Jerome grumbled in exhaustion as he choked down some toast and butter, his mind not awake enough for anything more advanced to eat. He'd gotten dressed, even if it took most, if not all, of his mental energy. Even chewing felt like too much effort this morning.
But he was lucky he had enough to do anything today.
Jerome had been at the 'Summer advancement program', Aka educational summer camp, since the school year ended in July. He'd barely gotten any sleep the whole summer, being stuck on those cheap metal beds. And since the new year began this September, he'd journeyed all the way back to the boarding school, with train delays, cancelled replacement bus services, and a full night he slept in a train station waiting room. Finally, he'd gotten to Anubis house and had just enough time to unpack his uniform and toiletries, and have two hours of sleep before his alarm sounded.
Frankly, he wanted to crawl back into bed and simply pass out until Christmas.
Once he stuffed the last of his toast into his mouth, he stood, grabbed his satchel and books without a word to anyone else. He moved silently across campus, grimmacing at the still bright and warm sunshine. He glanced at his class schedule for the new year, checking where he needed to go for his first class, English Literature, which did not excite him since the mere idea of listening to poems and plays may be the end of him today.
He walked into the classroom as the first one there and found himself the seat as far in the back as possible. Tossing his books on the desk hard and his satchel at his feet, sitting down in the chair with a groan.
"Good morning, to you too." A voice spoke up.
He was confused and glanced up to the front desk, and his jaw fell open.
A woman sat at the desk, wearing a pair of brown heeled lace-up boots, black textured fishnets, a mid-calf-length brown pleated skirt with black buttons down the front, a cream button-up blouse with long lantern sleeves, a pair of brown suspenders clipped into the waist of the skirt and a brown Alice band in her bouncy roller curls.
"... Hi," he choked a little, his eyes wide, feeling his heart jump to his throat and begin racing.
"Hello, I am going to take a guess and say you're Mr Clarke?"
"Yes..."
"I figured; I was warned about you from Mr Harper."
"Wh- where is Mr Harper?"
"Retirement; I will be taking over from now on." She smirked as she stood and leant against the desk, "Miss Y/L/N."
"I ughhhh... ummm... I- Well hello, Miss Y/L/N." he smiled excitedly, "Whyever would you be warned about me? I have a flawless reputation of being an utterly divine student."
"Mhm..." she chuckled, crossing her arms and slowly stepping over to his table with her boots lacking as she moved. "So you don't know anything about your record's history of skipping classes?"
"No, no, I have attended every one of Mr Harper's classes."
"So nothing about your history of class disruption?" she smirked, pacing the table.
"No, never."
"And nothing about selling your own assignments to students in lower years?" She asked, placing her hands on his table and leaning down to make sharp eye contact.
Jerome blushed, his gaze looking down at her red lips, fighting his urge to take a deep inhale of her perfume, the soft scent of dusty bookshops, and cinnamon apple cider. But he knew he was made, so he gulped, "I uhh..."
"That's what I thought," she chuckled. "I'll be keeping an eye on you, Mr Clarke," she said as she turned and headed back to her desk.
He watched every single step she made away from him, biting his lip hard. "Yes, Miss Y/L/N..." he nodded.
But before he could say or do anything else, the classroom began to flood with the other students filling their seats.
"Good morning, class, welcome to English Literature. I am sure many of you were expecting Mr Harper; he has accepted retirement, so you are stuck with me. My name is Miss Y/L/N, and we are starting this year with historical fiction."
Jerome sighed, resting his elbow on the table and his hand against his cheek as he watched her with wistful joy, all the concerns of exhaustion and tiredness leaving his body, and he had a feeling he'd certainly like coming to English Literature classes from now on.
