Chương 997: Day Nine Hundred And Ninety-Five

Dear Diary, I'm teaching again! Okay, I can't say I ever really stopped teaching, what with getting pulled into teaching Math to the kids at the Temple almost every Revel. No. That's not true. That's not true on so many levels. First of all, it's nowhere near 'almost every Revel'. If I wind up teaching Math at the Temple after half of my Revels, I'd be kinda surprised.

There have been plenty of Revels where I didn't have the wherewithal to teach after, or where I had to go jump into a battle or a military action or some other kind of craziness that precluded me having the patience to teach kids who may or may not understand complex addition very well long division, multiplication, and eventually Variable Equations. Like, okay, I didn't generally teach the ones who didn't have their times tables memorized how to do algebra, but even there I made some exceptions.

Some kids don't memorize stuff very well. Other kids are kinda like me, where they'll soak up the knowledge that makes the dopamine flow like a sponge, but even related stuff is hit or miss. They've gotta understand the basics of arithmetic to even have a hope of understanding Variable Equations or putting them into action, but the basics aren't the same as complete knowledge.

They gotta know that adding puts stuff together, subtraction pulls it apart, for example, and know that those two are functionally counterparts. Not really opposites, exactly, and holy shit I remember my math teachers explaining this shit to me back in the day and I never thought I learned a fuckin' thing but now either it's fermented in the back of my head or my brain has matured or I just think fast enough to understand it now. Yeah. Okay. My gob is smacked. I'm gonna need a minute.

At any rate, I don't teach anything like every single Revel, but more importantly I'm not really 'pulled into it'. Yeah, at first it seemed really weird to me. I felt like I did not belong at the front of an academic classroom. I thought I'd wind up teaching the kids wrong, rubbing my stupid off onto them or some shit like that. But as might be guessed by me spontaneously becoming a God of Children, I love working with kids.

Once Saffron and Karen got the idea in my head that somehow my High School dropout education left me with more academic mathematical knowledge than some Math Scholars here and now, I figured I couldn't fuck up too bad; at worst they'd figure something out later and realize I was making half of it up as I went along, just doing what made sense next. Okay, that's really not fair to me. Past me. Back in the day me.

I'm tryna be both less harsh and more honest with myself, and in this case describing myself as a 'dropout' is factually incorrect. I was a delinquent, I cut class almost as much as I showed up, fucked around in every class that would let me, and may have qualified as Eastside's biggest waste of potential, but I never actually quit. I didn't drop out. Some asshole shot me and dropped me in the octopus tank, but I never quit. I'm not a dropout. I didn't quit.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Shit. I think that might wind up being my defining feature, especially with that whole 'Endurance is my highest Attribute' thing going on. I just really hope that doesn't wind up biting me in the ass. Or worse, biting my kids or ladies in the ass in ways they find painful and unfun. Or any other body part. Fuck, Mittens wants to feed me her toes, which is even more disturbing than eating Darling's hair.

My life is so fuckin' weird some days. Most days. I can't tell if it's better or worse at night. At any rate, just to be clear about this, I did not actually bang Mittens on every item of furniture in the house. Neither one of us felt comfortable banging in the kids' rooms. Okay, I didn't feel comfortable asking them. Also, Sarah and D are still in one of the guess rooms. Okay, what with him rapidly catching up to my kits, he might want his own room soon. I'm not sure.

But we still didn't invade their room and christen their bed. Anybody staying in one of the guess rooms going forward might notice a certain pumpkin spice odor. Clearly a side effect of how many pies we bake here at the Homestead. Despite a few pointed hints, I did not paint henna on Marie's belly or put in another litter requisition. I'm thinking maybe we get at least some of the girls mostly independent before we make another massive batch.

I'm not sure if she appreciated me applying finishing moves every time she started hinting in that direction or not. Fuck it, good clean fun. Yeah, both of us were ready for bed when dinner happened. Wound up being kid made fried fish paninis and, no joke, pumpkin pies. I am not gonna speculate on whether the fact that Marie and I started in her kitchen inspired any of that.

Also, wasn't gonna critique the kids, either, because they did their best and made enough for everybody, which is about all you can expect from a bunch of kids ranging between 'probably about ten' and 'not yet one'. Got everybody up to the Bath and soaking, at which point I realized that our Darling was, in a word, pink.

"Ice Pop? You okay?" She sighed, then chuckled ruefully as she hugged Hailee to her.

"I'm afraid that while I enjoyed the sun, I may have enjoyed it just a touch too much."

"Yeah, you gotta get a base tan first." When she looked at me like I'd started spouting gibberish, I explained.

"Gotta ease your way into time outside, like getting into really hot or really cold water. Let your skin acclimate. Build up some melanin."

"If you say so." Did not expect Hailee to pipe up with, "Mama's right." Siobhan blinked. Hell, everybody did. But Siobhan's the one who asked, "So, shall we stay in tomorrow then?" Ever serious, Hailee shook her head slowly.

"No. The fresh air is good for you."

"Well then. My personal Healer has spoken."

"I have." Yeah, lots of chuckles and laughs. But I did not miss how Hailee took that seriously, and so did Siobhan. Dreamt of my ladies all dancing to classic rock, strutting around until I couldn't resist and yoinked them into the depths. Didn't realize what they'd pulled from where until Saffron pulled me aside after a breakfast of Fae Waffles and said, "so. Ready to return to work?" I sighed, rolling my shoulders, stretching everything to make sure nothing needed to loosen or tighten up.

"Okay, I guess. Whose ass do I have to kick today?" She giggled, hopped up and planted a kiss on my lips, forcing me to stumble back a bit, off balance. When she dropped down, we stood in front of a gaggle of fresh faced kids in Cadet uniforms. She nodded to them, gave me a squeeze, and stepped away, leaving me standing there in the Practice Yard. With my new class. You did always say duBois kicked our ass in PT on the regular, love.

If the grin that slipped onto my face wound up a little bit feral, that didn't hurt things one bit.

"ALL RIGHT, CADETS! LINE UP, FOUR BY FOUR, ON THE PAVER LINES!"