Chapter Text
~Life is the cruellest teacher, first it gives the test, then teaches the lesson~ anonymous
2244
A blast of cold air assaulted him as Kirk walked down the house steps and hitched his bag higher on his shoulder. He defiantly ignored his mother’s call to wear a coat and his stepfather’s shout of “I don’t care if that disrespectful little shit freezes his ass off.” Snow was falling and it was a long two-mile walk to school, but Kirk didn’t care. He had missed the bus, because Frank had made him clean out the garage last night and of course this morning it hadn’t been up to his standards—nothing ever was that Kirk did. Therefore, after a few half-drunk curses and Kirk exchanging a few well—placed barbs, the whole situation had degenerated into what it always did until his mother had woken up and intervened. Now Kirk was sporting the bruises and Frank was still seething.
Kirk was still pissed at both his mother and Frank. He could see she didn’t care or want to be bothered with him. She always had that distant look as if she was just taking care of him from obligation. Kirk shivered as cold wind streaked down his collar ruffling his hair. His toes were cold and his breath billowed in the air. He wished they lived closer to town or he could have caught the bus, as his teeth chattered he almost even wished Frank had driven him to school. The thought quickly dissipated, as he knew his stepfather would use the drive as even more of any opportunity to impress what a burden he was and tell him how he shouldn’t even be alive. Kirk would then have to respond in kind and that sort of thing never turned out well.
A swirl of snow washed over him sending flakes cascading into his hair and Kirk pulled his thin jacket even tighter. He kicked at a clump of ice and snow and felt his eyes burning. It was all so unfair. Abruptly he dragged a hand over his wiping away the moisture he was sure had only been caused by the cold air. He sniffed back the tears and decided he didn’t care. He was a Kirk and a Kirk could handle a lot more than a little cold. His brother Sam had known that and that’s why he had left a little less than a year ago. Kirk planned to leave too, as soon as he got the chance. If his mother and stepfather didn’t want him around, he wasn’t going to force his presence on them.
Kirk trudged into school with blue-tinged lips, reddened frostbit hands and a scowl. He was chilled to the bone, his feet were soaked with slush, and his stomach ached from where Frank had sucker-punched him earlier, but he refused to show his discomfort to any of the kids milling around waiting for classes to start. He walked into the building nodding at the few kids he was friendly with, scowling at the others and glancing appreciatively at the girls who were way out of his league. A few of the older boys tried to block his path, he didn’t break his stride, all he did was raise his eyes meeting theirs and wait till they backed away. They knew just like most of the teachers did, he wasn’t going to back down. Not anymore. Not ever again. Once the fight started, it wouldn’t end until one of them was the victor and for Kirk the meant until one of them was too badly beaten to fight back.
He sauntered into his advanced mathematics class just as the bell was ringing. The teacher gave him a stern look and he winked at her in response, and then deliberately let his eyes travel over the rest of his body before he walked to his seat. The teacher, Ms. Nancy Raymond, was young, about early twenties. She had black hair and a body hat had led to numerous crushes by the adolescent boys that comprised half her class. Kirk slouched in his seat and grabbed his data Padd off his desk. He flicked it on ignoring the instructions the teacher was issuing in favour of opening an app. The whole class was pitiful in his opinion. He was officially in high school after years of testing off-the charts, but not allowed to advance. His mother had finally agreed to let him skip several grades in the hope that the challenge would let him expend some of the energy that was always getting him into trouble, but the sophomore coursework wasn’t hard to him and his visits to the principal were becoming even more frequent.
Kirk was irritated with the whole situation. The teachers in the younger grades he could excuse for basically being idiots, but it was growing old repeatedly correcting them and pointing out errors on the tests. In fact, Kirk thought Ms. Raymond should be happy he even came to class, though he had to admit if she wasn’t teaching he probably would have skipped.
The math test transmitted to the class and Kirk was aware of the boy ahead of him glancing back occasionally. He knew what the other boy was waiting for and he deliberately reread the questions before he began answering.
The boy's name was Charles. He had attacked Kirk a few weeks ago with a group of friends and by the end of it, a bruised and very much bloodied Kirk had been forced at knifepoint to agree to let him copy the answers from him next test. Never mind that the whole incident had been started when Kirk had randomly walked up and sucker punched the boy, because he was pissed at Frank and spoiling for a fight, Kirk still vowed to get revenge as he had watched the boy and his friends walk away.
Kirk finished the test in less than 10 minutes each of the 60 questions had taken a few seconds to answer. He pressed the submit button and then sat his Padd down with an intentionally loud clunk. A faint smile graced his face as Ms. Raymond’s eyebrows raised and she saw he had finished his test. Kirk smirked and then stared very obviously at Ms. Raymond’s chest until she blushed and turned away pulling her sweater tighter. The rest of the class was still finishing up and Kirk was growing bored, he grabbed his Padd again, bypassed the programming and called up a game. He didn’t try to hide what he was doing and all but dared the teacher to stop him.
Ms. Raymond knew his track record and wisely decided to ignore what he was doing. When the timer rang, groans were heard from almost all the class and then seconds later there were yells of elation and more groans as the grades came back. Kirk’s grade flashed on his Padd momentarily interrupting his game: 1/60. The boy sitting in front of him Charles, turned back as he got the almost the same grade and Kirk gave him a defiant grin, ignoring the murderous look the other boy sent him in return.
Ms. Raymond was speaking. “Well you all scored well for the most part, however one person has one of the lowest scores ever received on this routine test and—“
All heads in class turned to the small-mousy haired boy in the back called Eric. Ms. Raymond didn’t miss the collective class response and frowned while saying. “Now Mr. Schneider is not who I’m talking about. If privacy laws didn’t prevent me I’d tell you I was talking about –“
She broke off, and shifted some Padds on her desk before starting to speak again. Kirk gave a grin and filled in the blank “Me.”
Kirk enjoyed the way everybody was surprised and stared at Ms. Raymond’s bright red face shamelessly.
“Well James since you want everybody to know can you explain what the problem with this test was?”
“First my name isn’t James it’s J.T. Nancy.” Kirk propped his feet on his desk and continued. “Second I can’t really answer your question because I don’t see what problem there is.”
“This test was worth a quarter of your grade, and—”
Kirk feigned surprise. “That much? Then why the hell were the questions so easy?”
“Mr. Kirk if they were easy, then why did you get all of them wrong?”
Kirk scratched his ear lazily and let the moment linger before saying. “I’m only going to answer this question because I like you.” Kirk leaned farther back in his desk. “The test was so easy I didn’t feel like wasting my time answering those questions...except that last one...It was actually a little difficult, plus I felt sorry for you...didn’t want them thinking you ain’t teaching us nothing.”
Ms. Raymond ignored the sarcastic remark. “So you deliberately failed the test?”
“Not failed... more like I had better things to do...I was really distracted.”
“James, the test was...”
Kirk scowled as she used his first name, then abruptly grinned again as a comment occurred to him. “ It’s J.T. and Nancy don’t be getting mad at me if they wanted us to learn they shouldn’t have given us a teacher...as hot as you.”
The entire class broke out in snickers that son turned by many to roars of laughter. Ms. Raymond had to wait several moments until she could be head again. When she spoke her face was beet red and obviously angry. “James I want you to go see the principal.”
“And I want to see you with your clothes off, but we all can’t get what we want can we?”
Kirk ignored the snickers that followed his remarks from many of his male classmates and the hushed silence from others who obviously thought he was going too far. Instead, he grinned even wider.
Ms. Raymond was obviously very uncomfortable and trying to figure out what she could do. Kirk relaxed further back in his seat, and imagined her dilemma: How to get him to go to the principal’s office without causing more of a scene.
A loud sound rang out announcing the end of class and Ms. Raymond jumped visibly, the other children scrambled for the door, Kirk remained in his seat. Within seconds the classroom was empty and Kirk was left staring defiantly at Ms. Raymond. There was no reason to worry about making a scene now, nobody was around, but something in Kirk’s eyes gave the teacher pause. She swallowed and against her better judgement, decided to let the incident go. “James, your next class will be staring in a few minutes, just go.”
Kirk could have grabbed his bag and left. But something about the way she had spoken angered him. She sounded just like Frank or his mother, they were always trying to get rid of him, pass him off like a problem, and he was tired of it. Plus he didn’t have to follow her orders or anybody’s for that matter. Whatever was going to happen was going to be on his own terms.
“No.”
Ms. Raymond was noticeably surprised. “What? James I said—.”
“No.” Kirk pulled his feet off his desk and let his chair fall back down. He planted his arms on his desk and leaned forward. “It’s like this Nancy. Why am I going to some biology class to sit there and listen to the teacher, for what? I’m not interested.”
“James, I—.”
Kirk stood up and walked a little closer, until he was inches away. He stared his teacher right in the eyes and said “If you’re so interested in me learning some biology Nancy, you can give me a lesson or two right here.” Kirk smirked at the discomfiture in her expression and added suggestively. “In private.”
Ms. Raymond turned an even darker shade of red; she was speechless for several seconds and then without a word she walked up to Kirk.
“Come with me—Now!”
Kirk grinned knowing that he had finally succeeded in angering her beyond any chance of maintaining her composure. Wordlessly he slung his bag over his shoulder and followed her on the short and familiar walk to the principal’s office. Once there he slouched as he , she informed the secretary what he was here for. Hearing his crimes listed in real time , he mused that maybe instead of being suspended he might get expelled. He really didn’t care which, either way, Frank and his mother wouldn’t care. Sure his mom would probably ask him why he was acting so bad and threaten all the same useless punishments but then she would be gone as all ways for another month long trip. And he would be left with Frank. Then she would come back and put on the false show again of pretending to actually care about him and that she didn’t wished he was just gone like his brother.
He didn’t miss the way she never hugged him if she could help it. Or always found something wrong with whatever he did. It had hurt when he was younger, but now he had convinced himself he didn’t care.
But that didn’t mean that was going to let himself stand back in the shadows and be ignored. He was used to his brother taking the lead, Sam talked back to Frank and suffered the consequences, he started the fights at school and ended them, he stole, swore, and generally gave his mother and Frank hell.
Jim , was the good kid, the one who did what he was told. Who followed Franks orders and didn’t talk back or complain even when he was about to receive even yet another undeserved punishment . He was the one who tried his hardest to please. He was the one who took whatever was being dished out, because that was easier than conflict.
Except, now he was done. It had started the second week after Sam had left. When Kirk got back to school his exploits were common knowledge and an older boy had walked up to him shoving a data Padd in his face with the news clip showing him speeding down the road in his father’s car.
“Think you’re something huh? Trying to get as famous as your dad?”
Kirk glanced again at the clip as the boy spoke. He knew how he had felt at that moment and it hadn’t been a desire for fame, or anything remotely like that. The reasons that he had drove the car were simple. The first was to piss off Frank. The second was to finally, for once in his pitiful life of obedience and following the rules, to feel alive. And at the last moment has he had been about to hurtle over the cliff and into the quarry something had stopped him and it wasn’t the thought of saving his life. It was another fuck you to Frank and his mother. He wasn’t going to die or make it easy on them, he was going to give them and everyone else he could hell.
So when the boy had shoved the data Padd even further in his face and snarled. “You’re going to have to try harder than that cause all you are is a scrawny ass kid who—“ Kirk didn’t speak , instead he moved to turn away, ignoring the insults. The boy pushed him and Kirk landed on the ground hard, his head falling back against the stone. He was momentarily dazed and as he struggled to pull himself up, the boy crouched down pinning him. Kirk bucked and twisted in the older boy’s grip , but he couldn’t move. The boy leaned closer his breath hot and stale in Kirk’s face. “Not such a big shit now , with no to Sam here to save your prissy ass and the teacher not around. So what you goin’ do?”
The older boy didn’t give him a chance to speak instead he punched Kirk hard in the face and then pushed his head back further grinding gravel into skin. The older boy’s weight was crushing the breath out of Kirk and he could barely breath. It was almost suicide to even try to fight back and normally Kirk wouldn’t have tried much or Sam would have intervened.
But his ribs were aching already from Frank giving him a “lesson in obedience” before he left the house and his ankle was throbbing from where he had “fallen” down the stairs after said lesson. His brother had told him before he left that he would be okay because he “always did what Frank said” but Kirk had found he wasn’t able to do that anymore. He couldn’t sit quietly while the man insulted his father, when his mother was gone. He couldn’t fetch Frank a beer when the refrigerator was empty of anything else and he hadn’t eaten all day. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t care that Sam was gone or hide the tears enough so Frank wouldn’t hit him and call him a punk when he found him crying himself to sleep.
So he wanted to fight, to beat something, to hurt somebody even if he was going to lose. The other boy was surprised as Kirk twisted under his weight and bucked him off and then it was a rapidly degenerating fight. Kirk had limped home that day to an uncaring Frank with a lot more bruises and cuts than when he had left. But the pain was good, the fighting was good because for once he was actual standing up for himself.
His teacher, Ms. Raymond had finished talking to the secretary and then walked away. Kirk was tempted to cat-call after her but decided against it in favour of very obviously staring down the front of the secretary’s blouse. He ignored the lecture she was giving him and only spoke to tell her to “pull your fucking hand back unless you want a prosthesis.” When she tried to grab his arm and lead him into the room adjacent to the principal’s office. He glared at her as she insisted he take his bag off and leave it behind and muttered darkly under his breath. “If you touch anything, you’ll wish you didn’t.”
He ignored the shock of her face as he brushed past her into the room. It was old-fashioned with wood panelling; it looked like it might have been a study or a small library at one time, but now it was bare except for a table and a potted plant in the corner. He knew the room was typically reserved for parent-teacher conferences and occasional detentions. Now, it was where Kirk had been relegated to being sent for his “talks” with the principal.
He forgot when this had become his destination instead of the man’s office but it was probably after they had left him alone in the office only to find come back and find a safe (the principal swore he didn’t know about) wide open and his secret liquor stash on display for all. Never mind that Kirk hadn’t taken anything and opening the safe had merely been to satisfy his own curiosity and relieve some boredom, the outcome was the same.
Now he was stuck for the next few minutes until the principal saw him, in a room with bolted down tables and chairs , nothing on the walls and ore importantly nothing to occupy him.
He paced restlessly around the room for several minutes as the time stretched and as nobody appeared he went to the window and watched the children outside. He finally grew bored and wandered back to the table. There was no way to check the time but he was sure more than a few minutes had passed. More like a half-an hour—probably even longer.
That was fine with him. If they wanted to give him time to “think” over what he had done or “see” the wrongness of his actions then they had another thing coming though. There was no way in hell that he was apologizing for anything he did. Not anymore, not ever again. So he was resigned to waiting, he was sure he could wait them out a lot longer than they could him. After all how long could they keep him after the school day ended.
He restlessly propped his feet on the table and sat there for at least another fifteen minutes before a problem slowly made itself known. He had to go to the bathroom. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and then after a minutes went to the door and tried it. The door was locked, he called out and nobody answered He swore savagely and imagined what he would do to the secretary if he could get to her. A quick check of the window revealed it was sealed tightly. He was growing more and more uncomfortable by the second, as he turned away from the window his eyes landed on the potted plant in the corner. With barely a moment’s hesitation he unfastened his trousers and sighed in relief as the pressure lessened.
He was interrupted by the door opening and the principal walking in. Leisurely he finished what he was doing and turned to meet the older man.
He answered the principals’ appraising glace with “I had to go Dick.”
Kirk sauntered back to his seat and ignored the principal as he hastened to correct Kirk’s abbreviation of his name. “It’s Principal Carmichael or Mr. Carmichael, even Richard would be more acceptable than—“
“Dick.” Kirk finished shamelessly, ignoring the flustered look on the man’s face. There was silence as the principal stare at him and Kirk glared back, then the older man sighed. “I see James that—“ He paused a tad nervously as Kirk narrowed his eyes at the use of his first name. The principal swallowed and cleared his throat before continuing. “Nothing I say to you is going to persuade you to change is it? Because quite simply you like this don’t you?”
Kirk rolled his eyes. “Really Dick, this is all you can come up with, ‘I like this’ “ He leaned forward, causing the principal to unconsciously move backwards. ” ‘cause I can tell you what I really don’t being like. It’s being locked in a room like a fucking animal and then talked to like an idiot by a man who’s almost two centuries...So why don’t you think about changing some of that first.”
The principal coloured noticeably at Kirk’ words which the boy noticed with satisfaction. It took him a moment to compose himself before he could speak again. “What you like is attention.”
Kirk shifted unconsciously and before he could respond the man was continuing. “This wasn’t about a test or your teacher.”
Kirk cut in. “Actually it was about her, have you seen her ass? If you want me to pay attention then—“
The principal over talked him. “you’re doing this because your brother left and you’re either not getting any attention at home or the wrong kind of attention.”
“I-I’m fine at home and ” Kirk started to protest but Carmichael stopped the words by grasping the edge of Kirk’s sleeve and raising it upwards, exposing a series of darkened bruises trailing up his arm.. “How did this happen?”
“I fell.” The words were ground in between clenched teeth as Kirk ripped his hand from the man’s grasp and savagely yanked his shirt sleeve back down.
“Really James, because that’s looks like—“
“First, it’s J.T. not fucking James. “ Kirk practically snarled the words. “Second Dick I want you to keep your fucking hands off me.”
The principal drew a deep breath and then tried changing tracts. “Your behaviour is sufficient cause for you to be suspended or even expelled, but—.”
“Then expel me.”
“James—you have test scores off the chart. You have potential , your aptitude scores indicate that—“
“You just don’t get this do you. I—Don’t—Care! Expel me, suspend me, do whatever you want.”
The principal was silent and there was no sound for a few seconds then the older man began quietly in what was obviously supposed to be a soothing and understanding tone. “You—“
“Fine you want a reason? I’ll give you a reason.” Kirk stood and began yelling. “If I have to sit through another one of these meetings I’ll burn the fucking school down, starting with your office.” Kirk sat down panting slightly. “So there punish me, expel me.”
The principal was shocked, Kirk waited for his next words. “James, I’m placing you on suspension for the next month . After which you will have an academic review of your coursework and behaviour. Also I’m going to suggest that you meet with the school counsellors.”
Kirk shrugged and yawned widely as he leaned nonchalantly back in his chair. The principal continued. “I’m going to have a meeting with your mother and father about—“
“Frank.”
“Excuse me—“
“My father’s dead, you mean Frank , my step-dad.”
Carmichael watched him closely and Kirk glanced away to avoid the man’s piercing gaze. Finally the man nodded. “Yes, well Frank.”
There was silence for several minutes in which Kirk looked anywhere but at the principal who was staring at him with a slightly sad look. “What happened, you used to be—“
“Can I go now!”
Carmichael hesitated for a moment obviously wanting to talk more but he reluctantly nodded. Kirk stood up and started toward the door, but before he had made it more then a few steps, a gentle hand laid on his shoulder. “James—J.T. whatever’s going on I want you to know that you can always talk to me—“ Kirk paused as he listened to the principal’s words, he went unnaturally still and his body briefly shuddered with what could have been a sob.
Kirk swung around wrenching his shoulder from the man’s touch and backing away. “I can take care of myself.”
Then he was gone. So fast the principal didn’t even have time to see him wiping tears from his cheeks.