HAVE MERCY --- open

[marc]

Grading papers was no fun. No fun at all. In fact, he’d rather... learn French. Learn French or die. Probably die. That would have been worse then grading papers. Especially Math papers. Were they still called papers? Okay, Math tests then. Grading maths tests was hell and Marco just did not want to do it anymore. What choice did he have though? They were apart of the job. Cursed. He was the one who had set the blasted test. Who’d he think he was, marching into class and announcing happily that they’d have a pop quiz? Plum forgetting that he was the one who’d actually have to mark the silly thing. And there he was thinking he was so clever for even adding bonus questions. Ha. What a fool he was. Next lesson his freshman students were doing nothing, and he was going to bring his guitar and sing them a song about Pythagorean theorem. There. Lesson plan done and dusted. Groaning, he looked down at the next paper in his pile. Ohh.

He knew who that student was. Considering how early in the term was (again, why the pop-quizz De Luca? Huh? Why? You just made your students and yourself miserable..), that was an achievement. She was an animated little blondie who sat next to another blonde girl. Was it just him, or did blonde’s tend to gravitate towards each other? Anyway, his point was, he knew her name because in the first class she and her little friend had walked into the room, giggling like sunshine twins on uppers, and spent most of the lesson discussion about who’d they’d rather ‘do’; a glittery vampire who, from what he could gather, stalked girls, or some wolf boy. To start with, he was shocked girls that age spoke like that, and secondly, it was disrupting his lesson.

When Marco had pulled them up on talking, the first blonde blinked her innocent eyes at him, and said ‘but Mr. De Luca, I was only trying to explain to her fractions and percentages. Like, if she was in a room with fifty other girls, she’d have a one in five chance of doing Edward, because she’s ten percent hotter than most other girls..’ Marco hadn’t been able to keep a straight face. In fact, even now, remembering it, he was chuckling away to himself. She was indeed a fire-cracker. He liked that in a student. Besides, by not blowing his top at her comment, De Luca had earned some respect, and now blondie paid attention in class. Or well, at least, she didn’t talk through his lessons, which was nice.

Marco always seemed to be walking a fine-line between teacher and buddy with his students. It worked for him, but the dean of the school often had some issues with it. Still, they hadn’t fired him yet so he must have been doing something right. Still, even if he liked the girl, it didn’t mean he wanted to grade her paper. Casting his eyes around, The man looked for something that would serve as a good distraction. It was then that he remembered. Kumquat! His darling wife had packed him a kumquat for lunch, which he hadn’t eaten yet. And boy did he love kumquats. It was like ‘OOH YEAH, KAMQUAT, YEAHH’ when he bit into one. Heavenly. Springing excitedly back from his desk, Marco opened the draw that housed his lunch. Humming to himself.

[LOGAN IAN ELLIS]

It was beyond him why he had decided to teach High School some days. He exactly have fond memories of it. He wasn't one of the popular kids. He didn't have a girlfriend until senior year and no one even knew his name until it came time for the end of the year awards and he'd have to stand on stage and accept his "Student Of the Year Star" in English. Ellis had no idea why after only collecting three signatures in his year book (two of which were teachers), that he would have willingly spent six years working towards getting a degree that let him return. Maybe it was some psychological need to conquer it...or maybe he was just too scared to be in an environment other then one he had all ready known. For what ever reason it was, the Scotsman was having a hard time suppressing his anxiety over this idiotic decision.

Having spent the entirety of his last English class staring at the screen saver on his computer, it was decided that he had to do something other then hope for some motivation. As the end of the period bell sounded, he also had found himself racing towards the door for freedom. Grabbing his satchel and locking the door behind him, he now found himself in the bustling halls of the school in some failed attempt at getting air in his free period. This was near impossible however, seeing as it was a high school filled in fact with high-schoolers who all seemed to have a weird infatuation with bathing themselves in synthetic pheromone based colognes and perfumes. Taking the time to look both ways down the hall while letting lose a very unmotivated sigh, Ellis clutched the strap to his satchel. Navigation was never one of his strong points. Keeping his head low, eyes at his feet, and limbs tucked in, he jumped into the high speed traffic of the hallway.

"Why, hello Mr. Ellis!"

It had been a few paces outside of the Language Arts wing when a sprightly voice made him jump. "Oh, um..." He picked up his head, looked to the left, looked to the right, then before him - his eyes landing on a small blond freshman who's name escaped him, "H-Hello."


"My name's Kayla! I'm in your first period - remember?" He didn't remember. "You made that joke about Twain and I said we'd get shot if we used that kind of language in this neighborhood?" Her pitch seemed to slowly rise at the same rate her desperation did, her big blue eyes looking for some kind of shred of recognition from him...anything of anything from him. "And you laughed? Remember? You laughed at it?"

"Ohhh, ha. Ha..erh..." His anxiety level spiked a little, he still didn't remember. Not at all. But it might have been something that he would laugh at. "Why, yes. Yes of course I do." He had no idea why freshman seemed to have such an affinity for him - a little part of him died inside every time it happened, though. "It's, um, true. Ha. Which makes it funny and...well yes, I have to go. Pardon me."

Dodging past the blond with an apologetic smile, he found himself near running away from her flirtatious shouting of saying how she'd just see him tomorrow then instead. Maybe they prayed no him because he was meek. No, that wasn't it. Was he meek? Certainly not. There was a sharp pain in his side as he had been accidentally shoved by a senior into the locker banks during his trek. Well maybe he was meek, he gathered himself and headed on his way towards the math department. But certainly not as a meek as a freshman girl. Or so he hoped as his eyes had found the door he was searching for as he broke out into a ran towards it. With out much introduction or manners, his hand had found the handle, swung it open and stepped inside - Ellis slightly out of breath, clutching his bag as he let lose another long sigh. Letting his satchel slip onto the ground as his nerves calmed, he slid himself into one of the empty desks and let his gaze fall ioto the owner of the room in question - his best friend, both inside of the school and out, Marco.

"Say Marco..." He began, one hand fixing his tie as the other ran through his brown hair, "Would you say I'm about as meek as a freshman girl?"

[marc]

Marco didn’t look up. It wasn’t a strange or a particularly knew thing to have Ellis burst into the room, unannounced and out of breath. In fact it happened almost every free period they had together. Except when it was Marco’s turn to head on up into the English department to hang out in his best friend’s classroom. Yes, they took turns to meet each other. That was the nice, brosephly thing to do, and haters just gonna hate. Marco was a lot of things, but a bad friend to Ellis was just not on that list. A lot of people didn’t exactly understand the dynamics of their friendship, and what they had to offer each other. That was the beauty of it, as far as Marco was concerned though, that it wasn’t something as simple as ‘oh we are friends because he makes me look good’. They were friends for the pure and simple reason that they cared for one another. However thoughts like that made him seem like a girl, so he’d just keep that to himself.


It wasn’t until the other man spoke that Marco looked up from his search for fruit. A frown tugging at his features. It was kind of a left field question, even for Ellis. If it was someone else, Mr. De Luca would easily assume it was a joke, and just make some teasing remark in reply and laugh. However, it was Ellis, and questions like this had to be taken seriously. While they were hilarious, Marco was sure that his best friend has no idea how funny what he was saying was, and was asking out of all seriousness. It hurt Marco sometimes, to see how insecure Logan could be about himself. But, again, girly feelings that were better left unsaid. Instead, the man chose to re-assure his friend with a quiet certainty that he was indeed a bad-assed mother fucker, whenever the occasion should arise. Though, then there was that strange occasion that Ellis was joking and it was all a bit awkward. It was better to assume that this particular question was serious though, or it could hurt his best friend if he joked about it.

“No.” He said confidently, looking at the man now sitting in one of the desks. “I do not think you are as meek as a freshman girl.” Thinking for a moment, he went on. “I just think sometimes you are like the lion in the wizard of oz.” Really now, was that what having a beautiful little girl did to you? You referenced children’s movies in motivational speeches to your best friend? He really really needed to do more overtly masculine things. Never the less, he had started the reference, so he had to finish it. “The courage is in there, bro, you just have to pull it out.” Marco fell silent, considering Ellis as he sat there. In so many ways he really was just a student himself. Logan had let things hold him back from so many experiences in high school. Maybe it was his own Peter-Pan syndrome, but Marco had such a strong desire to try and help his friend have those missed experiences.

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