Chapter Text
Many GA teachers are either the best in their field or past students. Damian Wayne, Alessia Knox, Olive Silverlock and (questionably) Maps Mizoguchi are no exceptions to this unspoken rule. Damian, while having problem with authority and attendance, passed with absolute flying colours. And while Alessia was also not the best at following rules, she was so good in class, it was hard to expel her. Olive Silverlock had taken a leave of absence in her senior year but came back to finish the semester a month later. Mia Mizoguchi was a certainly out-there student with her love of maps, but it seemed like she could do any subject with surprising ease. Damian, Maps and Alessia had resided in the same year, Olive just a year above them. They had returned to Gotham Academy to teach a decade or so later, marking the youngest average age in GA teachers in its history.
Damian Wayne had always had a bit of the problem with the art department, not being as open as art should've been. Alessia Knox was severely looked over by the old-fashioned music teacher, who believed that only instruments from the Classical Period were instruments. Olive Silverlock was remembered for her performances in the Drama Society and was recommended by the leaving Drama Teacher, Simon Trent. Mia Mizoguchi was to work in conjunction with Isla MacPherson, the children's own former history teacher, Maps teaching the younger children.
Generally, if asked, the older teachers would say that they were thick as thieves, in the so-called 'secret' Detective's Club. Individually, their works as students were displayed in their future classes. Mia's maps(which earned her the nickname 'Maps', which many of the teachers would still affectionately call her), Damian's huge portraits of seemingly the same girl(never showed her face, which most chalked up to a creative decision of 'losing yourself' as his theme); Alessia's still standing record of having the highest scores in both listening and composition and performance in North & South America and Asia(some kid in Africa beat her out by a single point for having better tempo, which pissed her off) and finally, while Olive never took Drama as a subject in her older years, her performance in multiple school productions were noted in both the school's paper and the Gotham Gazette.
Mia Mizoguchi looked the same, her hair maybe a bit longer than normal, still with her butterfly hairclip. She still spoke the same way, always a bit too excitable. Olive had shorn her hair shorter, now at shoulder length. Damian still had his piercing green eyes, always staring a bit too hard. Alessia had her shining greyish blue eyes with dark hair to her mid-back.
The new semester started and the kids all filed into their classes. They had already had a term with the new teachers, making them more comfortable.
"Maps!" Damian ran over to her down the hallway. "Do you have the paper you borrowed last weekend?"
"The cartography paper? Yeah! It's in my room." She bolted off to go retrieve it.
Ms Silverlock and Ms Knox ran down the hall to get to their classrooms. The theatre was right next to the music rooms, on the other side of the school from the entrance.
"Hey Damian!" Alessia called as she skipped down the hallway, urgency in every step.
"Alessia."
Olive smiled at the small interaction.
When all their students were now situated into their respective classrooms, the teachers were more than prepared now. Ms Knox's classroom was situated oddly, with one central classroom and practice rooms outlining it. She made them sit on the floor unless they chose to sit on a chair then that was fine.
"Hello guys!" She picked up a piece of chalk and scribbled it on the chalkboard. "I am Ms Alessia Knox, you can call me-" A knock on the door interrupted her.
"Alessia..." A tall man walked in, tanned skin with emerald eyes sparkling. "Ah...sorry."
"Something wrong, Mr Wayne?" She leaned against the door.
"No." He toyed with the collar of his shirt. "I just need Miss Beckett for a while? I have the rest of her schedule."
"Is that you?" Ms Knox saw a girl raise her head at the name. "Don't steal my student for too long."
"It won't be." Mr Wayne replied through gritted teeth.
The students were watching this interaction with interest. She raised an eyebrow at the children.
"What you all staring at?"
"Uh, nothing Miss." They all responded.
Fact of the matter is, the ones that weren't paying attention to Ms Knox were more interested in Mr Wayne. It wasn't surprising. Many of the students who like music, liked art too. They tended to continue with both into higher education. Mr Wayne wasn't as nice as Ms Knox. Like once, he refused any talking until their individual drawing tests were complete. How could you cheat in a drawing test? Meanwhile Ms Knox's tests were mostly open-book, but she could tell if someone wasn't paying attention. She'd talk to them about it and if they didn't change, she'd let their bad grade hit them on the way out. "He's hot." murmured one girl to another.
"Maia, we don't talk about teachers like that." The woman's head snapped to the student. "It's not great for either party."
The chalk glided against the board as she wrote down the subject for today and Mr Wayne came back in with Luna Beckett, the new kid in class. She was smiling an apprehensive smile as she walked in.
"Come in, well back in. I won't bite."
Mr Wayne smirked at that. "Don't trust her, Miss Beckett."
As he turned to walk away, Ms Knox stopped him. And he listened. He turned around, shutting the door. "Only because I don't have a class right now, I'll entertain you." He crossed his arms, leaning against the door.
"What's your favourite love song, Mr Wayne?" She leaned against her desk, a challenging smile growing.
"'Last Night On Earth' by Green Day. First dance song at my wedding." He allowed a smile to grace his lips.
Uproar echoed in the classroom, the crowd of students exclaiming surprise at his being married. Alessia glanced up at Damian, giving him a knowing look. Of course, they'd react like that. He was the young eligible male teacher that the older students thought they had a chance with and the younger students could look at instead of doing work in class.
"I listen to that song and immediately the image of my wife shines through. At any moment in time, it's her I think about."
"That's sweet, Damian."
They never referred to each other by their first names. Another round of shock.
"You were there, Knox."
"I love Green Day." She whispered.
He paused, shaking the smile off his smile, his demeanour turning stoic and straight again. "I have things to grade." He cleared his throat and walked out of the room.
"Ms Knox!" A hand shot up at the speed of light. "Mr Wayne has a wife?"
"Yeah, obviously. C'mon, think about it. Guy looking like that with money in Gotham City? Someone was going to pick him up eventually." She snorted. "So kids," She pulled out a chair from near her desk. "What's everyone's favourite love song?"
The period ended without much else happening, all of them moving to their history class with Ms Mizoguchi. She was adventurous in her teaching to say the least. Think Robin Williams in 'Dead Poets Society'.
"Wait, wait, didn't Ms Mizoguchi go here with them?" Maia Lewis whispered as they walked towards the building.
"Yeah, they did." Connor Williams said briskly. "They were in the same year."
Professor MacPherson passed them to go to the teachers' lounge. She overheard the chit chat being passed and decided to ignore it. That would be Mia's bullshit to deal with later.
"With Ms Silverlock, no?" Elodie Chan scratched her head. "They were all in the same year."
"No, dummy, Ms Silverlock was a year above, I'm pretty sure." Maia nudged her friend.
Oscar 'Oz' Henderson frowned. "We shouldn't be gossiping about teachers."
"Do you really want to listen to a whole speech about the Treaty of Versailles again?" Connor stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"She would probably make us act it out..."
"We don't want that." Elodie chimed in.
"Just one question." He relented.
As they took their seats, the quartet realised that the new girl wasn't sitting anywhere.
"Doesn't she have a guide?" Maia whispered.
"I think Kina has Geo now..." Connor replied.
She waved Luna over to the empty spot next to Oz. Luna sat down tentatively setting her bag down softly.
"Maia Lewis." She stuck a hand out.
"Hi." Luna murmured.
And as she was about to introduce herself, Ms Mizoguchi burst into the class, papers in hand. She was grinning ear to ear, skirt flowing down to her ankles.
"Hello class!! How are we all doing after the well-deserved break?"
"Good." One boy piped up.
"Wow, what lesson did you have last? You guys sound tired." She was now stood on the teacher's desk, not as wide-stanced as just now.
"Music! But Ms Mizoguchi..." Elodie started.
"Yes, Elodie dear?"
"Uh...is Mr Wayne married?"
She paused, considering her next words. She squinted, dropping down to sit on her desk instead. "Yeah...yeah, he's been married for a few years now. You do know that he and Ms Knox are 28, right? I'm 27." She seemed to ramble, wanting to take the subject off Mr Wayne's marriage. "Ms Silverlock is 29. But yeah, absolutely, how do you know this?"
The class burst out into sound again. About how Ms Knox asked what his favourite love song was, how he said it was his first dance song, how he talked about his wife, how Ms Knox knew her and so on.
"Do you know her, Ms Mizoguchi?"
"Of course, I was her bridesmaid." Maps grinned, turning her attention back to the board.
The class stared agape as she simply wrote onto the chalk board, plain as day what they were going to be talking about that day. And they were all right, they would be talking about World War I that day, but then she stopped. She contemplated something for a moment, unsure whether she should say it.
"Did Ms Knox tell you her favourite love song?"
Silence. "Yeah." Oz spoke up. "'You're in Love' from Howl's Moving Castle."
"That's exactly what I thought." She continued with her writing. "Kids, open your books and tell me what you remember from World War I."
The kids resumed their day as normal, eagerly awaiting the last class of the day: Art. Art was right after lunch and already, through the window, they could all see Ms Silverlock, Ms Knox, Ms Mizoguchi and Mr Wayne eating with each other and talking. There was another man, with red hair and sunglasses with a hoodie pulled over his shoulders standing next to Ms Silverlock's fiance and Ms Mizoguchi's brother, Kyle Mizoguchi. He was the tennis coach for the team and substitute PE teacher.
"Maps only knows how to lock-pick from you, Colton." Kyle stood to the side, fidgeting with a ball.
The redhead man leaned backwards. "Yeah, yeah, but she enjoyed it!"
"Real people know how to lock-pick from birth." Alessia laughed. "Especially if they're students trying to get into a classroom 15 minutes before lunch ends." Her eyes snapped towards the door, her face stoic.
Mr Wayne whispered something to her before getting up to talk to the students.
"Hello. You heard Ms Knox, it's not time yet."
"We'll go, Mr Wayne." Maia stepped forward. "But you need to tell us about your wife."
"My wife?" He scrunched up his face, irritated. "Why would I need to tell you about my wife?" He put emphasis on every pronoun in that sentence.
"Because you mentioned her~!" Elodie smiled.
"Tt."
"Is that a yes, Mr Wayne?"
"I've known her since I was 16, if that helps you with your quest. She was a GA student as well. Is that enough?"
"16?!" Ms Knox stomped over angrily. "You have known her since you were 5! Damian Al-Ghul Wayne! She came to this school when she was 14! Same year as you! How do you not remember this?!"
Anger blazed in her eyes, her fists shaking as she talked. The children all stepped backwards, slightly afraid of her. Ms Knox wasn't an angry one. She never let her emotions take too much charge.
"Calm, Alessia." He placed a hand in front of her face.
They had a noticeable height difference, her being maybe 5'11 and him at 6'4. It was impressive because she was much taller than Miss Mizoguchi. Maybe Miss Mizoguchi was short, that's why she was always standing on tables. But yeah, Mr Wayne and Miss Knox had a big height difference. They couldn't see it in the music classroom but here, it was extremely evident.
"You know her too, Ms Knox?" Oz broke the tension.
Ms Knox shook it off. "Yeah, course I know her." It was fully silent now. "Know her pretty damn well."
She pranced off back to her class, Ms Silverlock behind her. Mr Wayne leaned against the doorframe, watching them walk off.
"I really don't understand that woman." He sighed. "Never have. You can come in if you'd like."
Them and a couple other kids all piled in, the high ceilings now covered with more drawings that before half-term break. Large canvases adorned the walls, especially ones from Mr Wayne's GA days and some other older students' artworks. The ones right above the board always interested all of them though.
"Who is that girl?" Another boy, Lucas, pointed up.
Mr Wayne glanced away from his laptop to see who he was speaking about. "That's my wife back when we were in junior year. I felt if I could not see her face, I would lose myself. But having no face also represented losing herself." He responded, plain and simple.
She was blonde, with tan-ish skin, about the same colour as Elodie and lighter than Mr Wayne. But blonde hair flowed from her roots to about her shoulder blades. Her shirt was a simple collared white one, no identifiable markings or whatever. She held a candle in her hands, the flame illuminating the empty hole she had for a face.
"That style of painting is based off Henri de Toulouse-Latreuc, who famously did the 'In Bed' series." He continued writing on the board. "In retrospect, this is a lot like my wife and I."
"You guys were high school sweethearts."
He paused. "We're not talking about this right now. Let's continue. We are going to find the beauty in the simple things. Everyone have a camera device?"
Little chitters came from the room.
"Good, if you don't, share. We're going to take pictures of things that may seem normal but are quite beautiful."
"Like what?" Luna asked.
"Like...since some of you seem so obsessed with my wife...in the morning, when she gets ready," He thought about it. "Too many moments to name. But when she eats her breakfast, she looks so perfect just sitting there. How do I tell her that without seeming like a maniac? I don't. I just draw her."
"Oh!" They all seemed to get it. Something that they saw everyday but found pretty. Something that had meaning. That was their adventure for the day. They did all that and came back exhausted. Mr Wayne seemed pleased.
"You all did good work today." Soft tap at the door. "Hello there, Ms Knox."
"Hey Mr Wayne," She looked at the board. "Can you step out for a second? Just a moment I promise."
He set the chalk down as fast as a quickly disguised look of worry set in. "Behave."
"Did you see that?" whispered Maia. "He got scared."
"Yeah." Connor whispered back.
But he came back in annoyed with Ms Knox giggling. "I didn't mean to scare you." She set a hand on his arm.
"Payback, Ms Knox." He pointed the chalk to her. "What's your favourite painting? Not by Henri de Toulouse-Latreuc."
"'We rose up slowly'?" She answered it like he was meant to know.
"By who?"
"Roy Lichtenstein."
"Good. You can leave now, Ms Knox."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Don't you have a class?"
"I don't which is why I'm here and it's only 10 minutes to the bell."
"I am trying to teach a class."
"Then teach, I'll be gone in a second anyways."
"Lead with that next time." He rolled his eyes.
She grabbed a bag from the corner of the room, looking up at the paintings above the board. She gained a wistfulness in her eyes that was quickly hidden away, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. Scurrying out of the room, shutting the door behind her, she left as quickly as she came.
"Sorry about that, children." He went on and on about how these pictures would amount to a full year's worth of art. How they'd make collages and so on. Most of them weren't listening by then.
Eventually, they all filed out of the class, mostly chatters filling up the halls. Elodie, Oz and Connor didn't stay at school but Maia and Luna did. In fact, they were each other's roommates. So while they sorted that out, the wonderful rest of the group went to go to their cars.
"That's a cool car." Oz pointed out.
"'62 Chevy Corvette. Pretty expensive. Probably one of the senior's cars." Elodie figured it out with ease.
"That's not a senior." His eyes widened.
Ms Knox slipped into the car, turning on the engine. Mr Wayne followed her. Ms Mizoguchi waved them goodbye and soon, they were gone. They all stood there agape. They just went home in the same car. Did Mr Wayne's wife know about that? She had to.
"Children." Professor MacPherson appeared behind them. "What we staring at?"
"Ms Knox and Mr Wayne, ma'am." Oscar was being too truthful here.
"That's rude." She strutted away, both of them seeing their cars in the distance.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Oz!"
"Bye, El!"