything.
"And some of you just..." He took a long sweeping look at the delinquents in the back. "Need to learn when to shut up." Kerry, Caleb, and Kdin shrunk a little in their seats, but those in the back row only giggled and waved at their unamused teacher.
Mr. Haywood sighed and shook his head. "Class is dismissed." He said, walking behind his desk and sitting down, rubbing his temples exhaustedly. Most of the students had scampered out of their seats before Mr. Haywood was even done speaking. His most problematic children were the last to get up, sauntering over to his desk, bidding their other friends goodbye.
"Wanna come for swimmy bevs tonight?" Geoff asked Ryan, sitting on the table in front of his desk.
"I can't, I have a shitton of paperwork to grade." Ryan replied, sighing deeply again. He rubbed his hands over his face tiredly, making him look much older than he actually was.
"Aw, Ryan, c'mon." Gavin whined, hopping up to sit on the edge of Ryan's desk.
"No, really, I can't. Do you know how to grade this science crap?" He said, rifling through the papers closest to him. His desk was normally clean and orderly, but the end of the year was taking a lot out of him. There were worksheets and tests strewn all over the tabletop, making it look messier than they'd seen it all year.
"Hey, are you okay, Ryan?" Jack asked worriedly, his soft eyes showing concern.
"Yeah, maybe this is something you need, y'know, to get away from the stress of dealing with us as students." Lindsay suggested.
"It might be, but I really don't approve of the alcoholic beverages." Ryan said, hiding his face in his hands for a couple seconds, a sure sign that he was getting really tired.
"I'm not having any." Ray said honestly, cocking his head slightly and smiling. "We can be the cool kids at the party."
"I still have this work..."
"When's the last time you had a day off?" Michael asked. They always were trying to convince him to take a day off so he wouldn't get a stressed as he would now, but he never listened.
"Um..." Ryan contemplated, but his guilty expression revealed that he hadn't in a long while.
"Exactly." Geoff said, crossing his arms and giving him a meaningful look.
"Well, I'd be taking tonight and Saturday night off for Caiti's barbecue."
"Two days is pretty much exactly what you need. And the barbecue won't last all day, anyway." Jack said, smiling hopefully at Ryan.
Ryan looked around at his six friends crowding his desk, and realized that they really did want the best for him. If it took two lost work days to get over the end of the year stress, then so be it.
"Okay. Let's go have some swimmy bevs, and water for Ray and I." Ryan said, getting up from his hard desk chair. Everyone cheered, a few loud "Ayyyy!"'s, a couple "Woo!"'s, and a "Yeah, Ryan!" reverberating around the classroom. Ryan grinned at the joyous attitudes of his friends as he considered each of their cheerful smiles.
"Yeah, the R & R connection, baby!" Ray shouted, frolicking out with Gavin by his side. They all laughed gleefully, and Geoff, Jack, Michael, and Lindsay followed with a spring in their step and a smile on their faces.
Before he ran happily out of the classroom with the others, Ryan took his glasses off and set them on his desk, signifying that the reign of Mr. Haywood was over and Ryan was out to have fun once more.