Moments Caught in Time

Chapter 1: Basketball and Cheez-Its

By: Malachite

Author's Note: Okay, so this is the beginning of an absolutely massive fic I've been working on sporadically. I figured I may as well post the first chapter and see what kind of response I get. I do not own BTR. I appreciate every Review, Favorite, and Follow I receive!

Kendall Knight pumped his fist in victory after he pulled into the last covered parking space available in the staff parking lot. 'Yes! And I'm not even late today! Well, not too late anyways.' He got out of his SUV, humming happily to himself as he grabbed the worn leather messenger bag off of the passenger seat. Today felt like it would be a good day.

A loud shout drew his attention to the playground basketball court, located across the ways from the covered parking. It was only his hockey reflexes that saved his face and his car from getting smashed with the basketball hurtling towards him. He caught it expertly, tucking it under his arm as he stalked towards the court. So much for having a good day. Now he had to chew out teenagers for not being careful.

Slinging his messenger bag across his back, he dribbled the basketball on the asphalt, green eyes more tired than angry. Not being a coffee drinker really negatively impacted his energy levels in the morning. But his sweet tooth couldn't handle it black, and his abs couldn't handle it with tons of cream, sugar, and caramel or chocolate. At twenty-three his metabolism was still pretty good, but he figured it was better to be safe than sorry, after seeing what most ex-players turned into when they stopped playing competitively. Plus, his best friend would never let him live it down if he got out of shape. It was bad enough having to listen to his rants about the importance of exfoliating.

He palmed the basketball as one of the high school boys ran towards him. 'Who is this? Hispanic boy…Cute hair…extremely cute. All fauxhawk-ish and spikey.' Kendall couldn't help the smirk that tugged at his lips. 'Pretty gay looking…I like that.'

"Hey Mister, can I have the ball?" The boy wiped his hands on his polo shirt then held them out, flashing a smile, white teeth shining in the morning sun.

'Dude is that…Carlos? Wow, he's actually gotten a little taller…and adorable…' Kendall couldn't help but smile in return, tossing the basketball to the boy.

"Thanks!" Carlos took off, dribbling the ball and then making an impressive jump shot.

Kendall unglued his gaze from Carlos' jean-clad ass, shaking his head as he plodded towards the school building. 'Don't be stupid, the boy is a sophomore. It doesn't matter how good he suddenly looks with a new haircut. Besides, he's straight…isn't he?'

Kendall looked up from his sandwich as the teacher's lounge door opened. Thankfully, it was just James, who never brought any weird, stinky food that would cause him to have to pack everything up and eat in his room. "Hey buddy."

"Hey!" James flashed a smile as he loosened his tie and tossed his hair, catching his own gaze in a nearby mirror and giving it a sultry look before turning his attention back to Kendall. "What's for lunch?"

"I just brought a turkey sandwich and chips."

"Aw, nothing for me?" James teased as he pulled out a plastic container from the fridge. Frowning at his lunch, he pulled opened a nearby cabinet and started rummaging through it. "Forks, forks…"

"Dude, you don't need me to bring you lunch. You have…" He made a face as James sat down across from him. "A salad. Rabbit food."

"It's healthy!" James stabbed into the romaine and chicken breast strips viciously, taking a large bite, and then talking with his mouth full. "What do you think of Carlos Garcia's new haircut?"

"Huh? What?" Kendall blinked at the sudden subject change. "It's nice, I guess."

"You don't have to lie to me you know," James stated flatly, pointing his fork (currently impaling a cherry tomato) at Kendall's face.

"Huh?"

"I saw you do a double take this morning. I have morning playground duty by the courts, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah."

James wiggled a strip of chicken at Kendall and smirked. "So, be honest, what do you think?"

"Honestly? It's pretty sexy. All spikey and faux-hawkish. It suits him…I hadn't realized he'd gotten so good looking this year."

"Hmm, mohawk-inspired haircuts are often seen on cute gay twinks…" James chewed thoughtfully, and then arched an eyebrow. "You have a little crush on him now?"

"What? No!" Kendall blushed, turning his attention to his potato chips and slowly nibbling at one, unable to meet James' judgmental gaze.

James made an incredibly annoying buzzer sound. "Wrong answer! You know I always know what you're thinking." He shrugged. "So you think the kid is kinda hot, it's not a big deal. You'll get over it when you see how annoying or lazy or rude he is."

"Yeah, that's how it always is, huh? They seem all adorable until you see their bratty side." Kendall nodded as he finished up his lunch. "Hey, are you going to tutor after school?"

"I thought about it. The principal wants me to have the gifted students, which will be a snap. They basically just need a teacher in the room to watch them. Easy money. You?"

"Yeah, the money will come in handy. She said something about me having a group of sophomores with low reading scores."

"That's what you get for substitute teaching that English class for the first quarter. Now they know you can teach more than just PE and health."

"Hey, they gave me a pretty sweet bonus for that. And I don't care; there's no one else who can lead our hockey team like I can."

"I could."

"You can just focus on your basketball team." He said the word basketball like it was a dirty word. All sports paled in comparison to hockey.

"Whatever. You better run, man. Your next period starts in like four minutes."

"Aw crap! You're right, and it's freshmen health! They'll tear apart the classroom if I'm not in there, the little psychos." He dashed off, muttering to himself about the day's lesson.

Kendall sighed as he set out the last folder. He hoped he was ready for this. He hadn't taught language arts in over half a year, and he didn't even know just what these students needed help in, other than the fact that their reading scores were low.

He stared at the student roster printed out on his desk. Three kids: One boy and two girls. He knew Camille and Lucy in passing, but the females were the least of his concern. It was the short, adorable Latino boy who he was nervous about.

He picked up the roster and took a deep breath. This wasn't like him. He was the fearless leader, the coach who always had a plan up his sleeve, the big bad hockey player who took down guys twice his size. He wasn't going to let some little tenth grader with a beautiful smile unnerve him.

They were supposed to pick up their students as they came out of their last period. Thankfully all his tutoring students had the same last class.

He stood by the door, shuffling the roster and permission slips and psyching himself up. He was pretty sure these kids wouldn't want to go to tutoring.

"Tutoring, my room, wait by the glass doors," he told the two girls on his list, who walked out together. Both gave harassed sighs and headed towards the direction he pointed.

Carlos popped out a few seconds later, all spikey hair, tanned skin, energy, and smiles. He skidded to a stop when he saw Kendall and pouted. This wasn't good; this boy had expert puppy dog eyes and would totally get whatever he wanted. "Tutoring today?"

"Yup, it's Monday. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, remember? In my classroom."

Carlos let out a dramatic sigh. "Okay."

"There's snack too."

"Awesome, I'm starving!" Carlos took off down the hallway, leaving Kendall to rush off to catch him.

Thankful that he had thought ahead to lock his room's door, Kendall caught up with the students there. He quickly unlocked it and let them in.

"Oh, nice! Cheez-Its!" Carlos dumped the little paper cup full of cheese-flavored crackers into his mouth, chewing happily as he bounced up and down in the hard plastic chair. "Can I have some more?" he asked after swallowing.

"After you sign the attendance log and we get to work," Kendall answered firmly.

Carlos pouted, but scrawled his signature on the paper attached to a clipboard. He opened the folder in front of him and shuffled through the papers, frowning at the reading passages and multiple choice questions. "We're taking a test?"

"No, but I have to see where you need help" Kendall replied, taking Carlos' snack cup and refilling it.

"Ugh, reading is boring!" Carlos proclaimed, leaning back in his chair and starting to toss crackers into the air, impressively catching them in his mouth.

"Don't make a mess-" Kendall started, then sighed as a cracker bounced off Carlos' nose, fell to the floor, and was crushed into the cheap carpet tiles by the feet of Camille's chair as it slid back.

"Oops?" Camille ducked her head, scooting her chair forward, which only ground the orange crumbs into even smaller, impossible-to-pick-up particles.

"We'll vacuum after!" Kendall declared, standing up and clapping his hands. "Okay, everyone make sure you're on page one, we're going to do the benchmark."

Lucy raised her hand. "I don't have a pencil."

Camille started tapping a purple Sharpie marker on her test. "I'm gonna just use this."

"I have one somewhere…" Carlos mumbled as he slammed his backpack from the floor on to the table.

Kendall closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Do you think Mr. Knight's nose is too big?" Camille whispered in the loudest whisper Kendall ever heard.

Lucy smirked, tilting her head and studying their teacher's profile. "I dunno."

"Shhhh, he's gonna get mad!" Carlos muttered, in the process of loading up the table with massive piles of random junk from his backpack as he tried to find a pencil of his own.

Kendall took a deep breath, walked over to a shelf, grabbed a pencil box full of freshly sharpened pencils, and placed it firmly (with a bang) in the center of the table. All three students swiftly cleared the table, grabbed a pencil, and were suddenly quiet and attentive.

"Let's start! I'll read the directions, follow along." Kendall started to read, eyes making sure everyone was actually following along. Carlos was biting his bottom lip, brows furrowed in concentration. When they started reading independently, Carlos mouthing the words silently, Kendall quietly took a seat across from the three. This was going to be an interesting hour.

Author's Note: So, what do you think?