Under The Stars (Patreon)

As a junior high teacher, August Broome - Mr Broome to most of his students and That Asshole History Teacher to the rest - had met thousands of young learners over his many years in education. Pretty much all of them stuck in his memory, both the devils who had been chaos to pull under control and the angels who had made the stress of his job actually worth it. 

From time to time, he found himself thinking back on the students he had taught over the years and wondered what kind of lives they led now. After all, he'd been teaching for almost twenty years so many of his former students would be fully grown adults now. Perhaps even some of them were teachers too! God, that's a scary thought.

Mr Broome happened to be thinking back on a class he'd taught some ten years ago and rather bemusedly remembered one particular individual - Ivan Smith. The rascal had been the absolute bane of his life, spending most lunchtimes in detention and continually destroying the classroom at any given opportunity. Broome had been more than happy to see him go once the academic year was over and it was the first time in several years that he had actually paused to remember Ivan at all.

I worry to think what kind of man he's become.

It was a single innocent thought that happened to fall under some of the brightest stars seen in years. Broome failed to notice that for a moment those stars flashed a brilliant gold in the sky before returning to their normal shining white, although he suddenly felt tired enough to consider laying down on the grass and staring up at them. It was a nice night with a gentle breeze after all, and what else did a forty-six year old single gay man such as himself have to do on a night like this?

The moment his head hit the grass though, the brightness of the stars seemed to multiply until all the history could see was a blinding white light. Inhaling sharply, he forced his eyes closed and prayed that neither the world was ending nor was he losing his vision. 

Releasing the breath, we allowed his eyes to open... and found himself in a messy college dorm. "What the... what?" he gasped, reaching up to his throat as an unfamiliar voice spoke his words. There was no mistaking that it was a voice younger than his own and as he became aware of his body, Broome realized that he felt younger too.

Staggering in front of the closest mirror he could locate, the middle-aged man stared at a face that was strangely familiar but definitely still not his own. This was the face of a young man somewhere in his early twenties with neatly-trimmed stubble and dressed like a regular southern stud. He was pretty darn cute too, but Broome was sure he had seen the young man somewhere before. He couldn't shake the familiarity of his face and it was only when he smirked that he realized why.

He was staring into the face of Ivan Smith, only ten years later!

"Well I'll be damned," he whispered, unable to tear his eyes away from the mirror. He couldn't help but wonder if he was dreaming because he'd never expected to be within the same room as Ivan again, let alone inside his body. "Ivan Smith. It's surprisingly good to see you again." He definitely hadn't strayed far from his farm boy roots, even though he'd clearly managed to get himself into college somehow. Broome was actually rather impressed. Maybe the kid had turned his act around after all.

I guess there's only one way to find out, he figured, snapping a selfie on the kid's cell phone and sending it to his own number as a memento. He had no idea if this was really happening or how long it would last for but if it was then there was no way he wanted to forget it - or the delightful young man Ivan had become! Maturity had definitely treated the scrappy rascal better than his old History teacher had ever expected!