Chapter Text
March 16, 2005
It was a few months before school went out for summer vacation, although winter hadn't quite given up on them yet. When it wasn't raining, it was snowing, and the river outside was still iced over from bow to stern. The trees were stripped of their green leaves, the winter weather conditions having made them lose their foliage back in November.
Inside Jensen's classroom—the school's only laboratory which catered to classes like ecology, chemistry, and biology—, the windows were opened, allowing not only the smell of freezing rain on partially melted snow to penetrate the room, but the pitter-patter of the heavy raindrops hitting the ground, roof, and walls outside the classroom.
Little drops of water rolled down the windows into the classroom, but Jensen ignored it in favor of feeling the fresh air on his face and watching the cars outside pass by. The sky was blue and cloudless; the sun shone brightly across the bed of white snow, making it sparkle and glisten under its assault.
As always, Jensen's mind wandered as he was uninterested and sick and tired of school. Absentmindedly, he doodled in his notebook and all over the margins of his textbook—making little drawings and scribbling down words from his favorite songs. His elbow rested on his desk with his chin on his palm; his eyes drooped and his head bobbed in sleep every so often, as the rest of his classmates listened attentively to the teacher discuss the next exam.
Jensen wasn’t interested in biology, and, truth be told, he didn't really like his classmates. He still carried some sort of redraw emotion of unprocessed trauma from years of being bullied throughout elementary and into early middle school. It ate away at confidence, self-image, and sanity like termites on old floorboards as he thought about how even his best friend from elementary had turned against him when they started middle school.
Almost needless to say anyway, Jensen was quietly minding his own business when, suddenly, his name was mentioned loudly, and it pulled him out of his daydream and back to present reality. “Jensen!”
Jensen glanced cautiously around the room and noticed that all the students were staring at him. He then surveyed the room for his teacher only to find him standing right next to his desk, hands-on-hips with a disapproving look in that 'teacher caught me pose'. At that moment, Jensen couldn't have felt more out of place. "Yes?"
“What are you doing?”
Jensen’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times, but he was unable to come up with any good answer.
“Come see me after class.”
Okay... so maybe Jensen was a troublesome student: he rarely listened and was just all in all odd.
With that, Mr. Wright pulled his notebook and agenda off his desk and brought them to the front of the classroom, where he put them in a drawer. Jensen didn't think he'd ever see them again.
For the rest of the class, Jensen stared blankly at his teacher, at the projector, and out the windows again, daydreaming of being outside or his favorite TV shows, although trying his best this time not to put his chin on his hand and his elbow on his desk, in the way his English hated and forbade him of doing because it made him seem bored.
The last thing Jensen wanted to do was fuel his teacher's anger.
RING RING RING RING
Jensen was unpoised as the school bell rang and his classmates started to get up and leave.
Jensen shoved his books into his backpack. He had a plan to walk out the door and down the hall with the other students before his teacher even realized he was gone. However, just as Jensen arrived at the front of the class, he felt a hand grip his bicep and heard the words “Where do you think you're going?” as he tried to make his way to the door.
Jensen turned to look at his teacher and adjusted the strap of his backpack over his shoulder as the last of the students exited the class and he was left alone with his teacher.
“You're failing, Jensen. Your grade point average is under thirty percent,” his teacher said disparagingly.
Jensen watched as Mr. Wright pulled out a stack of papers from his briefcase. He riffled through them for a moment before pulling out one, setting it apart from the others, and then swiveling it around on the desk so Jensen could see it. Jensen took a step closer and looked down at his latest exam only to see red marks and exes all across his paper.
To be completely honest with himself, Jensen didn’t care that he was even failing biology, but his teacher didn’t seem to like it —or maybe he just had it out for Jensen? The problem was that Jensen didn’t want him talking to his parents, and he didn't need it getting back to his sister or brother either.
“You're the only one who's failing, Jensen,” he said. “You also never any pay attention in class, and I've warned you about this before.” He seemed angry at his behavior.
Jensen shifted on his feet. “I know. I'm sorry! I'll improve my grades. I swear it—”
“The year is already more than halfway over,” interrupted his teacher, shaking his head. “There are no summer classes in biology. If you fail this class, you're expelled.”
Jensen's stomach tightened. Jensen went to a private high school where students couldn't be held back and weren't allowed to fail classes without retaking them in the summer before the next year. His parents would kill him if he got expelled; they'd never let him live it down, and neither would the other students.
“I promise... I'll do better!” exclaimed Jensen. Why wasn't he listening to him? Did he think he was lying?
Mr. Wright shook his head. “We're past that point. You leave me no choice now,” he said, taking back the full stack of papers and putting them into his briefcase. “I'll be calling your parents. I think it's only appropriate that we should discuss your future, or lack thereof, at this fine institution, seeing as they're paying to have you sent here.”
Jensen was fucked. His parents were paying a fortune to send him there and already they didn't get along with him. Alan and he fought all the time, at times even physically. Don't even get him started on his relationship with his brother... In the time that they'd attended the same schools, Joshua had pretended that he didn't know Jensen because he despised him.
Next, Mr. Wright pulled out some extra exercises along with his agenda and notebook which he'd confiscated earlier from one of his desk drawers and handed them over to Jensen. He then indicated to him with his hand to leave as the school bell rang again and students started to pour into the room for the next class.
Jensen kicked himself mentally. He'd missed recess and was already late to his next class which was on the other side of the school. Can you believe it? He didn't bother asking his teacher for a permission slip.
It was off to the principal's office... again.
TBC~