Chapter Text
As far as the students of Westview High were concerned, there was a cult within the English department. The Coven, as they were often called, consisted of all of the honours English teachers from across the grades.
Jennifer Kale taught freshmen. She was the one who introduced her students to the harsh realities of the high school English program. Her harsh grading helped her students improve, and she was always patient in class.
Lilia Calderu taught sophomores. While she was known to be a bit wispy(or kooky, no one could decide), she was a solid teacher. She was always supportive and kind with extensions. Her grading was less harsh than Jen’s, but it was always fair.
When students left the calm, gentle tutelage of Ms. Calderu, they were faced with Agatha Harkness. Ms. Harkness taught junior year English, and her class was known to be the most difficult in all four years of English at Westview High.
If you were thinking of taking honours English in your junior year, there would be at least fifteen people telling you not to. Agatha Harkness was harsh and unforgiving. She asked a lot of her students, and she was unforgiving with her grading policies.
Undoubtedly, you would leave Ms. Harkness' class as an exponentially better writer than even the AP literature or AP language students. It took a ridiculous amount of work, but if you could get through it alive, it was worth it.
For senior year, you had Sharon Davis. She was incredibly sweet, she was always open to talk to students about how college applications were going, and when they got senioritis and didn’t want to do work she pushed them gently but never made them do too much. Her class was basically an easy A, but you’d always have fun and learn things along the way.
Also part of the Coven were Rio Vidal and Alice Wu-Gulliver. They didn’t teach honours English, and for the most part they weren’t even part of the English department.
Ms. Wu-Gulliver was in charge of the choir as well as teaching AP music theory. She was patient and kind, and always took in suggestions for what the choir wanted to sing. Alice introduced her songwriting class just a few years ago, and her students jumped at the chance.
Rio Vidal on the other hand taught AP biology. Her students loved her despite her class being ridiculously challenging. Her teaching style was animated. She taught with bright eyes and she talked with her hands, pacing back and forth as her students tried desperately to keep up with her.
Ms. Vidal was always up for meeting with students, and if she was particularly worried about someone she’d shoot them an email asking to meet. Sometimes they’d say no, of course, but Rio still managed to help and mentor a lot of students.
In addition to AP biology, Ms. Vidal taught a creative writing class, putting her also in the English department. She was surprisingly good at poetry and fiction writing, and she loved to tell stories.
Together, Jennifer Kale, Lilia Calderu, Agatha Harkness, Sharon Davis, Alice Wu-Gulliver, and Rio Vidal made up Westview High’s very own Coven.
~~~
“No we don’t turn here we turn at the next one.”
“No one likes a back seat driver, Agatha.”
“I agree with Rio–” Alice paused, “oh shit wait I think you were right. We totally made the wrong turn.”
“Of course I was right.” Agatha huffed, “I’m always right.”
Jen scoffed, “okay and that’s just incorrect.”
“Be nice, Jen,” Lilia chided.
“We take this route every time,” Sharon pointed out. “How is it we’ve still managed to miss the turn?”
Agatha raised an eyebrow, “Sharon, you’re the one driving.”
Sharon was, by all accounts, a terrible driver. She drove like a maniac, missing turns and taking the ones she didn’t miss way too fast. The barely licensed teenager in the backseat would have been better fit to drive.
Unfortunately, Sharon was also the owner of the car. It was a pale beige Subaru(because of course no one in the group had anything but a Subaru, even Sharon), and it was the only car they had that was big enough to fit them all.
They were thankfully only five minutes late, because Lilia used her Magick to predict the best route and Agatha used hers to make sure everyone gave them the right of way—deserved or not.
None of their students knew that their iconic ‘Coven’ of English teachers were actually an ancient group of witches who had decided to teach English for fun. It wasn’t like they needed the money, they all had several centuries worth of wealth accumulated.
Then again, it wasn’t like they needed to live together either. It wasn’t uncommon for covens to live together, but they were a pretty unique coven. Beyond the teachers, there were a few other members. Val, Lilia’s wife and an accomplished healer, ran a medical practise in town. Nicky and Lily were the youngest, with Nicky being Agatha’s son and Lily being Rio’s daughter.
Rio and Lily were the newest additions to the Coven, having been in Westview for only two years. Rio was an old friend of Lilia’s looking for a new start, so the Coven took her in.
The Coven gave Billy a ride to school, since they were neighbours and they were all going to the same place. It wasn’t strictly necessary for The Coven to all live together, seeing as they had several centuries worth of wealth accumulated, but none of them would have it any other way.
As the car rolled to a stop Agatha turned around as much as she could from the front seat. “You’ll be fine, kid. If you need anything just ask one of us.”
Billy winced, he’d been pretty quiet the whole ride over, he should’ve known Agatha would notice something was up. “What if I’m not fine? Everyone says junior year is the worst.”
Agatha snorted, “they say that because of me, kid.”
“And because of the ACT,” Billy insisted as he got out of the car. They all walked into school together. Billy had stopped being embarrassed of his reputation as the one gay kid who’d befriended the whole English department a long time ago. “And I know you won’t take it easy on me.”
“Of course she won’t,” Alice shrugged. “But you do have a whole house of English teachers who love you and would be willing to help at the drop of a hat.”
“And a bio teacher,” Rio added, “though you’re not taking biology so that’s not super relevant.”
“I’m in creative writing though,” Billy grinned. The class was only open to upperclassmen so this was the first year he was able to take it.
Lilia patted Billy’s shoulder comfortingly, “you’ll do great, darling. Just take it all one thing at a time.”
~~~
“So you know all the English teachers, right?” Peter asked excitedly.
They were barely a week into the school year and Billy already had about seven assignments due the next day. “Yeah,” he said, not looking up from his math assignment. “They all live together, and I live like right next to them.”
“What’s the deal with Ms. Harkness and Ms. Vidal?” Peter continued, lowering his voice so no one could hear. “They’re married, right?”
Frowning, Billy looked up. “How’d you reach that conclusion?”
“Wishful thinking,” Peter shrugged. “I placed a bet with Ned on it. They’re together all the time and Vidal covered Harkness’ stapler with plastic wrap but Harkness didn’t even look that mad.”
Kate Bishop, who was Billy’s mom’s sister’s girlfriend(it was weird and complicated), joined the conversation. “Oh are we talking about my aunts?”
“Your what? ”
“Well,” Kate winced, “technically Ms. Harkness is my girlfriend’s sister’s wife’s best friend, but whatever. We see each other at family dinners and stuff.”
“So are she and Ms. Vidal married?” Peter asked again.
Kate just grinned, “I don’t know, are they?”
For the past two years the question of Agatha and Rio’s relationship had been floating around the school constantly. All that anyone knew was that they couldn’t stand each other at first, but had eventually become close. They still bickered and played pranks on each other–mostly Rio on Agatha–but they weren’t enemies.
Billy and Kate did nothing to help the confusion, they simply sat back and let people wonder. Obviously, they knew everything, but seeing everyone's theories was fun.
~~~
“They’re totally married, have you seen the rings they wear around their necks? They look like wedding rings.”
“Maybe they still hate each other and they’re playing nice to keep their jobs.”
“I literally can’t find any information about these two online, are they ghosts?”
“I saw Ms. Vidal reading one of the books on Ms. Harkness’ reading list last week.”
“I bet they’re dating, Ms. Harkness always has a new flower on her desk and flowers are Vidal’s whole thing.”
“None of the other teachers in the Coven will say anything about the two of them, maybe Ms. Harkness and Ms. Vidal really do hate each other.”
The rumours were endless, as they tended to be amongst highschoolers. The truth, Billy had decided, was a burden he would not let the others bear.
He decided this about a month into the school year, when he showed up to Agatha’s class early, pausing in the doorway. Agatha was sitting at her desk, smiling like she was seeing the moon for the first time. In front of her sat Rio, who was mostly oblivious to Agatha’s adoring gaze.
Rio talked quickly, waving her hands in front of her. She was holding a book of Emily Dickinson’s poems, Agatha’s favourite poet. “She’s an old friend of mine,” Billy heard Rio say fondly.
Billy turned away, deciding to give the two their privacy for a few minutes. Even from out in the hallway he could hear the excitement in Agatha and Rio’s voices as they talked. They visited each other during their free periods often, lingering until students arrived for class. That and the rings they both wore around their necks had the entire student body convinced that they were married.
Unfortunately, Billy Maximoff knew better. For a year and a half, he’d been watching these two useless lesbians pine for each other, neither of them having the courage to do anything about it. They were both centuries old, they were smart , they were capable of Magick, and they were absolutely hopeless .
When Billy finally sat down at his desk, Agatha had regained her usual regal composure, but there was a little pink flower on her desk that hadn’t been there before.
Billy worked hard to suppress a sigh, this was enough to drive anyone insane.