“Fine...” He released his grip on the whiskey and I sat it down on the table.
“You need a vacation and I’m not doing jack shit right now.” I smiled. “We’re twins and with this haircut, you can hardly tell us apart.”
“Yeah, if I spent a few years in a tattoo parlor and actually went to the gym—maybe.” He shrugged.
“The tattoos can be easily covered with a long sleeve shirt like you wear every day.” I held my hand over my wrist to demonstrate where the shirt would stop.
“What are you getting at?” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“I’m saying I want your job, bro—just for a month. You take a nice vacation, I’ll take your place at Grantham University.” I shrugged and picked up my sandwich. “We’re twins after all.”
“You have to be fucking kidding me. You’re serious?” His eyes opened wide and he reached for the bottle of whiskey. “Now I really do need a drink.”
“You said you were quitting. You said you would rather dig ditches than work there. Why not take a vacation, give me a shot at this whole principal thing, and if you decide you’re ready to go back, you’ll find a much different school waiting on you.” I smiled and took a bite of my sandwich.
“You don’t understand what these kids are like. You’ll be wearing handcuffs every day. You literally can’t do anything to them. If they piss in your face, you just have to wait until they’re done and then go wash it off. You won’t run the school; they run everything—them and their rich asshole parents.” He guzzled more whiskey.
“Let me worry about that for a while.” I nodded. “You just take some time off. If it is as bad as you say, I’ll probably be running for the hills after one day anyway.”
“You know what.” He shrugged and sighed. “Maybe it’s just the liquor in me that’s even considering this, but fuck it. If you want to go see what the nightmare I live is really like, be my fucking guest.”
THE NEXT DAY I WAS up early. My brother slept in while I showered, shaved, and got ready for the day. His shirts were a little tight on my biceps, but once I had a suit jacket on, it wasn’t noticeable. The shirt covered my tattoos, so I didn’t have to worry about them. I really did look exactly like my brother once I put on the costume of civilization he wore to work every day. The main difference was that I didn’t have black circles under my eyes or hopelessness in my reflection. I never gave a shit about school when I was a student and I certainly didn’t have my brother’s education, but it didn’t seem to be doing him any good at all. I finished getting ready and took his keys from the counter. It took me a few trips around the parking lot to find his spot, but I finally got the car parked and started towards the front door. It was still early, so there weren’t many teachers there. Most of them looked away when I tried to look at them. My brother had made me a cheat sheet with names and a brief biography of each person. I spent the evening trying to memorize faces in the yearbook, so I didn’t have to ask each teacher what their name was. I hoped it would be good idea.
Okay, here goes nothing.
The first thing I did when I got behind his desk was fill out an application for a position as a janitor and push it through the system. If I was actually applying for the job, they would have done a background check, but I was able to get through all of that and waive the requirements with my brother’s access. The job was a necessary cover since my release did require me to have a job within a few weeks.
I waited until the students arrived and walked out into the hallway. It was literal chaos. It actually reminded me of a prison with no guards. There were no kids at the school—most of them were clearly adults. The actual college portion was separated and in a different building, so all of the students I was responsible for were the ones that couldn’t even pass high school.
I started to see why my brother had such a difficult time. They seemed to be doing whatever they wanted and when the teachers walked down the hallway, they cowered in fear from the students.
I waited until the bell rang for the first class and watched as some of the students didn’t even bother to leave the spot they were in. It was going to take a lot of work to turn all of that around, but if I learned one thing about prison, it wasn’t that you picked the biggest guy and kicked his ass—you humiliated him.
“Hey!” I took a step towards a group of guys huddled around a locker. It was clear by the way others treated them that they were a clique and they commanded respect.
“Fuck off, Mr. Thorne.” The one at the center of the group stepped forward.
“Get him, Braden!” One of the guys next to him immediately egged him on.
“The bell rang. You boys should be in class.” I put my hands on my hips and glared at them.
“I’ll go when I’m ready.” He scoffed at me and wrinkled his nose. “Go hide in your office like you do every day.”
“I’m not going anywhere, but you are.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You can go to class, or you can go to my office.”
“Yeah I’ll go chill in your office, fuck-face.” He took a step towards me and flexed, but I didn’t move.
I had my first victim. He might not have been the only king of the school, but he was definitely one that the others bowed to. The group that surrou
nded him in the hallway didn’t have his ego or his brazen lack of respect. I could see the way they looked away when I told them they should be in class while he immediately took charge. All I had to do was show them that he wasn’t in charge anymore. I was going to have to make an example of Braden and while my brother might be afraid of all the backlash parents would bring down on him, I didn’t give a shit.
Braden reminded me a lot of myself at his age, but I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had to fight for what I got and I earned it. Everything had been handed to him. Braden walked into my office and before I had a chance to enter, he sat down in my chair. I was going to take pleasure in breaking him. It was pure necessity—there could only be one alpha male at Grantham University and it was going to be me.
“Out of my chair, jackass.” I motioned with my thumb.
“Maybe I’ll change my grades while I’m here.” He leaned towards my computer. “What’s your password?”
“I said—out of my fucking chair.” My tone intensified and I saw surprise register on his face for the first time.