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Everyone knew Mr. Geiszler was a firecracker of constant energy. Mako was always swept up in his enthusiasm during his classes, but she was in the minority of students who excelled under him. For all his smiles and bounces and insistence that anyone could be a rockstar biologist, he really did expect his students to give 104% of their effort. Anyone who didn’t was often left in the dust of Mr. Geiszler’s manic energy. But today, the first day of Mako’s senior year, he seemed particularly off the walls.
He hopped from foot to foot during his usual rambling introduction to Anatomy and Physiology, and Mako could see his hands twitching in his pockets. She tilted her head at him in curiosity. He caught her gaze and smiled, shoulders relaxing slightly.
Mako and Mr. Geiszler were friends of a sort, the way overachieving kids and enthusiastic teachers often ended up being. Luck and class rotations had made it so she’d taken at least one class from him every year. In addition to that, she was in his homeroom, and he sometimes attended faculty events hosted by Principal Pentecost. In any case, they were well acquainted enough for her to be seriously concerned for him right now. He nodded at her with a genuine smile, as if to reassure her nothing was wrong.
“But it’s probably time for me to shut up now.” he said, hopping up to sit on his desk, his feet swinging off the floor. “Any questions?”
Mako listened while her classmates lobbed questions at Mr. Geiszler— what animals would they be dissecting in class (answer: fetus pigs and adult cats), how much homework there would be (answer: none if you worked quickly in class, some if you didn’t), and if the class was pass/fail (answer: this is an AP class, guys).
“Come on, guys, these are boring questions! Give me your worst!”
Mako scoffed. She knew he was fishing for questions about his extensive ink, carefully hidden by long sleeves. But bright color peaked out from his collar, and someone caught it.
“Do you have tattoos?” a girl near the front asked, sounding besotted. Mr. Geiszler lit up with a grin. “Sure do! I can only show you the stuff on my arms or Mako’s dad will fire me, but yeah! I’ve put a lot of time and money into these babies.”
He rolled up his sleeves obligingly, showing off the mess of color and lines that completely covered his arms from wrist to shoulder and further. Mako had seen his tattoos plenty of times, so she hung back as some of the others who had never met Mr. Geiszler before crowded up around him. He preened under the attention, as he always did. After a few moments, the same girl who had asked about his tattoos said, “Are you married, Mr. Geiszler?”
Mako stifled a laugh. Mr. Geiszler wasn’t too much older than his students, all things told, and his manner of dress and casual conversation made him seem even younger. This girl was obviously the first of the inevitable crushes of the year. Mako couldn’t blame her, though, since she’d held a short-lived crush on Mr. Geiszler her freshman year, mostly because he was one of the first teachers to take her seriously for a long time. One of the few who didn’t assume that she got into this school because her father was the principal. That crush had faded quickly, replaced with a mentor-mentee relationship, and a weird mix of brother-sister thrown in to boot.
Mr. Geiszler smiled, lifting his left hand to show an obnoxiously chunky silvery-blue ring on his ring finger. “Sure am,” he replied. The girl visibly deflated.
“Your wife is lucky,” she muttered.
Mr. Geiszler laughed. “Well, I think it’s time to move on to actual science. Don’t worry, I won’t assign anything for the first day, but let’s take some time to get acquainted with the textbooks and lab materials. You’ll be getting to know each other really well this semester.”
Mako frowned. Mr. Geiszler never talked about his wife. Which was weird, since he usually refused to shut up about his personal life. But in all the years Mako had known him, she had barely heard a word about his wife. She didn’t even know her name, or how long they’d been married.
She soon forgot about Mr. Geiszler’s wife, preoccupied with transferring her homework assignments from the syllabus to her planner, and joking with her lab partner, Raleigh, about how squeamish he was. He wrinkled his nose at the image of a dissected deer in the textbook.
“Ugh,” he said. “You’re gonna do all the knifework, Mori. I refuse.”
“Who would have guessed the great Raleigh Becket would be so weak around a little blood,” she teased. “Not a great for a nurse-in-training.”
“Hey,” Raleigh said mildly. “I’ll be fine in practice. I don’t mind human blood, it’s just animal stuff that freaks me out. You know they didn’t have anything like informed consent, like humans get.”
Mako patted his head, still smiling. He ducked his head in protest, but knocked his elbow into hers to show he didn't mind.
“Okay, lovebirds, more page-flipping, less flirting,” Mr. Geiszler said, coming to stop next to their lab station. “I’m just kidding,” he said before either Mako or Raleigh could protest.
“Is there something going on today?” Mako asked.
Mr. Geiszler rocked forward on his toes. “One of my college buddies is gonna teach here this semester. It’s a temp position, you know, to teach Mrs. Choi’s physics class while she’s on maternity leave, but I’m hopeful he’ll stay on after anyway. The math department could use a full-time physics teacher, and this school will be a great fit for Hermann— sorry, Dr. Gottlieb.”
“He’s a doctor? Teaching here?” Raleigh asked. Mr. Geiszler shrugged.
“Sure. It’s a prestigious school, almost all the teachers are doctors. I am too, you know, but it’s not a big deal. I don’t care about titles like Dr. Gottlieb does. I wish my students could call me Newt, but that’s a step too far off protocol for Principal Pentecost. Sorry, Mako, mad respect to your old man.”
“I know, Mr. Geiszler,” Mako replied, amused. “And I’m glad one of your friends will be teaching here.”
Mr. Geiszler let out a very small laugh. “ Friend . That’s not quite…well, it’s close enough. Don’t worry if you stumble on a screaming match in the hallway now and then. Just remember, me and Herms have been through a lot. I love the guy, I promise.”
With that cryptic warning, Mr. Geiszler nodded at the two and went to check on another pair of students.
“That was weird,” Raleigh said. Mako nodded in agreement.
She pulled out her schedule—handmade, color-coded, Mako-Mori-style—and grinned.
“Guess what I have second period?”
--
Dr. Gottlieb was the antithesis of Mr. Geiszler, Mako decided, roughly five minutes into Applied Physics. He was around the same age, if she had to guess, but dressed like he was much older in a tweed suit, which was a far cry from Mr. Geiszler’s wrinkled button-up shirts, loose ties, and scuffed shoes. He had a severe haircut, an ornate cane in one hand, and a sensible thin gold ring on his left hand. It seemed he had wheeled in an old, banged-up chalkboard from storage to use instead of the smart board fixed on the wall. The chalkboard was covered in numbers and equations, and Dr. Gottlieb’s hands were covered in chalk dust. He introduced himself curtly.
“My name is Dr. Gottlieb. I will be your physics teacher while Mrs. Choi is on leave. I received my PhD in physics from Oxford. I have been teaching there for some time, but agreed to take this position as a favor to a friend. I expect all my students to meet my standards. If you are struggling or require disability accommodations, please come talk to me during office hours— excuse me, before or after school. Any questions?”
“Who was the favor for?” Mako asked innocently. She knew the answer, of course, but she was interested in hearing it from Dr. Gottlieb.
Dr. Gottlieb took off his glasses, glancing at the seating chart on his clipboard.
“Ah, yes. I prefer not to speak of my personal life to my students, Miss Mori. Any questions about the class?” he clarified.
Determined to get into his good graces again, Mako asked about the research paper required for the final, wondering if she could bring in the mechanical engineering project she was working on in her free time. Dr. Gottlieb looked a little surprised, but said it shouldn't be a problem, and that he’d like to speak with her further. They left class with, by Mako’s estimate, two and a half hours of homework.
--
The first hallway screaming match happened two weeks into the semester. Mako left lunch early to stop by the library and stopped short in the library hallway. Dr. Gottlieb and Mr. Geiszler were face-to-face, mid-fight. Mr. Geiszler’s face was bright red and he looked ready to take a swing at Dr. Gottlieb. He was stopped by the cane that was digging into his shirt, keeping him at bay. Mako couldn’t tell if Dr. Gottlieb was shaking from anger or pain, without his cane to support him.
“Just because you got a cushy job at Oxford waiting for you doesn’t mean you should give up on this school just because you have a couple of slackers and—”
“Newton, you know how important my work is to me! My time and resources would be much better spent on minds who actually want to learn from me! I had to turn down a PhD candidate in order to take this position!”
“Oh, boo hoo!”
“Don’t be childish, Newton, that girl needed me there to guide her—”
“Oh really! Did she need you! How about me, Herms? Did you ever think that I needed you? Here?”
All the fight left them, both at once. Dr. Gottlieb lowered his cane slowly. Mr. Geiszler ran a hand through his messy hair.
“Newt…” Dr. Gottlieb said softly.
“It’s nothing, okay? Forget it. Go. I know you haven't eaten lunch yet. Your blood sugar is crashing, I can feel it from here.”
“We’ll talk about this later,” Dr. Gottlieb said resignedly.
“Yeah, okay. See you,” Mr. Geiszler said quietly. Dr. Gottlieb hesitated. He put a hand on Mr. Geiszler’s shoulder, and Mr. Geiszler turned his head to rest against the hand for a brief second. Then they walked away.
Mako went back to her locker, still holding her overdue library book.
--
“Sir?” Mako called, dropping her backpack on the floor.
Pentecost poked his head out of his study.
“Mako, good to see you. Did practice end early?”
“I skipped. I needed the extra time to do my physics homework. And I wanted to talk to you before you left for your meeting.”
Pentecost nodded. He trusted Mako enough to know that she wouldn’t skip practice without good reason.
“What was your question?” he asked. Mako hesitated.
“It’s about Dr. Gottlieb and Mr. Geiszler. I heard them arguing today.”
Pentecost rubbed his forehead briefly.
“Yes, they do that.”
“Sir, you do everything in your power to make your school run smoothly. There’s never been a fight between faculty members. You wouldn't let it happen.”
“Yes. I know. Mako, as infallible as you think I am, there are just some things I cannot control. And trust me when I say that it’s better to keep them both here, bickering, than to lose our best science teacher.”
“What do you mean?” Mako asked.
“Newton Geiszler works better when his—when Dr. Gottlieb is around. He keeps Geiszler grounded. One more year without Gottlieb around would have driven Geiszler off the deep end. I’d rather have the fights than have to fire one of the best teachers I’ve ever met.”
“I…I don’t understand.”
“You will someday,” Pentecost said. He cocked his head to one side. “How’s that Raleigh boy? You keeping him out of trouble?”
“It’s the other way around,” Mako said. “He’s good, Dad.”
“Bring him around for dinner sometime,” Pentecost said, more order then request. Mako smiled and nodded. She picked up her backpack again and headed for her room to wrestle with equations for a few hours, the two teachers’ bizarre fight already forgotten.
--
Senior year, Mako discovered, was when she was allowed to take liberties. The first three years of high school, she’d been good. She didn’t break rules, she did her homework, stayed on top of her classes, and cultivated positive relationships with her teachers. All of that was still true. Mostly. But now every teacher in the school knew that Mako Mori could be trusted, and that allowed her to have…certain privileges not afforded to other students. Like checking out of study hall to hang out in Mr. Geiszler’s classroom instead of the library. She didn’t do it every day, but it was nice to take a break from the routine of study hall to hang out with Mr. Geiszler, who was more than happy to let her listen to music and chat. Raleigh joined her sometimes, but not always. This particular day in October, Mako was feeling the pressure of midterms approaching, and decided to push her privileges a little further and visit Mr. Geiszler during lunch. When she and Raleigh got to his room, it was empty.
“Huh,” Mako said, dropping her lunch tray on the desk. “He’s usually here by now.”
“Maybe he’s pouting,” Raleigh suggested. There had been another shouting match that morning, which were growing more frequent and public. This one was about some research project Geiszler and Gottlieb had collaborated on in college that Geiszler had, apparently, fucked up. Gottlieb was still upset about it.
“Maybe,” Mako said. She opened her notebook. “Hey, do you have a pen? I left mine in my backpack.”
“Sorry,” Raleigh said, standing up. “Mr. Geiszler has one on his desk. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you b—holy shit.”
“What?” Mako asked.
“Holy shit,” Raleigh repeated. He picked up a slip of paper on Mr. Geiszler’s desk. “There’s a note here, listen to this: Newton, you know how I hate our squabbles. Perhaps you could forgive me tonight, over dinner? We could go to that place you love, with the loud music and expensive drinks. My treat. H.”
He looked at Mako in disbelief.
“Holy shit, Mako! Mr. Geiszler is having an affair with Dr. Gottlieb!”
“What? No. No. What?” Mako snatched the note from Raleigh, studying it. She recognized Dr. Gottlieb’s cramped, slanted handwriting.
“No, he wouldn’t! Mr. Geiszler loves his wife too much to cheat on her.”
“How can you possibly know that? He never talks about her. Half the school doesn't even think she actually exists. That ring looks fake as hell, you know.”
Mako shook her head. “No, he loves her. Once he got drunk at a faculty dinner party at my house. He went to garden to cool down and I was there. We got to talking about—stuff— and he told me about his wedding, how he eloped because his parents didn’t approve of his fiancé. He said he’d do it all over again if he had to.”
Mako shook her head again. No way would Mr. Geiszler cheat. They’d spent a lot of time talking that evening, way back in Mako’s sophomore year. Drunk Mr. Geiszler was just as truthful as sober Mr. Geiszler, maybe even more so, since he didn’t have to put up a front. Even though he probably didn’t remember the conversation, Mako believed everything he’d told her.
“Well, how else do you explain this? Are you saying they’re just friends?” Raleigh asked.
“Yes—no—I’m saying there’s something else going on,” Mako insisted. She snapped her fingers. “We need to find out.”
“Oh, no,” Raleigh said quickly. “Mako, we are not going to spy on our teachers.” He paused before asking meekly, “are we?”
Mako set the note back on the desk, feeling determination fill her up. “Yes. We are.”
Raleigh sighed. “I hope you know the moment we get caught, I’m selling you out to your father.”
--
A week into Operation: Are They Fucking? (otherwise known as Op: RTF) and even Mako had to admit there was something going on. Half the time, Dr. Gottlieb arrived at school at 6:59 am, in an old, compact car, and Mr. Geiszler arrived at 7:33 in a flashy sports car. The other half the time, they walked in together at 7:10, and only Dr. Gottlieb’s car was in the parking lot. They ate lunch together in Dr. Gottlieb’s room most days, and if one was in the teacher’s lounge, the other wasn’t, so obviously they didn't want to be seen together. Raleigh swore he saw them holding hands in the parking lot after school. Even if they had come to school separately, they left together at the end of the day. Even though that meant Gottlieb stayed past his contract hours, waiting for Geiszler to make up the half-hour in the morning. One day they both had hangovers, which Mako detected with her super observation skills (Mr. Geiszler put on a documentary and Dr. Gottlieb stayed firmly seated behind his desk and told the class that this was a study hall period for their research papers).
But she still wasn’t convinced. At least, until.
Until she walked into Mr. Geiszler’s classroom for her semi-regular study hall hang out and found Dr. Gottlieb already there. His back was turned to the door, so he didn’t notice her. Neither did Mr. Geiszler, who was sitting at his desk with a lapful of Dr. Gottlieb. Mako must have made some kind of sound— not a squeak, okay— and the two broke apart.
Dr. Gottlieb jumped up immediately. “Miss Mori!” he said, wiping his mouth hurriedly. Mako put a hand over her eyes while Mr. Geiszler buttoned up the top of his shirt.
“Hey, Mako, sorry about that,” he said. “Really unprofessional of us, I know.”
Mako lowered her hand. “Unprofessional? That’s all you have to say? Mr. Geiszler, what about your wife? And Dr. Gottlieb, you’re married too! I mean, you’re both adults so it’s not like I can judge you for your personal lives, but I’m just—” Mako shook her head in disbelief. “Mr. Geiszler, why are you doing this?”
“My w—” Mr. Geiszler started, looking startled and confused. His face cleared quickly, the expression replaced with delight. He laughed, reaching out to clap Dr. Gottlieb’s shoulder. “Oh, Mako, I am so sorry, I thought you knew!”
“Knew what?”
Dr. Gottlieb stepped in. His face was still flushed, but his demeanor suggested nothing but composure and dignity.
“Miss Mori, it is true that I am married, as is Dr. Geiszler. But there seems to be some confusion as to whom we are married to. Which is, of course, to each other.”
“To each—oh.”
Mako felt like smacking her forehead. “Of course.”
All that spying, all those scandalous moments she and Raleigh had observed were nothing but normal interactions for a married couple. Arriving at work together, leaving together, holding hands, everything.
“But that night at the dinner party, you talked about your…” Mako trailed off, realizing that never, not once in that conversation, did Mr. Geiszler mention the gender of his fiancé. Mr. Geiszler shrugged a little guiltily.
“A bad habit I picked up when me and Herms were still working towards our PhDs. Higher academia is still pretty homophobic, and it was hard enough to land candidacies at the same university without giving them a reason to boot one or both of us. It was easier to just…not tell people. And I guess I haven't shaken it.”
Mako felt her face heat. “I’m really sorry,” she started, but Mr. Geiszler waved her off.
“Really, Mako, don’t worry about it. I’m sorry for any moral or personal distress me and Hermann have caused you, actually.”
“Perhaps,” Dr. Gottlieb said, “we should consider being more open about our relationship, to avoid a similar situation in the future.”
Mr. Geiszler looked up at Dr. Gottlieb with such open adoration that Mako looked away. Hope in his voice, he said, “you’d do that, Hermann? Go public with it? I thought you said—”
“I know what I’ve said,” Dr. Gottlieb said quietly. “But it’s always bothered you, the secrecy. And I’m going to be here for any length of time, it would be best to get past the rumor mill before it can begin.”
“Herms. You’re…going to stay here? With me? Even after the leave is up?”
“You’re right, you know. Long-distance is hard on both of us. I need you as much as you need me, and that’s difficult from an ocean away.”
Without ever taking his eyes from Dr. Gottlieb, Mr. Geiszler said, “Mako, you better cover your eyes again, or leave, because I’m about kiss my husband in a very non-workplace-friendly way.”
Mako gave him a thumbs up, immediately turning to go.
“See you tomorrow, Mr. Geiszler, Dr. Gottlieb,” she called, and closed the door behind her.
--
“Op: RTF is over,” Mako said as soon as she saw Raleigh.
“What? Why? Did we get caught?” he asked. Mako shook her head.
“You’ll see soon,” she promised. The bell rang and she could hardly stop herself from skipping down the hallway.
“What does that mean?” Raleigh yelled after her. “Hey! Mako! What! Does! That! Mean!”
--
The next day, Mr. Geiszler winked at Mako when she entered the classroom. She smiled back at him and went to take her seat next to Raleigh. The period went smoothly, nothing out of the ordinary, until right before the bell, when the class was chatting about homework. Someone complained about the amount of homework they had from Dr. Gottlieb. Mr. Geiszler rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I keep telling my husband to go easy on you kids, but he won’t listen. Just because he’s a nerd who likes to do homework doesn’t mean everyone else is.”
Raleigh hit Mako’s arm with his pencil so hard it left a mark.
“Did he just say his husband ?” he hissed. Mako smiled, waiting for the shoe to drop. Then the door opened and Dr. Gottlieb walked in. He handed Mr. Geiszler an insulated lunch box.
“You forgot your lunch at home again,” he said.
“Thanks, babe,” Mr. Geiszler replied, giving Dr. Gottlieb a kiss on the cheek. The bell rang to two dozen teenagers with their mouths hanging open, and Mako Mori smiling hard enough to make her cheeks ache.