Yes, professor...Don't call me that

Chapter 11 - the club

He joined me on my nightly art sessions everyday the next week. Saying we had fun would be an understatement. Saying we were productive at all, would be a lie. We had paint fights, which we had to spend hours afterwards to mob the floors and clean it up, we cleared everything out of the vending machines and ate until we felt sick and we just talked about everything that came into our minds, it was great. I barely got any sleep tho and lived off of coffee and energy drinks. Classes got a lot harder this week too. Tests started and we got our first grades and I wasn't too worried about my art classes, even though the art history part bored me to death, it wasn't hard to study for that. Russian was my only worry. Even though I paid attention in class and studied afterwards, it just didn't seem to click and when Natasha placed my graded test on my table Friday afternoon, I gasped. Never have I received less than 50% before and It hurt. Before moving on to the next student, she quickly said: „Stay back after please.". Class ended and I walked over to her desk. „I'm really sorry. I paid attention and I studied, I don't know what went wrong..." I apologized and she sighed. „I know what did." She answered and I looked at her confused. She pointed over to the energy drink on my desk. „You're not sleeping enough, Henry." She stated. „Someone keeping you up at night?" She then asked and I heard the jealousy in her voice. „I guess I'm still getting used to the time difference to Germany." I said. She sighed, definitely knowing that I wasn't being truthful. Of course it was Matt. We stayed up till 3am every single night this week and I spend my afternoons with Ella and Alex, so I don't nap either, but I wasn't going to tell her. „Look. I can't judge you and tell you what to do in your free time, but you have to focus on your school. This one grade won't affect the end result a lot, but if you keep screwing up, I can't help you." She groaned and I nodded. „I know. I'm sorry. I'll get my shit together." I whispered and walked towards the door. „You're really smart. Don't waste it. You can make it far." She said, before I was out of the room and I sighed again. She sounded like a teacher and even though her words made me feel better, they also made me cringe, because I don't want to see her as a teacher.

Ella and Alex waited in front of the building for me. As soon as I saw them, I turned around and wanted to walk back inside, but Ella pulled me back. „We knew you were going to ditch us again." She shouted and tried to push me down the stairs. I held on to the door handle for dear life. „Please don't make me go." I cried out. Alex came up to us and they both tried to get me off the door. „Don't act like a baby, Henry. We are going to be late. Come on!" They yelled. „Everything okay out here?" I heard Natasha yell and we all stopped and looked over to her. She stood at the teachers entry and looked at us, trying to compose a laugh. „Yeah, Henry is just acting like a baby." Ella chuckled. „They're trying to kidnap me. Please help me professor" I defended myself and looked at her with pleading eyes. She bursted out laughing and Alex and Ella joined her. „As long as you bring her back here on Monday for her russian class, you won't be in any trouble." Natasha then said and walked down to the teachers parking lot. Ella and Alex now rolled around the floor laughing their asses off. „You are awful friends." I shouted at them playfully. „Now come on, Henry. The teachers waiting." Ella said and I gave in. We walked down to the sport center and into our boxing class. I successfully ditched them the last couple of times, but today I couldnt, so I had to let them torture me for two hours. I texted Matt afterwards to let him know, that I won't be coming to our meeting tonight, because my body hurt too bad. I laid down in my bed after showering and fell asleep immediately.

The next morning Alex woke me up. „Henry get your ass up." They shouted and I threw a pillow at them. „What do you want?" I groaned. „Jesses campaign starts in 20 minutes. We promised to be there." They said and I quickly stood up and got dressed. This was definitely something I didn't want to miss. The group worked on it for almost three weeks and today we are having a protest in the park for a gender-neutral bathroom, because even though our school supports our group in many ways, they still only have bathrooms for men and women and it is just simply not okay. I also know that this is a really important thing for Alex and I'd do everything for them, so of course I'm up and ready to go within 10 minutes. We all wear matching shirts, that have our group design on them. Lane also thought it'd be cute if everyone of us had a little flag of their sexuality on it to personalize the shirts and I think they look great. Alex and I walked to the park with our posters and the others were already there. I think we stood there for a total of 5 hours and everytime somebody came by, we told them all about it and most of the people agreed with us and signed our petition. After this long time, we already had a total of 4,000 names on that list. Ella came by and brought us all some lunch, which I was grateful for, because I was starving. Then a couple of the teachers walked over to us and it surprised me a little, because it was Saturday and they shouldn't even be in school. Of course, Natasha was with them. Jesse told them all about the campaign and kind of started an argument with some of them. I sat down a little further back from the group in the shade, trying to avoid Natasha, but she walked over to me. „You okay?" She chuckled and sat down next to me. I just groaned as an answer. „Shouldn't you be with your friends and convince me to sign the petition?" She said. I handed her one of the lists. „Sign it." I said and she laughed. „I'm not sure if I'm fully convinced." She then said and I looked at her angrily. „So you don't think we need a gender neutral bathroom?" I questioned her and she smirked. „Oh, I think it's a lovely idea and we should definitely have them, but you're just not selling it good." She teased. „Just say You're homophobic." I threw back at her and she scoffed. She took the list out of my hands. „Your lips know I'm not." She said and I gulped, not expecting that comeback. „I thought you'd be locked up in some basement till Monday." She then smirked and I looked at her offended. „And you would've just let that happen. What was that the other day, you need to look out for your students?" I mocked her and she hit my shoulder lightly. „You told me you don't need any help." She laughed and I scoffed. „You gotta listen to this, Nat. It's unbelievable." One of the teachers shouted over to us and Natasha quickly stood up and walked over to them. Then I saw Matt come our way. He froze once he spotted me and his facial expression looked a bit confused. He walked over to me and sat down next to me. „What are you doing here stranger?" He asked me. „What does it look like?" I chuckled. „Burning in the sun?" He laughed and I joined him with that. I saw Natasha glaring at us, god it was so easy to make her jealous. „No but seriously, what are you doing with those guys?" He then said and it sounded almost disgusted. „What about them? They're my friends..." I replied and he looked at me in disbelief. „But they're the gay guys..." Matt said and I did not know what he was referring to. „So am I..." I said and he looked at me shocked. „What?" He answered me and I felt anger brewing up inside of me. „Yes, Matt. I'm gay, that's why I didn't want you kissing me." I said, this time louder. The others and Natasha were all looking at us. „I think I gotta go..." Matt breathed and rushed away. I didn't even know what just happened. „Everything okay?" Alex asked me and came over. „Yeah, I think so." I groaned and let myself sink back into the grass.