MARSTON ━︎━︎ PROFESSOR MARSTON

chapter one - ❝four eyes.❞

SYNOPSIS — Andrew begins his second year of teaching at Saku University, wearing glasses chains.

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SEPTEMBER - SEMESTER 1 ; FIRST DAY OF CLASSES

I PULL UP to campus at around 6:45 in the morning, sometimes on the dot if I'm that much of a perfectionist with the concept of time and coordination. I've noticed it when it came to driving and how much energy is consumed before commencing classes. My morning routine is never impaired during the early hours, but I'm human - even I hate the morning cold, and it puts me in a dull mood where I'm not ready to speak until at least 7:30AM.

To whom it may concern, no, I'm not the "Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" type of person. My coffee is always transferred into a silver stainless steel travel mug, and I bring it with me to work, and mostly everywhere I go. If it's not coffee, it's tea and a crumpet. Sometimes. I refill my mug every three hours and squeeze in my lunch with lemon and mint leaf infused water. Perhaps I am kind of stubborn, or maybe I just hate everyone.

I've been waking myself up with intrusive thoughts ever since the incident. In one way, it should be motivation to do better and sympathize with students, but isn't that what I've already been doing? It's not like I treat them like dirt. One review that the Dean never acknowledged said that I either smelled like expensive cologne or coffee. 

While that holds partial truth, I don't consider it a bad review. The majority of the reviews were there to give me a bad name, others gave a brief explanation on my teaching style and giving out advice to other students. If I refresh that page now, nothing new would pop up. If I refresh the page in December, there should be a couple new ones posted. They would have read all of the previous ones. Students moving in a higher semester will have me again, or new students would get the impression that I'm a monster.

My mind is racing. Disregard. It's too early to overthink and have my mental health downward spiraling from anonymous slander. There's no benefit of me overthinking the entire situation, and I've been withdrawn from my cellular to avoid reading any further criticism unless it's for emergencies. At least my morning is going smoothly before 8AM.

"Andy, long time!" a chirpy voice that strikes every nerve in my body - already tarnishing my morning. I turn.

The bubbly, all talk but no teach professor from the Math department flashes me that stupid grin. I've only spoken to him once, and that was to kindly ask him not to take so much Splenda packets from other faculty's bowl.

I nod back as a response, and my back faced him so I could dismiss unwanted interaction. I bring the mug to my lips so the rim concealed my mumbling. "It's Andrew, you twat."

"So," he walks over to me at the counter, swinging his foot over the other as he leaned aside to seem cool. "How are the kids?"

I glance at my watch and groan. It's not even 7AM. "You're mistaking me for someone else. I don't have children."

"Missus? Mister? Partner? Friends with Benefits? Any hookups over the summer break?" Before I could even answer to such a personal question, he squints at the optical area of my face, wiggling his finger to point. "My mom wears those when she reads off of my son's report card."

The chains around my glasses are very efficient. Some may call it "granny chain", so should I be insulted if I get called old for owning and making use of them?