The Affection Multiplier [2nd Branch] - Ch. 15 & Ch. 16. (Patreon)

Chapter 15: Unexpected bonding time:

On Monday, right after the first class of the day, you return to the teacher’s office only to find three of your colleagues arguing. You do the sensible thing and nope the fuck out of there. You have enough shit to deal with already to have to spend your short break listening to adults arguing about where to leave their stuff.

However, that leaves you with a big dilemma. Where do you go? The teacher’s office is your safe space, away from the kids. You can allow yourself to drink a cup of coffee and slump your shoulders there.

…

Dammit, now you can’t even go make yourself a cup of coffee. Maybe you should just suck it up, but… maybe a walk around school might do some good. Sure, what could go wrong?

You walk the hallways, getting a few odd looks from students. Thinking on it, you always see all the teachers in the office during breaks. Do none of them go out to see how the kids are doing? Sure, that’s the hall monitors’ job, but surely they can do it too every once in a while.

You end up finding yourself in the yard, looking over the students. They mostly stick to their groups, talking and eating snacks. It’s not like there’s much to be done in a 20-minute recess.

You’re starting to consider going back, hoping the argument is over, when a soccer ball rolls up to your feet, followed closely by a young man.

“Teach? What are you doing here?” The boy asks, surprised to see you here.

That’s… Lucas. Lucas Rivera, from your class. He’s one of Gabriel Green’s friends, but he praised you for having the balls to stand up to him. He also has dark skin and very short black hair. He has a more athletic frame, and you think you’ve heard he likes sports. It seems his best grades are on P.E.

“Just getting some fresh air, Mr. Rivera.” You tell him with a small smile. “Is this yours?” You ask, looking down at the ball.

Then, just for a whim, you pick it up with your foot and start juggling it. One, two, three, four, five, six, sev- aww, shoot. That’s all you could manage.

“Woah, teach! You play soccer?” Lucas asks with something of an excited smile on his face as he picks up the ball.

“Just a bit when I was in high school. Just like you are now, I guess.” You admit.

“Hey… why don’t you come play with us? We’re missing one member.” He offers, nodding back to the concrete multi-court in the middle of the yard.

You raise an eyebrow.

That’s… an odd offer. Should you go? You know it’s important to keep a certain distance from the students. You’re not their friend, you’re their teacher. But considering how terrible your relationship with them is… Well, it’s been improving, but still.

…

“…Alright, fine. But only if the rest of your group is okay with it.” You answer.

“I’ll go ask, then.” He nods.

He goes back to his group of 7, mostly seniors from the looks of it, and only a couple more from your class. They suddenly all turn to you and wave for you to come.

You just hope this isn’t a mistake. But… the boys look excited, at least. You remember it was a big deal when one of your teachers came to play with the students. Maybe they’re not so different from other boys around the world.

Now that you’re here, they re-arrange to teams and you’re grouped with the three students from your class: Lucas Rivera and… yeah, Josh Reed and Liam Taylor.

“I hope you’re a soccer super star, teach! Cause those guys are fucking good!” Lucas says.

“Watch your mouth in front of me, Mr. Rivera,” You say. “But no, I’m terrible at this.” You grin.

Turns out you’re not as terrible as you thought. You can actually hold your own against boys 6 years younger than you. Still, playing soccer has never been your forte. It’s Mr. Rivera who’s impressive. He’s both fast and skilled. No wonder he gets good grades in P.E.

You play for about 10 minutes before you check your watch.

“Alright. Sorry boys, but I have to go. I need to get my things ready for next class.” You say, catching your breath.

“Oh, okay. You know, you’re not half-bad, teach!” Mr. Rivera, on the other hand, looks like he barely broke a sweat, and he ran more than you.

The other boys agree and thank you for playing with them.

…

They thanked you.

…

What’s next?

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Chapter 16: Your class works on their plays:

It’s the final period, and you have classes with 4-1, your kids.

As you approach the classroom, you can hear the usual noise of loud conversation. Yet at the sound of you sliding the door open, they turn to you and most finish their talks and keep quiet. Of course, not everyone does, but just the fact that you’re being acknowledged it such a huge step-up that it makes this job just a bit easier.

There’re two students, a boy and a girl, who you notice are still talking about a show you’ve watched, not having noticed you entered the classroom.

“Mr. Jones, Ms. Flores. If you keep talking, I’ll spoil the end of that show for you.” You say, setting your books on your desk. The two of them flinch, and one of their friends looks even more worried about the spoiler and is quick to shush his classmates.

“Thank you.” You say. You greet the class and soon start explaining to them the work for today. “Let’s try to not waste time. Like I said last time, today you’ll be working on your play. The work needs to be finished today, so you better not slack.”

That’s a complete lie. You’re fully aware that they won’t be able to finish writing a 5 to 10 minute play in an hour and a half. Not with how little they’re used to his kind of work. The true objective of this class is that they’ll get their ideas in order and truly finish next class. However, if you told them that then they’d truly slack, thinking they still have next class.

“Now, get with your groups. You can move the tables around.”

The sight before you is so beautiful you could almost cry. The students are actually moving the tables and chairs around, getting together with their group members and truly try to get some work done.

You won’t lie. This is really not the level of work senior students should be at. Their brainstorming is sloppy, their dialogue choices are lazy and uninspired and let’s not get started on task delegation. However, this is progress. This isn’t something that would’ve been possible before. You can only hope that, little by little, these kids will learn to put effort into things other than their main interests.

You walk around the classroom, helping students solve whatever issues they have and offering feedback. However, there is one group you have a careful eye on, but do your best to purposefully stay away from.

The Lindbeck-West-Young-Chase group. They got together and immediately got to work. It almost seems like… they had worked in advance. Trying to peek into their conversations, you notice they had an outline ready, and were now working on the dialogue and the main details.

Holy shit.

You only approach them when both Vanessa and Veronica raise their hands to call you after some sort of argument. You brace yourself and talk to them.

“Yes, girls? What is it?”

“We have a question regarding dialogue, Mr. Sinclair.” Veronica tells you.

“I’m saying that, because this is a play, we have to write the characters as they would normally speak,” Vanessa explains. “But Veronica says it sounds vulgar and you’ll tell us to change it.”

“Very well, let me see what you have.”

Veronica gives you her notebook and you start reading. As a side note, god bless girls’ handwriting. This class is mostly guys, but not one of them here has better handwriting than the girls. Even Erica and Vanessa, who don’t really write a lot, have more understandable handwriting than most guys. Veronica’s is almost art

“Ah, I see.” You nod, having finished reading. “Ms. Lindbeck has a point. If you’re writing in the context of a party, then having characters speak as people your age would be the correct choice. This isn’t an essay or an academic paper, so you can write colloquially. However, do tone down the swearing. By a lot. Like I said before, keep it school appropriate.”

“See? I told you.” Erica tells Vanessa with a smug grin. “Just because the guys we know swear after every two words doesn’t mean we have to write the same.”

“It’s not authentic, though.” The redhead groans.

“What if we change the setting to a rich people party?” Surprisingly for you, Wendy suggests. She has a bright smile on her face, as if she was excited that she just contributed an idea.

“We could write more colloquial language without people swearing and it wouldn’t sound so stiff.” Veronica nods in agreement. She then looks at Vanessa. “But this was your idea. What do you think?”

“Yeah, I don’t think we would have to change much.” He redhead nods. They thank you and get to work again.

You walk away, almost stunned by what you just witnessed. They were working… surprisingly well. Better than any other group. What the hell happened? Also, what they had was actually what you’d expect at the senior high school level. Sure, it was rough around the edges, but it was satisfactory work. If they keep that up, they’ll be getting top grades.

You scowl at the feeling of pride swelling up inside you. You have nothing to be proud of. This is all 100% them.

When there’s 5 minutes till the end of class, you ask that everyone hand over their finished worked. And, as expected, they answer with pleads for more time, saying they couldn’t finish. Smirking internally, but groaning on the outside, you say.

“Fine. We’ll finish the work next class. But that’s it. I’ll grade your plays as they are when they’re handed to me. No more extra time.”

How many times did your own teachers employ this trick on you and your classmates? Making you think they were being benevolent when it was all part of the plan already?

Your ears catch an interesting conversation in one of the groups.

“We’re done, though. Let’s hand it down anyway.” Erica insists.

“Yeah! We could even get bonus credit for being the only group that made it on time!” Wendy agrees.

“I guess we could, but…” Veronica say that, but her face says she’s hesitating.

“Can we… wait till next class?” Vanessa asks with a complicated expression on her face. “I know we could just get it over with, but… I think we can make it better if we have more time.”

“Seriously? You want to keep working on this?” Erica asks, baffled. “It’s done. We don’t have to do MORE work.”

“…” Vanessa bites her lip and furrows her brow.

“…” Veronica eyes the redhead carefully before she speaks, whispering to her groupmates. “Let’s not hand it now. If we do, I bet Mr. Sinclair will have another task of us next class anyway.”

Huh. Clever girl. That’s exactly right.

“Oh!” Erica and Wendy exclaim at the same time, their eyes widening. 

“So you’re saying that if we hand it over next class…” Wendy starts.

“We can take it easy just polishing our finished play?”

“Exactly.” Veronica answers, grinning and nodding.

“Heehee. I like it.” Erica mirrors her grin. “I didn’t think you were the type to slack off, Veronica.”

“It’s all about knowing HOW to slack off.” She giggles.

She’s right. Most teachers are less likely to scold a hardworking student for slacking off once than you are to scold one who never does anything.

“Teach me your secrets!” Wendy pleads, holding the blonde’s hand.

“Alright, boys and girls. Get your things in order.” You say to the class, and soon the ringing of the bell resounds throughout the school. “See you all next class.”

“See you, Mr. Sinclair.” Erica say, walking past you.

“Goodbye, Mr. Sinclair!” 

“See ya, teach! Let’s play soccer again tomorrow!”

“Take care, teach!” 

Many students say their temporary goodbyes, and you reply in kind. As you gather your things, you’re witness to yet another interesting scene. With most of the students gone, only Vanessa and Veronica remain.

“Hey, Veronica.” Ms. Lindbeck starts as she approaches the blonde. “…Thanks.”

“I didn’t do anything. Besides, I also think we can make it better.” The honey blonde girl says. “I just didn’t take you for a perfectionist.”

“I’m not. Or more like I didn’t think I was.” Vanessa answers. She has a complicated expression on her face.

You feel like you shouldn’t be listening in on this, but as a school rule, teachers must be the last to leave a classroom and you don’t want to interrupt.

“…” Veronica purses her lips and looks back at you. Somehow, you have a feeling you know what she’s thinking, or at least have an idea. You smile at her and nod once, encouragingly.

“Hey… If you want to… we can talk more about it. Do you want to… eat something?”

You can see Veronica’s legs trembling ever so faintly. She tries her best to keep her usual confident tone, but it slowly crumbles with every word. She shifts in place, involuntarily.

Vanessa can’t help but raise an eyebrow. It’s understandable. She didn’t expect this from Veronica. Sadly, it’s not doing much for the blonde’s confidence.

“You know what? Sure. I’m almost finished with The Great Gatsby and I wanted to talk to you about it.”

“R-Really? I-I mean… great! Uh…”

“Come on. I know I good place.” Vanessa smiles and shakes her head at the girl’s awkwardness. “By the way, I want to talk to you about the book as well, Mr. Sinclair! I’ll be done with it by next class!” She says, pointing a finger at you and knowing full well you’re eavesdropping. “And be sure to give me another recommendation.”

“Of course, but I’m sure Ms. Young can also give you a few.” You say, smiling.

“Oh, yeah! Come on, hurry up!” The redhead urges her… new friend? Might be too soon to say, but still.

The two say their goodbyes to you, but Veronica stops short before exiting the door and looks at you again with a nervous smile. You give her another nod and a thumbs up.

She did well.

What's next?