The Exchange Teacher - Welcome to Dyntril Academy

After resetting the core to its easiest level, Basque ran the class through the lesson. It went just as he'd expected: the majority of the students were hit with the first ball. He didn't make them stop immediately, though. He had them keep going for twenty-five shots each, regardless of how many times they were hit.

Once each group of four finished, Basque sent them back to join in the "yoda" session that Natt was teaching. He'd never heard of yoda before, but it looked to be some sort of limbering exercise, designed to make people more flexible. And Natt was very flexible.

To make matters worse for Basque, not only did her yoda lessons increase his physical attraction to her, but they also showed what a brilliant and understanding teacher she was. She took it slow and explained clearly while demonstrating for all the students to see.

When a student was having troubles, she would call them by name and give them suggestions, or if they were having too much trouble, she would walk over to them and help, never failing to address a student by their name. And when she sent new groups over to Basque for his lesson, she sent them over in pairs of roommates. Basque had honestly thought she didn't know the students' names, but she even knew who was rooming with whom.

If only this had been the person to greet me, not the half-blacked-out drunk.

Occasionally, while he was waiting for groups to switch out, he glanced at Natt as she demonstrated poses, and then looked away just as quickly. He'd never seen anything like yoda before, and she was too attractive. The poses were…too distracting—the way she bent, the way she moved. It was a relief when he had students working with the core since they required all of his attention.

A few of the students stood out, but none as much as the girls from room 307, Fanwa and Reianna. Knowing Fawna grew up around fighters, he figured she had probably been taught a few things, and he was right. She wasn't hit until the tenth ball, and only three in total hit her. There was a good possibility that she would be one of the four "contestants" for the upcoming tournament, assuming that she progressed at the same rate as the rest of the class.

Reianna, though, was the real surprise. It wasn't that she was good; in fact, she'd been below average in terms of hits, being hit more often than not. No, it was the fact that she would look at where the ball was coming from before the sound. She would react, and then the ball would come. There was only a fraction of a second difference, not enough that the other students would have noticed, but enough that Basque did. Her small, frail body betrayed her, though, and most of the time, she couldn't get out of the way.

Basque had no idea how she knew where the balls would be coming from, but there was no doubt in his mind that she knew. If she could bring her physical abilities up to par with her mental…Basque didn't want to think about what sort of behemoth she could become. He wasn't an inker, and not even they knew what guardian animal would appear on a person's back until they began tapping, but Basque couldn't see her as anything other than a Tiger. At any rate, he was going to have to monitor her closely.

Once the last group went through practice with the core, Basque called it a day. The students buzzed amongst themselves as they headed back inside. Natt stayed back with Basque and watched them go.

"Thanks for today," he told her.

She looked at him. "I didn't even have to ask, did I?"

Basque didn't want to talk to her. He didn't want to look at her, either. His mind and heart couldn't take it. He wasn't sure what she meant, and he didn't want to find out.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then." He turned and headed away from her and the school, out towards the Tinkerer's shed. There was a crunching of footsteps next to him, and he looked over at Natt, who had followed him.

"Generally, when someone says, 'see you tomorrow,' it means that they're leaving your proximity for the remainder of the day."

Her expression was flat as she answered, "Well, sometimes they run into each other before then, though."

"This isn't running into each other, though. This is you following me."

"And I wasn't the one silly enough to say, 'see you tomorrow,' before I knew where the other person was headed."

"So, you're telling me this is where you were headed and that you're not following me?"

"Wow, and here I was about to say that I owe you an apology, but I'm going to choke on that one."

Basque was lost. He had no idea what she meant by "choking" on something. Did she mean she was going to regret apologizing or that she wasn't going to? Contextually, he felt it was the latter, but he wasn't sure, so he focused on the apology part. "What were you going to apologize for?"

"I thought you were going to be some heartless prick, but I was wrong about you being heartless."

"And you were going to apologize about thinking I'm a prick?"

"No, you're definitely a prick. You've just got more heart than I thought you would have."

"Well, since we're contemplating apologizing to each other, I guess I should say you're not as useless as I thought you would be."

"Oh, that's good to hear. It's always nice to know that I'm useful to a prick. Just to make sure, you're talking about this time at the training grounds, not last time, right?"

Embarrassment rushed through Basque, and his face flushed. "This time."

"Okay, well, I hope you understand that I had to make sure, 'cause you know the main thing pricks have a use for."

"Are you trying to say that's all you're good for?"

"Well, while I know I'm good at that, I wouldn't say that's all I'm good at."

Basque smiled. "Ah, but we weren't discussing what you're good at, we're talking about what you're useful for."

She bumped her shoulder into his. "Oh, so, you're finally admitting that I was good at it, then."

"Well, it's not exactly like I had a bed to kick you out of."

Natt's mouth fell open, and she slapped his shoulder. "You're a lot more interesting than you let on."

"And you're…" Basque looked at her, then looked away. She was a lot better than he thought, especially watching her lead the students, but at the same time, he remembered her passed out drunk in one of the guidance rooms.

"Hey, what's with the heavy air all of a sudden?"

Basque shook his head. "Where are you going, anyway?"

"That way," she said, and pointed in the direction they were walking.

"What's over that way?"

"The way which is that."

"Huh?"

"You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Basque looked at her. For the second time, regret overwhelmed him as he wished this had been the person he'd met first. "Make you say what?"

Natt took a quick step ahead and spun in front of him, blocking his path. "Thank you. Thank you for what you are doing for those children."

He stepped around her and continued on. He didn't want to change his opinion of Natt. More than once, she'd been drunk on school property with students around. She was unforgivable. "They're my students."

"Yes, and they're still children who need protection."

"If you think so, then why are you drinking instead of protecting them?"

Natt fell silent, but she didn't veer off her course of following Basque. Now that he'd soured the mood, the silence hung heavy between them. Still, she continued on with him.

When they reached the Tinkerer's house, the fiery-haired man opened the door for them. "Aren't you a bit early tonight, Natty?"

"Hey, Tink." Natt kissed his cheek, and he kissed the air next to hers.

"Symantha's inside. You got the wine?"

Basque noticed Natt looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Two bottles of wine appeared in her hands. "Yeah," she said and walked into the house.

It was hard to feel disappointment when his expectations were already so low, but somehow, he managed to feel it. He could already see Natt passed out on her desk during the morning meeting the next day.

Pulling the core out of his storage, Basque shook it at the Tinkerer. "I got it programmed."

"Already? Maybe I should be the one calling you a genius!" the Tinkerer laughed.

"All I did was load a bunch of crap on it. You were the one who—"

"Bah! Just shut it. I've got the others ready to go, we'll just download your code onto them and you'll be set." The Tinkerer grabbed the machine from him and got to work cloning the program over to the other units.

While he waited, Basque wandered around the workshop, picking up random things he had no idea what their function might be, looking them over, then setting them down again. There wasn't a single space that wasn't covered with doodads, and there wasn't a doodad that wasn't covered in grease, dust, or sometimes both.

"You know, Sym's cooked extra if you want to join us for dinner tonight."

Basque's head jerked back in surprise. "Didn't you kick me out last night?"

"Yeah, last night it was just you, and I didn't want to watch my wife drool over you. Tonight, she'll spend the entire night trying to set up Natt with you."

"That doesn't sound pleasant at all."

"Not for yous twos, but it'd be a right laugh for me!" the Tinkerer said and then let out a laugh from his belly. It reverberated through his workshop as there was no music playing today.

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass. I've not notified my maid that I won't need dinner tonight."

The Tinkerer waved his hand. "Bah, Sophia won't mind."

Basque narrowed his eyes. "How did you know Sophia's my maid?"

Stopping what he was doing, the Tinkerer looked at Basque. "There's a reason why Natt eats with my family."

Basque waited for the Tinkerer to continue and clarify his answer, but when the fiery man went back to work without another word, Basque asked, "How does that answer my question?"

"You should stay for dinner, Mr. Genius."

Did that mean he would explain further only at dinner? "Fine. As long as I'm not an inconvenience."

"SYM! THROW ANOTHER PLATE ON THE TABLE!"

"OKAY!"

The Tinkerer looked at Basque. "See, it's fine," he said and looked back down at the machines.

There were a few seconds of silence, then the Tinkerer said, "No need to wait for me. You can go on in."

Basque walked back into the house. From the workshop, he entered a sitting area that most other people would have used to greet guests, but the Tinkerers' was filled with more knick-knacks and doodads. Some looked like things the Tinkerer made himself, others lacked the sophistication of those that the Tinkerer made. Basque could only assume those were creations of his colleagues and they'd been given as gifts or items he'd picked up to reverse engineer.

Hearing the voices of Natt and Symantha coming from the door to the left, Basque went through the door, and the scent of tomato sauce filled the air. It smelled delicious. Basque's stomach rumbled. He felt like he'd not had a good meal in ages.

"Oh! Biscuit!" Symantha said as she tore leaves of lettuce and dropped the shreds into a bowl. There was a glass of red wine on the counter next to the bowl.

"Biscuit?" Natt asked. She sat in a chair, holding a glass of wine herself. She held onto the stem of the glass and swirled the contents.

"That odd, foreign name of his is kind of hard to remember, and he looks scrumptious, like a biscuit!"

Natt laughed. Just like her, her laugh was beautiful, and despite Basque's personal feelings for the alcoholic, he couldn't stop his heart from fluttering.

"I like that!" Natt said. "How about it, Biscuit? Mind if I call you Biscuit, too?"

"'Natt' at all," Basque said.

"Hyuck-hyuck," she fake-laughed. "Like I've never heard that before, Biscuit."

"Well," Symantha said. Now she was shredding carrots into the salad. "From what I hear, you've already done a bit of nibbling there, Natt." Symantha finished with a cackle.

Basque expected some sort of raunchy response, but Natt's reaction threw him completely off: she turned bright red. He couldn't look at her. It was too cute, so he turned to Symantha. "Here, let me help you with that."

As he reached for the cucumber, Symantha slapped his hands. "You're a guest! Go sit your cute-patooty down next to Natt and have a glass." Symantha reached into the cabinet in front of her and procured a third wine glass. She bypassed Basque and handed it to Natt.

The lily-haired woman was no longer blushing. She set her glass down and took the offered glass from Symantha. She placed it in front of the empty chair next to her. "Sit down, Biscuit," Natt said.

While Basque walked around to that side of the table, Natt picked up the bottle of red wine and filled his glass. She stopped at three-quarters full. Basque looked at her glass. It was only about a third full.

When Basque sat down, Natt picked up her glass, and Symantha came over with hers. "Cheers," they said and clinked their glasses together. Basque took a drink. The oaky flavor of the red wine spread through his mouth. It was an excellent wine.

As he drank, he watched the women. Symantha drank a large gulp, almost finishing her whole glass, but Natt only took the smallest of sips. He'd expected Natt to match Symantha's pace. Was she being self-conscious because he was around?

The two women resumed their conversation about a third-party Basque didn't know. He let their words wash over him and continued watching them. Symantha drank liberally, while Natt left her glass to sit. When the Tinkerer's wife brought the completed salad over to the table, she held her glass out for Natt to fill. She filled it almost to the brim.

"Is my presence bothering you?" he asked Natt.

She looked over at him, took a sip of her wine, and said, "No. Why would it?" She didn't refill her glass despite it being all but empty now. She was definitely conscious of his presence.

About that time, the Tinkerer came in. He'd obviously showered and wore some loose-fitting roomwear rather than his work overalls. "What's with the boring gibberish?"

Throwing himself into the seat across from Basque, the Tinkerer grabbed the wine bottle off the table, filled Basque's glass back up from half to three-quarters full, then drank straight from the bottle.

He pulled it away from his lips with a loud, "ahh!" and wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve.

"Good Yani," Symantha said and slapped him in the back of the head. "We have company, Tink." She looked at Basque. "I'm so sorry we've got this animal here."

The Tinkerer still held the wine bottle. He pointed the open top at his wife and said, "You just best be hoping I don't go turning on you, then!"

Symantha placed plates of food down in front of Basque and Natt, then one for herself. She sat down and pressed her hands together. "Let's eat, shall we?"

The Tinkerer looked from his wife down to the empty table in front of him, then back to his wife. He repeated the process a few more times.

"What?" Symantha asked.

He looked from her to the table again.

"You've got feet enough to slump in the chair and hands enough to drink straight from the bottle. You can use them to get your own food. I only serve humans. Anyway, Natt, you doing good on wine there?"

Natt paused her fork. As soon as Symantha had given them permission, she'd dug in. "Oh, I'm fine, thanks, Sym."

The Tinkerer harrumphed and pushed himself away from the table. He muttered about ungrateful spouses under his breath as he gathered his serving. It wasn't clear if he was referring to his wife or himself.

As the two women ate and chatted while ignoring the Tinkerer's mumblings, Basque sat patiently until his host returned with a plate. Once the Tinkerer sat and began to eat, Basque joined in.

He took a bite of the chicken, and it melted in his mouth. It was an explosion of juices and flavors that made Basque nearly euphoric. He'd not eaten anything as good since his date with Julvie.

"Oh, Biscuit, dear, you didn't have to wait for that flame-head to eat."

"It was no problem."

The Tinkerer pointed at Basque with his fork, a piece of chicken dangling on the end of it. Through a mouthful of chicken, he said, "Now that's a polite man. Kinda odd that he plays so much."

Symantha nodded as if the Tinkerer had revealed a universal truth. "He's right. Biscuit, when are you going to cut it out and get together with our Natt here for good?"

Natt's fork clattered against her plate as she dropped it.