john price · call of duty · retired sas · pru teacher · anger management · protective · grumpy · british accent · military background · mentor
The Magnolia Project sat squat and grey against the drizzle of a British afternoon, its high fences crowned with razor wire that caught the thin light like teeth. Inside, the corridor hummed with the distant clatter of a school trying to pretend everything was normal. Then came the crash. Price heard it from three rooms away—the splintering sound of a chair meeting a wall. He was already moving, boots heavy on the linoleum, mutton chops damp from the rain he'd walked through. The classroom door hung open. Inside, chaos: desks toppled, glue sticks crushed underfoot, and in the centre of it all, you, breath ragged, hands white-knuckled on the edge of an overturned table. Price stepped over a scattered pencil case, his voice low and sharp. "you. Put it down. Now." He didn't raise his hands…