Chapter Text
Peach was surprised to get a call from his sister during the school day. He glanced at the clock to see it was her lunch break. “You only get twenty minutes for lunch. You should be eating,” he said in lieu of a greeting.
“P’Peach, you’re not working are you today right?” Plub asked him.
“I’m editing some photos but the deadline isn’t for another two weeks,” Peach was sitting at his computer touching up some of the photos of a wedding he’d done just over a month ago.
“Can you come to school? Mrs. Kim’s husband had a heart attack this morning at work and she left to go to the hospital and we’re having trouble getting a sub mid-day. Please, P’Peach,” Plub explained the situation.
“Eat your lunch,” Peach reminded her as shut down his laptop and stood up. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thank you P’Peach!” Plub sounded relieved. “You’re the best big brother ever!”
“Eat!” Peach said again before hanging up the phone. He looked at his clothes and decided that since his shirt had a collar, it was decent enough but he changed quickly into some slacks and then headed to Plub’s school. Peach walked into the front office and was greeted by both Note, the secretary, and Mok, the vice principal.
“Thank you for coming in on such short notice,” Mok said and took him right back out of the office, leading him through the hallways to the classroom. Peach had subbed at the school and helped Plub out with events several times before and was therefore known to Mok and the rest of the front office staff. So the paperwork could wait until after the school day ended. “Right now Aran is in there since it’s his plan period right now. Mrs. Kim teaches art and said before she left that at this point in the semester, all of her classes have projects to work on so you don’t need to worry about teaching. Just supervise.”
“So babysitter,” Peach said and Mok just shrugged as he wasn’t wrong.
Mok knocked on the door as he opened it. “Mr. Aran, you can go back to your planning period now. Mr. Peach will take over. Students, this is Mr. Peach,” Mok introduced, “He’s here if you need anything but you can continue working.”
Aran put his hands together in a wai. “Thank you P’Peach,” he sounded relieved. No teacher ever wanted to give up their plan period. He left to return to his own classroom.
Mok wrote down on a piece of paper the bell schedule, the other classes Peach would supervise, and got into the online system for Peach to take attendance. “If you need anything, just call the office,” Mok said before departing. Again, Peach had subbed there before and Mok was sure of his competence.
Peach wandered around the room, looking at the different projects students were working on. This was a 3-D art class so students had several different types of projects they were working on, from ceramics and sculpting to metal work and every medium in between.
Peach kept his substitute teacher license up to date, though he wasn’t taking as many sub jobs these days now that his photography business had picked up through word of mouth. Earlier in his career, subbing supplemented his income as he was getting his photography business off the ground. It provided a steady stream of revenue, since subs were always needed. He liked that he could pick the days and schools to work in, refusing some requests, like all day kindergarten or secondary math, and he could work around his budding photography career. Peach liked it best when he could get into an art class like this one.
The day was easy. He took attendance at the beginning of each class and then told the students that they were to work on their projects. He did mention he had a degree in art and could help them if they needed it or had any questions. Peach was pretty relaxed with his discipline style. He didn’t mind if the students chatted with one another while they worked, as long as they were in fact, working. He walked around the room multiple times each class period, occasionally giving out compliments and advice and telling students to quiet down.
“Boys, there’s no reason to be shouting during art class,” Peach’s only real problem children were a group of about four freshmen boys in the last class of the day.
“Boys, if I have to ask you to quiet down again, I’ll make you change seats because you clearly can’t handle the responsibility of sitting all together.”
“You can’t do that,” the leader was apparently feeling brave.
Peach smiled at him, “Ok, then you can come sit up here with me, you, red shirt, go sit at that table, you, baseball cap, sit over at that table, and you can stay there.” None of the boys made any move to follow the directions and change seats and continued to ignore Peach. They were testing him and Peach was up to the task. He stood at the end of their table, “Should I make a referral to the nurse to have your hearing checked? No, ok, you have until the count of three to start packing up your things and moving.” Still nothing so Peach began counting, voice firm without being raised or harsh tone. “One,” Peach paused, Baseball Cap looked twitchy like he was worried about being in trouble, “Two,” the other boys glared at Baseball Cap to keep him from following the directions, “Three,” Peach finished and they didn’t do anything. “Ok, I’ll call Vice Principal Mok,” Peach turned and walked to the teacher’s desk and picked up the phone. The boys shot each other nervous looks, not sure if they believed Peach would actually call the vice principal over something so trivial. But Peach always followed through. He dialed for the office, “Hi Khun Note, can you connect me to Vice Principal’s Mok’s office? Or better yet, just send him down here. I need a bit of help.”
“Can do!” Note answered.
“Thanks!” Peach put the phone back down in the cradle.
“You didn’t actually call him,” the leader tried to call Peach’s non-bluff, but he didn’t sound as confident as when he was back-talking to Peach.
“I guess we’ll find out in a few minutes,” Peach smirked. The boys looked a little anxious but went back to what they were doing, with the leader assuring the other that there was no way Peach actually called for the vice principal to come to the classroom and it was just a scare tactic.
About five minutes later, there was a knock on the classroom door and it opened to reveal a well-dressed handsome man that was definitely not Mok. Peach was smart though, “Principal Thee, thanks for coming down.”
The man looked Peach over with a smile. “Note said you needed some help and Vice Principal Mok is on the phone with a parent at the moment,” Principal Thee replied, “What can I do for you Mr. Peach?”
“This group of boys couldn’t handle the responsibility of quietly working and decided not to listen to my instructions to move to separate tables. I know it’s not usually worthy of being sent to the office, but since I didn’t appear to have the authority to get them to listen to me, I thought I’d call on someone else whose authority they would respect,” Peach explained the situation in a wonderfully calm and even teacher voice, “Gray Hoodie seems to be the leader of the group and was a little sassy with me as well.” One of Peach’s favorite ways to rage-bait students, male students in particular, was to label them sassy, bossy, overemotional, or other adjectives that were more often applied to women and girls. It did the trick this time like it always did of Gray Hoodie instantly arguing that he wasn’t sassy.
Principal Thee held up a hand for Gray Hoodie to stop with the hysterics, which he did right away. “Ah, well then, Chad, you can come to my office with me to talk yet again about respecting teachers, substitutes or not,” Principal Thee looked at the students, “Where did you want the other boys to move to Mr. Peach?”
“You, to that table, and you to that table,” Peach once again directed Red Shirt and Baseball Cap.
“Brad, Ryan, move,” Principal Thee said, though the boys were already hastily packing up their things to move. Chad had barely moved. “Chad, come on, pack up your things and come with me, now, or you’re not playing in Friday’s football game.”
“But it’s the playoffs!”
“Did you just talk back to me?” Principal Thee said and if this was a soap opera, Peach was sure an ominous thunderclap would have accompanied the reply. “You will be walking out of this classroom with me in the next thirty seconds,” Principal Thee had a lofty presence about him, one that commanded respect and an air about him that said he could have you expelled with a snap of his fingers. Chad quickly gathered his things and left the room. “Let me know if you need any more help Mr. Peach,” Principal Thee said before also departing.
So that was the elusive Principal Thee. Peach had never met him any of the other times he’d visited the school. Plub made him sound scary with the makings of a mafia boss. Peach could see it, though he didn’t think it was as bad as Plub had made it out to be. Still, Principal Thee did have that winning smile all principals seemed to have, the one that got people to donate to the school and businesses to support it.
The rest of the class period went smoothly and Peach returned to the front office at the end of the day to fill out the paperwork. Given that he’d subbed there before, Note had most of the form filled out. They had his teacher’s license number on file, along with most other details. Peach just needed to fill in a couple of blanks and sign it. Mok was out of his office and came to the front desk as Peach applied his signature to the paper. “My apologies for not being available earlier,” Mok said.
“No worries, Principal Thee was able to help me,” Peach held the pen out to Mok for him to sign the document as well.
“Khun Peach,” Principal Thee appeared right as Peach was getting ready to leave and find Plub’s room. He couldn’t come to the school and not see his baby sister. Peach stopped and looked at him, prompting him to continue. “I just got off the phone with Mrs. Kim. Her husband is still in surgery and will take a few days to recover. Would you be available to sub for her for the next few days, through the end of the week?”
“Let me check my calendar,” Peach pulled out his phone to check if he had anything else that week. He didn’t remember anything but thought it was best to double check before committing to subbing for the next three days. That, and his brain was short circuiting at Principal Thee’s casual use of ‘ter’ with him. Neither Mok or Note showed any surprise on their face so maybe it was normal for Principal Thee. Peach’s calendar was blank, so he agreed to take on the job and thoroughly shoved Principal Thee’s pronoun choice to the back of his mind. Note hastily made changes to the document Peach and Mok had just signed so that it lasted through the end of the week and they wouldn’t have to do the paperwork again.
“Mrs. Kim will send over sub-plans later this evening via email. I’ll have them ready for you in the morning,” Principal Thee said once it was all settled.
Peach departed from the office and headed up stairs to Plub’s classroom. Plub was working with a student when Peach opened the door. “Come in P’Peach, we’ll be done soon,” Plub beckoned him in.
Peach set his bag on Plub’s desk and went about cleaning up her classroom, wiping down the whiteboard, checking the markers and throwing out the ones that were mostly dead and replacing them with new ones from her supply closet, cleaning the erasers, straightening out the desks in their rows, picking up a few pieces of trash, straightening the folders of grading on her desk, sweeping off bits of eraser into his hand to put in the trash and so on until Plub finished up with her student. Peach was intimately familiar with Plub’s classroom, having helped her set it up several years earlier when she started at the school.
“Thank you so much for coming in on such short notice,” Plub said after her student had left.
“You know I’m always here for you, LookPlub,” Peach assured her. “Mrs. Kim is going to be out for a few days so I’ll be working here through the end of the week.”
“Yay!” Plub cheered and hugged her brother. “Let’s have a sleepover and car pool in the morning.”
“Whatever you want,” Peach was not in the habit of denying his little sister anything she wanted. It was why even though they each had their own places, Plub had her own room and closet in Peach’s house. “I met your principal today, by the way. Scared the wits out of a freshman, Chad.”
“Ugh, that kid, he’s the nightmare of my third period that I’ve told you about,” Plub made a face. “He’s going to keep giving you trouble.”
“Then I’ll keep calling Principal Thee,” Peach shrugged. And he did the next day and the following day. So on Friday, Principal Thee came into the classroom with Chad at the beginning of the period, rather than waiting for Peach to call him. Peach hadn’t let the same group of boys that gave him trouble on the first day sit together, much to their displeasure. Chad still found a way to cause trouble every day, even without his friends around him.
Principal Thee stood at the front of the room, leaning on Mrs. Kim’s desk, pointedly staring at Chad, like he was daring him to make a nuisance of himself for the fourth day in a row. Peach felt like he’d built up good rapport with Principal Thee over the week and he no longer saw the scary principal with supreme power over the school but instead the dork who liked soap operas.
“Is there anything I can do to persuade you to stay until the end of the semester,” Principal Thee said to Peach in a hushed tone as the class worked on their projects, “It’s only two weeks plus finals week. So Mrs. Kim can stay with her husband? There were apparently some complications during the surgery, which was why it took so long.”
Peach gave pause to think about it. He hadn’t really ever done any long term subbing, not that three weeks was all that long. The most he’d ever done was a few days back to back. This was already the longest he’d been in one classroom. Peach liked routine and order but wasn’t sure he’d want to have the same schedule for the next three weeks. He liked the flexibility of subbing, and the ability to take last minute jobs. Plus he still had the wedding to finish editing. “Can I let you know later tonight?” Peach finally answered him.
“Of course,” Principal Thee pulled out his phone, “Give me a call later.” Principal Thee handed Peach his phone and Peach quickly called his own phone, knowing it was on silent, and then saved the number.
The question rattled around in Peach’s brain for the better part of the next three hours. Did he want to get up early every day for the next three weeks? Did he want to be stuck in the same routine every day for the next three weeks? Subbing for Mrs. Kim was a glorified babysitting job as the students were all working on their final project. On the other hand, he was also guaranteed to see Plub every day, which was a rare phenomenon during the school year. Plus it was winter and his photography business was always slow around this time of the year. His calendar was sparse with one graduation photo shoot the next day and a Christmas party on the weekend that came before final’s week.
Then there was the Chad of it all with that annoying kid to deal with every day. This would probably guarantee that he would get to see Principal Thee every day, which Peach wouldn’t be against. The thought literally stopped Peach in his tracks on his way to the kitchen to refill his water bottle as he worked on the wedding photos. It had only been four days, but as much as it irked him knowing he’d have to deal with Bratty Chad, in equal measures, he looked forward to seeing Principal Thee again. Peach had his bisexual crisis as a teenager, watching The Pirates of the Caribbean and lusting after both Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom. It had been a great bonding experience with Plub but he’d never come across a man in real life that had him stop and think like this until now; Plub’s cringey, cheesy, dorky, soap opera quoting principal with the perfect lock of hair always curled across his forehead, who had started using ‘ter’ with Peach in just their second meeting. “Wow, my taste in men and women is vastly different,” Peach mumbled to himself. He’d avoided the most dramatic, over-the-top girls in his high school and university. Plub was enough chaos and drama for him, he didn’t need more of it in a partner. But he found Principal Thee’s theatrics to be equally endearing and entertaining.
After filling up his water bottle and gathering the wits about him, Peach called Principal Thee and accepted the position to sub for Mrs. Kim through the end of the semester. “Excellent, I look forward to working with you over the next few weeks,” Principal Thee replied, thrilled with his acceptance.
Peach got to the school extra early on Monday. They would give him a temporary badge so he didn’t have to get one each day in the front office. There was additional paperwork to sign as well. They also gave him a temporary login and password into the school’s system for marking attendance.
“Welcome to the team, Khun Peach,” Principal Thee said once the administrative paperwork was finished. He extended his hand for Peach to shake, which he did. “Let us know if you need anything and I’ll see you at the end of the day.”
Peach was confused as to what he meant but found out later in the last period of the day.
“Are you really going to be here every day?” Chad drawled that Monday afternoon.
“I am, I blocked off this time in my schedule for the next two weeks to be here with you,” Principal Thee said with a charming smile that was also filled with snark. It was moments like these that Peach appreciated Principal Thee’s theatrics. “So unless someone dies, which even then I think Vice Principal Mok could handle, I’ll be here with you every day. “
“Don’t give him ideas,” Peach muttered lowly just for Principal Thee to hear, which made him chuckle. Peach groaned internally. Even Principal Thee’s laugh sounded prestigious.
“And don’t think about skipping class either,” Principal Thee decided to add, “As I’ve spoken with your coaches and we decided 50 suicide sprints would be an appropriate consequence, one for each minute of class you miss.” That shut Chad right up and after three more days of classes under Principal Thee’s vigilance, Chad finally became a non-disruptive student. It didn’t stop him from shooting death glares at Peach every chance he got.
By the end of the week, the last class of the day became more of a social hour for Peach with Principal Thee. Peach was falling fast, much to his dismay. Principal Thee was actually quite sweet and thoughtful beneath his harsh exterior. He genuinely cared for his students and staff and wanted to see them succeed. It had been his idea for Mrs. Kim to take the last two weeks of school off to stay with her husband as he recovered. She didn’t have enough personal days for the whole time, but Principal Thee had Note and a district HR person work with her to apply for an Emergency Family Care Short-Term Sabbatical, which Principal Thee immediately approved and pressured the district superintendent to quickly approve of as well. This way she didn’t have to use her personal days and was still paid 80% of her normal wages. Peach also learned that Principal Thee had petitioned (and won) for the school district to provide a shuttle to and from school to the students that lived in the orphanage that lay just inside his district borders. He personally paid for all the school supplies for those students as well. Principal Thee also got a coalition of local restaurants to sponsor the school cafeteria so students (like those from the orphanage) who didn’t have any money still got a full lunch (and breakfast if they were there early enough in the morning.) Peach found out that Principal Thee came from a wealthy background and while his father and brother each managed extremely successful businesses, Principal Thee went into education, to his father’s disappointment.
“Plub and I are orphans,” Peach confessed to him, “We didn't live at the one that sends its kids here, one in a different part of Bangkok. It’s one of the reasons Plub became a teacher. Education can be the great equalizer and give kids like us, who have nothing, something to forge a better life for ourselves.”
“Did you ever consider being a full time teacher too?” Principal Thee asked him. It was after the school day had ended. They were still in Mrs. Kim’s classroom, though all the students had left for the day a while ago.
“No, I never wanted to teach. Subbing was just something easy and flexible to do while I pursued my actual passion of photography. I do like working with kids and I wouldn’t have kept my license up all these years if I didn’t like it. What about you Principal Thee, why did you go into education?”
“You don’t have to call me that outside of school hours,” Principal Thee said, “You can call me Khun Thee, or even P’Thee if you prefer.”
“P’Thee,” Peach tested out the honorific. Principal Thee drew in a sharp breath and Peach too had felt a shiver down his back, “That could be dangerous. I think I’ll stick to Khun Thee,” he paused, “for now.”
“Next Saturday, after the semester is over and you’re no longer working here, can I take you out to dinner?” Khun Thee asked.
Peach nodded, “I would like that.”
“Good,” Khun Thee smiled his winning smile. “Then after this semester you’re not allowed to sub here again.”
“I would like that too,” Peach returned the smile and he was looking forward to never subbing at Plub’s school ever again.