PART TWO — That’s a lot of… Books
. ₊ ⊹ . ₊˖ Ryland Grace x English Teacher! Reader . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁
˖˚⊹ ꣑ৎ I am so sorry it took so long for me to finish Part 2 of my Ryland Grace x English Teacher! Reader fiction. Once again, I hope you enjoy! Amaze Amaze Amaze! Want more, need more, question? ꣑ৎ ⊹˚ ˖
𖥔 ݁ ˖‧₊˚ ⋅ ABOUT: You’re the new English teacher at school and Ryland Grace being Ryland Grace, he shows a lot of kindness towards you. We’re all wondering where this is going! — Part 2 focuses on Ryland Grace and Reader getting to know each other better and growing closer — fluff, tried to remain gender neutral (and hope I did a good job) 𖥔 ݁ ˖‧₊˚
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The walk all the way to the cafeteria felt endless. It seemed as though all the students had noticed that “Mister Grace” had invited you to share lunch. If you were honest with yourself, you weren’t even sure whether Ryland was simply looking to spend his lunch time with you, his coworker, his classroom neighbour at most— or if he was actually, genuinely… Trying to hang out. For a while, neither of you knew what to say to break the ice. So, as you arrived at the cafeteria, you decided to try and jump in. Your mouth opened as your brain was still trying to figure out what to talk about.
“Make sure you grab an apple for dessert, you know what they say!” Oh my god— Was there a way to abort the whole thing now? Probably not. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away, haha!” You swear to yourself. Seriously? You awkwardly grab an apple and hand it to him, immediately looking away after he takes it from your hand.
Thankfully, Ryland Grace was: 1. Just as socially awkward as you were. 2. One of the kindest humans you could ever meet.
So he played along and laughed with you as he grabbed some food for himself, reaching for an apple. He made sure it was perfectly ripe, had a good color, and he handed it to you with a smirk.
“Well, I’m technically a Doctor but I ain’t afraid of some apple, so you can have one too, I suppose.” He shrugged, before letting out a genuine smile. “Won’t keep me away.”
F*ck, he was cute.
“I really don’t mean that in a weird way, by the way.” Ryland blurted quietly, trying to make sure you would still be cool. Why was it so hard to recover from all this… Awkwardness? You were both struggling -a lot- and neither of you wanted any students to be suspicious of anything (they already were).
The walk back to Ryland’s classroom was not as bad, but the nervousness was still present. Also, it would be your first time actually seeing his classroom. Also… How did you not know already that he was a Doctor? You were not close by any means, but this seemed like pretty basic information about him, and you didn’t know? You were definitely planning on interrogating the hell out of him about it.
“Please, ignore the, uh… the mess. - The mess? - This classroom is literally where the science happens, so it’s maybe, just a little, a tiny… Urgh— It’s messy, really just don’t mind it.”
He opens the door and it’s really not that bad, which makes you shake your head, a teasing grin on your face. You step in and head closer to his desk. There are models all around the ceiling and in some corners of the room. The board is full of different information and calculations. There’s a whole bunch of scientific equipment all around, and Grace’s desk is filled with books, papers and… Bean bags?
You grab a chair from a desk and put it closer to Ryland’s desk as he sits on his own chair, pushing the books and papers away.
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“So, you’ve got a doctorate in… What exactly? - Molecular Biology. And do not ask me why I turned to education… - I mean it would be one of two things. You either pissed off the board with your thesis, or—”
You stop your sentence as you notice Ryland's eyes widen slightly. He struggles swallowing and tries to shrug it off, looking away and grabbing his water bottle. You speak more softly, putting your food down as you lean slightly towards him.
“No way? Your dissertation is the reason you turned to teaching? Come on I have to know now. What was it? - The full title I gave it was "An Analysis of Water-Based Assumptions and Recalibration of Expectations for Evolutionary Models”, if my, uh… Memory serves me well”, he sighs.
At first, you were very surprised to hear that not only he had been basically shoo’ed away to teaching, but he also believed in something that went against so much scientific research. But the more you thought about it, the more you realised that it was pretty “on brand” for him. It was pretty obvious Ryland was not comfortable discussing this topic too much. Honestly, no one would be proud of having been treated that bad by the board that education would be a safer spot to be at, career-wise. So you move on. No jokes, no teasing. You simply move on.
“Well, Ryland, I feel like we should use this time to maybe get to know each other a bit better, right? I mean, we only ever talk when we see each other in the hallway, and that’s, what, 2 minutes, 3 minutes each time? - Right. But I’m nervous now, you started off strong with the whole doctorate interrogation, you know? - I’m sorry, I didn’t mean— - I’m kidding. It’s a joke, Y/N. Though that means you’ve technically asked something already so now, I get to ask you about yourself. It’s only fair.”
He smirks playfully and looks down towards the bean bags on his desk. His smile widens and he grabs one, crocheted in the colours of the Earth. As he puts it in front of you, he nods. “I do this thing with my students, where I ask questions around and the bean bag is lava— you gotta answer fast and you can’t pass. So, here.”
And for the rest of the hour, Ryland and yourself got to learn more about each other, passing the Earth/Lava bean bag between questions. You barely finished your food. You talked about your past, your family, your pets, relationships, how you were as kids —Only to find out that Ryland as a kid was quiet, scared and lonely, the opposite of you, who always ran around and climbed trees and played in the mud. As you stand up to put your trash away, you shrug and shyly confess: “You took your revenge though. You’re the cool teacher now. I think that’s way better than being a “cool kid”. By far.”
When the bell rang, the both of you slightly jumped, as if suddenly awaken from a dream. It had been an hour but had felt like 10 minutes. You had to go to class! Rushing and gathering your phone, keys and wallet, you inadvertently grabbed the Earth bean bag you had been playing with. You apologised for having to leave in such a hurry, but obviously Ryland understood and let out a teasing laugh as he shoo’ed you away.
He spent the next hour thinking about your conversation.
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Ever since that day, you and Ryland spend recess talking and talking and talking. When you are able, you take your lunch together— usually in Ryland’s classroom. If you leave at the same time, you walk together— and end up staying an extra hour because your conversation never ends.
You had forgotten about the Earth bean bag. Well, that was sort of a lie but still true. The evening after you had shared that first lunch, you had found it had made its way into your bag. You weren’t sure why or how. It was just… There. And you had put it aside, right there in the tray that was on your kitchen island. But every morning, you just forgot to grab it. A part of you liked having it there. As Ryland had said, once you have the bean bag, you can’t pass, right? Maybe you were keeping it so you had to eventually admit how you felt about him. And… That was absolutely daunting.
One morning, Ryland knocks at your classroom door. Classes were going to start in about 30 minutes, and you liked taking that time to prepare for the day and clean up whatever was left in a mess the day before. As you see him make his way in the room, you notice him carrying three drinks.
“I wasn’t sure of what you liked so…” he had gotten a coffee, a tea, and a hot chocolate. Your face slightly brights up as a gentle smile appears. You look at the drinks and grab the hot chocolate, the warmth almost burning the tip of your fingers. Ryland’s shoulders seem to relax. He liked his morning coffee and was hoping you would prefer the tea or the hot chocolate.
For the first time in weeks, the both of you stay in your classroom. Somehow, probably because it was still early, you were both quieter, more soft spoken than usual. Surely it was because both of you were still waking up and getting into teaching mode. Deep down, you felt some sort of comfort in that stillness. So much so that as your conversation pauses, you begin losing yourself. Not to thoughts, really. It was relaxing— safe. Ryland doesn’t add anything to the conversation either after this point. He drinks his coffee, slumped in the chair. It felt like you understood each other without even having to talk about it. Ryland lazily runs a hand through his hair and adjusts his glasses, taking a deeper breath. You lift your gaze to look at him, noticing how the morning sun rays reflect on his skin. His hair is slightly messy, and his jacket has some wrinkles here and there. You smile gently and put your drink down on your desk, standing up and leaning to adjust the corner of his jacket, trying to get rid of a bigger, more noticeable wrinkle. Not that it mattered. The kids didn’t care. You didn’t care. Well, you did. Not about the wrinkles on his jacket, or that his hair was messy, or that his glasses weren’t perfectly straight— probably due to his bad habits of letting them hang weird.
You cared about Ryland, you wanted to care for him.
Ryland was slightly taken aback upon seeing you lean towards him so closely, and adjusting his jacket. It felt so intimate, but he could not pinpoint exactly why it felt that way. He lifts his head and looks at you, but you’re doing everything you can to stay focused on his jacket. The bell rings and the both of you jump— was that déjà-vu?
As you take a couple of steps back and pretend to fix your hair, Ryland lets out a groan and stands up. He puts the chair back and gives you a polite smile. His cheeks slightly flushed, he uses his free hand to massage his neck.
“I’ll see you at lunch? - That’d be nice, yes.”
Ryland’s smile grows, and he makes his way out, grabbing the coffee, and leaving you the tea for later. You notice that the students had already gathered by the door when he opens the door. He plays it off and high-fives some of the students, like the cool teacher that he was, while you wait for the door to close again so you can sit against your desk and melt from the embarrassment. The kids were gonna get ideas now, you just knew it. Yup, they were gonna get those kinds of ideas, too. Damn it.
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You stand up straight and take a deeper breath. Hopefully, the blood that had rushed to your face didn’t make you look too insane. Hopefully, all was back to normal and the kids just had mass amnesia and forgot it all. Let’s hope for that. Right?
“Good morning everyone! You can make your way inside, please come on in. - Good morning Y/N!!” They said all together. As they were putting their bags down, you could already hear the whispers, sometimes interrupted by tiny little giggles.
It would not matter how hard you’d try to play it cool. The questions were coming, and there’d be dozens of them. Sure enough, as you invite them all to take their seats and try to brush it off by starting the class right away… Their big smiles make you realise you would not get out of this interrogation. Not this time.
“I'll allow 3 questions. Make them count.” You say with a small sigh. You can’t help a smile from appearing in the corner of your lips, though. Those kids cracked you up. Silly geese that they were. Even though you didn’t want to answer any questions, you knew you had to give them something. And as you let them talk over each other and ask a million questions, you notice these questions… Gradually get worse.
“What were you talking about? - Are you guys friends?? - Do you play board games with Mr. Grace? - Are you like, DATING? - They’re 100% dating! That’s so cool! - Does Mr. Grace have like, a crush on you?? - Wait, do YOU have a crush on Mr. Grace?? - Are you gonna live together??”
You shake your head and put your hand up, trying to keep a straight face. But the way they were getting extra-excited was too much to handle. You didn’t even know the answer to some of these questions.
“Okay, okay, hang on everyone. I said 3 questions, and I asked you to make them count… Ryl— Mr. Grace and I are colleagues, right? We spend time together because that is what coworkers do on breaks. It doesn’t mean as much as you think it does. We simply… Think alike and enjoy each other’s company. We’re…” You pause for a second, only now grasping what you and Ryland shared. It was more than being colleagues. “We're friends.”
And even if they didn’t quite believe you, you were at least able to finish your class without too many interruptions and distractions.
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It had taken about a week for the students’ excitement to die down. They were still suspicious of the both of you, but at least they didn’t ask as many questions now. You had never even addressed it with Ryland. You were anxious to know what he would think of it all. You knew him enough to guess he wouldn’t care too much, but still… Making him uncomfortable over it was not worth it. The moments you shared together were too precious. They brought you a sense of peace and safety you hadn’t gotten in years. He, Ryland, had become an anchor.
One afternoon, Ryland had noticed you had not come out of your classroom since the morning. You were drowning in essays to read through, and some administrative paperwork to sign. The truth was that you were stressed that day, and you had forgotten to take any kinds of bathroom or lunch breaks. So, he took it upon himself to bring you a little something to eat. It wasn’t much, but he remembered you liked those frozen chocolate croissants from the cafeteria— only if they were warmed up so much that it would burn your palate. He knocks on the door and enters slowly so as to not frighten you. It is obvious that you are happy to see him: your face immediately lights up, and your shoulders relax. You let out a small sigh of relief as you stand up and come in front of your desk.
“Hey Y/N. Haven’t seen you all day, I got worried. I got you this, a little birdie told me you like those. - Thanks, Ryland. You’re amazing, I’m starving. - It’s nothing, really. Are you okay, though? - Yeah, just… A busy day I guess. I should’ve warned, sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you all day. - I was trying to figure out what I did to make you hate me!” He says in an exaggerated dramatic tone, putting a hand to his heart.
You let out a laugh and shake your head, starting to eat the chocolate croissant. Ryland notices the mountains of books around your desk and starts putting them in order. You knew he didn’t mean it in a disrespectful way, it was actually quite the opposite. He noticed your crisis and jumped in to help without you having to even ask.
You clean your hands once you’re done eating and join Ryland to finish tidying up. Your shoulder brushes his slightly and you stand up straight, not knowing where to start, or what words to say. And as if he noticed you struggling, he smiles and rests one hand on his hip, lifting the other to your head. He quietly observes your face, fixing a strand of your hair.
“Ryland, I— - Y/N, you—”
You look at each other and despite the nerves, a laugh escapes both of your mouths. He nods to let you go first. His hand his still playing with your hair.
“I don’t know what the kids have said to you, obviously we spend a lot of our free time together and they’ve noticed. I, um… I like you, actually. A lot. Your friendship means a lot to me, and, uh…” You look away, shaking your head slightly. “I’d like to spend more time with you, outside of the classroom. I guess I… I’ve been hoping you’d ask me out.”
"I kinda figured," Ryland responds. He cups your chin in his fingers and looks into your eyes. What would have seemed like cockiness in other people, translated as relief in Grace's gaze.
He leans towards you - it feels like the world stops turning for a moment. As you catch him staring at your lips, you feel the Earth bean bag in your jeans' back pocket.
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“Hey, Siri. Play ‘The End’ by Cody Fry.”
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