Adam, the first man to be hired into an all-girls school

An app that can make bullshit more convincing? Maybe they should've used it to make that little explanation of theirs more believable. Ridiculous. It's probably some kind of virus. I guess that's what I get for using a smartphone that hasn't received a software update in four years.

I put my antiquated phone back into my pocket.

I suppose it's ironic that a computer science teacher would have such a flaw in his security, but it's not like I can afford anything newer, considering what they're paying me. Don't take me wrong, I'm glad I have the job at all. Especially considering my visa is about to expire. As soon as I quit, I can kiss this country goodbye. But still, when Jenny told me about a school in the middle of the countryside, full of rich young women who don't know what to do with their life, I expected something a bit more idyllic. And, I have to admit, I imagined those girls to be a tad less covered. Yes, yes, I know, I'm a pervy bastard, but don't look at me like being into schoolgirls is that unusual. I mean, they do have a uniform, but I didn't even know they still made skirts this long. A Victorian lady would find these a bit stuffy.

Uniforms aside, this school is honestly the worst job I've ever had. And I've worked in catering. It's certainly an interesting place, made specifically for wealthy, old-fashioned families whose daughters have proved to be less than satisfactory and who, rather than bear the shame of having a kid who failed high school, decide to send them to a place out of sight, where they'll be taken off their plate for a few years until they finally graduate. They usually come in at the age of 18 and leave at around 21. And from what I've seen, that's all this place is. Take the girls in, keep them busy for three years, give them their certificate and let them back into society. Any actual learning is purely optional, and frankly it seems like most of them come out dumber than they got in, only to keep failing upwards for the rest of their life through the sheer gravitational pull of exorbitant wealth.

Naturally, since the owners don't care about the quality of the education, merely the semblance of it, they also don't care about the teachers. As long as you've got the bare minimum legal qualifications, and you're willing to move to the middle of nowhere, only to get severely underpaid, you're good enough. Needless to say their turnover rate is ridiculous, and most teachers are beginners freshly out of college, looking for a line to add to their résumé so they can get an actual decent job later. They do usually only hire women though, as I assume those old money families don't feel comfortable sending their precious baby girls to a boarding school that contains a Male. Hell, the only reason I got to set the historical precedent of letting a penis through the threshold is that they simply couldn't find a female IT expert enough to take the job.

And the crazy thing is, I'm only here as a temporary compromise, until they can find a more permanent (i.e. one year) candidate, even though I'm one of the few people who simply couldn't afford to quit if I was given a long term contract. Every night, I go to bed knowing that I might no longer have a job in the morning, and that I might be to leave the country and the life I built here.

It's kind of funny that I got this weird virus app right when I would need something to make my arguments more convincing.

"Ellen DeJong, Human Resources" reads the door I've been dreading all day.

I've only talked to Ellen once, when she reluctantly agreed to let me work here, and I don't think I've ever seen a colder woman in my life. She looked like a predator. I could swear I saw her baring an unusually sharp canine in a villainous grin when she saw I was dependent on a visa. I could hear the dopamine firing up in glee at all the new opportunities for worker that this opened up.

I don't like her much, in case that wasn't clear.

And here I am, about to grovel and beg her to let me keep working here until the end of the semester. I know it probably won't work, but I can't let myself be fired without at least attempting something first.

I take a deep breath, and I finally manage to knock on the door.

"Come in."

Her tone was so cold you could hear the period at the end of the sentence. It wasn't a request, or even an order. She was instructing you that you were about to come in, and it was too late to turn back.

Alright, Adam, steel yourself. Maybe it'd be easier if I just pretended that the app was real, that I could use magic to make myself more convincing. Fake it till you make it and all that.

There she is, sitting at her immaculate desk in her gray suit. With her blonde hair and her beautiful yet cold face, she looks like she could be involved in a blood-testing tech scandal.

"Good morning, Ms. DeJong", I say in a voice so uncomfortable that it sounds more like the first line of an email than an actual greeting.

"Yes."

"As you know, my current employment situation is rather unstable, seeing as you are currently looking for a replacement. And I would like to ease your burden by suggesting a mutually beneficial arrangement." I'd already rehearsed that part. If you want to convince someone to do something for you, you can't just beg, not initially at least. First, try and make them think they're actually helping themselves.

"Oh? And what could that be?" There's the fang-baring smile again.

"Well, as we've discussed when we first met, my right to reside in this country is currently very precarious, and that puts me in a situation where I have to keep this job. In other words, there are things that I would be ready to deal with that most employees would not. I know your attrition rate is a problem, and finding new staff every year is exhausting. What's the average age of the teachers here? Not even thirty, right? If you just let me keep my job here, I can guarantee that you won't have to worry about the Computer Science class for a long while."

God this is so stupid, why didn't I realise how stupid this is before? I just told her that she can feel free to my rights as much as she wants? Of course she'll realise and tr---

-10 BS. 90 remaining.

Huh?

I just felt myself... losing points? And why is she looking so blank right now?

Her eyes seem to glaze over for a second, before returning to their usual icy sharpness. But something's different about her. She's still smiling but it seems a little bit more genuine, like what she just heard me say made her respect me a little bit more.

"Well, Adam, I will admit that you make a compelling argument, but you know that we can't just have a man on our regular payroll."

This is the first time she's called me Adam and not "you".

"And why is that?"

"You know our patrons are quite conservative about these things. They'd worry about their daughters'... virtue." She said that word with the disdain of a woman who only believes in the virtue of the almighty dollar.

But despite that disdain, I can tell her attitude is completely different. And there's no way my stupid argument actually made her respect me more. I literally told her she could me for crying out loud!

The only explanation is that app. I can't believe it's true, but if it is, I have to try and use it.

She's worried about sexual harassment. There are two ways I go about this. Either I oppose her and say that there's no way I'll do that, but it's always harder to win an argument through direct opposition, and it might lead me in a tight spot, or I try to do a judo pull and use her own argument as my own. It's riskier, but it could lead to a better outcome.