Classroom

As the kids were discussing amongst themselves, Kyle glanced over at the head of the Hall and noticed Teacher Micheal looking their way. Giving the latter a smile and a polite nod, Kyle followed the four chittering kids heading towards their class.

"Daddy, my school?" Ariel asked, completely mesmerized by all the sights in front of her.

Everything seemed so new, so full of people, so different.

Although she did go on outings with her family, this seemed to be completely different from all of that. There were so many people! Wearing the same clothes! Same, but different.

Ariels was absorbing everything around her, tightening her hold on her father's neck.

"When you are bigger, yes, Rie," Kyle replied, and turned to look at her, "Do you like it?"

"I like! I like!" Ariel replied, kissing her father on the cheek, "Thank you Daddy!"

"I came to this school as well, Rie," Kyle told her, "This is where I met Uncle Ali, Uncle Sam and Uncle Xing Han."

Ariel's mouth formed an 'O' then tilted her head, "Mummy?"

Kyle shook his head, "No, Mummy didn't school here. I didn't meet Mummy until much, much later."

Ariel pursed her lips, thinking hard, and nodded. She turned to look at Alex and told him, "Okay, Big Brother. No girlfriend now. Meet much, much later."

Alex, who had been engrossed in making sure he was heading in the right direction, looked at her in puzzlement.

"Like Daddy, no Mummy til much much later," Ariel declared solemnly.

"If I meet her, I meet her," Alex replied with a purse of his lips.

Kyle raised an eyebrow, "Wow, Alex. I didn't think you came to school to find love. My worldview is refreshed."

Alex's eyes narrowed as he gave a brief glare to his father, ignored him and said to the others, "This is our class."

They looked at the open entrance of the classroom

There were a lot of parents standing at the door, and some were in the classroom. A teacher was inside, smiling as she watched everyone coming in.

Kyle looked at her and remembered the portfolio regarding her that had been compiled by MIB.

MIB was a secret organisation that Kyle had formed when he was barely four years old. Using his previous life's memories, he managed to invest in a few 'sure deals' and basically became a multi millionaire in his own right - though the initial capital had been provided (unknowingly) by his parents in this life.

To put a long story short, Kyle and Kay were the secret bosses of MIB that owned several types of businesses on the surface while underground, it was a network of intelligence gathering and protection services (aka "spies").

MIB proved to be an invaluable source of information and support for Smith Industries.

Kyle went through the information regarding Van Goh's Homeroom Teacher.

Alba Arocha, 24 years old and is from Country S.

She had an online romance with someone in Country Tz and in order to be with him, she chose to further her studies in Country Tz. The plan was kept secret and in the end, she got the biggest surprise of all.

Turned out her boyfriend was actually a married man with kids. Though heartbroken, she still stayed and graduated. 'Fresh from the oven', so to speak, this would be her first class after graduation.

Kyle wasn't worried over the fact that such a young and inexperienced person would be his childrens' teacher. What was more important was her capabilities and enthusiasm. From what he could see, she did appear to be suitable.

She was dressed very nicely and her make-up was also impeccable. Not what one would deem to be the typical image of a primary school teacher, as she seemed to be more suited for the service industry, such as the front desk of a hotel or a public relations officer.

However, Kyle noted how her dressing gave off a cheerful aura and the children seemed to be quite receptive to it.

Children were very honest, after all.

Seeing a pretty and young teacher who was always smiling and being nice, naturally made them all warm up to her immediately.

Well, except for his children, of course.

Neither Alex nor Aurora appeared mesmerized over it and instead, walked over to introduce themselves to the teacher in a very formal way.

"Teacher Alba," Alex said politely the moment she turned her attention to them, "My name is Alex and this is my sister Aurora, and my friends Ziad and Fleur."

"Oh, hello Alex, Aurora, Ziad, and Fleur. Very nice to meet all of you," Teacher Alba replied with a huge smile.

Aurora, Ziad, and Fleur responded politely, "Nice to meet you, Teacher Alba."

"Where can we sit?" Alex asked, still standing straight and looking all serious.

"There is no seating arrangement for now," Teacher Alba said, "So you can choose any seats that are still free."

Alex nodded, "Thank you, Teacher Alba."

With that, he quickly headed to the back of the class, and took a seat there. Luckily, there were still seats at the back and thus, he sat down happily. Naturally, the other three followed him and sat down at the same desk arrangement.

The classroom was arranged in such a way that four desks were placed together in a 'T' position. Furthermore, it was at an angle facing the front with the horizontal part of the T being at the back. This meant that those would be directly facing the front while the other two would need to turn a bit to face the front.

In other words, no one's back would be facing the front.

Kyle noted this arrangement with approval.

With the arrangement of the desks in such a way, the teacher would be able to see all of her students. There were also some tables in a horizontal line right in front - these did not have chairs there at the moment and Kyle figured out accurately that it would be for the more 'troublesome' or perhaps, 'extremely active' students once they were identified.

Each 'T' was formed by six tables and chairs, and there were three such sets. Thus, the classroom had 18 students.

There had been numerous debates and research regarding the ideal number of students in a classroom, and there has never been one consensus. it ranged between 12-18, though generally, it appears that 18 is the most popular agreed number.

With a smaller classroom, it allows for better interaction not only between the students, but also between the student and teacher. Kyle also noted that the way the desks were arranged allowed the teacher to walk easily to any cluster and talk to each group individually when needed.

This was different from his time, when the seating arrangements. In Primary 1, for example, they did have group seatings but it was a very basic setting. It had been a huge table that could seat six, and as such, it looked more like a dining table.

Though that made it easier in one sense as it was stable and would not go out of shape, it also meant that the distance between one student to another - at the same table - was rather large.

Kyle remembered that sometimes, there would be a mischievous one or two who would simply climb onto the desk and fall asleep, using it like a bed.

His lips curled up remembering that scene, making his already striking features much more dazzling.

"He's doing it again," Ali muttered under his breath to Sam.

Sam gave a small snort, "This is nothing. I have to deal with it on a daily basis."

Kyle tilted his head towards them, with a puzzled expression. One eyebrow was up while the other was pressed down.

"Even his puzzled expression is making things heated," muttered Ali, "I remember that one time, all he did was just sit on a bench in a park, leaning back - and the mere act of him unbuttoning the top two buttons made two dazed women almost walk into the lake."

"You exaggerate," Kyle scoffed, and squatted down, placing Ariel's feet on the ground carefully.

"We'll be going soon, Rie," Kyle told her, looking at her in the eye, "So say your goodbyes now."

Ariel nodded and trudged over to Alex. She raised her hands up to him and said, "Up."

Alex picked her up and put her on his lap and she smiled widely at the others at the table.

"I'm going home now," she announced while spreading her arms out wide open, "Be good."

She turned, hugged Alex and kissed him on the cheek, "I wait for you."

She looked down at her two hands, her face all scrunched up as she thought hard then finally put up six fingers, "Six hours."

Alex gave a smile - the first smile since he stepped into the classroom. His gaze was gentle as he nodded, "Yes, Rie."

"Ah, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree indeed," muttered Ali, noting all the infatuated gaze of the girls in the classroom.

"Indeed," agreed Sam.