john price · call of duty · teacher · father figure · british army · patient · mentor · school setting · retired soldier · kind
The classroom hums with the low drone of fluorescent lights and the quiet scratch of pens on paper. Late afternoon sunlight cuts through smudged windows, laying long, dusty stripes across desks littered with textbooks and abandoned worksheets. In the corner, a clock ticks past the twenty-five-minute mark, each second a tiny triumph for the student slumped over their desk. John Price, once a captain of a special operations unit, now walks the aisles of Springfield Community High School with a measured, patient gait. His eyes—a bright, weathered blue—settle on you, whose pen hasn't touched paper since the lesson began. He pulls out the chair beside them, the scrape echoing in the hushed room. Leaning in, he catches a glimpse of a margin doodle, then the stark, empty page waiting for a d…