Brodie could see as soon as he spoke that Ethan's face had changed drastically. Rather than add in the last point he should have kept quiet. He never knew when to shut up, and this was just another moment where he had gone too far.

"I didn't mean anything bad, Ethan!" Brodie quickly said, his voice rising to try and be heard over Ethan. "Now calm down, there's no need to swear!"

In one fluid motion, he threw his arms out to block Ethan's and took a quick step backwards. His reflexes in combat were almost catlike, and he was known to be in scrapes many a time. Never with someone over twenty years younger than him, however.

"Detention!" he shouted.

"Oh my god, like I even care!" which was a blatant lie. He wanted to get out of here more than any other place, the only place exceeding this one in annoyance and animosity was his own home. But at this point, he wanted to get out his frustration by pissing off the man. He wanted to fight tooth and nail and regain whatever dignity he had left.

So he brought up his fists and got into a stance; knees slightly bent, shoulders back, hands fists close to his face like a boxer, and attempted to throw punches at the man.

"Give me detention, give me suspension! Knock me on my ass, I dare you!"

"You should care, Mr. Russi!" Brodie shouted, feeling that formality was the way to go now. Trying to get on the same level as Ethan clearly didn't work. "I'm not going to hit a minor! You do realise you could get an expulsion for this, and if I so chose to press charges a criminal record! I suggest you cease and desist immediately!"

Ethan was swinging punches now, Brodie had to swerve to the left, narrowly missing one. He could feel his glasses slipping off his face and crashing down onto the hard wooden floor below. He couldn't really concentrate on that at the moment. He bent backwards slightly to keep his face out of the way of Ethan's fists, so any blow that did manage to get past him would be a body blow and likely not hurt. Underneath his quaint appearance, he was in incredibly good shape.

The next punch that Ethan threw, he would grab his wrist, in essence stopping him in his tracks.

Ethan was in shock of how well the man moved. For a guy who normally sat on the edge of his desk and taught all day, he was in really good shape. When he did manage to hit his teacher, it was merely a glancing blow, and he was pretty sure it hurt his fist more than it hurt the person he was hitting.

Then it all came to a stop. Mr.Carlton had grabbed his wrist in his large hands, he was so strong, it was like a vice grip. Ethan looked up to say something scathing, but his mouth lost all recognition of words and sound.

Did he always have such perfect brown eyes? They reminded him of autumn, or the hot chocolate he would have on a cold day, cozy and warm and sweet. He traveled down his face to his lips, even though they were forced into a frown right now, his lips were pouty and inviting. Everything about him was inviting.

Ethan felt his ears heat up and turn red. The hand around his wrist made him feel like he was burning up, his whole body was on fire.

Brodie was only hit once all in all, and as he suspected, it didn't cause him any pain. He managed to grab Ethan's hand and for a moment everything just stopped. He looked at Ethan sternly.

"Now, I'm going to let go of your hand and you're going to stand without causing trouble, okay?" Brodie said after a while. He held on a little longer, just to make sure and then let go. "Now I don't know what you thought you would achieve by doing that, Mr. Russi, but I hope you got it out of your system..."

Brodie took a slight step back and perched on the edge of his desk. His eyes wavered up to the clock to try and catch the time. He realised that he wasn't going to have to stop off at home before he went out for dinner.

"Look," Brodie said softly. "I'm sure you have better things to do with your weekend than this, I know I do. We will sort this out on Monday. We'll evaluate your behaviour today after the dust has settled, and see if school is really the right place for you..."

Brodie was beginning to think that an expulsion would be the easiest option. He doubted that the principal would find issue with it given Ethan's fairly poor GPA and past track record.

While he was still trapped by the wrist, Ethan could hear Mr.Carlton's voice, but he wasn't really comprehending it. It was like background music as he tried to reevaluate what just happened.

When Ethan was finally released, he snapped out of his thoughts and was able to take in what Mr.Carlton was saying. As his teacher sat on the desk he swallowed hard and fought to make eye contact instead of looking over the man's figure.

School was the right place for him? Did he mean expulsion?

"I..I'm.." he sort of mumbled and looked down. The idea of being expelled now the last thing he wanted. He ran a hand through his hair, and tried to spit out the words again. Why was this so hard?

"I just...I'm so..sor..I..Damn it!" He stomped his foot and ran out the door, and decided not to stop running until he had exited the school and was blocks away from his teacher and the situation.

Brodie sighed as he watched Ethan run out of the classroom. He felt awful. He knew that being a teenager was hard. In fact, he was in that "awkward" stage up until he was twenty-five, so he out of everyone should understand what it's like. He wanted to help Ethan, he honestly did. He just had no idea how to go about it.

"Oh well..." he said softly to himself.

He stooped down to pick up the remains of his glasses. The lenses had cracked, but the frames were in good condition still. He could drop them off at the opticians office tomorrow to get them repaired. For the time being, he stowed them away in his bag, put the strap over his shoulder, and left the classroom.

After running away like a damn idiot, Ethan went to practice in Liam's garage. Everyone knew there was something wrong, but also knew better than to ask him to talk about it until he was ready. It was something he really appreciated. They were his best friends since he was in grade school for a reason.

The rest of the weekend went on the way it usually went; jumping from house to house and staying up at night, getting into fights and listening to music in parking lots with cigarettes, girls and booze.

It was all meaningless though. He was too confused to really enjoy himself. When he finally dragged himself to his house Monday morning to shower and fix himself up, he was more than sure what he was going to do.

Brodie made it to his dinner reservations just in time, his guest was already there. The guest in question, was his best friend, Amy. He met Amy in university, she was one of the kindest people he'd ever known, not to mention funny, and the pair got on like a house on fire. Amy was a journalist for the local paper, slowly but surely making a name for herself and dreaming of one day publishing her own book. The pair talked about what happened, and Amy sounded horrified at the prospect of expelling Ethan.

"You can't kick the kid out of school just because he has problems!" she argued. "You should be trying harder to find out what makes him tick. Get on his good side. Imagine if people gave up on you at the first hurdle? You owe it to the kid to help him."

And she was right. The rest of the weekend, although much like every other weekend, Brodie thought about how he could reach out to Ethan, it was always circling in the back of his mind. When he was at the gym, when he was at the opticians, when he was at the bar, when he was visiting his mother for Sunday lunch, and then again when he was planning his class for Monday.

And what did all that thinking about how to Ethan get him? Nothing. That's what. He was no closer to the solution than he was on Friday evening.

On Monday, as usual, the students avoided Ethan. What was different was the reason that they avoided him.

It started in first period. The History teacher asked a question and in the back of the classroom, Ethan raised his hand.

The teacher took a second before she asked Ethan, her voice slightly hesitant,"Ethan, do you..have to go to the bathroom?"

"No ma'am, I was going to answer the question."

The woman wasn't sure if he was more surprised about him answering the question, or being called 'ma'am', but she decided both were trumped when he answered her question correctly.

This went on through the day, and from teacher to teacher their were whispers about the student's sudden change. They weren't the only ones, the kids were as well.

As the bell rang to signal the last class of the day, Ethan approached the Cara and Nate outside the classroom.

"I just wanted to say that I was sorry for what happened last Friday." it was easy to apologize to them, why couldn't he say sorry to Carlton on Friday without being a moron?

"Whatever," Cara said dismissively before wandering into the classroom, her head held high. She didn't want to give Ethan the time of day. Nate, on the other hand was much more forgiving by nature.

"Don't worry. We all say dumb things and act out. I'm sorry too, I started it," he replied bashfully.

---

Brodie was sitting at his desk, waiting for all the students to filter in. He smiled and nodded at everyone as they took their seats. When he stood up, the chatter died.

"Afternoon, guys. Hope you've all had a fantastic day," he said happily, glancing around the room. "As you can all probably see by the mass of books on my desk, I have you all a copy of An Inspector Calls. I want us to work on the first act today. So Nate, Brandon, will you two pass out the books while I do a quick registration?"

"No you were right to tell me to stop."

Before he even realized it, he was genuinely talking to Nate, like a person. It was only for a few minutes, but it actually really felt nice to not be mean to him. He let Nate go in before him to class, and when the teacher smiled at him, Ethan looked away so he couldn't see how embarrassed he was.

Ethan was secretly pleased that they had picked the play that he wanted, and gave a quiet 'thank you' to Nate as he handed him the book, waiting for his name to be called out by the teacher, ready to prove that he didn't need to be expelled.

Unfortunately, he became absorbed in reading ahead in the play(he wanted to read out loud, if asked) and with his nose int the book, the names being called might as well have been white noise.

As per usual, trouble arose in the room when he got to Ethan's name on the register. He'd seen him walk in, however he was sitting silently now. Brodie sighed inwardly, he ticked Ethan's name off and moved on. After all, he did say he should sit quietly not three days ago, so it was his own fault.

"Right!" he said and clapped his hands together. He stood up and walked around to the front of his desk, grabbing a copy of the play and then perched at the edge of his desk. "For those of you who don't remember what this was about: basically there was a murder and a rich family are getting grilled by a detective. This does follow the typical drama set up of normality, a build up, the climax and then the bring down. So to keep you all interested, I won't spoil the twist for you. Now, I want this to be an interactive learning experience for you all, as in my experience you tend to take in more. So each act we'll cast different people to read aloud! Do I have any volunteers?"

Ethan looked away from the book just in time to see him put away the attendance book and pick up the play. Crap. So much for that one.

Well, at least he wasn't asleep this time, right?

He chewed on his lower lip for a bit, listening to Mr.Carlton talk. When he asked for volunteers, he quickly shot his hand up, just like in the last few classes. Those were just a warm up for this class! He was going to be calm and collected and intelligent, He'd show the teacher that he could be mature.

Brodie raised an eyebrow when he saw Ethan put his hand up. He was unsure what his motives were, but he wasn't really one to judge.

"You want to read, Ethan?" he said brightly. "Brilliant. How would you like to play Inspector Goole? I have a feeling that he may be more to your tastes than the other characters."

Brodie selected the other students who had volunteered and cast them, each student seemingly happy with their roles.

"Okay guys, before we begin, remember: nice emotive language and a clear voice. If I can't understand you, I'll recast you."

'Alright, my time to shine!'

Ethan had pride in his vocal chords; they had intimidated people out of fights with him and Liam always said he would make a good background singer if he gave up smoking, plus he always used to enjoy reading his comic books out loud to Connor when they were kids. He actually considered this stuff sort of fun.

So it was no surprise(at least to him) that he was able to play the part of the Inspector well, to the point that he even stared down the (kind of uncomfortable) students.

Brodie was pleasantly surprised that Ethan turned out to be such an emotive reader. He was definitely the star of the class. Brodie had to interject a few times during the reader, one particular girl couldn't pronounce the name Gerald at all for some strange reason and kept calling him Gerard. Not to mention another girl who was incredibly soft spoken had to be cajoled into projecting her voice more. All in all, it was a brilliant first reading.

Within forty minutes, they had read their way through the first act.

"Brilliant work everyone," Brodie said happily. "A big round of applause to our readers, everyone."

Brodie smiled at everyone who read a part before waving his hand to cease the clatter of hands.

"Okay, folks. I have a few questions that I'll pass out on the first act, so that's what we'll do for the last fifteen minutes. I want you to work on your own and I want these handed in at the end of the class. So I'm afraid this is one of those times where I'm going to enforce silence. I want to see your opinion on the first act and what you think is going on, not the person sitting next to you," he said cheerily.

He grabbed the sheets off his desk and placed bundles at the first person in every row.

"Take one and pass them back, you know the drill."

Ethan took the paper and started to write, concentrating on the sheet like one would focus on a special exam. Maybe he was taking it too seriously, but he didn't want to get kicked out. Not yet, not ever. If him participating in class didn't do the trick, then his impeccable writing would.

'They're all awful people, so I think they will get what's coming to them.'

Ethan grinned to himself. Fuckin' perfect.

Brodie sat back down as the minutes ticked by until the end of the class. He had some marking for another class to do, so he busied himself with that. He always seemed to have more marking than any other teacher, but if it got his students through he was willing to look past it. He got lost in one young man's essay, so much so that he lost track of the time. The loud ring of the bell put him back to his senses.

"Okay guys, the copy of the play is yours to keep for this year, so take it with you. Questions and answer sheets in two neat piles on my desk as you leave. Have a great evening, folks," he said brightly, standing up. "Oh, Ethan. Wait behind please."

Ethan watched the class clear out with a heavy heart. This is what he was waiting for, but now that it was coming he was pretty nervous. His foot tapped on the floor as the class happily left the room.

He stood up and stood in front of the man, he didn't know where to look, up at him made him embarrassed, but staring at his shoes would be no good either..

"Um.."

Brodie looked to Ethan, expecting him to continue speaking. However, when there was a soft silence that followed, Brodie decided to take matters into his own hands.

"First of all, I would like to say that I'm very proud of what a change you've made over the weekend. Participating in class and reading the part so fantastically is one thing, but I also heard you apologise to Cara and Nate before class began, which is highly admirable," Brodie said, smiling at Ethan. "This is making me somewhat reconsider the possibility of expulsion, which is what I assume you're hoping for?"

Ethan beamed. This was the first time it felt good to be complimented by an older person.

He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the man, a new, bashful expression on his face. "Uh, yeah, basically.." he cleared his throat and looked away. "It wasn't over the top? Cara didn't really forgive me, but I got one for two.." why the fuck am I rambling? Shut up stupid! "Anyway! I kinda realized that I didn't want to be expelled." he wanted to add a 'because' at the end, but he held it back. He needed to make sure that he actually was going to keep him in school.

Brodie couldn't help but smile when he saw how much Ethan's facial expression had changed at his words. Perhaps Amy was right, maybe he wasn't such a bad kid after all, he just needed Brodie to take the time to understand him.

"Your apology over the top?" he asked, somewhat shocked. "Of course it wasn't! It takes a lot of courage to say that you're sorry, it's an honourable thing to be able to do. One day Cara will come around, if not, it just shows that she is a smaller person than you."

Brodie thought for a moment.

"Your behaviour on Friday really was unacceptable, however," he pushed on. "It's not something that I can just let slip. However, if you can keep acting the way that you did today, you should really have no fear of expulsion.Do you often lose your temper like that?"

Ethan felt himself get a little angry because he brought up his anger. If you got angry because someone brought up your anger problem, then you probably do have a problem.

"No. Well, maybe...sometimes. Like, once a week. Or day." now he was just getting agitated. "It doesn't matter alright? I won't do it again, not to you." And he was being truthful. Confessing to someone was a lot harder than he thought. "I'm sorry, I won't ever hurt you again. B-because-" the next part came out in a really quick breath "BecauseIloveyou."

He could see that as Ethan spoke, his anger was rising. Everyone had a tell, and Brodie was almost positive that he had worked it out. However, he was doing much better at keeping a handle on it.Brodie paused for a moment after Ethan spoke, unsure exactly what he had just said. He thought he'd heard that he loved him, but that thought was almost laughable.

"Pardon? I never quite caught what you said there," he said. "Also, it doesn't matter whether or not you attack me again, I can handle myself. It's the other students that I am more concerned about. They are not so, ah, well trained, shall we say."