Simon Taylor looked around at the familiar confines of his classroom and smiled slightly. Another year was about to begin; he was looking forward to it.

A familiar voice interrupted his musing. “Hey, Mr. Taylor. What’s up?”

“Hello Kat. The ceiling if you must know.”

A soft sound of annoyance from behind him forced him to stifle a smile. Answering like that to that question was a pet peeve of Kat’s, but he persisted in asking anyways.

He turned towards the music major, grinning. “The hair, I expected, but what happened to you face?”

Kat ran a hand through his violently neon hair, careful not to muss the paint that covered his face and made him resemble a cat. He shrugged. “Some freshman got to me. I think his name was Tye. You’ll like him. He seems like a bit of an idiot though.”

Simon grinned. “I’m sure he is.”

Kat sat down and that seemed to be the cue for the rest of his students to appear.

This class was for the slowest of the students in English 2. There were some who just honestly didn’t understand the work but most of the students just didn’t care. He grabbed the binder with role call and began skimming down the list, seeing if any of the other teachers had complained of any of the students in his class. Michael Legato-Kat- got complained about a lot, but he was a good student just not motivated in anything not concerning music; Simon had him in a lyrics class. There was also Kyle Mormuh: if it wasn’t photography, he didn’t give a rat’s ass; he had been in this class last year. Senna Quenta was apparently a born actor, and rarely made time for anything else. Bob Ryanson, the school delinquent, he had already been in this class once too. He was here for film, although his film teacher, Mr. Kuohf, said his only talent lay in lighting and camera angles. He finished scanning down the list of fifteen and the name at the bottom made him catch his breath. Red Blake. He must have been added recently; Simon had looked over the list during the summer.

Red Blake was infamous at Silver Dragon. He was famously slutty and apparently slept around a lot. Now, normally when Simon heard rumors like this, he didn’t believe them, but he had walked in on the boy and one of his “friends“ once and had heard more than a few stories from other teachers. But nonetheless, he couldn’t let his dislike of Red’s lifestyle dictate how he treated him. Simon had never been accused of having favorites and that wasn’t going to change now.

He sighed and stood to write his rules and the curriculum on the board. Class was going to start in a couple minutes.

By the time the bell rang to signal the start of class, every single of his students was there except for Bob. Simon stood figuring he was absent and surveyed his class. They were all facing him for the most part except for Kat who was scribbling something in a binder and Red who was doodling. Kat looked up when Simon cleared his throat. Red didn’t.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to start, the door slammed open and Bob stumbled in and shot a glare at Red, who didn’t even seem to notice it. Simon filed away the look for later and said, “How nice of you to join us. Please take a seat now.”

Bob did and after that class went smoothly, except for Bob glaring at Red with something that took awhile for Simon to place. It was hate and more than a healthy dose of lust. Probably not a good combination for Red, and Simon briefly contemplated warning him, but decided against it. The boy probably knew what was going on.

After that class, all of his classes went flawlessly except for one couple mistaking his room for an empty one in the middle of fourth period and a rather lost boy wandering into it sixth period.

After school, Simon packed up and got ready for the next day before going home. He lived about a half hour from the school and drove home listening to Bob Marley and singing along. He had a horrible singing voice, but it wasn’t like anyone could hear him. He drove up the street to his house- a nice long, winding affair that had no other houses on it and was a dead end with barren land on either side. The house that he lived in itself wasn’t so special, a simple, two-story white brick house, but the huge yard and surrounding land were beautiful. The house had been Simon’s inheritance from his parents who had died when he was twenty. He had also gotten the small fortune his father had gotten from selling his business when he retired. Simon really didn’t need to work if he lived somewhat frugally, but he enjoyed teaching.

Simon opened the front door and quickly went to the back to let in his dogs: two St. Bernards, a boy and a girl, named Lord and Lady who jumped on him and covered him with doggy kisses. Simon smiled and tumbled around with them for awhile before making dinner and going upstairs to read poetry, get ready for bed, and retire for the night.

The next day, Kat once again wandered in first, quickly followed by the rest of the students except for Red and Bob. About halfway into the class, in the middle of Simon’s lecture on participles, Bob strolled in, looking extremely self satisfied. Simon sent him to the office and had Red follow him when he drifted in a few minutes later. Simon didn’t even want to think about what the two had been doing, but it was hard not to guess from the perfect imprint of teeth on Red’s collarbone and the numerous hickeys on his neck, shown off by a skintight tank top.

The following few weeks, a pattern formed. Simon got through his most of classes easily, making them as interesting as possible and really truly enjoying only the extra, non-required classes. He started dreading the English 2 class he taught in the morning though. Most of the students were fine, just un-motivated. The few who truly weren’t good at English actually tried the hardest and altogether, the majority of boys in that class were good kids.

But Bob was making the class miserable for everyone. Simon had learned very quickly that Bob was actually fairly smart, one of the brightest in the class, but a major slacker. He knew it too and made insensitive, mean comments constantly, directed towards everyone, but especially Red. A few kids were getting angry with him, but no one dared to attack him because he was well over six foot and built solidly. He looked like he should be on a football team somewhere, not at an art school. Besides, he wasn’t too mean to the majority of the students; he seemed to save most of his malice for Red.

Which brought him to the red-head boy. Surprisingly, Red wasn’t doing too badly in the class. He wasn’t doing particularly well- he was one of the ones struggling- but he was trying and Simon was confident that he could bring him up to speed by the end of the year, especially because he didn’t seem distracted by much. He didn’t react to Bob’s taunts at all, not even a blink, no matter what Bob said. And he said quite a bit in class, right in front of Simon, mostly concerning Red‘s lack of intelligence. Simon couldn’t imagine what he said outside of class, and would have sent him to the office long ago, except Red truly didn’t seem to care, and Simon had even kept him a few minutes after class once to ask privately. Red had looked mildly surprised and just shook his head when asked if he was hurt by the big boy’s comments.

Also, surprising to Simon, was the fact that Bob and Red were together still and Red was no longer sleeping around according to rumor. Simon was inclined to believe it despite how impossible it sounded. The two weren’t late everyday, but they were often enough, and most of the time, didn’t even bother coming in at different times or even attempt to hide the fact that they had been doing things. Bob usually came in looking smug with Red drifting along afterwards; scarlet hair mussed, lips bruised and clothes slightly awry. Luckily, the boy wasn’t wearing many skin-baring things like tank tops or jeans that were more hole than jean anymore, so Simon couldn’t see the rest of the outward signs, although his clothes were as tight as always.

Moreover, people actually seemed jealous that Red had settled down. Simon had to admit he saw the attraction for most people, but he still couldn’t understand how many people were after Red. The boy was drop-dead gorgeous, yes, but he was trashy and usually didn’t go for any form of a real relationship, the current one an exception. One day, he brought it up with Kat after his Lyrics class.

Kat glanced up from packing his stuff in surprise. They were alone, and it was the last class of the day, so most of the students had bolted. “He’s pretty and he has a reputation of being easy. This may have escaped your notice, Mr. Taylor,” he said dryly, “but most of this school is made up of horny teenage boys after sex, not a relationship.”

Mr. Tay choked back a laugh. One thing you had to admit about Kat: he was blunt as all hell. “Still, it’s surprising to me how many people like him. He doesn’t exactly have a sparkling personality.”

Kat shrugged, turning back to throwing his things into his backpack. “You mean he doesn’t talk. He may just be extremely quiet. Nobody knows, but he certainly isn’t mean or anything. He would have to actually use his vocal chords to do that. And the most annoying thing about him is how quiet he is, which comes as a welcome relief to some,” he pointed out.

Simon sighed, “I guess, but still…”

Kat shrugged again, standing up. “No explaining people. See you next week.”

--
Monday morning, Simon walked into his classroom and nearly stepped on a pair of boys. His jaw dropped and heat rushed up to his cheeks. “What the hell?” he spat.

Bob just looked at him. Red at least had the decency to flush and pull his pants back up.

Simon glared at the pair. “Ryanson, shut your pants.”

Bob tucked himself into his jeans and zipped and buttoned them. His shirt was still on.

“Go to the office.”

Bob stood, running his hand through his hair and looking completely unconcerned. He walked out, leaving Red on the floor, still shirtless.

Simon glared at him for a moment before his eyes slowly widened. “What are those?”

Red yanked his shirt shut and began buttoning it. “What?” he asked. He was still a little red.

Simon stooped down and took hold of his wrist. He pulled open the shirt, revealing pale skin liberally spotted with dark splotches. “These.”

Red yanked his shirt back on and stood, fingers sliding to his waist to snap his skin tight jeans shut. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t wearing underwear. “There from people like you.” His voice was sharp.

“What?” Simon actually took a step back.

“Homophobic jerks who don’t like the fact that I sleep around.”

“I’m not homophobic.”

“Whatever,” muttered Red. “I’m going to the office.”

Simon glared after him for a moment before picking up the phone.

“Vixa,” he said, when the founder of Silver Dragon picked up. “I just sent Bob Ryanson and Red Blake to your office. I caught them in my classroom about three seconds away from having sex.”

Aden swore on the other end.

“And this isn’t the first time I’ve walked in one Red doing something with some guy.”

“I know, I know. Trust me Simon, I know. Every teacher at this school has walked in on him doing something except for Heath.”

Simon sighed. “So what are you going to do?”

“Dunno,” Aden said. “He hasn’t been the cause of any fights, or been in any, and he’s an okay student when he’s not screwing somebody. Probably not the smartest, but…”

“He tries. And he’s good at.. Whatever he does I take it?”

“Art, and fantastic. He’s Heath’s favorite student. I guess I’ll just have a talk with him and suspend him for a few days.”

Simon sighed. “And Bob?”

“Same thing for him.” Simon could hear Aden’s grin.

“You don’t like him much either?”

“He’s a slacker, even in video. He showed promise when I accepted him, but he’s flat lined since. Oh, they’re here. Talk to you later, expect to see them back in class next Monday.”

“Right, bye. Actually, I need to talk to you when you’re done. Keep Red up there for a bit after and call me.”

“Sure.”

Aden hung up.

Simon taught his first class with only half his mind on the lesson. He let everyone leave early. Kat gave him a questioning look, but Simon just shook his head. Kat left just as the phone rang. Simon snapped it up.

“Aden?”

“Yeah, what is so important?”

“I don’t know how it happened but he’s covered in bruises. It looks like he’s had the shit beaten out of him.”

“What?”

“He’s been beaten up. He said it was homophobes and people who had issues with his ‘lifestyle.’”

“You don’t believe him.”

“How many people do you know that are homophobes at this school? Add that to the fact that over half of the school likes Red and his story seems unlikely.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

---

At the end of the day, Aden meandered into Simon’s room. “I got absolutely nothing out of him. He just kept repeating it was other kids.”

Simon sighed. “He’s not particularly forthcoming is he?”

“Not at all. I’ll call his guardian tonight.”

“And if he- or she- is the problem?”

Aden sighed. “One step closer.”