#wymack definitely does care for each of them equally though

[the-plothole-court]

neil: wymack found my queen poster

matt: who’s his favorite?

neil: dan probably

neil: oh did you mean band member?

[kevindayprotectionsquad]

I WAS trying to go to sleep, but I forgot my sleeping pills at home, and my brain won’t shut up about high school teacher/coach Kevin. So I’m finally getting this post done. I said I would, and now I’m doing it. Please enjoy my feral midnight ramblings.

I’m not saying Kevin doesn’t go pro and be the number one player in all of exy history, because he does. He’s dedicated so much of his life to not play exy for as long as he can. But the career times for pro athletes isn’t very long, and Kevin is no exception. He starts feeling the lingering pains of over use in his injured hand, and younger plays are starting to out run him, and he knows its time.

So here he is, a recently retired pro athlete, all the money and support he could ever want, and no idea what to do with himself. He’s got his hobbies, but photography, cooking, and reading can only fulfill so much. If he’s honest with himself, he misses exy. It was his entire life for so long, how could he just drop it one day and move on?

He thinks about coaching. The pro league loves that idea. It would make which ever team he signs with unstoppable, being coached by the son of exy himself. Kevin knows that’s what he should do. That’s what everyone thinks he should do, but he just can’t. It takes him a while to figure out why he can’t commit to just signing to a team.

Then it hits him: he doesn’t like pro athletes. They all think they know everything there is to know. They’re in it for the glory and not the game. (Not to mention most are former Ravens, and it’s always been hard for Kevin to side with them after everything.) That’s not why he plays, and it’s not something he can get behind.

So he starts to reevaluate everything he knows about himself, and what he wants. He knows he doesn’t want to be retired, and that he needs something he can really throw himself into.

It take him a little too long to remember he’s got an entire history degree, just sitting around not being used. That was five years of his life staying up late to do research and writing endless papers, just gone to waste so he could go pro.

If he didn’t work so hard on those papers, he wouldn’t be so upset it was a waste.

Kevin mopes around, reminiscing about his glory days, when it hits him. He could utilize both his passions. He worked his ass off to get his degree, and he worked even harder to go pro. Why not help kids realize their passions and teach them work ethic, at the same time teaching them both history and exy?

Kevin’s suprized it took him that long to come up with that. He just never realized his two favorite things, that seemed to have no correlation, could be combined.

He settles on the idea of teaching high school. High school kids are jerks, yes, but they’re minds are easier shaped than college or pro athletes.

He zooms through getting both his teaching and coaching certifications. The state doesn’t care if you’re Kevin Day, exy legend, you still have to be certified to teach/coach high school kids. It takes some time, but Kevin is happy to have something interesting to do.

Even though the state doesn’t care about his name, the schools sure do. He doesn’t go too crazy with applications, he wants to wait and see if he gets a good response before putting himself out there more.

He gets a reply back from every school he applied to, and being Kevin Day, he interviewed at all of them. And despite the face tattoo, he gets job offers from all. Being the son of exy, and having a high gpa on his transcript had its perks.

Kevin didn’t realize how hard it would be to pick schools. They offered him all kinds of benefits and salaries, but he didn’t care about all that. It was the kids that mattered, and which school needed him most. Perhaps he was getting to be too much like his father.

He finally decides on a school. It wasn’t the fanciest by any means, but it had the most diverse student body, and prided itself on providing equal opportunities for all students. That was something Kevin could get behind.

His first day finally roles around, and Kevin is NERVOUS. He can’t remember ever being so nervous in his life. So nervous to do well and make an impact on his students lives. He definitely calls Wymack on his way over, just freaking out and needing sound advice.

The coaching part didn’t scare him. He could handle that, he had a good influence. It was the class room part. He had no idea what to expect. It wasn’t like he went to a public high school and had at least seen it from the other side. This was his first time ever being in a classroom setting like that.

He gets to school early, like all teachers do. He’s still new and exciting to the staff, so as soon as kids start arriving, he books it to his classroom. He can only put up with so much small talk nowadays. He can hear kids talking excitedly to each other in the halls trying to find their first period classrooms, or talking about they did over summer break. He busies himself straightening up his desk and world history posters he hung around the room over the weekend.

The first bell rings to tell the kids to get to class, and they start coming into the classroom in little groups. Kevin has been around enough people to know which groups are the popular girls, which ones are the football jocks, which are the exy kids, and which ones would rather be alone but some how alway end up in a group together when the others take the desks to sit with each other.

There’s whispers among groups, and quick looks at Kevin. He lets them talk up until the late bell. It’s time for business.

He introduces himself as Mr. Day. He likes the sound of it. Sounds teachery and official. He thought about coach Day, but thought otherwise since he would be coaching all the students. Hands immediately shoot up, but others are less subtle.

“Are you really Kevin Day the exy player? My dad said there’s no way.” “Yes, I am, but now I’m Mr. Day, your teacher.”

“Why’d you quit playing? Jason said it’s because you broke your hand again.” “No, my hand is fine, I just thought it was time to retire.”

“Are you coaching the exy team?” “Yes.” “Good. We suck.”

Kevin lets them get their questions and comments out, he knows it’s exciting. When they’ve finally settled down, he asks them to introduce themselves and give him a fun fact about themselves. When they complain (because all students hate ice breakers), he tells them its only fair since they got to ask him questions.

There’s obviously some kids that want to try and be class clowns, and see how much they can get away with being heathens in class, but Kevin is well seasoned at the “cut it out” look thanks to being friends with Neil for so long. It doesn’t keep Neil in check, but it works wonderfully on the class clowns.

The rest of the school day flies by, going pretty much the same as that first period. Seasoned teachers come to check on him, though he thinks it’s an excuse to come chat with him.

After school means exy practice. Kevin hated that he missed the beginning of summer practice, but it didn’t take long for him to figure out the team definitely needed work, and it was going to be a challenge to get where he wanted them to be. The team had split into their own social groups, and severely lacked communication both on the court and off. There were arguments and unfair checks within the first few minutes of practice. Kevin couldn’t help but reminded of another team, and remained hopeful. The other coaches let him take the lead, and he could already see shifts happening in the team by the end of practice.

As the school year goes on, Kevin gets more confident in his teaching and coaching style, and becomes a quick favorite for students in the classroom and on the court. He has an open door policy and lets students stay in the classroom to study or vent or just hangout when they need to. He gives them advice and validation where they need it.

The students catch on pretty quick that if they bring up exy they can distract Kevin for the rest of the class period. He knows they’re doing it on purpose, but sometimes can’t stop himself. He’s working on it.

His favorite thing to do in the classroom is hands on learning. They’re constantly doing projects of some kind. He enjoys seeing what the kids come up with for projects, and is always impressed with their creativity. He’s glad they’re having fun learning.

But what’s most rewarding of all is seeing his kids come together and grow as young people. In the classroom, there’s no more specific social groups, all the kids talk and work together. He’s most proud of his introverted groups. On the court, his team is working together and winning games. They’re not perfect yet, and don’t get far into playoffs their fist season with him, but Kevin can see the improvement and is so proud.

(Sometimes Neil shows up to practices to get the kids excited about playing again. Kevin loses his flare with them over time. He’s no longer “Kevin Day Pro Exy Star”, he’s “Coach Day who makes us run laps when we’re bad but brings us snacks and tells us he’s proud after every game”)

Kevin doesn’t care what the press has to say about his team or his crazy new career choice, because he finally found something he truly enjoys doing. Making an impact and changing kid’s lives through exy as well as teaching, is way more rewarding than scoring the most goals in pro exy.