January Exclusive - "Orientation" - Part 2

The new outfit isn’t the weirdest part, even though it provokes two questions; where did it come from, and more importantly, who dressed him?

The gold-colored polo shirt and dark blue shorts are surprising, but they’re not the Jack’s biggest surprise.

It’s not even when realizes that he can’t remember a single moment of the orientation video. Nothing.

Jack stands in front of the blank TV screen and looks down at his crotch. Seren is back in the room, and surely, without a glimmer of doubt, she notices hardness between Jack’s legs.

Where did that come from?

Seren rubs her hands together. “So do you know everything about the school now?”

Jack rubs the back of his neck and chooses not to share the news – his brain feels strangely hollow, as if it’s been emptied out like the pulp of an avocado. He shrugs. “Sure.”

“Your brain just bulging with info?

He almost laughs out loud. It’s not my brain that’s bulging.

“Any questions before we go to your class?”

Jack shakes his head. How about all the questions? How about reminding me who I am?

But then, with the passing seconds, Jack’s life is coming back to him. He’s here to teach, it’s his first day.

So he should ask a question about the clothing.

“I’m wearing…” he waves at the top and bottom. Hardly a question, but Seren gets the point.

“Mmm,” she says, “Don’t you look smart. That’s your uniform.”

Smart – the Brits mean ‘elegant’ when they say that word. There’s something that Jack knows, and he’s relieved when other facts arrive back in his head. Like how his adoptive mother agreed to make him grilled cheese for dinner, the first two weeks he lived with her, before she finally threw up her hands, laughing, and begged him to ask for something else.

He looks down at himself. Does he look elegant, stylish? Or does he look like a man dressed like a little schoolboy.

It’s not right. And abruptly, this news strikes Jack as even more important than the erection that somehow Seren remains oblivious to.

For a moment, Jack wishes his mother were here. She might over-reach, she might find it impossible to let go, but at least she’d know what he’d supposed to do next.

And then Jack shakes his head, casts the thought away. The whole point of coming all this way – memories of too-long flights are coming back to him – is to finally be independent.

“Ready?” Seren asks, and she reaches for his hand. “Mr. Briggs is waiting to meet you.”

Jack blinks. “Who?”

Seren smiles. “The teacher, silly!”

“But…not…” Jack feels a blush rise in his cheeks. He doesn’t want to say the wrong thing, it’s his first day. But he can’t just say nothing.

“What’s wrong, honey?” asks Seren gently. “You look a little confused.”

“Mr. Briggs,” Jack begins. His blush deepens and he whispers, “whose teacher is he?”

Seren looks confused herself for a moment. “He’s…well, he’s the class teacher. He teaches all the students.”

Jack groans. “But why am I…” he tugs at his polo shirt. “I’m not supposed to-“

“You want to look smart on your first day,” Seren says. “Don’t you?”

Jack nods. “But I’m a teacher,” he says shyly.

“Oh,” Seren replies, as if this is new information. “Have you taught before?”

“No, I’m new, I just qualified.”

“And do you have a classroom here?”

Jack shakes his head. “No, I’m-“

“Your first day,” Seren says, finishing a sentence Jack didn’t begin. “And on your first day, you don’t want the teachers to think you’re messy and silly, do you?”

Jack shakes his head again. “No…”

His eyes widen in surprise when Seren reaches inside the waistband of his shorts and tuck in the polo shirt. He swallows when her fingers curl around his hard penis.

Is it an accident. Doesn’t she know what she’s doing? “Got to be all smart for the teacher,” Seren says, nothing in her face suggesting she has just touched him intimately. Don’t want the teacher to think you’re a silly goose, do you.”

Jack blinks. “Huh?”

Seren keeps her hand inside Jack’s shorts for a moment longer, delivers a careless stroke, and then fusses around the waistband of his shorts, looks at him critically. “Silly goose,” she says again. “Don’t want Mr. Briggs to think you’re a silly goose.”

Jack stares down at the good feelings between his legs, and then manages to look back at Seren’s smiling face. He returns the smile, and finds himself on the verge of foolish giggles. “No…no,” he replies.

Seren tilts her face at him playfully. “No what, Jack?”

“Don’t want…teacher say I’m a…silly goose.” This time, the giggle can’t be avoided. But it must be okay, because Seren is giggling too.

“There,” she says. “You’re all ready now.” She taps her chin thoughtfully. “Unless, do you want a hug before we go?” She holds her hands out wide invitingly.

It’s a fantastic question. A million-dollar puzzle. Because it turns out that Jack, for the first time in forever, does want a hug.

How bizarre.

“No, thank you.”

“Cool,” Seren says. She takes his hand. “Let’s go meet your teacher.”

Your?

But Jack doesn’t argue the point. He’s grateful that he’s smart, not silly. He walks with Seren, his nose wrinkling at the sensation of his penis rubbing against his underwear, and he’s grateful that Seren doesn’t seem to notice.

Even better, as they walk along the hallway and then up a flight of stairs, Jack remembers part of the orientation video. Something that seems small but significant. An image in his head; a white bird wearing a scarf.

Jack smiles. It’s such a strange thing to remember, but it feels satisfying all the same, it feels important. Jack can remember the silly goose.