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“So... Physics! Physics, eh? Physics! Phyyyysics! Physics! Physics! Physicphysicphysicphysicphysics, physics!"
Rose Tyler covered her mouth, stifling a laugh. John Smith, the Doctor to his students and the occasional coworker, did this every year with his physics class and it never got old. Besides Mr. Harkness, the gym teacher, John had to be the most favored teacher in their school. All the students at the high school wanted him as their science teacher (be it for chemistry, biology, or, yes, physics) because even though he talked about a mile a minute and ran around the classroom like a maniac, he made learning fun and taught his subjects in a way that they actually understood. It also didn’t hurt that he had an award winning smile and amazing hair, but no one would ever admit that.
Especially not Rose herself. No, no, no, the two were just friends, thank you very much. No matter how much she wanted to grasp him by the tie and snog him until his brain stopped functioning, and run her hands through his already ridiculously messy (sexy!) hair. Just friends. Just. Friends.
Who knew two words could put such a damper on her mood?
Rose blinked once and shook herself out of her thinking. She could think about all her unrequited, altogether pathetic feelings for him when she was alone and had no chance of making herself look like an idiot (because really, why would someone like him go for someone liked her?) No, she had a job to do, and she couldn't let her daydreaming get in the way of her finishing it, so she quickly smoothed out her skirt, threw her hair over her shoulders, and opened the door.
If she checked to make sure her blouse was just revealing enough, well, that was nobody’s business.
The minute John heard the door open, he stopped his rambling about the curriculum and how the students were going to be graded and turned around, having been facing away from the door when Rose stepped in. When he saw her his face split into his trademark manic grin, one that she couldn't help but return.
She was so besotted it was almost depressing.
"Ro- Miss Tyler! What can I do for you?"
She already knew that she was smiling like the world’s biggest idiot. "The phoning system's on the fritz, as usual. I was already in the office getting my mail so they asked me to tell you that you haven't submitted your attendance yet."
"School's been in session for all of five minutes!"
Rose's eyebrows shot up, and, somehow, that stupid grin on her face grew even wider. "You do realize school has actually been in session for twenty minutes, and you've spent all of that time messing with your seating chart like you do every year?" Some things never changed.
John opened his mouth and then closed it again. His eyes darted over to the clock, and he slumped ever so slightly. "Never mind that! The people down at the office need to learn to be more patient anyway!"
"You say that every year too. Just get in your attendance, all right?" She gave him one of those tongue- touched grins, and he smiled back at her. Neither noticed the students whispering with wide eyes, how they'd glance at the two teachers ever so often then quickly avert their gazes. It wasn't until a student coughed rather loudly and obnoxiously (but really, what other way was there to get their attention?) that the two snapped out of it and John went over to submit his attendance.
"So I'll see you later, then?" Rose asked, pretending not to sound too hopeful. Normally the two met up in one or the other’s classroom during lunch break, but new year, new students, there was no telling what could change.
"Correctamundo, a word I have never used before and hopefully never will again," he said as he came back from the computer, hands shoved in his pockets. Rose would have gladly stayed there forever, but her first class of the day was in just about twenty minutes and she had to get back to the classroom to make sure she had everything she needed to make the class run as smoothly as possible.
"Right, then, I'll be off. See ya later, Jo- Mr. Smith." Maybe Doctor would’ve been easier. At least then she wouldn’t be stumbling over her words like a besotted idiot (which she was, but he didn’t need to know that). With one more grin she turned on her heel and walked out the door.
Back in the classroom with John, the students looked at each other. Their teachers really were clueless, weren't they?
...
Rose stood in front of her first class of the day, mentally cataloging all the supplies she needed for this class and quickly taking attendance. She recognized a lot of the upperclassmen in the room, so those names weren’t a problem, but it would take a little while to get the freshmen and some of the sophomores in her head. Oh well, nothing she wasn’t used to.
"Right, then," she said, raising her voice so the rowdy students would quiet down. "I recognize a good amount of you from last year, but not all, so I'll just introduce myself again; I'm Miss Tyler and welcome to studio art." Rose took a few more minutes to go over the curriculum and how she expected the class to behave and so forth, trying to be as brief as possible so as not to lose the attention of her students. "Any questions?" she asked at the end.
A junior with short brown hair and a bright blue hoodie, who's name was Elizabeth, Rose remembered, raised her hand. "Are you and Mr. Smith dating?" she asked, leaning forward onto the table, head propped up in her hands. If Rose remembered correctly, she had been in John’s earlier physics class, and from the years she’d had her as a student she knew the girl was always ready to speak her mind and get herself into trouble (a brief flash of the time she organized a particularly unorthodox dress code strike came to mind- she had served detention for that for weeks).
Rose sighed, annoyed but not altogether surprised. "I'm sorry? I don't think that's an appropriate subject for-"
"Yeah!" Another girl, Alyssa, cut in. "What's going on between you two?"
Rose frowned. "Nothing is going on between us, we're just friends!" Unfortunately, she added silently.
"That's the most classic line in the book!" A boy named Landon complained, rolling his eyes. "Everyone knows that when someone says that they're 'just friends' with another person, that they're really not 'just friends'."
"I actually don't think that's true-" Rose tried to get in before she was interrupted yet again by Sabrina, a quiet, thoughtful girl.
"Actually, I think it's pretty true. And we've seen how you look at him," Sabrina said, giving her an "all knowing" look. Her quiet nature allowed her to be observant, giving her an advantage in the gossip mill.
"So come on, please tell us? Anyone who’s had either one of you can tell there’s something else going on,” Mark, the straight A student begged. The whole class burst into pleas for information, until finally Rose put her foot down.
"That's enough!" she yelled, and the class fell silent. "Now, I want to make this clear; Mr. Smith and I are just friends. We've known each other for quite some time now, and we've been nothing but friendly. Now unless you've got any questions that pertain to the class, please put your hands down."
Of course, all hands were lowered.
Rose sighed. Her relationship with John was... complicated. Sometimes he would just look at her, and she'd feel like she was the only important thing in his world, but then they'd get closer and suddenly he would pull back, and they'd be at square one again. Not to mention the fact that he could get anyone he wanted (Reinette Poisson, the annoyingly beautiful French teacher, included), leaving her well in the dust. She shook her head. "Thank you. Now, time to get to work."
Rose continued on with the lesson, but, as she talked about their first project, she failed to miss the exasperated (and slightly conspiratorial) looks that the students were giving each other.
It was going to be an interesting year.
...
During the students' lunch break, Rose and John met up with each other in Rose's classroom, eating their own lunches and chatting about everything and nothing, as was customary.
"So," John said before taking a big bite of the banana muffin Rose had brought him, "how did your first half of the day go?"
Rose rolled her eyes as crumbs spewed out of his mouth. "It's rude to talk with your mouth full, John." She grinned at him, her tongue pointing out ever so slightly to let him know she was just teasing. She couldn’t decide whether or not the glance that he made towards her mouth following the act was a result of her overactive, unfortunately horny imagination. God, what was her problem?
"Yup," he said, swallowing. "That's me; rude and not ginger." He gave her one of those award winning smiles and her heart melted a little, damn him. "Now, back to the question: how has your day been going?"
"It's been alright, thanks. A little crazy with my first class, but I got it all straightened out. You?"
"Pretty good, actually. The students seem really bright, so I'm excited to get to know them." Rose nodded, and they were silent for a few minutes. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, per se, but Rose could tell by the way John fidgeted that he wanted to tell her something.
"Out with it," she said. "What's on your mind?"
His eyes widened and he tugged on his ear, trying to look anywhere but her. "Well..."
But then the bell rang, and John's eyes widened further as he realized he had five minutes to run up a flight of stairs, dash to the other end of the school, and make it to his classroom with enough time to get everything set for the next lesson. "Right then, gotta run!" he exclaimed, and took off.
Rose sighed and resisted the urge to scream and bang her head into the nearest hard object available as her class filed in. He could just be so difficult sometimes! It was always one step forward and then two steps back; they weren't getting anywhere. But then the bell rang again, and Rose had to start her class. She could pout about John later.
...
Over the next several months, everything stayed pretty much the same. John and Rose continued to dance around each other, getting close and then separating, and the students got more and more frustrated with their teachers' tentative behavior. It was the same song and dance over and over again, with no progress made in any way, and the students were starting to think about resorting to desperate measures. It was so incredibly obvious that the two had chemistry. So why couldn't they see it?
By spring break, they had already made up their minds. They’d fix the stupidly obvious sexual tension between the two teachers themselves, or they’d die (or get expelled!) trying.
...
Rose rubbed her temples, trying to get rid of the headache that had been present for about an hour now. Why the kids in her first class had to start a paint war (come on, she shouldn’t have to deal with this- they were high schoolers!) right before spring break, she had no idea, but now she was stuck watching them in detention when all she wanted to do was go home and take a really long bath and read her book. She just didn't get it; her kids were usually so well behaved! What changed?
Just then, John poked his head in to her room. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but I just printed some sheets out for the kids in my detention, and the printers in half the school decided to go belly up on us today." He shook his head. "Can you believe they decided to get into a spit-ball fight? It took forever for the janitor to clean the room up."
Rose nodded. "Same here. Except mine decided to get into a paint fight." She put her head in her hands. "Why now? I've been so busy with Mum being sick and all, and I don't need more of this."
John crossed the room, forgetting the students that were watching their every moves, and wrapped her in a hug. "The day's almost over, and soon it will be spring break, and you can relax. Just keep your eyes on the prize." He frowned. "'Eyes on the prize'... don't let me say that again."
Rose nodded with a giggle and thanked him, reluctantly pulling back from the hug.
"What're you doing over break?" John asked. Behind them, the printer stopped whirring, but they ignored it.
"Oh, the usual. Hang out at my mum’s and make sure she’s feeling better, get bossed around the house for a couple of days, and watch a bunch of crap telly. You?”
He tugged on his ear. "Not quite sure, actually. Usually I’d spend it bothering Donna but she and Lee just got married and I don’t want to intrude on that." He shivered. "Plus they're going to be all mushy and I can't handle it all."
Rose giggled again. "Right, because any sort of domestics like that means the end of the world to you."
"Quite right," he said with a smile. Rose clenched her fists in her lap, trying to pretend that she didn’t want to rip all of his clothes off just because he smiled at her.
"Well," Rose said, drawing the word out, "you could always spend time with me and Mum. She could always use another person to boss around. No mushiness required. Or is even that too domestic for you?" she asked with a grin.
"No, that should be fine," he teased. "As long as your Mum doesn't slap me. I swear, the last time she did, I thought I had died."
"Oh come on," Rose laughed.
"I did!"
"Don't be rude! I just invited you to spend some quality time with me and my mother and that's how you treat me? I'm starting to think about withdrawing that invitation!" She gave him that tongue touched smile to let him know that she was teasing. He grinned right back.
"Rose Tyler, I would love to spend spring break with your family." He smiled and pulled her into another hug, which she happily accepted. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Then she (finally) remembered the students were watching and pulled away. "Right. Better go get your papers then."
John nodded and headed towards the printer on the other side of the room, failing to miss the look a single brown haired student in a worn blue hoodie gave to the rest of the room. He was almost there when all the students stood up at once and pushed him into Rose's supply closet. He yelled and struggled, but they refused to let him go. He didn’t want to hurt any of them, and the number of people (and the fact that there were a couple strong football players in the mix) made it hard for him to fight back.
"Let me out of here!" he shouted as they locked him in. Rose stood up from her desk in alarm and screamed at her students to let John out of the closet, but then they just turned on her. As if it couldn’t get any worse, the students from John's detention filed into the room then, and they all shoved her into the closet and locked it once more. The two banged on the door, demanding to be let out, but the students refused.
"Great," Rose moaned. "We're stuck in here."
"Why on Earth would they do this?" John yelled, kicking the door. "Kids, if you're still out there, let us out this instant!"
"No!" one exclaimed. Rose recognized the student as Elizabeth, the girl who lived trouble and that bright blue zip up hoodie. She sighed, not surprised anymore. This was definitely something Elizabeth would do. "We're not opening the door until you guys work out some things that clearly need to be worked out!" And with that, the two heard the students walk away.
Rose groaned and fell back against the door. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark pretty quickly, and suddenly she was very aware of how close she was to John. Because the shelves took up so much room in the closet, they were chest to chest, with only a little wiggle room in between. If she moved forward at all, they'd be touching. Really if she moved at all they'd be touching in one way or another. She was glad it was dark so he wouldn't be able to see her blush.
"Haven't you got a light in here?" John asked.
Rose shook her head. "I did, but it burned out a while ago and I haven't bothered with replacing it because I'm not in here often- and even then I can see just fine with the light from the classroom." She sighed, and tried to focus on something, anything, other than the fact that she was stuck in a small closet with a man she had wanted to snog, shag, and spend the rest of her life with for years. “My phone’s on my desk out there, so we can’t get light from that either.”
“Damn. I left my phone in my room. I guess that means light is out of the question. Any ideas on how we’re getting out of here?” He shifted ever so slightly and Rose tried not to let her breathing change. Damn sexy man, with his damn conspiring students, and the damn closet that was too small for the both of them.
"I think I've got a bobby pin we could use." Rose pulled said item out of her hair and turned around slowly so she could try to get to the doorknob without touching him and in doing so brushed her chest up against his. She froze when she heard his breath hitch and dropped the bobby pin, her heart rate suddenly speeding up (as if it already wasn’t fast enough- was it possible to have a heart attack because of arousal?). "Sorry," she whispered.
John cleared his throat. "It's alright. Let me just..." He trailed off as he leaned down to try and find the bobby pin, but was thwarted when his lips brushed Rose's ear. She gasped and her knees buckled in surprise. "Whoa!" John exclaimed as he caught her by her waist. "Careful, there. Wouldn't want you to whack your head or something." When Rose was steady, she realized that he hadn't let go of her waist. Her breathing suddenly got faster and harsher, and her heart rate spiked again.
"Rose?" John whispered in her ear, causing her to shiver involuntarily.
"Yeah?"
He swallowed and gripped her waist tighter. When he spoke again his voice was low and hoarse. "I want to kiss you. Right now."
Rose's heart skipped a beat and she grabbed his arms for support. "Okay." She said it so softly that she didn't think he heard, but then his lips were slamming into hers and she had no doubts.
Rose wrapped her arms around John's neck, fisting her hands in his hair the way she’d wanted to for so long as the kiss deepened. He entangled one hand in her hair while the other stayed clutching at her waist and brought her closer still, so no space was between them. They would have gladly stayed like this forever, but they needed air and reluctantly parted. The two stood facing each other in the dark, chests heaving.
"Rose Tyler, I have been wanting to do that since the day I met you," John said. Rose's heart, which had just slowed down a little, sped right up again.
"You have?" she asked softly, not believing him. He cupped her face in his hands.
"Oh, yes," he murmured before bringing her back in to meet his lips. And then they were too busy to talk, or to worry about their students anymore. They had each other, and that was all that mattered.
...
Outside the closet, the large group of students exchanged high-fives and hugs, having achieved the greatest feat in all their high school’s history. Nothing, not even the inevitable threat of suspension and lifelong detention, could bring them down now. They had done it!