Sam’s Gift

"How did you…" I instantly shut my mouth when granny raised an eye brow.

I felt my throat constrained and my heart rate sped up.

"How did I know what you were thinking?" Granny said calmly. "Or how I know Faron can use portal magic?"

"Ye-yes…"

"Simple answer, the spirits told me. If you doubt me, look into my eyes." Granny pointed a finger at her eyes and when I looked into them, my eyes widened. There were swirling blue specks floating in her irises.

"How then… does the spirits know that Faron can use portal magic?"

"Simple answer, the spirits taught him it. Or should I say, he stole it."

"How did he steal it?"

"Like anyone taking anything from someone who isn't willing to give," granny shrugged. "By force. Spirits are masters at portal magic, it's how they travel to and from places. Losing such magic is detrimental to their kind. Spirits without portal magic are just wandering souls that moves at a snails pace. How pitiful."

"I see.." as we walked through the hallway that led to the great hall, I could hear Rex's voice consoling Rona. I did wondered why Rona never questioned granny or why she never voiced the 'is this all a joke' line.

"Those two compliment, devoted and love each other like a pair of turtle doves. You say they will be husband and wife in the future? I can see that."

"Aren't they like a standard couple?"

"It seems like your powers exceeds your views."

"My views are normal okay? That's because I'm normal… even though I don't have a girlfriend yet…" I mumbled. "Anyways, turtle doves?"

"They're legendary creatures of love. A mythical legend told to couples who are about to wed."

"Interesting…"

We entered the great hall and immediately heard Stella's voice, calling me.

"Teach!"

"Not so loud," I heard Lucy say to Stella.

A smile just formed naturally on my face to my students antics. We walked to the table where my students sat and without missing a beat, Stella pulled me in and asked, "where have you been all day?"

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she was pouting.

"Didn't Garrett say that teach will become the new teacher for the new recruits," said Chloe.

"Right, right, what is all that about sir?" Asked Ann.

"Why is he their teacher? His ours!" Exclaimed Stella. "And besides we're on the same level as the new recruits and so is teach, how is he going to teach the new recruits when his also learning like the rest of us?"

"You have a point…" conceded Chloe.

"I heard from Howk, the guard that guards me and Vince, that sir beat one of the new recruits in a duel," said Finn.

"He did?" Asked Luke in astonishment.

"Sir sent him to the hospital…" Vince whispered.

"Oh wow sir, I never knew you were a fighter, how did you beat someone who's all about fighting?" Asked Ann.

"To be honest, I had help." I wasn't going to lie to my students and even if I tried, Stella could always tell. Right now she's watching me like a hawk. She was still pouting but I could tell that her focus was fully on me.

"Wasn't it a duel? How did you have help?" Questioned Luke.

"If I told you the devil helped by giving me pointers on how to use a rapier, would you believe me?"

"It's not the most unheard thing I've heard since coming here," admitted Luke. "But sir, the devil? Do I need to bring out the holy water?"

"You have holy water?" Asked Ann in surprise.

"Light who is my guard is from the church, he gave me some," Luke said with a shrugged.

"With a name like that, why isn't he a pastor or something, why is he a guard?" Asked Chloe.

"Beats me," replied Luke.

"No, no, you don't have to bring out the holy water, Grayson isn't that much of a devil…" I couldn't reveal Lucifer to my students, nor anyone from the shadow legion, at least not now. They're my trump card and they will be my invisible protectors for my students.

"Grayson? Isn't he the captain of the prince's Royal guards?" Asked Bella.

"How did you know that Bella?" Asked Hannah.

"Sweet little Walts who guards me and Bridget, told me."

"He's good at using idioms and he's funny," Bridget added. "He's my type of guy."

"Oh! Thank god the food is coming!" Exclaimed Sam who watched the servers carrying out trays of hot dishes to our table.

"Sam, why don't you give teach what you gave us?" Rain asked, I could see Rain being observant as always being the class's rep.

"What thing? Sam?" I was curious as to what Sam has given to everyone. He's an otaku like me and mostly kept to himself unless someone is talking about a topic he's interested in contributing.

"Not now, it's back in my room. I'll give him the gift once we finished dinner!"

"I'll look forward to it," I said as the server placed a dish consisting of meatballs and some type of sauce in front of me. The server also place a piece of bread with butter on it, on my plate.

"Mmmm." Sam replied with a mouthful of food. I took it as him saying 'thank you'.

With that answer, everyone started to eat. I could tell everyone was starving as they went through the food with minimal conversation. Most of them talked about their day and the new moves Garrett had taught them. I just listened to them as I ate. I looked over to Rex and caught a glimpse of Rona spooning a spoonful of food into Rex's mouth. It was interesting that Rona was now sitting with us and not with the rest of the Silver Hawks.

A couple of the girls were ogling at them, saying how cute they were and even chatting up Rona on her thoughts of Rex. Rona answered all their questions with a smile, even the one that's a bit embarrassing.

Wait… I looked around, where was granny? I had forgotten all about her when my students pulled me into a conversation about my whereabouts.

I turned my head and spotted her chatting with Garrett and Sara. I smiled and went back to eating.

"Hey sir, come to my room after we done eating, I'll give you the gift then."

I turned my head back around to Sam but he was already back to eating, he took his fork and spiked the last fish fillet from the dish in front of him. He had a smile on his face and when I turned to look where he was smiling to, Logan who sat opposite of him, looked pissed off.

"That's mine! I was eyeing it!" I heard Logan whisper shout to Sam.

"Key word, 'was', when it comes to food, you need to be quicker around me." Sam said smugly.

"Sir! He stole my fish!" Logan voiced his complaint to me.

"Sam?" I asked but the evidence of the fish on his plate I saw a minute ago, was no where to be seen.

"Yes?" He said as he dabbed his face with a napkin.

"You are fast…" I thought back to the banquet and how my food would've been stolen by Sam if it weren't for Chia.

I turned my head to Chia and saw him chatting away with jack so I turned my head back to Sam.

Sam was eyeing me with a raised eyebrow.

I looked to Logan who was sitting on the same side as me.

"Wait a minute Logan. I'll get you something."

"What do you mean sir?"

I remembered the head chef had given me a gift and it was sitting back in my room. Whatever is inside, I wanted to share it with my students. I excused myself from the table to Stella's dismay and rushed to my room. I saw the gift on the table and went over to it and peered inside the bag. A strong scent of chocolate wafted out of the bag. Inside the bag was filled with an assortment of cookies, brownies and cupcakes. I smiled to myself before taking the gift off the table and rushed back to the great hall.

Once I got to the table, I placed the bag on the table.

"I got a present for all of you. I received this gift from the head chef in the kitchens and I want to share it with you all. Now then, who wants a little treat before we have dessert?"

As soon I said this, all my students instantly raised their hands. I actually counted how many was in there and it was exactly enough for everyone. I handed everyone either a cookie, a brownie or a cupcake. I also handed Logan an extra cookie for the dispute earlier.

Stella looked at me with a frown. She leaned over and whispered, "your too nice sometimes, but that's one part of why my heart beats for you."

I raised an eyebrow at her but when she pulled away from me, she broke a piece of her brownie and gave it to me. Caramel dripped from the brownie on to her fingers. She licked her fingers before she took a bite out of hers and then licked her lips with a satisfied grin.

The same caramel that dripped on to Stella's fingers had done the same to mine. I took the piece she had given me and took a bite.

An explosion of chocolate and salted caramel coated my mouth. I savour the taste before I licked the caramel off my fingers before finishing off the piece.

"Everyone's happy?" I asked once everyone finished their treat and everyone nodded.

"Sir, why did the head chef give you cookies, brownies and cupcakes?" Asked Chloe.

"Eh… can't say right now… top secret."

"It's dessert time!" I heard Sam shouted as the servers placed a bowl of pudding, butterscotch ice cream and raspberry coolie in front of us.

"I'll tell you guys later what it is."

"You better, I like being in the know."

"You just like to gossip," Ann remarked.

"Guilty." Chloe said with a smile.

Once we finished our desserts, some of my students stayed for the night's entertainment. Whilst others either went back to their rooms for an early shut eye or a bath.

I exited the great hall and headed to Sam's room. As I approached the door, the guard that stood next to it, saluted me. His name popped up above his head.

[Elite] Stocken (Lvl 10)

"Good evening, General."

"Evening, eh stocken right?"

"Yes! General!"

I smiled as I knocked on the door. James opened the door.

"Hey sir, what's up?" James said with his glasses on.

"Sam said to come because he has a gift for me?"

"Oh yes, come on in. He's out at the balcony."

James stepped aside and I walked in. James strolled back to his bed, picked up a book on his nightstand and started reading. I walked to the balcony where Sam stood, he was looking out at the night life below.

"Here you go sir." Sam said as he turned around and handed me a scroll.

"What is it?"

"An enchanted calendar."

"A what?"

"A calendar. Take a look."

I opened up the scroll and my jaw nearly hits the floor. Dates and even the event on the day is on the scroll.

"Amazing. How?" My mind was blown.

"Well it was the first thing I thought off, ever since our first day here. See, look here, I marked the day we got summoned here. 19 July 2021. And look here. 22 July 2021. That's today."

"Sam this is ingenious."

"This is what happens when you watch too much isekai anime. I went to the library after our training with Garrett and asked the head librarian about enchantments. She told where the section is and a few starter books. I flipped through them and found a spell network called magic circuit. It's like writing code on a computer, only with this I can write it on anything. I created these calendars yesterday. It took me only two days to learn it. Amazing right?"

"Truly amazing."

"Sir, have I told you, your my favourite teacher like eve… well maybe besides my third grade teacher who have you beat but that's because she was nice and hot. Your my favourite male teacher."

"Eh… thank you?"

"I mean it sir. You could've been a boring teacher but you weren't. You care about us and if I wanted to be sent to another world with any teacher, I'm glad it's you. Though if you were a female teacher… that would've been perfect…"

"Why?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Because then I can start on my harem. Like Hajime from Arifueta. Where Aiko has the hots for Hajime after their reunion and he saves her."

"I think you're remembering it wrong."

"No they are totally married by the end."

"Dude, spoilers. I haven't read the light novel yet…"

"It's not out in English yet… I only read the Wiki. Anyways back to what I was saying, it would've been but than again, I'm not even the protagonist in this story, so even thinking about having a harem seems like a distant dream… "

"Don't think like that, we're all our own protagonist in our lives."

"Yes but in the overall narrative of this story, I'm not the protagonist and neither are my fellow classmates. It's you sir. Not only do you have girls fawning over you but the progression in this story has been progressed significantly because of you."

"You think?"

"I know. I'm observant."

"Sam, I believe in you! You'll have your dream one day…" I gave Sam a thumbs up.

"And I you sir. Tomorrow will be a big day for you as you are the new recruits teacher. Anyways, we should head off to bed, it's been a tiring day today and I bet tomorrow will be the same…"

"It sure will."

"Night sir."

"Night Sam."

Sam headed to bed. I walked passed their beds and exited their room, closing the door behind me.

"Night, General."

"Night, Stocken."

Stocken gave me a big smile when I said his name.

I walked back to my room and looked at the calendar that Sam had masterfully crafted for me. As I went through the calendar, I noticed the events on each particular days. Public holidays, Easter, Christmas, Boxing Day, Australia Day and even the Ekka is here too. He even put in holidays for this world as well.

Kingdom's light festival? Sounds interesting.

Somehow, everyone's birthday was on here as well. How did Sam remember everyone's birthday. I mean he could've ask for them but I know Sam isn't much of a social person, so that leaves memorisation. Did he take a peek at my roll call book? I know that's the only place that has everyone's birthday listed.

Truth be told, even I don't know all of their birthdays and I'm their home room teacher. Sam is truly amazing. An otaku brother for life aye… he used to say that to me all the time when he found out that I was an otaku as well. There were so many stares at me one time when Sam accidentally shouted 'Otaku brother' to me across the hallway to the performing arts building.

I missed those times and I knew it would've all been over soon when they graduate. I scrolled down the months til it reached November.

My god… He even put the date for the graduation on here as well. 19 November 2021. The only thing that's missing was the date for the year 12 formal. We never set an actual date for the formal, it was still on discussion.

The year 12 coordinator Mrs Lanster, was about to put a poll in for the venue at our next year level meeting. It would've been on Thursday this week but sadly we would never know…

I laid in my bed and stared up at the ceiling. Graduation huh? My students won't be there for their graduation. They will never get their year 12 formal, a night where they celebrate the end of their pre learning before going off to TAFE or Uni or even just starting their careers right out of high school.

This would've also been my first graduation as a teacher. I've been and taught with them for two years and they won't have that feeling of accomplishment for all their hard work they put in over the years. They would never get their QCE.

I doubt we would ever make it back in time, if we could even find a way to that. Also they would've also missed out on their final exams for their final grade and let's not forget about the QCS test.

It hurts me to even have to think about it. November 19… maybe on that date, I could set up something... Yes! That's it. My students will graduate. I will get everyone in my companies so far to help me make it happen, so on that day my students will have their graduation ceremony and their formal.

They would graduate on the same day, as the rest of Great Barrier High back home. It's time to come up with a plan. I circled the date with my finger with a smile on my face, before I drifted off to sleep.

An early night for an earlier morning… because tomorrow is going to be a hell of a day… how in the earth did I get myself into this… was this all fate? Or something else.