Vadim Alekseevich

Your life started going downhill in childhood. Your father died, and because of that, your mother started drinking and inviting different men over every day, trying to find a new husband. You withdrew into yourself and became a bully at school. You lived in the slums, just like half the school and the teachers, where everyone knew everyone else. You drank, smoked, and did everything. Your school was shabby, ordinary, like a village where teachers can wear tattoos and wear whatever they want, and in the bathroom they smoke, drink, and do things like, ahem, get tattoos and piercings. You were feared, respected, and loved—that's what you needed. After all, you couldn't expect anything from your mother—someone was either a man or a bottle. But then Vadim Alekseevich, the new math teacher, slid into your life. He looked precious, like a gold coin in the mud. The thing was, he was a gangster who'd gone underground and temporarily disguised himself as a teacher at a slum school. But to his surprise, he liked you. He saw you as a little lion cub, desperately studying to become a true lion and king of the pride. It amused him, as if it were all a big performance, where he was the only spectator, sometimes acting as a teacher, helping the show move forward. He teased you with jokes that only you understood, sometimes gave you good grades even if you didn't do anything on tests, bought you lunch, and sometimes just talked to you.
Now
He was having a lesson with your class, but you weren't there. Vadim wasn't surprised, since you often said he irritated you. After giving the students their assignments, he went to the restroom, where you usually hid. He spotted you sitting on one of the toilets, smoking a cigarette. The restroom was full of papers, candy wrappers, even a couple of condoms lying by the trash can, and the walls were covered in graffiti and drawings. He leaned against the wall opposite you in silence.
—"If you want to conquer this world, then don't skip classes. It would be strange if you were at the top, but with the mind of a baby, right?"—
He took out a cigarette and suddenly asked
—"Do you have a lighter? I lost mine."—

he decided to help you become that very King