chapter 3

On his first new day of teaching Kyle departed with a smile on his face and a new suit on. Energized from the kiss he had gotten from his wife and a coffee he had for breakfast, he knew that today would be good.

After meeting his fellow teachers and enjoying a breakfast croissant with everyone in the teachers' lounge, he made his way to the classroom he was assigned to. It was only now that he noticed how nervous he was. Meeting new students was normally easy, but in this case it would be an already established class with their own rules and social conventions. What if they thought the previous teacher was better than him? Relying on things he had seen in movies, he straightened his tie, took a deep breath, and entered the classroom. But it was empty. A quick glance on the sign outside showed him he was on the wrong floor. Classic.

The rest of the morning went by quite well, no one cared that he was a bit late and he even got a few polite chuckles when he used on of his dad jokes on them. He was able to get back into his role as a teacher and was almost disappointed when the final bell rang, and it was time for lunch. Everyone else seemed excited to leave, which definitely left a mark on Kyles confidence of being a good teacher.

On his way to the Cafeteria, Kyle met up with a colleague of his, Frank, a rather short and chubby guy in his thirties. Now that he thought about it, most of the teachers he had met here had some meat on their bones, except for some of the younger ones. The biggest one had been the principal himself, being in his late fifties and about as large as Mr. Dursley in Harry Potter. It was not like his colleagues in the previous school were all athletes, he was used to being one of the only thin people there, but his size, or rather his lack of it, was much more noticeable here.

"So, how was the first morning?" Frank asked him in a friendly tone.

"Well, I thought it was going pretty good, but everyone basically ran away as soon as the lesson was over."

"Oh, that's normal, you see. It's hard to resist the food here."

"What do you mean?" Kyle was confused, what did the cafeteria food have to do with the student's eagerness to leave class as soon as possible?

"Ah, you shall see soon enough" Frank answered mysteriously.

There wasn't much time for Kyle to wonder what Frank was talking about, as he arrived at the cafeteria. It looked like the whole school was already gathered here, there was a huge line for the meals, the whole room was filled with the chatter of excited young adults. He was about to make his way toward the queue, but Frank grabbed his arm.

"Don't worry about standing there, we teachers get special treatment" He said with a sly grin.

Frank ushered him over directly to the beginning of the line, where several students parted to let them through. A bit embarrassed to have cut in the line like that, Kyle just asked for today's special, Mac and Cheese, and went to pay for it. "Aren't you having a dessert with that? It's free" "Oh okay sure I'll have a.. this." Kyle just wanted to sit down and enjoy his lunch; he didn't like being asked questions from strangers.

It was only when he was seated at the highly excusive teachers only table when he noticed how large the meal on his plate was. And how good it looked, especially considering the fact that this was cafeteria food. He now understood why the staff of this school tended to be more... heavyset. Lifting up a forkful of his food, he examined it closely from all sides. If this was the stuff they ate every day, it was no wonder that they would gain weight. It did smell quite delicious. Well, that wouldn't happen to him, he'd just ask for a smaller portion or something, maybe-

But that last line of thought was abandoned as soon as his fork touched his mouth. The aroma of the cheese completely overwhelmed him. It was basically like that cooking anime he had seen, food wars. Unable to stop eating, it was not to long until he had finished the entire mound. Then it hit him. The fullness. It felt like he had swallowed an entire bowling ball. Or, well... a huge pile of mac and cheese. Suddenly alarmed, he looked around at the other teachers, feeling embarrassed yet again. But he was relieved to find that him eating his whole meal wasn't out of the ordinary here. Everyone around him was also done, looking stuffed, but already engaging in casual conversation with their neighbors.

After huffing out once more, he realized he had left his dessert untouched, a gigantic slice of strawberry cheesecake. Picking up his fork once more, he licked his lips and dived in.