Work Text:
There’s a party in the District building, all ready for Janine. They set it up for her. They’re talking about her. They’re celebrating her .
There’s a party in the District building and Janine’s outside sitting on the sidewalk curb.
It doesn’t feel right, standing there and mingling, when she knows her heart isn’t fully in it.
The full time position allows her to do good, to help other people, and make education a safe environment for kids and teachers alike. It’s everything she’s ever wanted, an opportunity to make change.
Yet all she wants to do at the moment is to go back to her second grade class at Abbott, a class that doesn’t even know her aside from the occasional visits and pop-in’s.
Janine feels like a horrible person. She doesn’t think that there’s any possible way she could feel worse than she does now. That she’s finally hit rock bottom.
“Ugh, Janine,” Ava scoffed, looking down at her, “Your short self can not be sitting on the curb at night, it’s a safety hazard! I could’ve tripped!”
Great.
“Leave me alone, Ava.”
“Damn, attitude much? You clearly forgot to schedule a smoke break for today, because you’ve been acting weird all night. Weirder than usual, I mean.”
Despite the pointed digs she takes, Ava promptly sits down next to her on the curb. Janine eyes her suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.
“Do you need something?”
“Nah.” She shakes her head, “It looks like you do, though. Got something in your head, Lil’ Teagues?”
It doesn’t make sense. Because Ava doesn’t like Janine. She’s made it clear enough. “Oh, please. Don’t pretend that you actually care.”
“Try me.”
Janine sucks in a breath. What’s the worst that could happen? “… I don’t know if I want to stay at the District. Not anymore. And I’m just so confused . I feel like if I leave this behind then I’m giving up everything that I’ve worked for, but if I don’t go back to Abbott then I’m going to keep drifting apart from everything I love. I’ve barely kept in contact with Jacob, much less everybody else, I almost didn’t make it to the Smith’s Playground field trip and — before that I hadn’t seen my class in ages. I mean, it isn’t even really my class anymore, is it? You already hired somebody new.” She chuckles drily, “I guess I really don’t belong anywhere.”
“Mercedes? I fired her.”
“Oh. Why?”
Ava shrugs, sidestepping the question, “Listen, Janine. You and I both know that in the past few years of working at Abbott, the District hasn’t done shit. All it cares about is being cheap.”
“It can, though. I mean, I’ve proved it with the interpreter for Jacob’s student, and with the librarian program. So if I just keep pushing —“
“But those are things that you did, nobody else. And if you hadn’t found loopholes, they would’ve thrown it to the side. Like they always do. And right now you have that motivation, y’know? That annoying tendency to never give up. But that’s not gonna last. They’re gonna chew you up and spit you out to fit right where they want you to fit in their system.”
Janine frowns, “I don’t think that’s very fair.”
“It isn’t. ‘Cause that’s life. And you can argue that the same thing could happen at Abbott, but I don’t think that’s true at all. You’re annoying, over-enthusiastic, obnoxious, way too happy in the morning, annoying —“
“Okay, you’ve said annoying three times now and I don’t see how this is supposed to be helping.”
Ava shushes her, “You’re all of those things. But you’re also passionate, helpful, and thanks to this glow up of yours? A bad bitch teacher. You fit in with us. That’s why I fired Mercedes. Because she wasn’t you. And I guess sometimes I need somebody to help balance out my sheer hotness or whatever.”
Janine hums, nodding slowly, “But aren’t I giving up if I leave the job now? I mean, I’ve been blessed to have this opportunity. Not everybody gets a chance like this.”
“It’s not giving up,” Ava shakes her head, “It’s just redirection. You did your time, you got your shit done, now you can do whatever you feel like doing. And if any of those District babies have something to say about it then they can kiss your ass.”
“Well, that feels unnecessarily mean, since they really are trying to help —“
“Janine.” She interuppts, “You obviously know what you want to do. Stop denying yourself it.”
In the end, Ava is right, and she knows that she is. She’s just been struggling to process it, for whatever reason.
It’s just so bittersweet, to have everything that she’d been working for in the palm of her hand only to realize that she hadn’t actually wanted it all along.
But she just fits at Abbott. She makes sense there. At the District she’d just be another person in the system, slowly becoming desensitized.
Janine doesn’t want that. Like Ava said, she knows what she wants.
“… Thank you, Ava.” She sighs, “You’re right.”
“Always am. And you thought I wouldn’t be able to help,” Ava clicks her tongue, “I believe you owe me an apology.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I guess you give better advice than I expected.”
“Hmph.”
They sit there in comfortable silence, watching the bright lights of every car that drives past the District building.
Soon enough the District would go back to being Janine’s omnipresent superiors and she would be one of those people, driving past the building without a second thought.
“So,” A smile crawls it’s way onto Janine’s face, looking at Ava knowingly, “You, Ava Too-Cool-To-Be-Seen-With-My-Coworkers Coleman, missed me?”
“Now I ain’t say all that.”
“But you implied it.” She sing-songs.
“Girl, screw the implications!” Ava huffs, “Y’know what actually? Stay with the District for all I care.”
“So you do care!”
Ava stands up, smoothing out her dress, “You are being so weird, my god. I’m going back inside.”
Janine laughs, “Love you too, Ava!”
“Whatever!”
She watches her walk away, cheeks flushed and heart swelling. It’s something she hasn’t been able to do in a while, going back and forth with Ava. She hadn’t even realized she missed it.
All that Janine has to do now is go talk to Superintendent Reynolds. It’s not such a scary prospect anymore, now that she knows that Ava has her back.
After all, they balance eachother out.