Playing The Guard Dog

[Jimmy Halloway]

Jimmy was on a mission. He was so proud of this too. Who would have thought someone would entrust him with anything! Because of that, he really wanted to do his best. If people started asking him things, it meant they trusted him and if they did, then he had to have turned smarter already. Jimmy couldn’t be happier. His big grin probably didn't fit well with the task he had been assigned though. At the very least, the fact it made his eyes no bigger than a thin line of lashes certainly wouldn’t help.

It wasn’t hard. All he had to do was guard the door leading to the classroom and not let anyone walk in. Being the guard dog, in one word. That is how he had been told his job would be like. Somehow, the guy didn’t find it all too funny when Jimmy replied with a ‘woof’, but he still tapped on the guy’s shoulder and got in.

Now, Jimmy had no idea how long he’d been standing there. In his mind, he kept thinking guard dog, simply he couldn’t look as menacing as one. Maybe earlier, when he tried to look the part, although the chances for his semi-aggressive stare to get people running away in terror were pretty low. Now, with his grin, it was even more unlikely. But he still kept watch. Only, it was so long! His attention had pretty much abandoned him at this point, any form of distraction could easily make him leave his post unattended. Luckily for the one who ‘hired’ him, the hallway was empty, aside from his head. All Jimmy was left to do was sway back and forth and left to right as he waited for it to be done. How long has it been? Easily five minutes, perhaps even close to ten. That was asking a lot out of Jimmy to stand here for so long.

[Arcadio Buendia]

Arcadio came around the corner, head down, eyes obscured by his customary cowboy hat and glued to the papers he was holding in his hands. He had finally received all of his students' Spanish essays, and had a lot of marking to do. As usual, his head was pounding and he needed a drink. He tried to limit how much he drank during the day. He felt uncomfortable being even a little bit drunk around students. So, he drank in the morning before work when he had time to sober up before class, and he drank after class when all the kids left. He was craving an ice cold beer more than anything in that moment.

As he came up the hallway, a bit of movement caught his eye, as well as the sudden emotional absorption of someone feeling immense pride. Arcadio had let his mind wander and was caught off guard by the sudden wave of emotion. This caused him to stop dead in his tracks and look up, only to see a young student standing by a classroom door in the hallway.

"Hey," he said, squinting at the student. He didn't recognize the face. The student was below the age Arcadio taught. "What're you doing?" His Colombian accent came out thicker than it usually did, due to the headache.

[Jimmy Halloway]

Jimmy practiced his guard dog’s role by growling and barking if someone walked down the hallway. No doubt was it a strange behaviour, even for him when you knew the boy but he also quickly stopped as he suddenly wondered if a guard dog barked at everything that moved in its sight. It might not be all that menacing if people constantly heard him bark, they’d get used to it. Plus it would give him a sore throat before long. Good thing not a lot of people had been passing by, because he was certain he had to, at least, glare at them in a threatening way so they’d be too scared to come near the door behind him. Glaring was definitely not something he was good at, it looked more like some squinting of the eyes that tried to be mean, but, in Jimmy’s head, he was doing it right.

A problem quickly arose though, as it was not a student who came asking what he was doing here but a teacher. The (un)threatening glare left quickly and two wide eyes stared at Arcadio. Barking at students was fine. Barking at teachers however... Jimmy didn’t want to do something bad and he had been told to be nice to the teachers and come to them if he needed help. He couldn’t growl at the man to chase him away from the classroom. But the boy who placed him here also told him not to let anyone in and, if Jimmy didn’t understand that, it especially meant teachers.

Now Jimmy was in a jam. What to do? He had to obey the rules and he had to do what they boy told him to do, yet somehow the two seemed to go against each other. “I’m guarding the door,” Jimmy said. He was still proud of it but perhaps was he not as proud anymore. Would the teacher tell him he couldn’t do that?

[Arcadio Buendia]

Arcadio tilted his head to the side, looking at the young student in confusion. The kid seemed torn on something, but Arcadio wasn't sure what exactly was going on. There were a ton of questions running through his head.

He tucked the Spanish essays under his arm and, before putting his other hand on his hip, tipped his cowboy hat back a bit to see better.

"Why exactly are you guarding the door? What from?" He asked patiently.

[Jimmy Halloway]

The question made sense but it was also the one question Jimmy didn’t want the teacher to ask him. He had no imagination, coming up with a plausible excuse was not something he could do. Lying alone was very difficult for him and always easy to read through. Anyone else would have knocked on the door or found some other way to warn those inside that a teacher as in sight. Sadly, they asked Jimmy to guard the door and that idea didn’t come to his mind. If it did now, it would fail its purpose, as Arcadio was already in front of him, asking questions.

He blinked a few times at the question. Did they say anything about not talking? He believed they said something about not letting anyone in, but he didn’t recall not talking to people. Of course, they also didn’t tell him what they were doing, so he couldn’t tell much. “They said: guard the door,” he explained to the teacher. A bit of the pride from earlier came back as he added “I’m a guard dog.” To him, it might just be a game.

[Arcadio Buendia]

Arcadio kept looking at the kid, letting the student's emotions wash over him, letting his power help him to assess the situation. Arcadio looked over the student's shoulder, but couldn't see through the small window in the classroom door. Arcadio decided to switch tactics. "I'm Mr. Buendia." Arcadio asked. This student was obviously getting taken advantage of. Whether the people who were taking advantage of this young student were getting up to trouble, breaking rules, or possibly not, Arcadio felt the need to investigate. It was his responsibility as a teacher.

He wasn't worried about the people in the classroom. There were no other exits besides the one he was currently standing in front of. He would get the information from this student first, and then go inside the classroom to see what was up.

Arcadio crouched to the student's level, to look him in the eyes. He knew that his height, a towering 6'2", sometimes intimidated the younger students. "What's your name?"

[Jimmy Halloway]

Mister Buendia. Jimmy couldn’t say he heard that name before, but he also knew that he tended to forget things easily. One thing for sure however, he didn’t have that man for teacher. He would have remembered that much, considering he’d be seeing his face almost every day and listen to him in class. Now that he was focusing on the man, he could remember some times when he saw him, but he never seemed to be in the front, meaning they likely never interacted together. At the very least Jimmy couldn’t remember they had.

The man was tall. He stood at about... Jimmy couldn’t tell exactly, but that was tall. He had to look up at him to meet his eyes. It was a good thing Jimmy did not always understand the need to look at a person. But Mister Buendia was already crouching to reach his level and so Jimmy’s brown eyes locked into his. He smiled at the question. It was an easy one. “I’m Jimmy Halloway.”

The smile didn’t stay though, as the concern about what this teacher would do returned. He couldn’t lie to a teacher, but he was not supposed to let anyone in and that had to include him. He didn’t want to get it wrong, otherwise people might no longer ask him things. “You’re not getting in?” He wanted it to be a fact, the man couldn’t get in, but it sounded more like a question. Not one where he asked if he wanted to be in, more to wish he would not.

[Arcadio Buendia]

"Jimmy," Arcadio said in his best friendly teacher voice. "If something is happening in that classroom that's against the rules, I need to know who is in there, and what they're up to. So, I'm going to give you two options, okay?" Arcadio held up two fingers. "Option one is, you can go to my classroom and I'll come chat with you after I deal with whatever's in there. Option two is, you wait here while I deal with whoever is in there." Hopefully giving Jimmy the options would make the student feel like he had some control over the situation, and therefore be more willing to cooperate.

He still wasn't sure how to gauge the situation. It was quite... odd? To say the least. His gut instincts were telling him that some older students were taking advantage of Jimmy to pull some prank or get into some trouble. Which, now that Arcadio was closer to Jimmy, he realized that the kid looked a lot older than Arcadio initially assumed. He brushed the thought away as he gave Jimmy another kind, encouraging smile.

[Jimmy Halloway]

The man was talking with such a calm and friendly voice. He wanted to help him, Jimmy was sure. He didn't want him to be in trouble. But did that mean not in trouble with the school or also not in trouble with his new friends? In his naivety, he thought both. Mister Buendia was an adult, that meant he had to be smart enough to know what to do. He could help him. And if he was as nice as he sounded, he wouldn’t tell his friends he needed someone’s help to figure things out.

He didn’t stay very nice for long though. First, giving Jimmy options was not a good idea. He was tormented by both. Second, it didn’t sound right with what he was supposed to do. “But they told me to look at the door and not let anyone in!” he said, terrified that he would be disliked by his new ‘friends’ if they saw a teacher walk in there while Jimmy was supposed to man the door.

He was smiling at him though, and that made it all the more confusing. Jimmy didn’t want to cry but he was very close to moan. Jimmy had no idea what was going on behind the door, he couldn’t tell the man. It could be innocent or it could be bad, he didn’t know. All he knew was that they didn't want people to walk in on them. Anyway, Jimmy found himself in a tight spot. He couldn’t let Arcadio in but the man looked nice and he was a teacher, so he was supposed to do as he said. Jimmy had no idea what he was supposed to do. He then figured something out. “I’ll tell them there is someone.” To him, it sounded like a good idea. Like this, Arcadio was in until they allowed it, so Jimmy didn’t go against his word with them, but he would also listen to a teacher and let him in eventually. It was perfect.

[Arcadio Buendia]

Jimmy's rapid decline from cheerful to distressed set Arcadio back. He blinked rapidly, smile shrinking a little. He had no idea who this student was, or if he was handling the situation wrong. Really, a lot of teaching was making shit up on the fly. Arcadio had no frame of reference on how to deal with this particular student. Obviously, giving him options was a bad idea. Arcadio checked that off mentally in his head for future reference. 

He stood back up to his full height when Jimmy said he would go into the classroom and alert the students to Arcadio's presence. That wasn't necessarily ideal... Arcadio knew that. But the situation was quickly spiralling out of his control, and he could feel his hands starting to tremble and the headache beginning to creep up on him. He needed to get a drink in the next few hours, or his withdrawal symptoms would render him completely useless.

"Okay, Jimmy," Arcadio made a split second decision. "Go in there. Do what you need to do. But if there's trouble, I have to do my job, okay?" He kept his voice gentle and soothing.

[Jimmy Halloway]

Had Arcadio told him to get in another classroom and wait for him, Jimmy would have done it. Being given a choice was too much for the boy however. Because the only choices he knew were those in tests, and there was always only one correct answer. What if he got this one wrong?

The fact he could come up with a third idea was brilliant of him. Something that he considered would satisfy both party when, in reality, it was the other way around. But Jimmy failed to see that whatever he did, he was screwed towards his friends. Arcadio agreed though and Jimmy smiled at that, nodding as he was told the teacher could walk in here and any moment to do his job. He was not sure what giving them a lesson could do but maybe it was his classroom. Besides, the man sounded nice. So Jimmy walked into the classroom, closing the door behind himself.

Sufficed to say, he was not welcome in there and startled them. It also came to no surprise, except for the boy, that they were quite angry at him as he explained there was a teacher who wanted the classroom. They said he was useless, that he should have warned them better, that it was impossible to be this stupid. They packed stuff in their bags as quickly as possible while saying this and planned to walk out of there, hoping that whoever was on the other side of the door would let them pass without asking too many questions. Anyway, whatever explanation they might have to give and planned to say, Jimmy didn’t hear. He stopped listening after being called stupid. It happened again. He was resting against the wall, biting his lips and trying not to cry.

[Arcadio Buendia]

Having dealt with the troublemakers in the classroom by flagging down another teacher who had happened to be passing by (nice looking Indian guy, with a turban. Arcadio wracked his brain for the name. Singh, started with a D... D-something Singh... taught foreign studies) to confiscate the students' things and get their side of the story. Arcadio had quickly explained that there was another student involved that he had to go handle. The other teacher and the students gone, Arcadio took a deep breath and ran his shaking hands over his face. His alcohol withdrawal symptoms were starting to hit harder. He took a few more slow breaths. The limit of his patience was stretching thin. Not because of Jimmy, or the other students, even. But because his body was crying out for a drink.

Immediately, Arcadio noticed that Jimmy was on the verge of tears. His steeliness melted away and he was at Jimmy's side in a heartbeat, putting a comforting hand on the kid's shoulder. "Hey, Jimmy," he said, "What's wrong, buddy?"

He hated seeing kids upset. His paternal instincts were kicking in, forcing his withdrawal symptoms to abate slightly.

[Jimmy Halloway]

Jimmy didn’t pay attention to what happened to the other students. That sort of thing was beyond him anyway. Even if it wasn’t, their words still hurt him too much to really pay attention to anything else. He was in his own bubble of pain right now. He thought he was smart but it turned out to be a fluke. He was stupid. Too stupid to make friends with the other kids, as shown with what happened.

He didn’t realise Mister Buendia walked in, not until the man touched him. Physical contact didn’t have the same comfort to Jimmy as it would other people, but it did get his attention enough for him to understand what the man was telling him. What was wrong? Just so many things. “Why am I stupid?” he asked. It was a rhetorical question though. “I’m here but I don’t get smart. I try and I try but I’m still stupid. No one wants to be friends with stupid kids.” He looked down after he said that. He felt his eyes burning and his vision getting blurry. Jimmy might be too stupid to understand complex emotions but he knew what pain and sadness was. It really depressed him to see he couldn’t do the simply task of guarding a door right. The other kids were right to mock him and hate him, he wasn’t a good friend if he couldn’t even do that.

[Arcadio Buendia]

"Hey hey hey," Arcadio said softly, interrupting Jimmy's negative words. "You're not stupid. Those kids were asking you to do something that was unfair. They were breaking the rules. They're mad because they got caught. Don't listen to them." Arcadio had given the students a thorough scolding for manipulating Jimmy before marching them off to their punishment. He was disgusted at how low and sleazy the students had acted by using Jimmy's trusting nature against him.

Arcadio felt something like panic bubbling in his chest. A kid crying on his watch? Man was he ever doing his job badly today. Arcadio gently guided Jimmy over to an empty desk so the kid could sit. He pulled up a chair to sit beside him, although he was almost too big to fit into the desk chairs at his age. "You did the right thing by being honest with me," Arcadio told him, attempting to soothe Jimmy's tears. He began rubbing Jimmy's back in slow circles, remembering how his grandmother used to do that when he was upset as a child.

[Jimmy Halloway]

Jimmy could not help it. The tears fell off without him to be able to control himself. He was an idiot. He always knew that, but he thought he could make friends with those other kids. Being called that, he understood now that they would not. He didn't get everything, he had been too confused as usual, but what he got hurt him. He was making real efforts to be smart, he thought he was on the right path. Apparently, he wasn’t, or it was not enough. It was what made him sad.

In truth, that sadness could go away as fast as it arrived. He wasn’t one to hold grudges. Once he’d put his mind into something else, that would go away. For now however, he was dwelling in it and had no idea how to fix that. He heard what the teacher said but it didn’t fit with his train of thought. He was stupid, that he knew. But he seemed to be hinting that it was not the reason why they were like that. “No, I’m stupid. I’m trying to be smart, but it’s hard,” he still argued. That his mental state could not be the reason why they not only didn’t want to be his friends anymore but hated him though was a hard concept for him to grasp. He just wanted to make them happy and be happy too for having friends.

Jimmy felt he was pushed and pulled around and offered little resistance as he made him sit at a desk. He used his sleeve to wash away his tears. He did not react to Arcadio’s gesture. That rub meant nothing to him more than a rub, he didn’t get the comfort meant to come from it. But his words didn’t fall completely into deaf ears. “I did?” If he did the right thing, that was good. But that brought the question, why would it hurt so much if it was good?