Kirk was on his way to school. The previous day had been very hectic for him and his father. They had toiled alone over a car until late at night. His father had refused to let his workers and apprentices stay beyond their closing period so all the work had fallen on him and his son, Kirk.
The car they had been working on was an old pickup that had overstayed its welcome in the Witherfield household. Mr. Witherfield, Kirk's dad had planned on returning the car to the guy who had brought it over for servicing and who had not shown his face in the shop for three months after dumping his old rickety 'road bucket' as kirk's dad called the vehicle.
The day Mr. witherfield had planned to call the towing service, the owner of the car had called him and told Mr.Witherfield that he would pay him double his charge if he could fix the car in two days. Of course, Kirk's dad had agreed, thinking he was on to some easy cash, only for him to find out that the old car was even faultier than he had imagined. Coupled with the bodywork, it would take at least a week of hard work to make the car presentable.
Anyone would think that this revelation would put Mr.Witherfield off, but Kirk's father, being the stubborn man he was had refused to admit defeat and had instead ordered all his workers to drop their work and assist him. Well, they had failed spectacularly to produce much result, and when they had left for their various homes, Mr.Witherfield had called over his son and put him on the job. They had worked throughout the whole night and Mr.Wirtherfield had only let Kirk go when the boy looked like he was going to pass out.
When Kirk woke up this morning, his father was still at work in his shop. He had only shook his head as he watched the man. He knew his father was going to fail. Even though the car had now been given a new coat and was looking beautiful, there was still a ton of work to be done before it would even move. There was just no way his dad could finish a week's work in only two days.
Kirk had now reached the school's entrance. There were many people moving about in front of the school. Lessons began at 8:30 am and Kirk knew the final bell for the start of lessons would ring soon. As he moved towards the front entrance, he received greetings and calls from a few people who saw him. He wasn't among the popular ones in school but he still had the respect of many who knew him. To Kirk, that was all that mattered. Not some bullshit crowd that would hail you even when you're being stupid.
He was a few feet away from the stairs when a beautiful white car he had seen before pulled into the school's compound and made for the small parking lot. Under normal circumstances, Kirk wouldn't have paid any attention to the vehicle since he knew it was only a teacher, but today, he had stopped because he knew who this car belonged to and wanted to make his displeasure at this person's sight known to them.
This was the bully teacher, Mr.Andrews's car. The man who had forced his best friend to clean the whole school for a week. Kirk knew reporting the man for his behavior that week was out of the question but nobody could stop him from making his hatred known to the man by shooting daggers from his eyes at him.
The car pulled to a stop and surprisingly, it was the side door across the driver's seat that opened first. Kirk wondered if the old bat had picked up a female teacher on his way to school and smiled at the impossibility of such a thing happening. No woman in their right senses would accept a ride from Mr.Andrews, even if his car was beautiful.
Kirk was still smiling at this thought when the person who had opened the side door stepped out from inside the car. Kirk felt his smile freeze on his face for a second before it completely withered in surprise. "Ethan??" He called out in confusion as the other boy turned to look at him, a smile present on his face.
Ellie was with her friends on the stairs of the front gate, doing what girls did best, Gossip, when Me. Andrews's car pulled into the school compound. The girls immediately noticed because they were girls, and also because everyone hated Mr.Amdrews, including them. The man spared no one his punishment, not even girls.
"Hey, look. It's him. The terminator." Vida, one of the girls with Ellie pointed out as soon as the car showed up. The terminator was none other than Mr.Andrews. the nickname, which had been given to the teacher because of his strictness and most importantly his owl-like glasses had been going around for a long time now and many people wondered if the news going around that Mr.Andrews knew the title and approved of it was really true.
"Who is that opening his side door? Don't tell me someone actually agreed to hitch a ride with that man." Ashley, another one of Ellie's friends said in disbelief.
Ellie though had stopped paying attention to the teacher and was busy surfing the internet on her phone. She didn't think Mr.Andrews was as bad as the others made him out. She liked history classes and Mr.Andrews really knew his stuff. It was just his bad luck that history wasn't appreciated much in today's era and that the students deemed his class and now him, the teacher to be worthless.
"Heeey...isn't that Ellie's boyfriend?, What's he doing in Mr.Andrews's car?" Vida asked with a side glance at Ellie whose head shot up from her phone in a flash.
"Huh?" She asked and turned to see who Vida had called her boyfriend. When she saw the person who had just exited out of the passenger side of Mr.Andrews's car, she understood her friend's reason for saying that. 'oh..so it's Ethan' she thought with a shake of her head as she saw the grin on his face.
Chris was also on the compound when Ethan stepped out of the teacher's car. He chuckled as he saw the silly look on the boy's face. 'he looks like has won the lottery or something. That teacher must be one of a kind If he could make that boy act like he was with a celebrity.' Chris thought as he walked toward Ethan. He noticed though that another person was walking towards the boy, but just as both of them were to get to Ethan, the final bell for class lessons rang.
Ethan saw the looks of all the people in the compound as he stepped out of the car. He felt a little nervous but his nerves were overshadowed when he remembered that he was the only person who had hitched a ride with the famous 'terminator'..this was an achievement in his eyes. He had seen Kirk making his way towards him and had been a little surprised to see Chris bas well but just as they reached him, the bell rang for the start of lessons.
"Remember you'll be going home with me so don't keep me waiting after school", Hermes said in his 'Mr.Andrews' voice before ignoring the other two boys completely as headed into the school.
Chris and Kirk looked at Ethan with questioning looks as they heard what Mr.Andrews said. What was going on here? They wondered. Ethan on the other hand couldn't control himself anymore as he saw their stunned looks, especially Kirk's. He burst into a fit of giggles as they looked on.
"Come on, let's go inside. We don't want to be punished this early in the day." Ethan prompted. "Don't worry, I'll tell you everything when we go for lunch." Ethan promised as he saw their unconvinced looks."You too, Chris. you should join our table. You will love it." Ethan invited the new boy with a smile. Chris nodded in acceptance as he mirrored Ethan's smile. It would be good to make some new friends. The life of a new boy in town was hard. He thought.