Chapter Text
Don knew the way to the high school already- over the past three days he’d driven the route five times, just to make sure (the professor who’d suggested he apply for the program once described him as possessing “the mix of overconfidence and insecurity non-existent outside of the acutely neurotic”- thankfully not in his letter of recommendation). The property he was renting was actually a little outside the town limits, meaning every time he left his house he passed the sign welcoming him to Belmonte in a cheery script. His car stuck out among the few in the parking lot of Edward R. Murrow Memorial High School at six A.M. on the first day of school. Smaller, to be sure, but the paint was newer and brighter. The high school wasn’t much to look at, but Don, not more than a few years out of one himself, knew high schools were the same everywhere. Different towns, same people.
He took a breath and pushed the front door open. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go, and ended up wandering the halls, looking for someone he could ask for help.
“Are you lost?”
He turned around to face the sourced of the voice. A British accent wasn’t quite what he expected to find in rural Nebraska.
“A little.” He admitted. “I’m Don Keefer, I’m-”
“Will’s intern.” She finished for him. “I’ll bring you to his class.” She stuck out her hand.
“MacKenzie McHale. English teacher. You can call me Mac.”
He shook. “Don Keefer.”
“You said that already.” She gestured to the staircase and he followed her up. “You’re here all year?”
“Yeah, it’s a pilot program. Letting education students spend their third year, you know, teaching, instead of a internship that lasts a couple of months.”
She held the stairwell door open for him, eyebrows raised. “Third year? How old are you?”
“Nineteen. I skipped a couple of grades.”
“Christ, they’re going to have a field day with you.” She said breezily, brushing past him. “We have students older than you.”
“Any advice?”
“If they don’t eat you alive, I’d consider it a success.” She pushed a classroom door open, stepping inside while Don hung back in the doorway. The man sitting at the teacher’s desk stood up when he saw her, not exactly smiling, but clearly pleased to see her. “When did you get back?” He asked.
“My flight landed last night.”
He frowned. “Heathrow to...”
“O’Hare, O’Hare to Lincoln.” She finished.
“Amtrak?”
“Combined with a cab fare I’d rather not think about.”
“I could have driven you.”
“No.” Mac said emphatically. “We are never doing that again.” She turned to Don. “Nine hours in a car with him. It was unbearable.”
The man nodded to Don. “Picking up strays again?” He asked MacKenzie.
“He’s not a student, he’s your intern. Don Keefer, Will McAvoy.”
“Is he old enough to drive at night?”
“He skipped a few grades.” She gestured for Don to enter the room. “I’m sure you’ll get along fine.”
“Have you seen Jim yet?” Will asked. “I almost expected him to be here before me.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that, actually.” Mac said, smiling at him in a way that clearly demonstrated her intent to extricate a favour from him. “They’ve moved department head meetings from Wednesdays to Thursdays this year. Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m supposed to supervise newspaper club after school so I thought you could take Thursdays. All you have to do is sit at your desk for an hour while Jim runs his meeting.”
Will groaned. “Mac...”
“Come on, when I not been there for you?”
“You’ve never not been there for me.” He replied dutifully. “Can’t you just do it another day?”
“He’s busy other days. Come on, Will, this is my time of need!”
“Sounds more like Jim’s time of need to me.”
“Jim’s time of need is my time of need!”
“Your obsession with that boy-”
“Please just say yes!”
He gave up. “Fine.”
“Great!” She grinned at him. “Turning down deparment head isn’t looking so good now, is it?”
“I was trying to avoid extra work, not-”
“I’m going to leave you two to get acquainted.” MacKenzie said. “Don, let me know if you need anything, and don’t let Will push you around.” She shut the classroom door behind her, leaving Don alone with Will, who sat back at his desk and resumed his paperwork.
After a pause, Will spoke. “You go to...”
“Northwestern.”
“What are you doing all the way out here.”
“Pilot program. Your principal- Charlie Skinner? He liked the idea.”
“He would.” Will looked satisfied with Don’s answer. “You can go get the history textbooks off the shelf in the back room.”
Don nodded, opening the door to the class’ storage room. “Not a lot of books.” He called out. “Small class?”
“Everyone shares with another student.”
Don returned with an armful of books. “You only have enough textbooks for half your class?”
“You’re not in Chicago anymore, Dorothy.”
“Northwestern is actually in Evanston.” Don said quickly. “And it’s not like urban areas are known for their stellar education budgets, but-”
Will cut him off, glancing up. “Are you planning on remaining a pain in the ass all year?”
*
An hour later, classes were in full swing. Will and Mac had taught everyone before with the exception of the ninth graders, many of whom they knew already. Mac did notice an unfamiliar face in the back of her freshman English. The same girl caught her eye outside during the lunch hour, and Mac watched her point a Polaroid camera at the few scraggly trees surrounding the school.
“You like taking pictures?”
The girl spun around. “I, um- yeah.”
“You’re in my English class, right?”
“Yeah. I’m Maggie.”
MacKenzie smiled sympathetically. “New in town?”
“We moved over the summer.”
“From?”
“Cedar Hills.” Maggie grimaced.
“Ah.” Mac nodded in understanding. “Containing-”
“Neither cedar, nor hills.” Maggie finished for her. “Moving from this school’s rival hasn’t-” She searched for the right word. “endeared me to anyone, it would seem.”
“How long have you been taking pictures?”
“Oh, I’m not good or anything, I just got this camera for my birthday.”
“Tomorrow, after school. My classroom. The newspaper club is meeting, and they need a new photographer.”
“I’m not sure-”
“Come.” MacKenzie said firmly. “It’ll be a good way to meet some people. I-” She spotted a figure emerging from the school. “Excuse me, I’ve got to go, but come find me if you need anything.” She started making her way towards the figure. “Jim! Jim!”
His face broke into a smile when he saw her. “Ms McHale! Hi!”
“How was your summer?” She asked him.
“Good. How was England?”
“It was nice. Did you get the package I sent you?”
“Yeah.”
She looked at him expectantly. “And?”
“I-” Jim took a breath. “I tried, okay? I really did. But it’s a thousand pages, and it goes really slowly, and I couldn’t finish it.”
“How far did you get?”
“Chapter three?” He said meekly.
“Oh, Jim.” She sighed, smiling.
“I’m sorry, I know how important that book is to you.”
She leaned in. “Would it make you feel any better, ” She said quietly. “if told Mr. McIvor hasn’t actually read it, he just saw the musical?”
“It would, a little.” Jim said. “Wait, really?”
Mac grinned conspiratorially. “You’d best keep that one between you and me, he’d have my head if he knew I’d told anyone.”
“I won’t tell anyone.” He promised.
“By the way.” She said. “I’ve already got three people to join newspaper.”
He smiled apologetically. “You don’t have to do that.”
“I figured you’d need the help repopulating after the stunt you pulled last year.”
“It wasn’t a stunt!” Jim protested. “I may have… edited the newspaper a bit before we printed it.”
“Without consulting, and in fact, against the direct orders of, your editor-in-chief.”
“I still won the leadership vote.”
“Do you think any of the seniors are coming back this year?” She asked.
“If the dirty looks they’ve been giving me all summer are anything to go by, I doubt it.”
“Well, I guess we’ll know tomorrow.” She glanced around. “I’ve got to find Mr. McAvoy, I’ll see you in class.”
*
Don considered Will with suspicion as they surveyed the school grounds on lunch duty. “You’re saying I can point to anyone here and you can tell me everything about them.”
Will shrugged. “That’s small town life for you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Try me.”
Don glanced around. Someone caught his eye. A dark haired girl, doing laps around the field with the rest of the track team, but running ahead of the rest of them, with a determination that made him a little afraid. “Her.” he said. “Who is she?”
Will snorted. “She’s easy. Sloan Sabbith, senior. Pride and joy of Murrow Memorial. Track star, debate team captain, challenging six AP courses."
“I didn’t think this school offered AP courses.”
“We don’t. Hence, challenging. She’s been sending strongly-worded letters to the College Board about their scheduling the micro- and macro- economics exams at the same time so she can’t take both.”
“Wow.”
“She’s a bit of a legend around here. Apparently she punched a senior in the face on her first day as a freshman.”
“Is that true?” Don asked. “I mean, you would have been there, right?”
Will shrugged. “Can’t really remember, to be honest. Students come in, students leave, it all happens so fast.”
“Can I- Can I ask-” Don hesitated. “You don’t seem particularly invested in your students.”
Will was about to respond when MacKenzie appeared behind him. “When’s your first unit test?” She asked.
“Probably the twenty-seventh.” He replied.
She nodded, turning to Don. “I don’t like to give students two tests on the same day if I don’t have to.” She said. “Being unnecessarily cruel is just...” She trailed off. “Unnecessarily cruel.”
“Well put.” Will commented.
“Thanks.”
“Don here was just telling me I’m not invested in my students.”
“Oh, God.” Mac said. “He hasn’t heard about the mission to civilize yet?”
“Don’t worry, he will.”
“Will it be condensed from the four hours you spent telling me about it when I first got here?”
“If I’m feeling generous.”
She grinned at him. “I’ve got to go, I’ll talk to you later, okay?” By the end of her sentence she was already rushing off.
"So, what’s her story?” Don asked Will.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, it doesn’t sound like she was born here.”
“She moved here two years ago. By a mile the smartest person on staff. She taught at Barnard before coming here.”
Don couldn’t contain his surprise. “She left Barnard for this? Why?”
Will raised his eyebrows. “We do live here, you know.”
“I didn’t mean-”
“I know.”
“But seriously, why did she leave?”
“Why do you ask?” His words came a little too quickly and Don sensed the need to back off.
“I was just wondering.”
Will softened a little “She moved here two years ago and Charlie calls her ‘The Junior Class’ unofficial twenty-second member’. She has a bit of a penchant for getting involved in her students’ personal lives.”
“You though I was one of her strays.” Don recalled.
“Yeah.”
“Jim, he’s one of them.”
“Neither of them had any friends when she first got here, so she made him into some kind of project. Coaxing him out of his shell.”
“And it worked?”
Will shrugged. “He’s always kind of irritated me, to be honest.” The bell rang. “Come on,” He said. “We’ve got seniors first, then freshmen.”
Don followed him inside. He had the feeling this was going to be an interesting year.