[TAM: Evening the Odds] Chapters 9 - 11. (Patreon)

Chapter 9: The thorough Mia Owens.

Again, English class went smoothly with Ms. Owens, but that previous… interaction made it hard to concentrate. Olivia, Lilian and Jessica were in Ms. Owen’s class, too, and the former two had to hold their laughter as they looked at me sitting awkwardly. Fortunately, Ms. Owens harshly called them out in a cold, disinterested tone. 

“Mind sharing the joke with the rest of the class, Ms. Hughes, Ms. Reed? If you want to laugh, get out of my classroom. I’ll be sure to tell your families you’re not using your time here to study.”

Not only did that make them stop laughing, but their faces went white. God, Ms. Owens is just the best. God bless this woman.

When class finished, I waited and made sure everyone left first to avoid bumping into anyone, especially the three she-devils. I saw them exiting the classroom and only then did I get up to leave. As I was about to, though, Ms. Owens called me to talk. I stood in front of her desk as she sat on her chair.

“Mr. Walker,” she said in a surprisingly resigned voice, “please tell me it’s not true you’re living in an old storage shed.”

My eyes went wide. “How did you…?”

“Ms. Campbell called me yesterday to ask if I knew about it. Of course I didn’t, which is why I’m trying to confirm it with you,” she said. “So, is it true?”

“It’s… the room the school assigned me,” I admitted.

Ms. Owens sighed heavily and her shoulders dropped. “I can’t believe it. Well, then my respect for you has risen, Mr. Walker. Despite your living conditions, you’re still able to hand in quality assignments a week before the deadline.”

And three others, but I kept that to myself and just accepted the sweet, sweet praise.

“You mean you read it already?” I asked, surprised.

“Very few students send their work before the deadline, even less a whole week in advance. I had time, so I read it. You have a perfect mark, Mr. Walker. There are mistakes still, but they would only count as such if I were to grade them on a higher-level criteria. I will send you a revision in the following days. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes next time.”

I smiled. God, you have no idea how good that felt to hear. It was reassuring to know that, at the very least, I was being fairly evaluated in academics. It was the only thing I had I could call a talent.   “Thank you, Ms. Owens.”

“Still, I’m worried about your living conditions. Would you take me to your… house during lunch hours? I wish to confirm its state. I’m told it's close, so it shouldn't take long.”

“I…” I hesitated, not really knowing why. I felt like it’s a mix between shame and not wanting to be pitied, but really, at this point I should take all the help I can get. “Yes, of course.”

“Thank you.”

And so later that day, Ms. Owens drove us to my place. When she saw what were technically my living quarters, her reaction was much more controlled than Ms. Campbell’s, but she was still clearly upset.

“These are not appropriate living conditions for any person, much less a student of Hayes Academy,” she told me, then gave me a small grin. “You could tell this to any newspaper or TV station and it would cause an uproar. Maybe that would take them down a peg or two.”

“Ms. Owens?”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Thank you for showing me this. I will support Ms. Campbell’s case at today's teacher's meeting. This is unacceptable.”

“Thank you, Ms. Owens, but…”

“If you’re worried the discussion will make your current situation worse, don’t be. Keep this between us, but while we’re aware that the student body is being hostile towards you, the teachers are generally fond of you. You’re a good, responsible student, and we value that over your gender. It’s just that they’d rather not get on the headmistress’ bad side. We’ll do our best to fix this issue as soon as possible. It might be difficult, but please try to trust us.”

I had a few flashbacks to uncaring high school teachers and I couldn’t help but contrast that image with Ms. Campbell and Ms. Owens. This was how teachers were supposed to be, right?

“I… I will. Thank you,” I told her from the bottom of my heart.

“Now… we have permission to be out of the school. This might be unusual, but would you like to eat something with me?”

That caught me off guard, and I hesitated in answering because it felt like I was being pitied and because I thought it would be awkward, but Ms. Owen’s smile was just as honest as Ms. Campbell’s. Besides, I gained nothing from playing it safe. Trying to keep my situation as it was would be stupid. I needed to do things I wouldn’t normally do, so I ended up agreeing. 

She took me to a nearby restaurant and we had a quick meal. She asked a bit about my family situation, but seeing I wasn’t very comfortable with the topic, she shifted the conversation to the topic of my assignment. We were back at school ten minutes before the next period and I parted ways with Ms. Owens.

[Owens, Mia - Affection Score: 47]

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Chapter 10: An unexpected visit.

I heard a few whispers here and there about how I’d gone out with Ms. Owens during lunch. I think I have the English teacher’s reputation as a hardass to thank for that no one really thought anything too weird had happened.

 It was 6:40 pm and I was in bed already, escaping the cold and reading an article about civil and political rights for one of my classes when I heard a knock on the door that startled me far more than I care to admit. I didn’t have neighbors, after all. My shed was in an empty lot away from the main roads, and this wasn’t even a housing district.

I went to open the door and saw none other than Ms. Campbell on the other side. She looked at me up and down with amusement, seeing me already in my pajamas. It was just plain black pajamas with long pants and a buttoned up shirt, but I was still a bit embarrassed.

“Already in bed?” she asked with an amused grin.

“Escaping the cold, mostly,” I answered with a wry smile. “Come in. What can I do for you?”

She came inside and turned to me.

“I just got out of the teacher’s meeting,” she said. “It turns out only the headmistress knew about your circumstances, and when the other teachers heard they were outraged.” There was a small grin on her face as she told me that. “She insisted there was no other place to put you in, so we convinced her to renovate this place. Ms. Owen and Ms. Miller, the P.E. teacher, were especially supportive of this since they know what this place looks like.”

Yeah, it made sense that the P.E. teacher would know. This shed was used to keep the sports equipment after all.

“You’ll be staying at a hotel for a couple of weeks while this place gets worked on. Don’t get your hopes up, though, I’m sure it won’t be a very fancy hotel.”

My emotions rose until I couldn't hold it anymore. I stepped closer and wrapped Ms. Campbell, giving her a tight hug. She laughed and pulled me closer, rubbing my back.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I repeated, almost choking on my words. “I…” I didn’t think anyone really cared or was willing to do anything. I guess a part of me thought Ms. Campbell and Ms. Owens were just paying lip-service. But this woman just showed me that she did care, that there were others who cared, and that they were willing to do something about it.

“Thank me when this is a decent place to live,” she said. “Besides, I had the other teachers’ support. The headmistress wouldn’t have listened to me if not for them.”

“Still. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome. It’s the least I could do. But we’re not done, right? Be sure to tell me if you need anything.”

Not that I could ask for much more. This was already plenty, and I didn’t want to impose more if I could help it. That said… Gotta keep my stupid feelings in check.

[Campbell, Emma - Affection Score: 54]

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Chapter 11: Things start looking up.

The very next day, I packed my things, which really amounted to only two boxes for clothes, textbooks and other minor things, and moved to the hotel. My room was good. Very good. Realistically it was a pretty basic room, but it was a 5-star hotel compared to that prison of a shed.

At school, every other student still hated me for reasons I was beginning to lose hope of understanding. But somehow… It was hard to care anymore.

I was truly starting to believe the Affection Multiplier was the real deal. Such an amazing gift gave me more than just a magical ability, a couple of things that made me WANT to go to school every day: Confidence and an objective.

Whenever I looked at the app and saw the progress bars, I felt this need to fill them completely. See, I like games, and while I’ve never been one to aim for 100% completion in video games, I do really like setting my own goals to achieve.

Something I wanted to do was take Ms. Campbell’s and Ms. Owens’ progress bars to 100. I was way too curious about what that would look like. I also wanted to take everyone else’s to at least a positive score. There were too many people in school, so that second task would take time and patience.

I’m telling you, though. It’s hard to understate the confidence boost the AMA gave me. Knowing how much a person likes you is incredible information to have for dealing with people, and having immediate feedback on how your actions are taken by others is yet another benefit. Seriously, politicians and businessmen would kill for this thing. 

With things as they stood, I was in the best position to finally start trying to improve my general situation at school, and fortune favors the bold. Ms. Campbell and Ms. Owens were already fond of me, so it was for the best to focus my efforts on the people who hated me, particularly the scores closest to being green. However, would I change the opinion of people who disliked me? The answer was patience, confidence and The Affection Multiplier.

Someone bumps into me and starts blaming me? Just smile and apologize. Check on them to see if they’re alright. They get angrier?

“Oh, good. You seem fine. Take care.”

Someone says something mean? Just laugh it up, joke along and move on.

“Hey, dwarf, how’s the view from down there?” asked a girl taller than me with a sneer as she walked past me.

“Pretty good. Looking for coins is easier the closer you are to the floor.”

That got a few laughs that could’ve still very well been at my expense, but it didn’t matter. Just move on, don’t let it linger, don’t let it affect you or don’t let it show.

I wondered if this strategy would’ve worked before. If I had changed my mindset earlier, would things have been better? I didn’t know. But now, the AMA showed that my efforts were bearing fruit, if ever so slowly. 

I could see scores going from -30 to -12 in a few days, and while it was difficult to keep up, seeing progress in the form of numbers was very encouraging. Besides, there was… another thing to distract me. A feeling I tried to fight off but kept clinging to me like a bug.

On Friday, after school hours were over, I decided I had enough. I was taking a bet. I gathered my courage and headed for Ms. Campbell’s office.

I was going to ask her out on a date.

Insane, isn’t it? But my bet wasn’t completely reckless, and certainly not uninformed. I knew Ms. Campbell was fond of me because of her affection score of 52. The AMA said I could consider relationships with a score over 50 as very good friends, and while I wouldn’t say Ms. Campbell and I knew each other enough to call us friends, I had to assume it meant that she, at a minimum, was willing to start a more serious friendly relationship.

I was sure that even if Ms. Campbell rejected me, she would not make fun of me or make a fuss out of it. If she did reject me, I could at least move on from these weighty feelings.

I knocked on the door and heard her voice telling me to come in.

“Oh, Mr. Walker! What can I do for you?” she asked with a bright smile that  said she was happy to see me. It was simple, but it means a heck of a lot these days. I could only hope I wasn’t seeing only what I wanted to see.

“Hello, Ms. Campbell,” I began. “I know this is out of the blue, but I was wondering if you’d like to go see a movie with me tomorrow.”

Her eyes widened a bit and her mouth half opened. She was obviously taken by surprise, and yet… not as much as I thought.

“Mr. Walker… I don’t know if we should. I’m your teacher.” She frowned, and there’s a bit of sadness in her eyes. I couldn’t tell if that was pity towards a student with a crush on her, or regret that she had to decline. Still, fortune and boldness. I decided to press forward.

“I just thought that I wanted to repay you for helping me out. Things have slowly started changing since I talked to you. I’m very thankful.” I give her a wry smile. “I wanted to thank you, but this was the only thing I could think of.”

She looked at me, smiled, looked down at her desk and shook her head. “You’re already 18, right?” she asked.

Confused, I nodded.

“Do you drink?”

“Alcohol? Yeah.”

“Then how about we go have a few drinks? I think I’d like that a little better and I know a good place.” She chuckled. “We can go tonight if you’re up for it. Are you free?”

You know, it JUST so happened that I had nothing better to do. Shocker.