The Dark of the Night More Inviting Than the Sunlight

Jeph's Point of View

"Okay Jeph, we have a proposal," Sky said her lips curling into a smug smile, as soon as the other students had left the classroom.

"Shoot," I smiled at her and Dawn, shaking my head lightly to myself in amusement.

"Well, we were thinking that since you seem to be stressing out a lot right now, we could help you correcting tests or something instead of having strength training every Friday morning..." Sky said cocking an eyebrow at me, while Dawn looked up at me with pleading blue eyes.

"Alright," I shrugged. "I guess I could use some extra help... You have actually done a great job by getting up early every Thursday to run lapses, plus how could I possibly say no to a face like that?" I chuckled pointing at Dawn, causing a delightful bright red flush to spread across her pale cheeks. She looked the other way, her hand covering her mouth to hide a smile. She always did that, it was a very charming habit she had, but I wouldn't mind if she let her beautiful smile show for once.

"Off you go, you don't want to get late for class now do you?" I smirked at them as they high-fived each other.

"Bye, Mr. Howard," Dawn smiled.

"Bye Jeph," Sky said with a laugh as they walked out.

I leaned back against the teacher's desk and sighed deeply just as there was a knock on the door. I groaned as I got up to answer it.

"Officer Mellow," I said with a strained smile as I stepped aside to let him in.

"It was ten-thirty, right?" the brown haired man dressed in worn out jeans and a black leather jacket asked, raising his eyebrow slightly at me.

"Yeah, of course," I laughed joylessly as we went over to the desks to sit down.

"So how are things going with McCracken? Is he doing any better school-wise and is he still as inconvenient?" as usual the probation officer was straight to the point, not wasting any time on useless babble.

"He's attending more classes, actually turn in tasks every now and then, and he even turned up on one of his detentions and helped one of my students with maths. He's a bright kid officer Mellow," I informed him and he nodded slightly in agreement.

"That's good and yeah, he is a bright kid," Mellow said with a faint hint of a smile. "Has he gotten into any fights lately?" My face fell a little as he said that. "I don't want to focus on the negative, it's just that I have to ask those questions in order to get the report right," he added.

"I see, he still argue a lot with some of the teachers and students, but mostly it's just dribble. He got into a fist fight with a couple of guys last week, but he most likely didn't start it. He might be a loud mouth, but he's not stupid enough to start a fight with a gang of five guys, all larger than him," I said truthfully.

"Five against one? What the fuck is going on with today's youth? If they insist in fighting the least they could do is to fight fair! What happened to the one-on-one rule?" he sounded rather upset. "Anyhow, how did he do? In the fight I mean?" I couldn't help but smile at his sudden enthusiasm.

"Between you and me, he beat the shit out of three of the guys before the fight got interrupted," I said in a low voice.

"That's my boy!" Officer Mellow laughed before he got back to being serious again. "Okay, so is there anything else I need to know?" I shook my head 'no'.

"Not what I can think of."

"Okay, if you come up with something you have my number," he said as he got up from the desk. "Bye Mr. Howard." We shook hands.

"Good bye officer Mellow."

Time elapse of a few weeks

I flinched in my office chair and my eyes snapped open for what must have been the twentieth time in the last few minutes. The afternoon sun was shining through the office window casting its light over the desk before me. It was covered with paper work and I had a half empty cup of lukewarm coffee placed in front of me. I didn't even drink coffee, I've always preferred a good cup of tea over bitter tasting coffee. But the lack of sleep too many nights in a row and way too much to do at work have taken its toll. Just as I was about to once again fall into a insanely short slumber there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" I asked loud enough for the person on the other side to hear and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I looked up watching the door slid open. My eyes widened slightly at the sight of the two female students with scraps of food on their clothes and in their hair. It wasn't hard for me to figure out what happened.

"Mr. Howard, Ms. Stevens and Ms. Jones here are in trouble for starting a food fight during lunch. I was told to bring them here since you're their home class teacher," a slender woman with glasses in her late fifties stated and threw me an apologetic smile.

"Thank you Mrs. Bartholomew," I managed to smile briefly at her. She was a kind-hearted, caring woman and one of the few teachers in this school that actually accepted me for who I was. "I'll take over from here." I received one last sympathetic smile before she shut the door behind her.

"I'm not going to scold you," I sighed deeply as I sunk back into the office chair, closing my eyes in the process. "Have a seat." I could hear the sound of chairs scraping against the stone floor as they obeyed.

"Are you alright sir? You look exhausted," I could hear Dawn's ask carefully.

"You know, it's okay to call me Jeph, Dawn. Every other student do that those days anyway," I spoke with a yawn, still with my eyes shut. "I'm fine thanks, how are you?"

"Sir you are not fine," she persisted.

"Jeph," I cut in.

"Whatever, I can tell that you're not alright, you're exhausted! Go home or something, you can't work when you're in this state!" she actually sounded angry as she said this. I looked at her, taken back a little by her change of attitude. She was usually always so quiet and shy.

"I'm a grown man, I can take care of myself thank you very much," I informed her in a dejected tone.

"No offense Jeph, but I don't think you can. You're a wreck! You haven't smiled genuinely in ages! What happened to you?" Dawn objected frowning as she looked at me with her amazing blue eyes.

"I found that rather offending Ms. Jones," I snorted and leaned back in the chair lazily.

"Put your fucking act together! Don't you understand that there are people here that actually care about you? In most students point of view you're the most popular and respected teacher on this school, no one wants to see you like this!" she shouted and I could see that Sky was just staring at her friend with her mouth hanging open with surprise.

I just watched as the blonde girl got up from the chair so violently that it fell to the floor and marched out of the room, slamming the door shut after her. I was just frozen on the spot, taking in what had just happened, unable to speak or move at all.

"Sky, you're free to go," I finally said, staring off into space.