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Stuck cleaning up the result of two chemicals that definitely shouldn’t mix, Damien’s back is to the door of his high school science classroom when it opens. So when Ms. McGrady starts to say, “What—” he shrieks, jumps, and flings a beaker across the room.
“Whoa!” Ms. McGrady dives for it, just barely managing to snatch it out of the air before it shatters on the floor.
“Sorry, Ms. McGrady! You scared me!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ms. McGrady picks herself up. “It’s not often I get to put my mad skills to use.”
“Yeah,” Damien chuckles. She may be the youngest teacher here, but she’s still such a millennial.
“What are you doing here so late?”
“Oh, my friends dared me to film an audition for some reality show they like. I think it’s a singing competition? But they didn’t make me sing, thank God, because nobody needs to hear that.”
Ms. McGrady looks a bit wishful at the thought. “You know, I used to sing in a band, back when I was your age.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it was more rapping than anything, I dunno, theatrical. And some beatboxing.”
“That’s awesome. I tried beatboxing once and ended up spitting out my retainer. Uh. That was in middle school. Can you still beatbox?”
“I could give it a try,” Ms. McGrady says.
One five minute attempt later, and both student and teacher have determined that yes, yes she can still beatbox.
“So cool!” Damien cheers. “You’re literally the coolest teacher in school. You should beatbox for the talent show or something.”
Ms. McGrady laughs a little too long at that.
“I’m serious!”
“Nah, I know you are,” she says, wiping her eyes. “But I’m pretty sure the talent show is limited to students. It’d be weird for me to get up there.”
“People would love it, though!”
“Hey, I’m not chasing fame.”
“There’s no such thing as fame in high school anyway,” Damien says. “But it’d be cool to be famous, dontcha think?”
“I’ve heard it’s not as fun as people make it out to be.”
“Yeah, but it’d probably be more fun than not being famous. Plus, you’d probably be rich! And have people sending you free stuff!”
Ms. McGrady snorts. “And how do you plan on getting famous? I thought you wanted to be a biochemist, and I can’t name a single famous one.”
“I never said I was planning on getting famous, just that it’d be cool,” Damien says. “Ooo, Watson and Crick!”
“What?”
“Famous biochemists. They won the Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. Except they’re more infamous because they stole a bunch of research from Rosalind Franklin who did most of the work. Justice for my girl!”
“…I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
“Aw, c’mon! Everyone should know this stuff!”
“I teach history, not bio, remember?”
“But there’s this whole documentary on it that I bet you’d love! I’ll email it to you.”
Ms. McGrady grins. “You are every teacher’s dream.”