Jean woke up to his blaring phone alarm. He quickly grabbed it and shut it off as he begrudgingly forced himself up from the bed. Jean scratched an itch in his bed hair as he made his way towards the bathroom. He turned the water on and began getting ready for school. He looked in the mirror briefly to see how long his hair had gotten in the past few days. His frazzled hair made it seem like a porcupine was resting on top of his head.

Maybe I’ll get it cut soon.

After taking a brief shower, he put on his uniform for the first time. Jean took a moment to look at himself in the mirror. The navy blue blazer and the matching slacks made Jean feel awkward. He had been so used to wearing whatever he wanted to school. After putting on his shoes, he opened the door to be greeted by Dae-Ho and Donny.

“Yo,” Donny said while giving Jean a casual salute with two fingers

“Morning!” Dae-Ho added, giving Jean a smile and a peace sign.

“Hey, guys. What’re you doing here?” Jean replied.

“What, we’re not allowed to come pick up our friend?” Donny asked with a sarcastic tone.

Jean let out a slight chuckle before responding.

“No, that’s not what I meant,”

“We’re just fuckin with you,” Dae-Ho said while giving Jean a pat on the arm.

The three made their way down towards the cafeteria for breakfast.

“Some floating rumors told me that you’re going to be in all of the entry-level classes,” Dae-Ho said.

“I thought you didn’t like gossip?”

“No no, this is casual information gathering. Gossiping is talking shit and giving false information,” Dae-Ho responded.

Dae-Ho wasn’t wrong. Jean had been placed in all of the entry-level classes for obvious reasons. He was a bit nervous to see what the classes had in store for him.

“You know, your classmates are going to-”

Dae-Ho interrupted Donny mid-sentence while holding back his urge to laugh.

“What?” Jean asked with a perplexed look on his face.

Donny, realizing the joke simply replied to Jean’s question, saying “Nothing,”

Dae-Ho unable to hold it in anymore, burst out laughing. Donny also covered his mouth with his hand as he chuckled as quietly as he could. Jean, looking ever-so confused, raised his eyebrows at the two boys dying of laughter. The two of them didn’t stop laughing for a while.

After eating, Jean parted with Dae-Ho and Donny and walked to his first class. He looked down at his schedule.

Beasts 101 in room 107.

Jean paced around the corridors looking for the room. However, after a few moments, he realized just how lost he was. He began looking around for a sign or map of the school. As he was searching, Jean noticed a trail of children, who seemed to be around the age of four or five walking through the hallway.

Instantly, Jean realized why Donny and Dae-Ho had been laughing so hard. Jean reluctantly followed the children. They all funneled into a room near the middle of the hallway. Jean’s eyes lingered on the door number.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

The plaque on the door read “Room 107”.

Jean reluctantly opened the door to see a classroom filled with children running around. The kids, upon seeing Jean, quickly ran to their seats and stopped causing a ruckus. Jean closed the door behind him as he slinked towards an empty desk in the back corner of the room.

Jean could feel all of the kids looking at him with confusion. A little girl sitting in the desk in front of him finally turned around and spoke to Jean.

“Hey! That’s not your seat!”

“What?”

“You have to go to the front,”

“Why?”

“Because you’re the teacher!”

Jean immediately felt the embarrassment swell up within him. He put his head down, not wanting to show his face. But, his hiding was interrupted immediately as tiny fists started hitting the top of Jean’s head. He jolted up shooing away the fists with his arm.

He locked eyes with the little girl from before. Her hair was parted down the middle, and she wore glasses that seemed a little too big for her face.

“You can’t sleep! You just woke up,” she said.

Jean sighed and pushed past the embarrassment to tell the truth. He turned to face her and leaned forward to meet her at eye-level.

“What’s your name?”

She crossed her arm and looked away as she introduced herself.

“It’s Alyssa,”

“Well, Alyssa, I’m actually not the teacher,”

The moment Jean spoke those words, all the children looked at each other and went back to their antics from before Jean had stepped in. Only Alyssa stood still and stared back at Jean.

“If you’re not a teacher, who is?”

Upon asking, the door creaked open once more and again all the children ran back to their seats. Even Alyssa dashed back to her seat and sat up straight. Jean looked to see who had walked in. A familiar figure stepped into the room and placed some paperwork on the podium at the front of the room.

Seeing who it was, Jean put his head back down on the table with even greater embarrassment. Standing behind the podium with a massive grin on their face was Klaus. Jean could only bring himself to think;

I hate this…