Chapter Text
"Doctor?!" Clara called out from one of the TARDIS many rooms. "What?" The Doctor said as she walked into the control room he was in. "I don't have anything to wear." She told him. "Aren't you wearing clothes right now?" He replied, not very interested in her problem. "These are the clothes I wore yesterday. If I'm interviewing for a job, I need to look professional." Clara explained something she thought was obvious and chose to ignore The Doctor making a comment that he hadn't noticed. It had been a day since they had gotten stuck there. She had an interview at Coal Hill in an hour, and she couldn't show up in day old clothes. What if she ran into Ian? He could remember what she had been wearing, then she would just look unprepared and unprofessional, and she's sure he already might think her fashion is a bit odd for the times.
"Why don't you just find something in the wardrobe?" The Doctor said also as if it should be obvious. "There's a wardrobe in the TARDIS?" Clara asked. She wasn't aware of this. "The TARDIS is infinite. Of course, it has a wardrobe. Where else would I keep my clothes?" He gestured to his outfit, one of three outfits Clara had ever seen this him wear. "You wear the same thing almost every day. Why would I think you had a wardrobe?" Clara countered. The Doctor shook his head. "Do you think I wear the same clothes every day? Honestly, Clara, do you think that little of me? Of course I don't." He said, almost insulted.
"Where is it then?" Clara asked. She had wandered around the TARDIS a couple of times, each time she found new rooms, she'd found a library, kitchen, a sickbay, even some empty bedrooms that The Doctor had locked her out of when he found her in them, but never a wardrobe. "Should be the second left down the hall, past the zero room but before the armoury." The Doctor replied. "Unless the TARDIS decided to move them around, but thats where they were last I checked." He added. Clara paused for a moment. The TARDIS had an armoury? And what the hell was 'the zero room'? "Thanks." She said, deciding she didn't have enough time to ask about that right this second before turning on her heels and going to find this wardrobe.
She wandered down the hallway that always felt impossibly long. She supposed that was part of the TARDIS's impossible geometry. She took the second left, she walked down that hallway passing rooms, some were sealed shut, some had caution tape across the doors with notes from past doctors to their future regenerations reminding them why they shouldn't go in there (one just had 'NO' in capitals written on it in the familiar handwriting of one fez wearing Doctor). She chuckled to herself wondering what that him had been up to as she walked a little further before she came across a door with a wooden sign handing from the door handle, on it was written 'wardrobe'. The sign looked old, and the writing was in cursive, but it looked slightly odd, Clara had noticed that when the TARDIS translated words from other languages, it sometimes made them look a little lopsided. Clara pushed open the door and sure enough there was a wardrobe, the biggest one she had ever seen. She stepped inside and looked around. There were clothes as far as the eye could see from every planet and time period you could imagine, the room felt like it went on forever.
There were corsets and gowns, smocks and tunics, fur coats and jeans. Clothes from everywhere and everywhen in the world. There were things Clara couldn't imagine ever being fashionable, including a comically long multicoloured scarf, a long patchwork coat, a shirt with question marks embroidered on the collar and what looked like a cricket uniform as well as a plethora of fez's and bowties.
Clara ventured through the wardrobe, searching for something to wear. She passed a shirt with a union jack on it, an air stewardess uniform, a floor-length white dress, and a matching coat with a large fur collar. Clara eventually found something suitable amongst the chaos of most of the clothes in the wardrobe.
"Alright, I think I'm ready." Clara said as she returned to the control room twenty minutes later. The Doctor looked up from what he was doing. "Ah, you changed." The Doctor replied. Clara smiled. "You noticed." She was secretly pleased even if she knew he probably only noticed because of their earlier conversation. "It looks nice." The Doctor complimented Clara, which made her secretly even happier. She didn't show that, though. "What's with the compliment?" She asked teasingly. "Do you have some more news to tell me?" The Doctor shook his head. Clara did look nice. She was wearing a yellow checkered shift dress that fell just below the knees over the top of a white blouse with some brown tights covering the rest of her legs and she'd slipped on a pair of black pointed flat shoes. He meant it. She looked nice. The clothes were of the time but still suited her.
"Well, I should get going. I don't want to be late." Clara picked up a small black purse that contained a piece of phycic paper for her references. The Doctor simply nodded. He'd been acting weird since they arrived and not the typical Doctor weird. Since when does he not want to explore? But Clara didn't have time to dwell on these things she had an interview to get to, so she bid The Doctor fair well, and she headed to the interview.
She arrived at the school gates ten minutes early. The school day was only just finishing and a heard of children poured out like caged animals. She stood against a wall by the gates of the school out of the way of the stampede as to not be trampled. One of the last pupils to leave was a young girl, no older than sixteen with short raven hair, who, was carring a stack of books and unlike the rest of her peers, didn't seem to have anyone to walk home with. Clara felt drawn to the girl for some reason. She felt a little sorry for the girl to be all alone, but the feeling was something different.
One of the boys in the group that nearly knocked Clara over yesterday stuck his foot out, tripping the short haired girl and causing her to fall and drop her books. The boys continued on their walk, laughing at the girl on the floor. Clara walked over to the girl, couching down to help her, and started to gather her books back up.
"Oh, thank you, Miss." The girl said as she brushed the dirt off of her trousers. "Don't worry about it." Clara replied and helped the girl up. "Are you alright?" Clara asked it was quite the fall the girl had taken. "I'm perfectly alright Miss." The girl responded. Clara nodded and smiled at the girl as she handed her the books she had dropped. "Do those boys do that often?" Clara asked she wondered if this seemed to be an issue. The girl took her books and thanked Clara again but didn't answer her question. "Thank you Miss now I really must be off. Grandfather doesn't like me being late home." The girl said before running off to her home.
Clara's eyes followed the girl curiously until she was out of sight. "Miss Oswald?" A distinct Irish voice asked from behind her. Clara spun around at the voice to see a larger, below average hight, balding, middle aged man. "That's me." Clara responded in a polite cheerful manner. "I'm Roger Kint, deputy head master here at Coal Hill I'll be interviewing you today." Roger Kint informed her bluntly but not unkindly. "Pleasure to meet you, Sir." Clara offered her hand for a handshake which the man took; his hand was much lager than hers and had a couple ink smudges on the fingers, presumably from marking. Their hands seperated and the man nodded curtly. "Follow me we'll talk in my office first." He turn back to the school and started walking. Clara followed him. They walked through the grand entrance of the school and down the hallway towards his office.
The hall was lined with displays and awards of all the achievements the school and pupils had accomplished Clara recognised a few of them from still being up on the walls decades in the future but the main thing on Clara's mind was nerves. She wasn't sure why. She'd interviewed for jobs before, she'd interviewed for this job before, and she had most definitely been in more stressful and not to mention life-threatening situations. She had fought Daleks, the great intelligence, and many more, but a simple job interview still had her nervous.
They entered a small office with a grand oak desk in the centre with matching oak bookshelves, each lined with folders carefully colour coded in groups of blues reds and yellows. Kint took a seat on the red velvet cushion, which rested on the larger chair behind the desk he gestured to the smaller seat in front of the desk, and Clara sat down.
Luckily for Clara, the many questions asked in the interview were quite similar to those asked at her interview serval decades in the future, so she was more prepared than she thought. The questions passed, and he asked for Clara's references. She reached into her bag, and her hand hovered over the phycic paper The Doctor had given her for a brief moment before she produced it from her bag. Clara took a deep breath before holding it over to the deputy head she wasn't sure if he had the imagination to see what she wanted but things were going well so far so she tried to trust that all would be fine. He took the paper from her hand and he inspected it for a second. Clara didn't dare breathe. "Hm." Kint handed the paper back to her. "Well everything looks in order to me." He said and Clara sighed in relief, she grabbed the paper back and folded it up before sliding it into her bag again. "Wonderful." Clara replied. He nodded curtly. "When can you start?" The Irish man asked as he leaned forward, resting his hands on the desk between them. "As soon as you need me." The woman from Blackpool responded. "Tomorrow?" The man offered and Clara nodded in agreement.
They both stood up from their seats shook hands across the desk. Kint opened the door for Clara and walked her back to the entrance where they had met. "I expect to see you tomorrow 7:30 sharp so you can settled in before the day starts. There is a staff meeting at ten to eight every morning that is were I shall introduce you to your colleagues." He explains as Clara nodded along. "Of course. Monday 7:30 sharp. I'll be there." Clara replied.
Clara walked back to the TARDIS with a new excitement. Even if she already had the job, she couldn't help that boost of serotonin after the successful interview. The sun was still out as she walked home, no clouds in the sky, just the sun, smiling down on her proudly and being accompanied by the wind whispering well done into her ears.
Despite Clara's high mood, she couldn't help but find her mind wandering to places of curiosity. That girl she had spoken to earlier came back to mind. She seemed sweet but their was something about her that felt differently familiar. Perhaps she would get to know her better soon, but right now, she needed to get back to the TARDIS to tell The Doctor she had a job.