Work Text:
"Alright."
Noah's math teacher really only needed to say one word to make his entire classful of students groan loudly.
It was the dreaded word. The word 'alright' in any other context would've been fine, but coming from Mr. Walker, aka the worst math teacher the school has ever seen and an absolute nightmare meant that the worst that coming.
"Everybody take your seats," Mr. Walker said as he walked into the 8th-grade classroom. "We're gonna start today's class with a pop quiz."
"Fuck, seriously?" Jayden mumbled from the seat behind Noah.
"Yes, seriously Jayden," Mr. Walker replied. "Also, watch your mouth before Principal Bad gets me."
"Mr. Walker you do a pop quiz every other class," Eliza complained.
"I like pop quizzes," Mr. Walker smiled smugly. "Don't you?"
"No," The class muttered and grumbled, but still the test paper gets passed from seat to seat.
"Mr. Walker, c'mon," Liam whined. "You haven't even given us back last week's pop quiz, this has got to be against the rule or something."
"I have it all graded and waiting on my desk, I'll hand it out after class," Mr. Walker said smugly. "Don't doubt me, Liam."
As the paper got onto Noah's desk, he's faced with a bunch of triangles and not enough willpower to work through it. Honestly, who cares about what a dead guy had to say about the rules of how you can draw a triangle. He'll make the lines as long as he wants, thank you very much.
And he's also pretty sure that sin, cos, and tan are words that Mr. Walker made up. Maybe not tan, that's a real word I guess. And why should he learn about imaginary numbers? They're imaginary, hello? Kind of useless if they never show up in the real world.
"You have 5 more minutes," Mr. Walker's voice brought Noah back to reality.
And the reality is that his paper was a little empty and he was a little screwed.
Noah did the best he can (and that's not saying a lot), scribbling down numbers randomly, trying to at least put an answer in all of the questions just before Mr. Walker told them to stop writing and put their pencils down.
Noah was so proud that he finished on time that he wasn't exactly thinking about what he'd written.
So the paper was collected, and the rest of the math class went on as usual.
By usual, that means Noah was not paying attention. Not even close.
"Right, come up and pick up your quizzes," Mr. Walker said at about five minutes before the end of day bell rang so that the students would be able to make it out on time and not be held after school was technically over.
Okay, sometimes Mr. Walker can be a nice guy.
"And 10 practice questions for the homework alright guys, it's due next class, which is Monday, and it's 3 days from now," Mr. Walker added.
Okay, less nice.
"I'm not going to see you tomorrow so have a nice weekend," He said before sitting back on his chair, waiting until the last of his students picked up their work and filed out of the classroom.
"So my house after this?" Liam walked up next to Noah. "Shoot some hoops, some video games-"
"I'm down," Jayden said. "Just gotta tell my parents it's a group project or something so they wouldn't yell at me for hanging out on a Thursday."
"Same here," Noah said. "Though, my dad is less bossy about it. He-"
"Noah," Mr. Walker called just as Noah crosses the doorway. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"
Noah stopped in his tracks, gave a look to his two best friends before telling them to wait outside while he walked back to Mr. Walker's desk.
"Yes? What's up?" Noah asked.
"Did you even look at your quiz?" Mr. Walker asked back.
Noah gulped a little, looking down at the paper he'd folded and gripped a little too tight in his hand after he picked it up from Mr. Walker's desk. He glanced, earlier. He did glance a little bit at the red markings and the very disappointing grade at the top right corner of the page, though he'd much rather pretend it didn't exist.
"Noah, you're underperforming," Mr. Walker said.
"Underperforming?" Noah scoffed. "That implies that I can just perform, and get a better grade."
"You can," Mr. Walker told him. "I know you can."
"Mr. Walker, I'm just bad at math," Noah shrugged. "It's a schoolwide fact that everyone knows. I know this is your first year teaching here, and you probably don't know my reputation-"
"I don't believe that," Mr. Walker shook his head.
"Well you should," Noah said frankly. "This underperforming is about to become the new standard for me."
"Noah," Mr. Walker sighed. "I know Mr. Henderson from last year just gave you a pass regardless of what you did in class and that's all you're shooting for, but you're not going to get that from me," He said sternly. "If you don't pick up your grades, I will fail you, and you'll either have to retake the class or go to summer school."
"Summer school?" Noah exclaimed.
"This is 8th-grade math, alright?" Mr. Walker stated. "Up to this point, it's still a little bit of essential math that you will need in the future. If you don't want to study math in the future, that's your choice. But you will have to pass my class, one way or another, and the correct way."
Noah sighed and rolled his eyes, last week's pop quiz gripped even tighter in his hand.
"Understood?" Mr. Walker questioned.
"Yes sir," Noah mumbled.
"Alright, now have a good weekend," Mr. Walker smiled, though Noah wasn't much in a happy mood following the conversation.
"What did he want with you?" Jayden asked once Noah met back up with his two best friends.
"He's riding on my ass for failing the pop quizzes," Noah spat. "It's not even my fault, he makes them so difficult."
"I hear he's a hard one, you can't skate by," Liam hummed. "Man, Hendeson shouldn't have retired. He was easy."
"Henderson never gave homework, but Nightmare Walker," Jayden rolled his eyes. "Like 17 essays, 237 questions for homework, and you also need to give him your kidney."
"How does he even have time for all the things he gives us?" Noah exclaimed. "What? With all the homework, and making questions, plus grading all the pop quizzes every week. Doesn't he have a life?"
"I mean," Liam muttered. "He's young. I don't see a ring."
"Maybe if he gets a girlfriend he'll stop being so evil," Jayden said.
"Wait-" Noah said. "That's it."
"Noah, he's joking," Liam said exasperatedly. "That's ridiculous."
"No, he's a genius," Noah gasped joyfully. "Wait I gotta go talk to coach Sapnap."
"Why are you talking to coach Sapnap?" Jayden raised an eyebrow.
"Because coach Sapnap is Mr. Walker's best friend," Noah said. "If we can make him busy, give him a girlfriend-"
"I was joking!" Jayden yelled.
"But it might work!" Noah whispered excitedly.
"You're an idiot," Liam said flatly. "You're literally an idiot."
"You two go on home, I'll meet you there," Noah said, walking away from his friends. "I'm gonna go talk to coach Sapnap."
"He's literally an idiot," Liam said, as his dumbass best friend disappeared into a hallway.
"Tell me about it," Jayden mumbled.
"So apparently Mr. Walker is into men," Noah declared.
Liam and Jayden both jumped as Noah came walking into Liam's room, slamming the door open before sauntering in.
"Noah, where have you been? It's been like two hours," Jayden checked his phone.
"Give me a break, it was very complicated, I had to work around and find the not-creepy, not-illegal way to ask if our math teacher was single and ready to mingle," Noah said, dropping his bag onto right by Liam's door and shooed Jayden off of Liam's gaming chair so he could sit.
"Is there any way to ask in a not-creepy, not-illegal way if our math teacher is single and ready to mingle?" Liam asked incredulously. "What did coach Sapnap even say? How did he not just make you run laps for dumbassery?"
"There is always a way if you're me," Noah said proudly. "And I didn't ask coach Sapnap, he was a lost cause, plus he was with Mr. Davidson, I'd rather not deal with those two. I talked to principal Bad."
"You what?" Liam and Jayden exclaimed.
"Why would you do that? He's the principal," Liam exclaimed.
"Okay, our principal is nicknamed BadBoyHalo, he's not exactly a stick in the mud," Noah said. "Plus, he's actually friends with my dad and he likes to talk," He scrunched up his nose. "Like a lot. He likes to talk a lot."
"What did you even say? What did you even ask him?" Jayden asked in pure awe.
"How are you not expelled?" Liam questioned.
"Not important," Noah brushed off quickly. "And to answer our questions, yes Mr. Walker is single, yes he's probably very bored, and yeah, he's into men."
"There's gotta be something here that's immoral about snooping into your teacher's love life," Liam commented.
"Shut up Liam, I'm trying to get us better grades," Noah hissed.
"Who do we know is also into men, and single, and would probably date Mr. Walker?" Jayden pondered.
"Oh no, not you too," Liam groaned. "I've lost both of them."
"Coach Sapnap and Mr. Davidson are out of the question," Noah muttered.
The room fell silent, though it was Noah and Jayden thinking furiously, while Liam was left shaking his head and pulling his hair out of both frustration and disappointment.
"There really aren't that many single and available teachers in our school, huh?" Jayden mumbled.
This was followed by more silence until Liam sighed.
"I mean, it doesn't have to be a teacher," Liam muttered.
"What was that?" Noah asked loudly. "What was that Liam? Are you contributing to our cause? Are you pitching in ideas now?"
"Shut up," Liam hissed. "You guys are just too stupid to see it, but yeah. The logical answer is that you're not limited to teachers in our school. I mean, he's an adult. He can go anywhere and date anyone."
"Noah," Jayden called slowly. "Isn't your dad single?"
"My dad-" Noah mumbled before gasping. "Oh, my dad!"
"Okay, so we're back to being stupid, alright," Liam rolled his eyes, collapsing back onto his bed.
"Jayden you're a genius," Noah cheered.
"Nothing about this seems wrong to you? Like trouble?" Liam asked. "Like maybe it's against the rules for teachers to date parents? Or just about how much trouble you might get into for this?"
"Rules schmules," Noah scoffed. "Rules are made to be broken."
"Rules are not piñatas, they're not made to be broken," Liam said.
"Rules are exactly piñatas," Jayden contested. "You get something good when you break them."
"Thank you, Jayden," Noah said exaggeratedly while maintaining eye contact with Liam. "It's good to have a friend who's got my back."
"When this thing blows up in your face, I will say I told you so," Liam said.
"When were get better grades, you're going to buy me pizza for a whole week," Noah shot back.
"But how are you ever gonna get your dad to go out with Mr. Walker?" Jayden asked.
"Oh ye of little faith," Noah grinned.
"Oh father, my father."
Karl was in the kitchen, trying his best to put the homemade pizza he'd been struggling to assemble for the past two hours into the oven.
"What up?" Karl asked as he pushed the oven door closed, crossing his fingers so that nothing burns.
"Why don't you date?"
Noah was far blunter than Karl liked his son to be and if Karl had been drinking anything, he would've sputtered everything out.
"What kind of question is that?" Karl chuckled nervously.
"Just curious," Noah replied. "We hear these things about parents not wanting to date because they're scared their kids might not respond well to it, and I'd just like you to know that I fully support you."
Karl stopped, frowning slightly as he squinted his eyes and glared at his son knowingly. Other than being blunt and bold, his son was smarter than the average kid as well.
"Okay-" Karl answered warily. "-you weirdo. What's this about?"
"Nothing," Noah assured him. "It's just that mom was a long time ago, and we've grown, we've moved on-"
"Noah, your mother is alive," Karl interjected.
"She cheated on you though," Noah corrected. "We don't accept that bad energy in this household. And she also didn't want me, so I think I can pretend she doesn't exist."
"Noah, darling, of course, she wants you," Karl sighed.
"Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about the full custody with no court later and you can tell me about how much she wants me," Noah held his hand up and Karl gave up.
"Okay," Karl raised his hand in resignation. "Still, what is this about kid?"
"I just think you should go out and date people," Noah said innocently. "In other unrelated news, my math teacher is also single."
"Noah," Karl scolded.
"He's like 6'3, blond. He has green eyes, I'm pretty sure he goes to the gym. It's very good looking-" Noah started to rattle on.
"Noah!" Karl gasped scandalously. "Inappropriate."
"All the girls and some guys have a crush on him, this isn't coming from me," Noah yelled defensively. "It's a public consensus."
"I can't just date your teacher," Karl shook his head while he chuckled.
"Why not?" Noah inquired.
"Aside from the fact that there are probably rules surrounding that," Karl said carefully. "It doesn't work like that. I don't even know what he's like-"
"Men," Noah answered.
"I said, what he's like, not what he likes," Karl said through gritted teeth as he threw a dish towel towards Noah's face.
"Well he likes men, so-" Noah shrugged.
"What is this about?" Karl laughed. "I know that when kids are like 6 or 7 they want a complete family, or like a mother, I thought you were far past that."
"I think he's pretty cool," Noah said. "He always lets us go a little early, unlike most teachers. I heard he used to play basketball and swim. He's friends with coach Sapnap, you're friends with coach Sapnap. He rides a motorcycle to school."
"If you don't stop talking, I'm going to ground you," Karl threatened, though they both know it was nothing more than a joke.
"You'll see," Noah said confidently. "When you come for the parent-teacher conference, you'll see."
"Oh, will I now?" Karl was both in disbelief but amused nonetheless.
"Yeah, you will," Noah nodded.
"Go shower before I whoop your ass," Karl said. "Dinner will be ready in a bit."
"You'll see," Noah yelled as he walked up the stairs. "And you'll thank me!"
Okay, the seeds have been planted.
Has it ever occurred to Noah that trying to set up his teacher and his father might be a lapse in judgment? Yes. Most people won't be caught dead having a teacher as a parent, or in this case, a pseudo-parent. It would be entirely embarrassing, but still somehow better than having to learn math. And Noah doubts he'll see Mr. Walker in high school when he moves to a whole different school, so he could stick it out for a bit.
For the following weeks until the parent-teacher conference, Noah has been talking non-stop about this Mr. Walker. It was about the story about his mishap with the police that he told in class, then it was about his cat that he brought to school that one day due to unfortunate circumstances. It was catching Mr. Walker shooting a sick 3-pointer during the basketball team practice when he and Coach Sapnap were just playing around. It was the secret videos on Youtube his classmates found which you can see him performing a song at a karaoke bar, and he was ridiculously good.
Karl was starting to think that it's becoming a problem.
Noah knew he was going to get a pretty horrendous rep-sheet from Mr. Walker on his math pop quizzes, but that didn't stop him from being weirdly excited about his father going to meet his math teacher.
"Mr. Walker?" Karl called as he walked into the classroom.
Just as described, a tall blond man with green eyes stood up from behind his desk and walked towards the door, stretching his hand out to shake Karl's hand.
"Mr. Jacobs, is it?" Mr. Walker asked.
"That's me," Karl nodded.
"Please, have a seat," Mr. Walker gestured to the empty chairs opposite of his desk.
Karl hated to admit that his son, no matter how inappropriate it was, was somehow correct. Karl couldn't help but look at the young math teacher's face, appreciating its symmetry, before shaking himself back to reality. Daydreaming about how handsome your son's teacher was is not something you should do during a conference nor in front of said teacher.
"Is Mrs. Jacobs going to join us or?" Mr. Walker asked kindly.
"No, no, just me," Karl replied, instinctively raising his left hand. "Divorced."
"Ah," Mr. Walker muttered. "My apologies."
"Oh no, it's fine, she cheated on me when Noah was like 5, it's been a while," Karl blurted out the explanation before promptly being horrified with himself.
Karl was embarrassing himself and spinning out in front of the handsome math teacher and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He didn't think that he'd get flustered, but he did. He was gonna yell at Noah later for psyching him out, but right now he himself is the only one to blame. Can't believe he trauma-dumped on his son's math teacher.
Thankfully, all Mr. Walker did was chuckle.
"Right, I uh-" Mr. Walker smiled, arranging the papers in front of him neatly before reading the contents. "I'd like to talk about Noah, clearly, and how poorly he's been performing in my class."
"Oh, really?" Karl was taken aback, furrowing his eyebrows as he received the progress report that Mr. Walker passed over the table.
"You're surprised," Mr. Walker commented. "Why is that? Has Noah been historically good with math?"
"No, actually, he hasn't," Karl told him. "But my son won't stop talking about you, so I assumed he must either like your class a lot or be doing exceptionally well."
"Does he?" Mr. Walker had an amused smirk. "As far as I know, he hates my class."
"I'm sure that's not true, he's very fond of you," Karl replied. "And your cat. And also your motorcycle."
Mr. Walker laughed, nodding slowly as he met Karl's eyes.
"Most students tend to be," Mr. Walker said. "However, I do have a rather grueling standard in my class for passing, and Noah needs more that a little bit of help."
"I wish I could," Karl admitted. "I'm pretty useless at Math. I mean, I'd love to help him and I'd really like it if he doesn't fail or go to summer school, but I wouldn't know what to do."
"The last thing I want is to fail your son or send him to summer school," Mr. Walker said.
"What do you suggest then?" Karl asked.
Mr. Walker sat back and pondered, meanwhile Karl felt his heart thumping against his chest.
This was an unbelievably stupid crush.
"I'll tell you what," Mr. Walker back up straight. "I believe that your son is not bad at math at all, he just needs more motivation. I can give him an extra problem set- yes, unfortunately, more homework," He said while Karl only nodded along. "Only 5 questions every week before the pop quiz, and if you could help him through that, it would be amazing. I think having the motivation be coming from you will do wonders."
"Like I said, Mr. Walker, I'd love to, but I'm quite useless at it," Karl said.
"I'll give you my number," Mr. Walker pulled a little post it note and messily scribbled his phone number before passing it to Karl. "I'll send you the questions and the problem solution. You should be the one that holds on to it so Noah doesn't immediately check the solutions when he gets stumped. And if anything in the solutions confuses you, feel free to reach out and I'll do my best to try and help out."
"Okay," Karl nodded. "That sounds- That's sound great."
"Alright," Mr. Walker agreed. "Other than that, your son is a little rowdy, but all around a respectful student and he's a joy to have in class. You've raised him well."
"Thank you, I-" Karl felt his cheeks starting to heat up. "Thank you."
"No problem," Mr. Walker said. "Have a good evening, Mr. Jacobs."
"Karl," Karl corrected him. "You can call me Karl."
"Karl," Mr. Walker repeated. "You can call me Dream."
When Karl finally got home from the conference, the first destination he went to was Noah's room.
"You're failing math?" Karl declared loudly as he swung the door open.
Noah fumbled and fully rolled off his bed out of pure shock.
"Dad! Privacy?" Noah demanded.
"You don't get privacy after you told me to go out with your math teacher and he comes and tells me that you're failing his class? That you might go to summer school?"
"He's a cool guy, but he's a hardass," Noah said defensively.
"Don't call your teacher a hardass," Karl barked, putting his palm on his forehead. "He's gonna give me practice questions, which you are going to do because I'm going to make sure you do them, and then I'm going check them over. Understood? You are not failing 8th-grade math."
"Fine," Noah grumbled, a little annoyed that his plan seemingly failed.
Karl left his son's room, purposefully leaving his door open out of mischievous spite, before going to his own bedroom. He was changing out of his clothes when the post-it note fell out of his pocket.
It was strictly business. So why was he so nervous about putting Dream's number into his phone.
Sorry to bother you late at night Mr. Walker, but this is Noah Jacobs' father typing. Thought you should have my number.
Karl frowned right after he hit send, feeling disgusted at how awkward and formal that text sounded. And maybe a little nervous that Dream didn't reply almost immediately. But Karl was adamant that he was not a teen school girl waiting for boys to text them back, so Karl put his phone on the nightstand before going to the bathroom to finish up with the rest of his bedtime routine.
Karl was climbing back into bed when he realized that he had one new notification.
It's not a bother, Karl. I got your number.
Have a good night.
-Dream
Karl hates to admit that he was a blushing mess under his blanket, and all he could do was shake himself out and try to go to bed. Everything would be fine, even though not he was smiling stupidly at a brand new contact on his phone.
The next time Dream texted him again was the following Tuesday after the conference. The text had nothing in it other than two PDFs, one titled questions, the other titled answers. Karl did as he was supposed to, printing off the questions and giving them to Noah for him to finish before he could spend any more time on his PC.
A bit after though, even when Noah hasn't asked for any kind of help, Karl got another text from the same number that only said lmk if you need any help.
Okay, he's being less formal. This is progress, this is progress.
What on Earth is Karl talking about? What progress? Stop it, he's not trying to do anything.
For sure, thx :D
Is that too much?
At least it's not a winky face.
Karl will never get over how bad his son truly is at math and the problem is, he can't really blame Noah. Karl was exceptionally bad back when he was growing up, it was honestly a miracle that he passed any classes or even graduated. Still, Karl can't help the disappointment when he got back the answers from Noah and every single one of the 5 questions was wrong.
need a lot of help it seems
And with that simple text, Karl send a picture of Noah's work that he'd just got back. Karl waited for a bit until he saw the little bubble that indicated someone was typing popped up. It was moving for a while before disappearing, back again then gone.
do you mind if i call you?
And that was the story of how Karl ended up relearning 8th-grade math at 11:30 at night, his son had gone to sleep more than an hour ago.
"Honestly, he almost got it," Dream's voice spoke kindly across the video call.
Did he mention it was a video call? Dream thought it easier if Karl could just see what he was writing. And Karl wasn't exactly complaining at the sight of his son's math teacher in a thin and tight white tee, explaining trigonometry in his most patient voice.
"He's just got a lot of carryover errors and using the wrong formula because he didn't pay enough attention to the question," Dream said.
"Well, if I know my son, he probably did it as fast as he humanly could so that he could go back to an ongoing online game with his friends," Karl sighed.
"Did you threaten him with his games?" Dream inquired. "I hear that's popular amongst parents," Dream added teasingly.
"Oh is it now?" Karl mumbled sarcastically, smiling along with Dream's chuckles.
"You know that though, I've seen those kids put a lot of thought into strategy and game mechanics and physics trying to win those games," Dream told Karl. "If only they'd do the same thing with things in real life."
"I guess shooting zombies are just a bit more fun," Karl said. "Though, at least they have you as a teacher."
"How so?" Dream asked.
"God," Karl scoffed, rolling his eyes to remember. "My math teacher was an absolute monster. She would chuck the blackboard eraser across the room if she caught you dozing off, and she wouldn't let you retake a test or a quiz even if you had a doctor's note. She made a sophomore cry one year."
"And she still had her job?" Dream exclaimed.
"I grew up in a small town, we didn't have a lot of math teachers, to begin with," Karl shrugged.
'"Maybe that's why you hate math," Dream commented. "If you had a better teacher, maybe you won't hate it as much."
"If I had you as a teacher, I wouldn't hate it as much," Karl said. "Though, I would've gotten a little distracted, if I'm being honest."
It was an awful attempt at flirting, but for the first time that night, Dream was the one who are bowing his head down to try and hide the fact that his face was burning red.
"I'll pass on the notes and correction to Noah tomorrow," Karl said. "I hope he'll do better on his next pop-quiz."
"Me too," Dream said. "Have a good night Karl."
"Night," Karl replied before the call dropped off.
Noah didn't pass the next pop-quiz, though, he did get a better score than he'd ever gotten before. So there was some tangible progress, and that was good enough for both Dream and Karl to continue their routine.
It was the nightly phone calls, the weekly question papers that Noah, regrettably, had to finish. But then it branched out. Karl would text Dream something that Noah told him, and Dream would do a report on what he heard the other teachers said Noah did in class.
Even though they didn't text often, only a few every couple of hours, the conversation never seemed to stop, and it never actually did.
noah said he's nervous about the midterm
he'll be fine, i won't make the questions too hard, i promise
he's getting better at the pop quizzes, but it's still bad
would you trust me? i know what ur son is capable of
It was not a surprise to neither Dream nor Karl that Noah's exam was the first one Dream graded out of pure curiosity. Immediately, the evening after the exams, Dream texted Karl a simple 93% with a lot of party emojis.
can i tell him?
Karl needed to ask for permission since Dream obviously doesn't tell all the parents their kids scores. But Dream assured him that he was free to tell Noah, since he was confident he could get most of the grading done over the weekend, allowing him to give everyone their grades back first thing Monday morning.
"You got a 93%," Karl barged into his son's room yet again.
"What?" Noah asked.
"Mr. Walker just texted me, he said you got a 93% on the midterm," Karl said.
"Uh-" Noah was stunned silent. "Since when are you texting Mr. Walker?"
"Since I had to teach you all that math," Karl said defensively. "Is that really what you're concerned about? Noah, you got a 93%? That's amazing. I told you, you could do it."
"Right," Noah said hesitantly. "Yay me?"
"Ugh, whatever," Karl rolled his eyes. "Fine, go back to your video games, you deserve it."
Up to exactly two minutes ago, Noah had thought that his plans have completely failed. His friends told him so, and he's even conceded it. After all, his having to do extra weekly practice sets was not a sign that his plans were working.
See, receiving 73% on the was the goal, 83% was impossible, 93% is a goddamn miracle. And all this time, he thought he was tripping when he felt that the midterm exams felt a lot easier. Maybe that's why he was convinced he failed.
So Noah, in all his excitement, ran up to Jayden and Liam.
"It worked," Noah blurted out. "It worked, it actually worked."
"What worked?" Jayden asked.
"The plan," Noah said. "It wasn't just me, right? You guys thought Mr. Walker's midterm was a lot easier than his quizzes."
"Yeah, a little," Liam shrugged. "I don't understand, what worked?"
"My dad told me that I got a 93% on the midterm," Noah said smugly while both of his friend's jaws dropped. "Yeah, I know. And guess who told him," He didn't wait for either of his friends to try and answer. "Mr. Walker texted him. They've been texting. They're texting each other. They're like-"
"Oh my god, that's why the midterm was easier," Jayden finally gasped along.
"Noah, there's no what you succeeded in matchmaking and that caused us to have an easier midterm," Liam said.
"You're just mad that I'm a genius," Noah said proudly. "I made Mr. Walker fall in love with my dad, and now we're all going to pass maths."
"Is that so Mr. Jacobs?"
Okay, so, admittedly, Noah Jacobs was certifiably not a genius. Other than the fact that he shouldn't have been talking about this loudly and in class, he probably shouldn't have done it when waiting for the math period to start.
"Take a seat everyone, I'm going to start handing out your midterms," Mr. Walker said.
Noah shrank in his seat, feeling the steely gaze of his math teacher looking at everyone else but him. It was not a lie, and it was definitely a solid 93% written at the top corner of his paper. A pang of guilt sat on his chest as he read a little scribble from Mr. Walker that said good job! with a little smiley face drawn next to it.
"For once, this isn't actually my fault," Jayden suddenly said in hushed voices as Mr. Walker walked to the other side of the room. "I mean, Noah came up with the idea, and you're the one that suggested setting him up with non-teachers."
"You encouraged him," Liam scolded. "You're the one that suggested Mr. Jacobs, this is all our fault."
But still, Noah couldn't be bothered to listen or chime into the conversation. He was dreading getting home.
Karl was in the kitchen trying to prepare dinner when his phone started ringing.
"Did you know?" Dream asked the second Karl picked up his phone call.
"Did I know what?" Karl muttered in confusion.
"Did he tell you to ask me out?" Dream said.
"I-" Karl was startled. "Yeah? Kind of."
"He said he was doing that only so I would let them pass math," Dream told Karl.
"What does he think it is?" Karl scoffed. "Clueless?"
"So you're telling me you didn't know about this?" Dream repeated.
"What, you think I'd really start dating you so you'd pass my kid?" Karl asked. "If I'm paying by sex, I'm not gonna put in the work by trying to relearn how to do the Pythagorean at like 36 years old."
Dream was silent at the other end of the line.
"We haven't even gone out Dream," Karl said. "I promise you, I'm not my son's pawn."
"Okay," Dream mumbled softly.
"Are you upset about this?" Karl asked.
"Is it stupid if I said a little bit?" Dream muttered pitifully. "God, I feel like a child."
"No, you're justified," Karl assured him. "I'm gonna have a talk with him. He's-" Karl peaked out of the kitchen. "He's home. I'll call you back."
Karl was angry. He didn't rage a lot, especially not to his son. But this was completely unacceptable.
"Noah," Karl barked the second he hears the front door close, not giving his son any time to run up the staircase. "Here, now."
He waited. He could hear every single hesitant step that his son took until he fully appeared in the kitchen.
"You're grounded," Karl said without any preface. Noah didn't even get a chance to open his mouth.
"Is he-" Noah mumbled. "Is he upset with you?"
"Yes!" Karl yelled. "Of course he's upset with me. Noah, what were you thinking?"
"I wasn't," Noah admitted.
"Yeah, damn right you weren't," Karl shook his head in disappointment. "You're going to apologize to that man tomorrow, understood?"
"Yes," Noah nodded.
"And you're grounded, two months," Karl reiterated.
"Two?" Noah groaned softly, though he was in no place to argue.
"Would you rather have it be three?" Karl threatened and Noah only shook his head. "Good. Go shower."
There really wasn't much else that Noah could do to fix things. Not only has he been caught in his scheme, but as far as he knew, he potentially ruined his father's relationship. See, he didn't know that his father had been texting his math teacher. But he did very much recognize that his father was in a better mood in the past few weeks.
So the next day, Noah waited until it was the end of the day, seeing as how he didn't have a class with Mr. Walker that day. When he got to Mr. Walker's classroom, the room was almost empty, save three to four people on their way out.
"Mr. Walker," Noah called.
"Mr. Jacobs," Mr. Walker replied.
The sound of his last name almost made him shiver. Mr. Walker was known by how close and casual he was with his students, calling them by their first names and even nicknames. Mr. Jacobs felt like a slap on the face by a cold dead fish, but one that wasn't undeserved.
"I-" Noah gulped. "I'd like to-"
Mr. Walker sat back in his chair and looked at him, and he was struggling even more.
"I'm sorry," Noah blurted out.
"Oh, why ever for?" Mr. Walker said sarcastically.
"Look, I just-" Noah started. "I was failing math and I was panicking, and I just thought if you were a bit busy and occupied with a boyfriend, that maybe you'd stop being so hard on us."
Mr. Walked just shook his head, looking at Noah expectantly, waiting for him to continue.
"I- It doesn't matter what the reason was, and I'm sorry that I did it," Noah went on with his ramble. "Look, I'll drop your class and I'll go to summer school, just please don't break up with my dad. He's just been so happy lately, and-"
"What?" Dream muttered.
"And I know it's my fault, but I promise you I didn't ask him to go and betray your trust like that, I just-" Noah was very close to being hysterical.
"Noah, Noah," Dream got up from his chair and walked closer to the young boy. "Calm down, calm down."
"I'm so sorry Mr. Walker," Noah apologized.
"Oh my god, my boy-" Dream couldn't help but laugh a little bit, pulling his student into a side hug and patting his back comfortingly. "I'm not-" He just chuckled. "Your dad and I aren't dating, first of all, so we can't really break up like that anyway. Second, I don't want you to drop my class and go to summer school."
"You don't?" Noah hummed.
Dream leaned on the edge of his desk, patting the table closest to the desk, gesturing for Noah to sit down should he want to. An offer which Noah took.
"You know why the midterm was super easy?" Dream asked.
"Because you were nice?" Noah guessed.
"Your midterm was about just as difficult as any other school in this city. Topics and levels of difficulty are definitely standardized," Dream told him. "The quizzes, however, were always designed to be harder. And I did that so when you get confronted with regular questions, it would seem very easy. Because you've had practice before."
Noah looked up at him, still a little confused.
"And you know why it always feels like you've never learned them before when I gave you the pop quizzes?" Dream asked and Noah shook his head. "It's because half of the pop quiz is for the next week's topics. I did that to gauge how much the class understood the materials."
Dream sighed.
"I was only ever going to take the five best scores the class gets on their pop quizzes. Every other one that you failed wouldn't mean anything," Dream said. "And I'm sorry that I made you feel like you were failing so bad that you can't think of any other way to pass."
"Oh," Noah mumbled softly.
"You got a 93%," Dream said. "That's because you studied and you listened to your dad, not because I was in love and decided to be nice. You don't have to drop my class, and I pray you never have to go to summer school."
Noah let out a little laugh of relief, Dream smiling along.
"I accept your apology," Dream nudged his head towards the door. "Now get home before you miss the bus."
"Actually, I uh-" Noah said hesitantly. "My dad's picking me up, and he's outside."
"Your dad's outside?" Dream questioned.
"Well, I had to make sure he apologized properly, right?" Karl's choice chimed in as he walked into the classroom. "Besides he's grounded don't you know? And I can't have him getting off and his friend's house."
"Grounded means you can do 10 questions a week then, yeah?" Dream asked teasingly, though Noah only sighed in resignation.
"Go wait in the car, darling," Karl instructed as he tossed Noah the car keys.
"Bye Mr. Walker," Noah excused himself politely before leaving his dad alone in his math classroom.
"Your son is something special, I'll give him that," Dream chuckled.
"Never a dull day," Karl agreed. "Though, he isn't entirely lying."
"What about?" Dream questioned lightly.
"Getting texts and calls from you makes me feel 20 years younger," Karl said. "And the schoolboy crush is starting to feel like a lot more."
"I'm your son's teacher," Dream excused, though the mischievous glint in his eyes is telling him otherwise.
"You're telling me the man that got his own teacher fired when he was in school won't break a couple of rules?" Karl tutted. "I'm truly disappointed."
Karl turned and started to walk out of the classroom so very slowly when Dream finally called out.
"Saturday, I'm picking you up at 7 on the motorcycle," Dream said. "Wear something comfortable."
"It's a date," Karl agreed.