inkspresso

first days

a year later.

The couple fixed Jane's and Andrew's little clothes one last time. Zach makes sure her braids are secure. "Okay, cuties, smile for the picture." Jack grabs his phone.

The siblings give him a big smile, both missing a tooth. Zach chuckles.

"Would you like me to take a picture of you four?" A woman asks.

"Please." Jack hands her his phone, and they pick up the twins. The four of them smile widely into the picture.

"Here you go... I snapped plenty of pictures."

"Thank you." Jack smiles.

They set the twins down and crouch in front of them. "Dad will pick you up after I finish my classes, okay?" Zach hums.

They nod.

"Make lots of friends." Jack holds their little hands. "And raise your hand if you have anything you want to ask your teacher, alright?"

"Be nice to everyone too, okay?" Zach smiles as he fixes their hearing aids. "If there's anything wrong with the hearing aids just tell a teacher."

"Dad, we're grown ups, we can do this!" Jane, brave as ever, speaks. "Aj and I will have the best grades ever."

They chuckle.

"We just want you to be happy." Jack reassures.

Jane grabs Andrew's arm, but he moves out of her grasp and hugs Jack and Zach tightly. "I'll be really brave like Jane." He promises and parts the hug.

The little girl hugs them tightly, too. "If anyone is mean to Aj, am I allowed to kick them?"

"No -" Jack immediately says.

"Let them kick you once and then kick them so it's considered self-defense." Zach mumbles quietly enough for Jack to not hear.

"Thank you." She smiles.

Jane grabs Andrew's hand and tugs him into the classroom. The little boy waves them off, and they wave back as well.

"They're growing up too fast." Zach pouts as he hugs Jack.

The curly head sniffs. "Our sweet babies..."

"Oh honey..." He smiles softly as he comforts him.

They hear the bell ring, and Zach perks up. "Crap, I'm late."

The two share a look and rush out of the school as fast as they can. Zach kisses him as he gets in the car. "See you later, honey. I love you."

"I love you." Jack smiles.

Zach rushes into high school and runs to the classroom he will be teaching at.

He takes one deep breath. "Good morning, I'm incredibly sorry I'm late. My kids just started elementary today." He opens his computer and connects it to the projector.

He recovers his breath. "Alright, today we'll be working on some things already. I'll be assigning some projects for later on in the school year, but I'm telling you guys about it now so you can organise yourselves."

He opens the first PowerPoint and sets it on presentation mode. "Right, let's start with the obvious. I'm Zach Herron-Avery, and I'll be your English teacher this year." He introduces himself and changes slides. "I'm a master of English and Classics and graduated with honours at Oxford." The slide contained a picture of him graduating. "I also teach at Berkeley and do some conferences, so I might skip a few classes. Worry not; you won't be behind in relation to the other classes."