“I will not cause you trouble, Gabe. It would go against my purpose in being here,” Az finished, taking his hands off Gabe’s shoulders.
Gabe missed the feeling for a moment before remembering he was at work, for goodness sake, and his first class was about to start in five minutes.
He sighed dramatically, got up, and went to open his door to let his students in. When he got there, he turned to Az. “Sit, don’t talk, and do not let any of your sex mojo leak out, or I will call Grams on you.”
Ok, so he felt like a little kid threatening to sic his grandmother on someone, but really, she was the most credible threat to a demon that he could come up with. Gabe sighed again, opening his door just as the warning bell rang.
He greeted students as they walked in, and although most glanced at Az curiously, no one asked about him. It didn’t surprise him. They probably thought he was being observed by a student teacher. He asked students about their sports’ practices or their jobs, making small talk as they filtered into the room and into their desks. He reminded two students about papers that were late and that needed to be handed in for a passing grade, and he got grunts in reply.
As the starting bell rang, he walked to the front to take attendance. He had twenty-eight kids in this class. He’d say about half of them were on phones, with about half of those having earbuds in. Four of them had their heads down and might already be sleeping. Three girls were arguing in whispers in the back, and it looked like four or five students were frantically typing on their Chromebooks, probably finishing homework for another class.
Gabe sighed again. Sometimes he felt like he was part teacher, part circus performer. It was hard on the best of days to get and hold a teenager’s attention, but to do it before eight am? Nearly impossible.
Teenagers were like honey badgers: they were nocturnal, had major attitudes, had sharp claws they brought out to eviscerate anyone they thought deserved it, and ate almost anything that was even remotely digestible. They were resourceful, especially when it came to completing homework and papers with as little effort as possible. They were also slightly insane; they really didn’t give a shit most of the time. Despite all that, Gabe had a fondness for them; he saw them as kinda adorable and loveable.
He wasn’t sure if that made him slightly insane as well.
“Ok, folks, phones away, heads up, earbuds out, and close the Chromebooks. Time to start,” he announced.
He’d say he got about seventy percent of the class’s attention as he recapped where they’d left off inHamlet.
As he was talking about their current group project, however, he noticed something strange occurring.
Some of the phones that hadn’t been put away the first time went into pockets. Heads came up. Most of the class was actually looking at him, and, strangely enough, it appeared that they were actually paying attention to him.
When he assigned projects, he usually had to give directions more times than he could count: once to the whole class, once to each group when they started working, and then again to certain individual students who hadn’t focused because he hadn’t specifically been speaking to them.
He was patient and knew different people learned in different ways, so he was used to it. But now, they were all staring at him. Like, the entire class. Even the doodlers had put their pencils down and were looking at him. No phones were out. No one was talking.
It was creepy as hell.
He faltered in what he was saying and looked over at Az, who was staring at him and smirking. Gabe frowned in response. Az had definitely done something. Only demonic powers could make twenty-eight teenagers all pay attention at once. They weren’t even fidgeting.
He looked back at his Children of the Corn class, finished his directions, and told them to go ahead and get into groups. They did so with surprisingly little fuss, and he overheard from their conversations that they were actuallyworking—no discussion of their activities last night or what they were going to do for lunch.
Gabe stalked over to Az, whispering, “What thehelldid you do to my class?”
Az shrugged. “It was easy to pull most of the sexual lust out of them and replace it with a little passion for Shakespeare. Don’t worry—just a little bit of passion. We don’t need any more Shakespeare scholars in the world. He’s already insufferable enough as it is.”
Gabe just sputtered. “You made them passionate about… but… and you know…”
He was literally at a loss for words.
“But perhaps we can talk about the snooty playwright later; it appears the group in the far corner might need your help. I think the girl wearing all black with the interesting ear adornments might be a little too passionate about Ophelia,” Az pointed out.
Gabe just sighed, turning away from Az and heading toward his students. Yes, Raven and Derek were getting into a slightly heated debate over Ophelia and Hamlet.
This was going to be a long and interesting day.
Chapter12
Asmodeus
Teenagers were some of the most interesting creatures Az had ever seen. They were like a different species. He had to admit he had very few dealings with children and teens normally, and he now understood why. Their brains were… chaotic. Their desires were often hidden behind a facade of apathy, and yet they were some of the most outrageous and overpowering desires he had ever seen.
They were a study in contradictions. Even his formidable powers couldn’t keep them focused for Gabe beyond the initial few moments. Two girls were currently whispering quite heatedly over whether they should get tacos or subs for lunch, he thought a teenager in the back was sleeping with his eyes open, and a few of the boys were debating if you could sneak balloons filled with whipped cream into a locker and have them pop upon opening the locker. They were actually getting rather intellectual and innovative in their ideas. It was a birthday surprise for their friend, which was even scarier; he shuddered to think what they’d do if they set their sights on actual destruction.
He understood why Gabe had been horrified at his idea of being a teacher. He figured after dealing with a legion of cantankerous, unruly demons, he was prepared for anything. He now realized demons were much easier than teenagers. Nevertheless, he was an Infernal King of the Underworld; surely he could handle dealing with teenagers all day long.
