Chapter Text
Cross nervously arranged his pencils in the empty classroom. He sat in the corner furthest away from the teacher's table. He was about to have a study lesson with Mr. Nightmare, the Maths teacher.
He shuddered at the thought.
He had just changed to this school after his old Maths teacher had hit him one too many times and had gotten in trouble for it. He wasn't very good at Maths but he wasn't bad either. The teacher had always expected everyone to do problems from a higher grade. He'd never managed so he'd been screamed at, hit and stuffed into a closet.
Everyone had been scared of his old Maths teacher and everyone was scared of the new one too. He gulped nervously.
The door opened to reveal a tall black skeleton wearing a dark purple suit. He was carrying a few papers in his arms and a file. His expression was slightly irritated as he grumbled lowly.
"Fucking principal and bully and halls and grr..." he growled to himself as he stood behind his desk, not yet noticing the student that he had been told to teach privately.
Cross looked up and flinched, immediately looking back down. Stars, he looked so angry! He never had any luck, did he? He felt tears sting in his eye sockets.
He'd get beaten again. He'd definitely get beaten again.
Cross quickly wiped his eye sockets with his sleeves, fighting hard not to tremble.
Nightmare frowned before he looked up and startled when he saw a student.
"Oh! I didn't see you there. Apologies." Nightmare said softly, giving the new student a kind smile. "You're the new student correct? *Tch, another one?* What's your name?"
(* <---Means it's what Cross hears/sees but it's not real.)
Cross looked up anxiously, flinching slightly.
"C.. Cross..." Cross mumbled nervously. He hoped that the other had understood him.
Nightmare frowned and raised a brow at the student. He hadn't heard that properly. The student must be anxious meeting a new teacher for the first time.
*Nightmare scowls at him with hatred and anger. His eye flashing brightly as he left claw marks on his desk when he clenched his hand.*
That had to be it.
"I'm sorry but can you speak up please?" he asked gently with a small smile.
*"Speak up I can't hear whatever you're saying!" Nightmare yelled at him angrily.*
"I couldn't quite hear you."
Cross flinched back, tears collecting in his eye sockets as he stared at Nightmare fearfully. He quickly averted his eyes and got out a paper and wrote 'Cross' down on it with his shaking hand, holding it up.
Nightmare blinked and read the word that was written on the paper.
"Oh your name is Cross." he said *"Cross." he scoffed at the student. "What a stupid name."* before smiling kindly down at the student. "Hello there Cross. I am professor Nightmare but you can call me Mr.Nightmare."
*"Call me Mr.Nightmare or else!" Nightmare growled at him.*
Cross winced, putting the paper down with his name facing the table. He'd actually liked his name once.
"O-okay, Mr. Nightmare..." He mumbled quietly, wiping away his tears quickly.
Nightmare nodded and walked over to Cross' table with a few papers in his hands. "I brought some math problems with me." he said with a smile.
Nightmare sat down beside Cross in another chair and placed a paper in front of the student. He put an arm over Cross' chair to make it easier to lean towards the student to help him.
"See? It's simple." Nightmare said pointing to the problems on the piece of paper.
1) 6 x 4 =
2) 5 + 19 =
3) 5.5 + 3.0 =
Cross flinched slightly when Mr. Nightmare put his arm around his chair. There was no escape. On his right was the wall and on the other side was the teacher…
He quickly looked down at the Math problems, eyeing them anxiously.
Oh stars, he actually knew the answers. Those were... surprisingly not horrible.
He quickly scribbled down the numbers 24, 24 and 8.5 .
Nightmare watched as Cross wrote down the correct answers. He smiled brightly with a nod.
"Those are correct!" he praised happily. "You did a very good job!"
Cross looked up surprisedly. No reprimand about how awfully slow he had been? He was a bit confused. His old teacher would have locked him in the closet of shame for half an hour...
Nightmare smiled and took the paper, putting down another one. "Here's another one. It's still simple."
1) 1 - 1/2
2) 37 + (-11)
3) -2 + 3
"You've learned this, right?" Nightmare asked curiously.
Cross nodded slightly. They'd learned a lot of those questions at the end of last year.
He wrote down the numbers 1/2, 26 and 1.
Nightmare nodded happily and rubbed the top of Cross skull.
"That's it! You did so well! You're pretty smart aren't you?"
Cross flinched when his skull was touched, expecting Mr. Nightmare to hit him for whatever reason he had.
Nightmare slowly rubbed Cross' skull as he took out another paper. "You're doing very well."
He put another paper in front of Cross.
1) 62 - 82 + 36
2) 44/4
3) 90 - 100
"How about you do another one? I'm sure you can ace it!"
Cross looked up surprisedly. Mr. Nightmare wasn't hurting him and he was praising him?? Cross was so confused.
"O-okay..." He mumbled.
He wrote down the numbers 16, 11 and -10.
"That's good" Nightmare praised with a large smile. "You did so well Cross!"
"Now, this one's a little harder-" Nightmare said, not knowing it was a trigger word for Cross. "-but don't you worry. I'll be here to help you through it."
1) *￦￦￦￦￦￦￦￦* + *￦￦￦￦￦￦￦* - *￦￦￦￦￦￦￦￦*
2) *￦￦￦￦￦￦￦￦* + *￦￦￦￦￦￦￦
Cross gasped quietly. Harder? He wouldn't be able to make it, he never could! His breathing sped up, his Soul pounding hard as he stared at the paper anxiously.
Where were the numbers, why weren't there any numbers, was that a trick question, how was he supposed to solve it!!
"It's okay." Nightmare said softly when he noticed how panicked Cross looked. "I'll help you."
"Now, the question is; *static* + *static* - *static* = ?"
Cross stared up at Nightmare, feeling tears collect in his eye sockets as he looked back down and started to shiver.
Nononononono! He couldn't solve it, there was no way he could. Why could be never do anything right?!
Nightmare looked at Cross with worry. "What's wrong?"
*"You idiot! Why aren't you answering the simple question!"*
Cross breathed heavily, a tear dripping down his cheek bones as he wrote 52 down.
Nightmare raised a brow in surprise at the answer. That... wasn't right. Cross had done so well. What had happened? "Um... 52?"
Cross' eye sockets widened. Oh no, it was wrong, oh stars he'd done it again.
"I.. I'm sorry." He mumbled quietly, another tear dripping onto the paper.
"N-no no! It's okay." Nightmare assured quickly with a smile. He smiled kindly and patiently down at Cross. "It's okay. We just need to work on it, that's all."
*"Tch, of course. You can even do something as simple as this." Nightmare scowls down at him as his grip tightened on-*
"Let's just try again." he said while gently rubbing Cross' skull.
Cross flinched away from the touch, his Soul pulsing fearfully as he stared up at Nightmare with tears rolling down his cheek bones.
Nightmare's eyes widened and removed his hand. Stars what was wrong? Why was Cross crying?
"Cross? What's wrong?" he asked softly in concern.
*"Really? Tears?" Nightmare mocked hatefully. "Can you be more pathetic?"*
"I'm sorry..." Cross sobbed, frantically trying to wipe his tears away. "I didn't mean to cry, please don't hit me!" He cried, his whole body shaking harshly.
Nightmare gasped with wide eyes and immediately scooted away from Cross. Hit him??! What?! Why did this student think he'd hit him?!
"No, no it's okay. I won't hit you." he promised softly but his face was full of worry. What was wrong?! What had happened to this student to cause him to act like this?!
Nightmare looked away and played with his hands as he thought. "I guess we're done for today." he said reluctantly. "You can pack up and we can continue tomorrow."
Cross sobbed quietly. Mr. Nightmare only wanted him to be off guard in his presence. There was no way he was being sincere. He quickly packed up his bag, trying to stay as far away from Nightmare as possible before he ran out of the classroom without looking back.
"Stay safe and be careful out there!" Nightmare called but Cross had already left.
Nightmare watched his fleeing student with hurt and worried eyes. He picked up the paper he had given Cross. And what had started all of this.
He looked down at the problems and looked up where Cross had left. What had happened?
1) 6 + 8 - (4 - 2) = 52
2) 5 x (3 + 5) =