Chapter 8: Courtship Ritual

Words : 2223 Updated : Nov 6th, 2025

"Jason, Milana wants you in her office." A timid voice piped up beside him. Jason looked up. The speaker was a pretty girl with an oval face, petite, just the right height, and very cute. He recognized her as Harper Zionee, who'd joined the school around the same time he did. She was still in her teaching internship, just as he was. "No," Jason said, plain and simple. He figured that call from Milana that morning had been trouble. Walking into her office would just be asking to get chewed out. So he chose not to go. Harper hadn't expected that answer. She'd always been a model child, the kind adults praised as a goody two-shoes. After starting work, she dutifully did whatever the administration assigned—even the tasks no intern should've been assigned; she took them as practice, not punishment. Jason's refusal caught her off guard. "Milana will be angry," Harper whispered, her voice trailing off. She didn't know how to persuade Jason, or even whether she should. "Would she be any less angry if I went?" Jason rubbed his chin out of habit. "She already sounded furious this morning." "Ah." Harper floundered, flustered and lost. "Relax. I read in a book yesterday that when middle-aged women get irritable and angry all the time, it's called menopause. It passes." Harper grew even more at sea. Her small hands had nowhere to go, so she slipped them behind her back and hooked her pinkies together. "Jason, that's too much. Harper's not worried about that." From the back row of desks, Aziel suddenly spoke up. "Milana told Harper to fetch you. If you refuse, she'll take it out on Harper. If you're any kind of man, don't make other people suffer because your fiancée ran off." Harper was the acknowledged beauty of the school. Aziel had a long-running crush on her. Seeing Jason put the woman he idolized in a bind, he stepped in without hesitation. "What does that have to do with anything?" Jason sounded genuinely puzzled. "If Milana takes it out on someone, isn't that on her? Why don't you take it up with her?" "Do you have any spine at all?" Aziel sprang to his feet, jabbing a finger at Jason. "You fuss and dither like a nagging old lady." He taught P.E. and had a hulking frame. Standing, he was a head taller and a lot broader than Jason. "Please don't fight." Harper was beside herself. It wasn't fear of Milana's temper; Jason's answer had just left her with no idea what to say. Courtship behavior. Jason saw it for what it was. "Books say that when a male faces a female and wants mating rights, he'll show aggression toward rival males. Looks like that checks out." Still rubbing his chin, he added with keen curiosity, "No question, Aziel wants to mate with Harper." Books here were fascinating; they even classified behavior like this. Jason, absorbed in applying what he read, said out loud what most people would only think. "What did you say?" Aziel's anger surged. A mere intern, daring to say that in front of everyone. Harper flushed scarlet. She'd never imagined a man could be that blunt. She froze on the spot. Aziel roared like an enraged lion and lunged at Jason. In the cramped office, the P.E. teacher's athleticism really shone through. In a blink, he was on top of Jason. Their builds were mismatched to begin with; side by side, the disparity was more pronounced. In front of the burly Aziel, Jason looked like a lamb to the slaughter. Just as everyone stiffened, bracing for Jason to be tackled, there came a single sound. Thump! Before anyone registered what had happened, Aziel lay sprawled a good six feet away from Jason. No one had seen that split second clearly. It was as if only one piece of evidence remained: a clear footprint on the white shirt stretched over Aziel's chest. Aziel felt dazed. He hadn't seen what happened either; he only knew his chest burned with pain. "Did you just kick me?" he demanded, incredulous. "Sorry. Reflex. I didn't mean to go in that hard." Jason pressed his palms together, apologetic. That kick had been nothing but pure reflex, an ingrained fighting instinct. After all, Aziel left himself wide open. Aziel still couldn't accept it, couldn't accept that a skinny kid had booted him clear off his feet. He was not alone. No one in the office could believe it. "I'll kill you!" Aziel roared, scrambling up, desperate to save face. His chest ached like fury, but he no longer cared. The kick had not only humiliated him in front of his colleagues; it had left him with egg on his face in front of his crush. "All right, we share one office. Talk it out." Seeing tempers stretched taut as a bowstring, the veteran teacher Cullen stepped in to mediate. He had a Jeverby accent, but his words were clear, carrying the quiet authority of an old-school teacher. "Jason's new. Aziel, as the senior here, cut him a little slack." "Cullen, it's not that I won't, but do you see him showing any respect for me as a senior?" Aziel growled, still seething. If not for Cullen standing there, he looked ready to swing again. "Aziel, think about Jason, too. His fiancée just cheated on him. If he sounds sharp, it's understandable." From the row in front of Jason, Rayna finally spoke. She was a young teacher too, one year ahead of Jason and Harper. She had just finished her internship and was now a permanent staff member. She sounded like a peacemaker, but her tone was that singsong, passive-aggressive kind. Aziel seized on her words like a vent. He turned snide in turn. "Right, I forgot. Jason can't even keep his future wife in line. Living off a woman is no picnic." He didn't throw a punch because his chest hurt more by the minute. All he could do was fling words. "You don't get it. Jason knows when to bend and when to stand tall. Even the famed general once swallowed the insult of crawling between a thug's legs. What's a little humiliation today? When Jason makes it big, he'd better not forget us colleagues." Rayna chimed in, playing off him. "Jason, Rayna, Aziel, please stop," Harper begged, frantic. "This was my fault. I didn't communicate clearly with Jason." "The way you talk has a weird sing-song to it," Jason said, not the least bit angry, only genuinely curious. "It's kind of odd." "Hmph!" Rayna snorted and turned away. Ever since she had stepped into the real world, Rayna had learned how hard it could be. Somewhere along the line, her dream had shifted to marrying into wealth and becoming a socialite. The fact that she hadn't achieved it yet, while a colleague looked like he might marry up and move up the social ladder, pricked at her in ways she couldn't admit. Some things, when you do them yourself, feel fine. When others do them, they look contemptible. In Rayna's eyes, Jason was a spineless freeloader, clinging to a rich woman with no drive of his own. Jason had no idea what Rayna thought. He could excuse Aziel's aggression as a form of mating behavior. Rayna's picking at him felt baseless. After a moment's thought, he took a book from his bag and handed it to Rayna with utter sincerity. "Rayna, I read this yesterday. It's excellent. It should help you out of your current trouble." One glance at the title made the vein in Rayna's forehead twitch. Her mouth spasmed. She snatched up the book and hurled it at him. "Jason, what is that supposed to mean?" Rayna exploded, voice scraped raw with rage. Jason tilted his head, and the book whumped to the floor. Only then did the others see the title: "Three Things Every Woman Should Do to Delay Menopause." The room fell silent. Well, that was something. Cullen's head throbbed. This new teacher had a way of getting under people's skin. He no longer knew how to smooth things over. Even Aziel went quiet. Damn. The kid's aggression was something else. Only Jason remained baffled. He couldn't see why she had blown up. He had meant well. He carried the book because he truly thought it was good. He offered it because he truly thought it would help Rayna.

Chapter 8: Courtship Ritual

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