Derrick watched the kids running around in the music room, taking advantage of the big space which had been created by shoving all the chairs and equipment aside. The winter play which was to be held in the auditorium here at Churchland Elementary School was still a long ways away, but it would arrive before he knew it. Events like this had a way of doing that, especially when you worked with young children. It took so long to even get anything organized enough to start!

He didn’t mind. He loved the kids. Here at Churchland, the first grade and sixth grade were the only ones who took music class, not counting those who were in the school band. Right now, he had the first-graders and it was very near the end of the day. They were excited and impatient, growing antsy. All 23 of them scampered around the room, waving stacks of scripts around. They were supposed to be passing the scripts around to make sure everyone got one, so they could start deciding on parts, but it appeared that most of the kids had decided to participate in an impromptu pillow fight. Lacking pillows, they were using the papers instead.

Derrick sat on a piano bench at the rear of the room, near the whiteboard on which he occasionally drew silly doodles. He smiled as he watched the kids, knowing it was useless to try and interfere before the activity had started to naturally wear down. Their excitement for this play would wane throughout the weeks but they would enjoy themselves for a while yet. However, he suspected that the performance would be excellent, for what it was. Young kids were usually able to grasp their roles quite well and could often put on a better play than the older children.

After about five minutes of excited play, Derrick decided that was about enough. The kids were breaking off into their little friend groups, some of them talking while the others tussled with each other, and he didn’t really want them to fully separate.

Lifting his arms, he clapped his hands together. The sound wasn’t very loud but it was enough to get the kids’ attention. A sea of little heads turned in his direction and then the kids scurried over to surround him in a little semicircle. They stood so close together that it made him smile more. They were like a bunch of little puppies, though only one or two were wolf pups. Another kid was a rabbit shifter, tucked in amongst the rest. They wouldn’t learn about personal space for another couple of years, so right now they mostly enjoyed the company of others, and would be willing to cooperate if he asked them to.

“Okay, guys,” Derrick said. “Time to settle down. Circle time.” He lowered his hands from where he still had them clasped together, palms pointing towards the floor. Every single kid dropped down to the floor, sitting with their legs crossed so primly. Big eyes gazed at him with earnest attention, peeping out from almost two dozen fresh, innocent faces.

“So, did anyone even actually look at the scripts?” he teased.

“I did!” a chorus of tiny little voices replied.

Of all the kids who replied, he suspected maybe about three had actually done so.

“What’s the name of the play?”

For a moment, no one responded. As he had expected, a lot of the kids started looking down at their jumbled papers so they could answer his question. A little girl with pigtails piped up very shyly, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

She stumbled over the difficult word “Emperor” but Derrick pointed at her and gave her a thumbs-up. “You got it. Great job, Mary!”

She lifted her own little thumb in response before dropping her shy gaze down to the script.

Derrick could tell that the name of the play seemed pretty boring to the kids. Clothes? Great. Clothes were something you got at Christmas between opening the real presents. However, he knew that once he told them the whole story, they’d really get into it. Kids really enjoyed being given permission to discuss taboo subjects, which was why Derrick had cultivated a number of jokes throughout the years that involved bodily functions and gross noises.

This play had nudity, silliness, and laziness. It was going to be a real hit, and none of the parents would be able to protest because there was a good lesson to be learned at the end of it.

Leaning forward, Derrick was rewarded with a similar response from the kids. He started to explain the story and was happy when he was proven correct. Before long, the kids were arguing over who got to be the naked Emperor.

Derrick had thought long and hard already about what kids he wanted in what part, but he wasn’t about to just start assigning them their roles already. He wanted them to really get into it, to feel the anticipation and delight and disappointment. He was of the mindset that kids shouldn’t be coddled. Bad feelings were a part of life. However, he did believe in making sure that each kid had the best experience possible. Even if someone didn’t get the part they wanted, he was going to make them feel special and important with the one they had.

It took the entire rest of the class for him to get all the kids assigned to their roles. He made sure he had their parts written down and that they did as well, so they would be able to tell their parents about it. He also didn’t want to spend a whole bunch of time tomorrow reminding them who they were supposed to be.

A few minutes before the bell rang, he got them all lined up in front of the door. They chattered happily to each other and to him, mostly discussing what plans they had for the rest of the day.

Derrick thought this class was the best he’d ever had, but he thought that every single year.

The bell rang, and he lingered by the door, wishing each individual child a good rest of the day. Each one responded with a sweet little chirp before scurrying out into the hallway to get to their lockers.

He counted 23 heads, and when the last child was gone, he pulled out a key from his pocket and used it to lock the music room door behind himself. The main hall of the elementary school was filled with a confused jumble of kids all heading in various directions. Some of them were heading up to the front to find their parents in the parking lot, while others pushed in the opposite direction so they could get to the buses. Derrick joined the latter flow, making his way upstream like an enterprising salmon. He and several other members of the faculty always stood out back with the buses to make sure everyone got to the right place at the right time.

Sometimes he thought that his presence in the back did more harm than good, mostly because a ton of the kids of all ages kept stopping to talk to him. He hated having to hurry them on but really, it was necessary, or else no one would ever get anywhere.

Twenty minutes after the last bell, the four buses had left the rear school parking lot. The other adults went back inside, while Derrick lingered outside to wave at the receding bus before it disappeared around the corner.

As soon as there were no more kids with their eyes on him, his shoulders slumped and he heaved out a huge sigh. Another day done and gone, and what had he really earned from it? Satisfaction, perhaps. Contentment. He was potentially instilling a love for theater in the children, an appreciation for the finer arts that were so under-appreciated today. That should have been enough.

It wasn’t, because it was all bullshit. Those kids would never really remember this and if they did, he guessed that they wouldn’t be influenced by it in any particular way.

He was a sham of a teacher. Hell, he knew that was what the other teachers thought, even though they hadn’t ever said so to his face. He was the outcast, the guy who taught brats how to annoy their parents with plastic wind instruments. He taught two classes a day, plus a band class four times a week. It didn’t matter that he also worked in the office, or that he volunteered at every single event the school had, or that he would sub in for the others, or run their errands for them. It didn’t matter that he took it upon himself to make the lives of everyone else that much easier. He still just didn’t quite belong.

He loved his job. He really did. He loved the kids, their antics, and their enthusiasm. He liked being the Fun Teacher, the one who was listened to so readily because the kids actually cared about what he had to say.

Just, it was all kind of pointless in the end.

The air was warm on his face, sunlight beating down from above while the echoing warmth rose up from the blacktop. Derrick turned his face into the wind, enjoying the contrasting chill it carried. Fall was coming, already on the verge of arriving. It was his favorite time of year, but with each year that passed he found himself able to enjoy it less and less. Nothing really changed except himself, and that was because he was getting older.

Time was running out for him in a lot of ways. He was 28 this year, and he was still a wolf without a mate. An omega without an alpha. That wasn’t unusual in the world of wolves, especially now that it was the 21st century and times were changing, but it still wasn’t a happy thing for him. It might have been different if he didn’t want kids or a relationship. He could have been happy. But the fact of the matter was, he had always wanted those things ever since he was a child himself. And here he was, still unclaimed and not for lack of trying.

There was a tap on his shoulder, startling him. He turned, picking up on a flash of floral perfume as he did so. The scent was thankfully subtle. So many humans simply doused themselves in their favorite scents without stopping to consider the fact that everyone else they came into contact with would be forced to breathe it in. It was harder when you were a wolf, able to break through that initial sweetness to get to the horrific brew of chemicals beneath.

Derrick had recognized the perfume instantly, so he wasn’t exactly surprised to find himself facing his favorite person in the entire school. Her name was Elaine, and she was pushing 50 so gracefully, that a stranger probably wouldn’t believe her if she said that was her age. She was a fit and trim woman, very gradually gathering the soft curves of a typical grandmother. Her hair was always pulled back into an effortless bun, auburn with only the slightest hints of silver here and there, and her eyes glittered with friendliness.

It wasn’t her appearance that drew Derrick to Elaine, mainly because he was unrepentantly gay. Elaine was one of the very few people who treated him as an equal at the school. She worked up in the front office and had done so since she was fresh out of high school, and she had seen plenty of teachers come and go in her time. Good ones, okay ones, great ones, and terrible ones.

She thought Derrick was one of the great ones and had told him so on a number of occasions, usually whenever he confided in her that he felt unappreciated by the other teachers. He didn’t often complain, just when he felt deliberately slighted.

Elaine herself was often slighted. She wasn’t a teacher, just a glorified secretary in the eyes of the faculty. However, she was the glorified secretary that kept the entire damn school running. Everyone in the school reported to her, deferred to her judgment. She manned the school printers, recorded attendance, and passed along dozens of messages per day, making sure that everyone who needed to know something did indeed know it. Without her, miscommunication would have been fraught throughout the school.

But, she was only a little old lady who worked up in the office. Sure.

“Hi, Elaine,” Derrick said. She often came out here to help get the kids on their buses if she wasn’t tied up in the office, so her presence wasn’t unusual. He had just thought that no one else was around. How much had she seen, or picked up on?

“Are you doing well, Derrick?” Elaine asked, jumping right to the heart of the matter. “You seem quite discouraged about something.”

Her gaze was so open and earnest that he wanted to confide in her, but that would have been pointless because he had already told her about everything that caused him distress.

“It’s just the usual,” he replied. “Just woolgathering. You know how it is.”

“Of course.” She smiled, a warm, knowing smile that instantly soothed some of his tension. “The dreamy musician, always with his head in the clouds. What would today’s instrument be?”

That was a question she always asked him. It had become something of a replacement for the usual, “How are you?” The real difference was that most people didn’t care for a response, simply asking the question because they knew it was polite to do so; Elaine actually cared what instrument Derrick would use to describe his current mood.

He thought about it for a moment. “Violin, probably.”

Violins were one of his favorite instruments because they were so versatile, but he thought today’s melody might take full advantage of the violin’s mournful crooning.

Elaine nodded, though he had never figured out if she actually knew that there was a meaning behind what instrument he might choose. “In that case, maybe you should come down to the office with me. I just put on a fresh pot of coffee, and I’m sure I could scrounge up a cookie or two.”

Of course she would find some cookies. Elaine didn’t ever not have cookies.

Maybe she understands after all. Or maybe she just saw me standing here looking all depressed.

Either way, it was nice to feel cared for, even though it was only by a co-worker.

“Sure,” he said. “I’ll do that. Then I need to go back to the music room and tidy up. The kids were pretty excited today.”

Elaine turned and strode across the concrete to the rear doors of the school. Derrick ducked around her to hold open one of the doors for her, and she thanked him with a smile. Together, they walked down through the long, empty hallway up to the front office. Other than a few students still milling about here and there and a teacher making their escape, the school was practically abandoned.

Derrick knew that a lot of people considered an empty school to be pretty eerie, but he wasn’t one of them. He just saw potential. The students were the lifeblood of this building and when they were gone, the school slumbered, awaiting the next morning.

Up at the front office, Elaine had propped open the door with a stack of library books. She always had library books in the office, usually a copy of whatever was on the monthly recommended reading list. If someone was in here waiting around for whatever reason, they were free to pick up a book to pass the time.

They got coffee together, crowding around the pot. Actually, calling that sludgy brew “coffee” was a bit of a stretch but it did its job. Then, white cups in hand, the two of them went over to Elaine’s perch at the front desk so she could locate the cookies.

They were Oreos, of which Derrick was a guilty fan. He tried every new flavor with gusto whenever one came out, though his personal favorite was always going to be Birthday Cake.

Elaine settled daintily in her chair while Derrick leaned against the counter, drowning a cookie in his coffee sludge. Nibbling daintily at the edge of an Oreo, she seemed to be on the verge of saying something.

Derrick waited patiently for her to find the words, very aware that this might be a difficult conversation.

“You seemed like you were doing a little more than woolgathering out there, Derrick,” Elaine said. “You looked very deep in thought, and pardon me if I say that the thoughts didn’t look very pleasant. What’s troubling you?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m troubled,” Derrick said. His cookie disintegrated into the coffee, leaving him holding onto a soggy crumb, but he really didn’t care. Nothing could make this coffee any worse than it already was. “And you might not want to hear about all this anyway.”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t care.”

That’s true. She’s not like everyone else.

“Well…I love being a teacher. I wouldn’t ever want to be anything but a teacher, you know. I kind of also wanted to be…” He trailed off, tried again. “It’s hard to look at all these kids and realize I don’t have a single one of my own.”

“I find it difficult to believe no one has snatched up a prize like you yet,” Elaine said. Her warm eyes were very tender, adding an extra depth to her words. She might find it hard to believe but she certainly did still believe it.

“It hasn’t exactly been for lack of trying,” Derrick said.

Elaine nodded sagely. “I imagine it must be difficult to have preferences like yours in this day and age.”

She said that last part very softly, as if not wanting to offend him. He wasn’t offended, though he was certainly surprised. He hadn’t made it a point to let everyone know he was gay, hadn’t really cared about it or not. It wasn’t anyone else’s business who he had feelings for. His private life was his own.

Elaine must have seen some surprise on his face even though he tried not to show anything, letting out a soft chuckle. “Don’t look so startled. I’ve been around a time or two, enough to know what I’m seeing.”

I didn’t think I was that flamboyant, but alright.

“I’m sure you will find someone in time,” Elaine said. She smiled softly, soothingly. “It will be a journey all the more worth it because of the time it took.”

“I guess so.” He would just rather find someone while he was still young enough to be able to have kids. He wanted to spend his life with someone, to have kids and watch them grow into wonderful wolves. What he didn’t want was a love in his twilight years, when all the chances for those things were so far behind him that he couldn’t ever have them.

Derrick was about to say something else when someone screamed. No, not just someone. A child. The cry was piercing and fearful, igniting something deep and protective inside him.

Elaine leapt up from her chair, one hand clamped over her heart. Derrick was struck with terror for her, fearing she might be having a heart attack, but her voice was as strong and steady as ever when she demanded, “What on earth was that?”

“I don’t know,” Derrick said, truthfully. “It didn’t sound like it came from inside the school.”

He was actually 100% sure that the child screaming was outside the building, because of the muffled quality and the lack of echo, but this wasn’t really time to get into such stuffy, specific details. Setting down his cookies and coffee, Derrick dashed over to the office door and held it open for Elaine, who was hurrying along behind him. Side-by-side, they dashed the short distance to the two sets of doors that led out to the front of the school.

In all his time as a teacher, Derrick had heard a lot of kids screaming. Little boys and little girls alike, sometimes so similar that it was impossible to tell which. Kids screamed a lot. They screamed when they were scared. They screamed when they were angry. They screamed from excitement and happiness, and they screamed just because it was fun to make loud noises.

He had never heard a scream like this before.

This was pain, and quite a lot of it.

God, I hope someone hasn’t been run over. Need to fix this fucking crazy parking lot.

Bursting out through the second set of doors, Derrick looked around. It took all of a second to figure out where the commotion had come from. There was a walkway to the left, which led around a flagpole before finally making its way to the sidewalk that went around the entire school. The flag was surrounded by a domed bed of decorative rocks.

Sprawled across the pile of rose-and-white rocks was a little girl, clutching at one side of her face with both hands.

Sick fear twisted inside Derrick’s stomach, because he knew the little girl. Her pigtails were all loose and mussed-up now, but she was quite clearly Mary, the shy little girl who had been the only one who could tell him the name of the play.

He wasn’t afraid just because of her. She had only screamed the one time and that led him to believe that whatever happened hadn’t been too bad. No, Derrick was afraid because of the man standing over her.

The man was about ten times her size, with a bald head and a beer gut. His fists were like hams and his muscles were impressive beneath layers of jiggling fat and loose skin. He stood frozen on the pathway, one hand still raised as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d just done.

Derrick could believe it. He could believe it all too well. Even though the man was standing about 50 feet away, the wind was blowing, carrying the reek of Axe body spray and alcohol. His superior wolf eyesight had no trouble in picking out the details on the man’s body that spoke as to his drunkenness, from the slight sway of his body, to the cloudiness in his eyes and the red, broken veins on his nose.

“Oh!” Elaine said, having a realization what felt like a year later. “Oh, my goodness! I’ll call the police!”

Derrick hardly heard her, and that was because he was storming away from her, approaching the fat bastard with his own hands curled into fists down at his side. He was still afraid, desperately afraid for little Mary—who knew what else she had had to endure before this?—but now he was also fucking pissed. His hackles were up and his mouth was opening in a snarl, his teeth shifting in his mouth to become fangs. There were clouds covering his own eyes now but these clouds were red and furious, covering everything in a wash of blood.

How fucking dare this man, hurting a defenseless child! Derrick didn’t understand how anyone could be so heartless as to bring a child into the world that they didn’t want. It was so fucking unfair, for himself to be so childless while this drunk bastard had one so gentle and sweet.

“Hey!” Derrick barked, closing the distance down to only ten feet. There were others taking notice of the situation, but he hardly saw them, hardly noticed they were there. The red world had narrowed down to only this bastard and his defenseless daughter.

The man swiveled to face him, his pendulous beer gut swinging. “I didn’t do nothing!” he slurred, automatically denying any involvement whatsoever. In Derrick’s opinion, that made the man seem even more guilty.

“Yeah?” Derrick snapped. “I guess Mary just punched herself, right?”

Derrick turned his back on the man, completely dismissing him. Kneeling down in front of the little girl, Derrick reached out and gently took hold of her wrists. They were so thin and small that they made his heart ache. “Mary? It’s Mr. Keene. It’s okay. I’m here now.”

It was a lie. Things wouldn’t be okay for her for a very long time. But, he had to earn her trust, had to try to calm her down so that he could take care of her.

Mary didn’t say anything, but he could tell that his presence had made her relax quite a lot, because the tight tendons in her thin wrists went slack. She was shaking, trembling hard all over. Oh, how he hurt for her. Poor, sweet kid.

“It’s okay,” Derrick soothed. He was aware now of the murmuring of the gathering crowd and all their stares. A distant police siren rose up into the air. All these things were insignificant. Only the child mattered.

Gently, he pulled her hands down away from her face so he could see the damage. It took his breath away but in reality, it could have been much worse. The right side of her face was swelling slightly, turning red. She would have an impressive bruise before long, probably in the rough outline of a closed hand. On her temple was a ragged little cut that oozed with blood, probably caused by the impact of the ring the man was wearing.

He couldn’t believe that this bastard was married.

“Get away from my daughter, you fucking homo perv!”

At least, that's what Derrick thought was said. It was hard to tell, the words were so slurred. Before he could react, a massive hand clamped down around the back of his collar and yanked backwards. The earth and the sky swapped places and suddenly he was on his back, all the breath knocked from his lungs. His spine ached, and he was distinctly aware of the feel of the grass prickling his arms.

Someone in the crowd cried out in alarm, and now the sirens were approaching fast, probably just around the block. There seemed to be no more immediate threat but Derrick was beyond the point where he could just simply let this go. This had become personal. It wouldn’t have been and he might have let it go, let the police do what they had to, if the bastard hadn’t called him a perv. He knew that a lot of people were automatically skeptical of adult men who wanted to work with kids, and that was something he had just never been able to get over.

Pushing himself up, Derrick pulled in a ragged gasp of breath. His lungs didn’t respond, and he started to panic, forcing himself to pull in another gulp of air. This time, his lungs inflated and then deflated rapidly, begging for more oxygen. Gasping again, almost panting, Derrick shook his head to clear it and then looked at the flagpole.

That big bastard of a man was crouched over his crying daughter, clearly trying to soothe her down from the pain he had caused.

Derrick couldn’t tolerate that. He couldn’t tolerate any of this. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It was all he could do to keep from transforming into a wolf and ripping this asshole’s throat out with his teeth. The urge was overwhelming, the animal inside him vibrating with fury and hate.

Instead of transforming, Derrick pushed himself up to his feet, staggered over to the man, and tapped him on his shoulder.

The man turned to look at him, a comical expression of surprise on his face. Clearly, no one had ever come back for more when he was through with them.

Pulling back his fist, Derrick launched a punch forward faster than the human eye could follow. The blow landed perfectly on the bastard father’s eye. He felt the soft squishiness of the eye cavity compressing under his knuckles, the adjacent ridge of bone. Something went crunch, and he didn’t know whether it was the father’s eye socket or his own hand. The pain was already so terrible that it was impossible to tell.

Derrick staggered backwards, shaking out his throbbing hand, while the man went reeling away with his hand clamped over his face. He looked exactly like his injured daughter had after being slapped, and that only threw fuel on the fire of Derrick’s anger. How dare this monster think he had any right to feel hurt, when that was nothing compared to his daughter’s pain?

“You piece of shit!” the father swore, stumbling towards Derrick still with his hand over his eye.

Derrick stepped backwards easily, avoiding the wild blow thrown in his direction. His hand felt hot and enormous all the way up into the wrist and he didn’t think he would be able to bend his fingers if he tried, could feel them swelling up like sausages, but he didn’t need to make a fist to rush at the other man and shove him. It was dirty fighting but he was blind with rage, and he started to kick the man while he lay on the ground.

Rather than fight back, the man curled up into a little ball to accept the onslaught coming in his direction. He moaned pathetically while Derrick kicked him, clearly knowing that he deserved this treatment.

Neither of them realized that the police had arrived until the two of them were suddenly surrounded by a ring of four cops. One of them ran up to Derrick with his hands up, his face red from exertion.

“Stand down, Mr. Keene!” the cop shouted. “Stand the fuck down!”

I may have just lost my job, he thought, but it really felt too good for him to care. In his opinion, people like this needed to be punched just a little more often.

Dropping his arms down by his side, Derrick said, “All right. I’m calm.” It was far from the truth, and he was pretty sure the cop knew that, but he needed to say it so the cop would understand he wasn’t the threat here.

He didn’t recognize the cop, who was now approaching him with his hands still up, in the manner a person would advance on a wild, dangerous dog. He supposed that the cop probably didn’t know him either, but that Elaine had possibly called 911 and told the dispatcher his name. It made the most sense.

“Mr. Keene,” the cop said, “I’m going to need you to come on down to the station with me so we can get this situation sorted out. Are you going to come nicely? Or do we need to do things the hard way?”

“I’ll go nicely,” Derrick said. “I’m a nice guy.” He felt the need to reassure the cop, though he was pretty sure the guy didn’t care.

A meaty, but strong, hand clamped down on his shoulder, forcefully propelling him towards one of the nearby police cars. Derrick stumbled a little, his fading anger making him clumsy, but he didn’t really mind the brisk treatment.

He let himself be pushed in the back of the patrol car and the door slammed in his face. Looking out the window, he could see the other three cops. One of them was waving aside the gathered rubberneckers, while the second had gently drawn Mary away from the chaos; the last cop was wrestling the drunk father towards her own cruiser. His wrists were twisted around behind his back, secured together with handcuffs.

Derrick liked that. If the asshole was going to use his hands to hurt other people, he didn’t deserve them. Hell, cut them off to prevent this from happening in the future.

The flashing red-and-blue cruiser lights were turned off as the two cars pulled out of the parking lot, taking the two men away from the judgmental eyes of the public. Derrick was very aware of Elaine’s stare following him, and it made him feel incredibly uncomfortable. Here they’d just been talking about how much Derrick wanted kids, and then he’d immediately turned around and punched a stranger in the face. Her opinion of him might be sullied beyond repair now, and he would be very sad to see that happen.

However, he didn’t regret doing it.

The only thing he might regret about this was what it would do to his job. Personal bridges could be repaired but professional ones were liable to just collapse in an instant, needing only the right sort of pressure. Word would get around that he was the hardly-a-teacher who punched a parent.

Not good. But, he had never been the one to shirk responsibility. Come what may, he would deal with it.