Damien

Damien is a major character. He was a recurring character in Season 3, and become a regular character for the rest of the shows entirety in Season 4. Damien is an unofficial teacher at the school, the fourth male LGBT character, as well as the third Mystery Character to appear on the show.

Biography
Tina was introduced in the 3x01 as the new head sports teacher, and was privately employed by John to fast track to process of replacing Nial. He is also trained in psychology which John used to his advantage after Emma and Jono had moved away. At first, Damien seems like a down t earth guy, but it's later revealed he has a secret that he's willing to hide at all costs. Damien is a very emotional, yet private person, often keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself.

Season 3
Tina was introduced in the 3x01 as the new head sports teacher, and was privately employed by John to fast track to process of replacing Nial. Due to his skills in psychology, John organized weekly sessions between Jake and Damien in order for Jake to overcome his demons. At first, Jake was afraid of speaking to Damien, but eventually let out his heart and soul to Damien, spilling out all his secrets. This was the first time Jake had ever been completely honest with someone, thus he started crushing on Damien. Damien continued teaching the Club kids, as well as counselling Jake, which proved difficult given Jake's feelings towards him, however Damien was starting to feel things, too. When the school went into Lockdown, Damien and Jake confided in each other, and ended up kissing. Once the Lockdown ended, the two became very awkward towards one another, and avoided each other at all costs. Jake and Damien finally had a mature heart to heart where they both confessed their feelings to each other. At first Damien was reluctant to date Jake as he was a teacher, but Jake explained that he's privately employed by John, not the department, and that John is his God father, as well as the Principal, if he tries to do anything to their relationship, Jake will not be happy. Damien agrees to date Jake, but wants to do so in secret. Jake finds it difficult to hide his relationship, as he wants to show the world who makes him happy, and asks him to be his date to Emma and Jono's wedding. Damien says they can't go together as it'll be too risky, so they end up going separately. This upsets Jake, but the two manage to share a final dance together before wedding ends. After Jake went to NYC with Gabbie after receiving a phone call from Adam, thinking something isn't right, Damien decides to secretly follow Jake to New York. They eventually meet up and Jake is mad, but soon forgives Damien. Damien meets Adam, and reveals he used to be the old Club coach, and gives him a few tips. Gabbie questions why Damien followed Jake all the way to New York, and Jake comes clean, revealing that they're dating, but begs her to keep it a secret. When they return from New York, John soon puts the pieces together and realizes Damien followed Jake to New York, and confronts Jake about it, and Jake comes clean. John is angry at the thought of the two of them dating, and says he has to report it, but Jake begs and explains that he can't, Jake is finally happy and it's not right of John to strip him of that happiness after being miserable for so long. John reluctantly agrees to keep his mouth shut, but says if the rest of the school finds out, he can't guarantee Damien will be able to keep his job. After Drew returns, and the rumors of Damien being a drug dealer start circulating, John asks Drew to start digging for information on Damien, who has been very secretive about his past. Drew and Damien start butting heads, and the two are constantly fighting for what's better for the Club. Drew soon finds out that Damien's grandmother is in a nursing home, and goes to visit her under an alias. Whilst visiting, his grandmother reveals some information about Damien, but doesn't go into specifics. Drew pleads, and she agrees to tell him, but then suffers a stroke and dies. Damien finds out that Drew was visiting her when she died and confronts him. Drew tells Damien he can do whatever he wants, but he knows he's hiding something, and sooner or later it's going to come out, Damien's past begins to unravel, and feels he should come clean to Jake before he finds out otherwise. He invites Jake over for a dinner where he plans to explain everything, but being the first time Jake has gone to Damien's house, he can't help but look around. He notices a number of certificates on the wall with the name "Damianos Paneras", and Damien says he is half Greek, but doesn't get along with his parents so dropped the Greek parts of his name. Jake is suspicious of Damien, and goes to the bathroom, where he comes across a number of Damien's medicine vials. In fear, Jake quickly googles to name Damianos Paneras and finds an article that reads "Man won't be charged for incident that killed three, including brother". Damien knocks on the door telling Jake dinner is ready, which scares him, dropping his phone in the sink, breaking it. Jake goes out and sits down at the dining table. Jake asks Damien questions, saying he knows he hiding something from him. Damien says now is not the time, and wants to explain later, but Jake wants answer now. Damien gives in, revealing that his parents were huge homophobes, raised with strict Christian morals. He had a brother, who was everything Damien wasn't, specifically straight. His parents stopped loving him the day they found out he was gay, and gave extra love to his brother. Even though his brother was raised the same way, he was the only one in his family that accepted Damien for who he was. One night, they were going out for dinner, where a car missed a stop sign, and ran straight into Damien, killing themselves, and Damien's brother, Christos. At the hospital, his parents only sat by his brothers side, and never once bothered to visit Damien, who was in a critical condition. When they learned they had to turn off Christos' life support, they resented Damien even more for killing their perfect son. After the trial went to court, Damien got off scott-free as it was the fault of the other drivers for skipping the stop sign, and it wasn't his fault at all. However this wasn't good enough for his parents, and they still blamed him. Damien then moved away once he recovered, changing his name and starting a new life. He started seeing a therapist who gave him antidepressants, and this help is what inspired him to get into psychology himself. Jake is infuriated once he learns this and storms out, leaving Damien upset. Damien tries to speak to Jake, but Jake isn't interested. However, the two finally talk and Jake apologizes, saying he overreacted, and that must have been really hard on Damien for keeping it to himself all these years, he explains he just felt hurt as he'd opened up to Damien about his life, but he hadn't opened up to him about his. The two kiss, and then go and have sex together for the first time. The two are in a happy place during the final episode, but explosion soon happens, jeopardising their future.

Season 4
Damien survives the explosion, but Jake suffers from amnesia, and is unable to remember who Damien is. Jake then starts dating Drew, which makes Damien mad. Damien tries his hardest to get Jake to remember him, but his effort come to no success, and he considers moving away. With the help of Gabbie, Jake soon remembers who Damien is, and they run Drew out of town, and go back to being a happy couple. After extensive media coverage of the explosion, the school is suffering a bad reputation as it, but a journal article rises revealing Damien's secret, and badmouthing him as a teacher. Damien is unsure of how they could have found out, as Jake was the only one who knew, but soon figures out it was his parents. He calls up his parents, asking them to meet, and they come over and stay with Damien. His parents are the complete opposite of what he said they were, and are very loving and supportive towards Damien. Damien tells Jake something doesn't seem right, and Jake says maybe they've changed, but Damien says they never could. He considers telling them he's dating Jake, but decides not to. Damien eventually realizes that it was his parents who tipped off the paper, and they managed to find where he was after seeing he was a teacher after the explosion received coverage on the news. They tell Damien they killed their only son, and they'll hate him forever, stopping at nothing to ruin his life. Damien gives his parents some hard truths, and they start to feel guilty of how they treated Damien. They son come to realize they were unfair in a way, but still don't want any type of relationship with Damien. Damien agrees and they move back home.

Trivia

 * Damien was created by one of the writers having a crush on one of their school teachers and thinking "what if".
 * The writers were aware of the controversy they would get for having a student become involved with a teacher, so they decided to have Damien be privately employed by John instead of the department.