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Chapter 130: Distrust

Roger felt like he had spent an adequate amount of time sitting on the bench with his eyes closed to have fallen asleep, but he felt wide awake. He decided to wander around the school, since he had nothing else to do. The school was mostly empty except for some of the seniors that had finished all of their classes and now only had electives.

He saw a few members of the faculty walking around, coffee cups in their hands, a fairly relieved look on their face as most of the school had been away. It was their break, it seemed. This was their time to relax.

When one of them spotted the fox, they stopped him.

"What are you doing out here? Aren't you supposed to be testing?" an elderly beaver asked him. She had thick glasses and a voice that could break glass. He recognized her as the literature teacher, one he might get next year if he so pulled the correct straw.

"I'm done. I've been done for about half an hour," Roger explained. He shrugged as he said it, a fairly disarming tone in his voice.

"Don't you lie to me," the beaver said. She looked at her watch and said, "The tests only began not even an hour ago. There's no way you're done with them. I'm taking you right back there."

Roger felt a little annoyed and angry, but he calmly said, "I'm telling the truth, but if you want proof, fine. We can go back and interrupt everyone."

It was a poor effort to assuage the beaver, as she forced him to follow as she led the way back to the testing building.

His eyebrows were furrowed, frustrated that she did not trust him. He grumbled under his breath, but she did not hear it. It was like speaking to a wall, and he hoped that he never would have her as a teacher. He wondered if he could convince a teacher to help him try to get a certain teacher, or rather, avoid one. Perhaps Mr. Levy could have a say in it.

Roger followed the beaver into the testing center, mentioning that she would be disappointed with what she found, but she did not listen to him.

She found one of the workers who had been walking back from the bathroom. He was an antelope, still shaking his hands with the water from the bathroom. He seemed to not really be paying attention to either of them, but the teacher stopped him.

"This student was caught sneaking off. Can you figure out which room he needs to go to so he can return?" she asked the antelope.

The test administrators did not work for the school, but for a third party controlled by the board of education. He had no idea who either of them were, but he shrugged and picked up a tablet that he had left off to the side, next to what appeared to be his belongings.

"Hey, I wasn't caught doing anything: I'm done with the test, so I didn't want to sit around anymore," Roger protested.

The antelope looked at him and asked, "Name?"

"Roger Colton. I was in the third room on the left. You can check with the guys in there, I did everything," Roger continued.

"You need to show your elders respect and stop lying to them," the teacher scolded. She had a stern look on her face, and distrust in her eyes.

His anger was welling up, but he gulped it down.

The antelope found the student's information on the tablet. He asked for the birthdate, identification number, and address, in order to confirm that it was indeed the student. After receiving the information, he looked at the test information, in order to see if the fox was truly lying to him, mostly out of curiosity. There was no way a student was done this early.

He quirked an eyebrow, however. The test results showed that he was telling the truth and had finished quite early. It was unprecedented, and part of him thought it might have been an error. Perhaps the student was cheating. Still, speed did not necessarily mean that he got any of the answers correct. Maybe he just decided he did not want to take the test seriously. He still had to ask.

"Have you ever seen any of these tests before?" the antelope asked him. "Did anyone feed you answers, like another student or perhaps a teacher?"

Roger shook his head. "No, none of that. The test was just too easy."

"Wait, why are you asking him that?" the teacher asked, frustrated that the student was not already back in his seat.

"He's done with the test," the antelope responded simply. "We don't have his scores, so he could have picked answers at random and moved on, or any other reason, but our system has him as complete. He no longer needs to be in this building."

That did not seem to please the beaver, who had just been caught in a mistake. There was an awkward period where she simply fumed, and then she turned around without a word, grabbing the fox's arm. She pulled him out of the building, in spite of his protests.

Outside, after the door closed, she said, "I don't know what kind of game you're playing. Do you think your education is a joke?"

Roger wrenched his arm away. "Stop jumping to conclusions and accusing me of things that don't even pertain to me. The test was easy to me and I finished it early. That's what happened. Don't complicate things with your fallacious prejudices."

That did not go over well with the beaver judging by her facial expression, but as far as the system was concerned, he was done and she had no reason to keep him. She turned back and went to her classroom without remarking on his comment.

The fox cursed under his breath and began to walk toward his math class. He wanted to discuss the situation with the skunk. At least he listened to reason.

If all went well, he might be able to get the skunk's support in avoiding that beaver the next year, for him, and hopefully for Hunter. No one needed a teacher that inherently distrusted her students. It was just not a good relationship.

He found the skunk sitting at his desk, typing idly at his computer. Upon hearing the door, though, he looked over to see the fox.

"Ah, Mr. Colton. Did the, uh, test go well?" he asked. He did not try to harass him about why he was not in the testing center, to which the fox appreciated greatly.

"It was really easy," Roger said, finding his desk. He sat down and pulled out his phone, pretending that he was going to play with it, but it was mostly just to have an action instead of being awkward.

"I figured it would be for you," the skunk said calmly. "You're a very, uh... bright kid. Possibly the smartest student I've ever had the, uh, pleasure of teaching. Though, I suppose I didn't really teach you all that much. You could have... how do you say it? I think you would have been fine without me."

"Don't sell yourself short," Roger said, blushing a little from the compliment. "If it weren't for your teaching method, I wouldn't have met Hunter. A lot of things wouldn't have happened. They wouldn't have detected the tumor. I wouldn't be here, talking to you like this."

The skunk gave a quizzical look, but he smiled, which was rare. "I'm glad that it worked for you, then. It was meant to help the... uh, less capable students catch up, but I suppose both sides can benefit. I feel your case might be a little... special."

Roger nodded, agreeing. "I guess now we'll see how Hunter does. Hopefully he's benefited a little, as well, right?"

The teacher gave a slow nod and went back to typing on his computer.

Roger looked at the clock. Hopefully the wolf would be done soon, but if he was not, it was not a problem. It might be better for him to take his time, after all.

The fox followed through with his original action and began to play with his phone.