Work Text:
First day of junior year, here goes nothing…
Billy slings his backpack higher up on his shoulder and looks down at his schedule as he makes his way towards his first period. AP Biology with… Ms. Vidal? He’s never heard that name before, she must be new.
A new teacher! How exciting! They rarely get them, after all. He just hopes she’s nice.
He double checks he’s standing in front of the right room before peeking his head in. “Hi! Are you Ms. Vidal? Is this AP Biology?” he asks.
Before she has the chance to answer, his mind is running a mile a minute taking count of her appearance. The first thing he realizes is she’s beautiful.. Not that he swings that way… but he does have eyes. She's wearing a T-shirt and jeans, very laid back. And the wide smile that spreads on her face when she sees Billy tells him all he needs to know.
They chat for a minute as Billy awkwardly introduces himself, and he likes her already.
“All right class! I’m Ms. Vidal and this is AP biology. Today’s class is just to go over our syllabus and get to know each other a little bit, yeah?” she announces once everyone is seated and the bell rings.
Class goes by quickly, along with his others, and soon enough he’s dropping his bag on a lunch table next to his best friend, Hannah.
“There you are! How’s your day going so far?” he asks excitedly.
Hannah grunts around a mouthful of leftover spaghetti she brought from home. “Ugh, a total bore. Except for English, I think I was too scared to be bored. That is not gonna be a fun class,” she says seriously, shaking her head.
“Who do you have?”
“Ms. Harkness.” She says morosely before quickly looking around to make sure Ms. Harkness wasn’t lurking somewhere, knowing she’d surely get chewed out for her petulant tone.
“Oh! I love Ms. Harkness! She was my favorite teacher freshman year. I have her next period too,” Billy says joyfully and Hannah stares at him blankly.
“You’re joking…”
Billy rolls his eyes. “She’s not so bad. Just a little… prickly.”
“Prickly! She already yelled at three students today for, like, breathing too loud or something. And that was just my period!” Hannah says in disbelief. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I won’t mind the view, but she scares the shit out of me, hot or not.”
Billy chuckles. Yes, he’s well aware of how gorgeous she is, he’s not at all surprised by Hannah’s comment. He’d bet money she’ll have a huge crush on her by the end of the year. “Well as long as you don’t cause trouble, you’ll be fine.” He waves his hand dismissively. “She was always cool with me.”
Hannah huffs and goes back to her food. “What do you have next?” she asks him.
“Ugh. History with Mr. Robinson. His room always smells like fish,” Billy grumbles. “What about you?”
“Uhhh…” She pulls out her schedule to double check. “Bio with… Ms. Vidal? Who the hell is that?”
“Oh my god! She’s the new hire and she’s so nice. You’re gonna love her.”
Hannah does, in fact, love her. She immediately texts him so after her class, gushing about how beautiful and kind and funny she is. His best friend just so happens to be as big of a hot gay mess as he is, having crushes on the most inappropriate of people. His mind is instantly filled with thoughts of Eddie before he has to shake himself back to reality. That is never gonna happen.
They walk as far as they can together until they have to part ways. He turns and blows her a kiss, she snatches it out of the air and slaps her ass. He chuckles.
Rounding the corner, he sees he’s the first to arrive. He waltzes right in with a big smile on his face. “Ms. Harkness! Did you miss me?” he says with a cheeky smile.
Agatha looks up at him over the rim of her glasses and smirks. “I had wondered where my headache went,” she deadpans, going back to whatever she was working on. “How have you been, Billy?” she asks without looking up.
Billy grins and takes a seat right in front of her desk. He knew she liked him. “I’ve been good! Not much is new, though. And how about you?”
“The same,” she says. They make sporadic small talk until the other students start to trickle in and she begins class. She seems a little irritated for the next hour as she tells them what to expect from her class. From his memories, he’s pretty sure that isn’t exactly out of the ordinary, but it seems just a little more today.
By the end of the day, he knows why.
The whole school is talking about it. How the new Biology teacher got her ass chewed by Ms. Harkness in the hall after lunch. And after spilling her coffee on her. Billy’s just glad he was able to avoid the carnage.
Poor Ms. Vidal. To get on Agatha Harkness’ bad side on her very first day… yeesh.
The next day, people are already saying they have some sort of heated feud going on. And the glares they send each other over the weeks to come definitely solidify that rumor.
About a month into the school year, Billy is sitting on the grass behind A building when Hannah slumps down next to him, looking rougher than he’s ever seen her.
He frowns at her. “Are you okay?” he asks, concerned.
Hannah takes a deep breath and stares off into nothing. “No, not really. I’m just under a lot of stress with my mom right now,” she says miserably.
He knows her mom is a sore spot for her, she doesn’t usually talk about her much, but he’s witnessed how she treats Hannah and it makes his blood boil. Billy wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his side. She immediately rests her head on his shoulder and lets out a sigh.
“I had a panic attack earlier… In the hall. It was so embarrassing,” she says quietly.
“Are you alright?” he asks instantly, always concerned for her wellbeing.
“Yeah, don’t worry.” A small smile creeps up her face suddenly. “Ms. Harkness was actually there and she was very sweet. I think you were right about her.”
“Aww, see! I told you. She’s definitely secretly a big softy. I’d bet money.”
“Ms. Vidal was there too. Two beautiful women fawning over me, my dream come true.” She sighs wistfully and Billy barks out a laugh. “She actually let me skip my next period to watch a movie in her room. As if she couldn’t get any more perfect.”
“Gay,” he says accusingly and they both laugh.
“Terribly so.”
“Are you gonna be okay for open house later?” he asks gently.
Her smile fades as she’s reminded of her mother. “Yeah. Just not looking forward to my mother trying to intimidate my teachers, especially Ms. Vidal.”
“It’s gonna be okay, don’t worry,” he says, rubbing her shoulder and squeezing her closer. She just sighs.
He texts her later to see if she wants to meet up afterwards, if she wants to talk about anything and she says yes. They make plans to go get some food once open house ends. Until then, he’s stuck listening to his mother gush about how smart he is to all of his teachers.
Introducing them to Ms. Harkness again is nice though. She smirks at him as she tells his parents he’s one of the smartest in all her classes. He grins smugly at her and she chuckles.
She wags her finger at him playfully and says, “Don’t let that go to your head,” with a laugh.
Open house might be her own personal hell. Hannah walks with her mother as she continues to embarrass her in every one of her classrooms. She’s rude, passive aggressive, and just overall combative when speaking to her teachers, insisting ‘her daughter is the smartest in her class.’ It’s humiliating.
They’re walking to Ms. Vidal’s class next and her stomach fills with dread.
“So. You’re my daughters favorite teacher?” her mother says almost accusingly and Hannah has to supress a groan. Why does she have to be such a bitch?
She feels her face go bright red and she tries to hide behind her hair.
“Oh! Well if so, I’m honored to have the title. She just so happens to be my favorite student as well,” Ms. Vidal whispers behind her hand. “But don’t tell the others.”
Now her cheeks are really on fire. She smiles up at her teacher, wishing she could thank her but not daring to speak up. She talks about how well Hannah is doing and her mother seems somewhat appeased as they leave. She feels herself smiling like an idiot.
Ms. Vidal is her favorite teacher by far. She’s kind, compassionate, intelligent, and she makes being in her class fun somehow. To have her call her her favorite student, even if she wasn’t truly serious, makes her feel a little giddy.
Billy is not happy to be back from Christmas break. He’s quite grumpy about it, in fact. Just as your body starts getting used to sleeping in, boom, you need to wake up at the asscrack of dawn again.
He’s standing in the hall with Hannah, listening to her gush about her favorite character in the tv show she’s currently watching, when it happens.
They collide at full force, both of them walking pretty fast and not looking as they turn the corner. Hannah stops talking abruptly and Billy gasps quietly. He sees the angry look on Ms. Harkness’ face and prepares to run for his life, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire, when something strange happens.
She blushes. Agatha Hard Ass Harkness blushes when she sees who exactly just ran into her. Billy and Hannah are left speechless, gaping at the scene in front of them like a couple of idiots.
Ms. Harkness shyly tucks her hair behind her ear and Billy wants to scream.
“You really make a habit of bumping into people, huh?” he hears her say.
Ms. Vidal let's out a choked laugh and quickly bends down to pick up the book that Ms. Harkness dropped upon impact. He could see the flush of her cheeks a mile away as she hands it back to her.
“Ha! Yeah, sorry,” she says too loudly.
“Well…” Agatha nods stiffly. Billy watches her hesitate for a moment, as if she wants to say something before she decides not to and just walks away.
Ms. Vidal stares after her as she leaves, her eyes definitely dropping a little too low for someone standing in a school surrounded by kids, before shaking herself and walking away quickly.
“Oh my god! Did you see that!” Billy whisper-shouts as soon as she's gone.
“They were blushing! Blushing! Agatha Harkness herself just blushed. Oh my god…” Hannah says in shock.
“They’re totally in love, holy shit.”
“Do you think they know it, though?” Hannah asks with a smirk.
“Definitely not. I’m sure they’re both in denial. Talk about emotionally constipated.” Billy rolls his eyes.
“Aw, this is so cute though! I totally ship it. They would make a beautiful couple,” Hannah sighs wistfully.
“How much do you want to bet they’ll never admit their feelings, though.”
Hannah frowns to herself and Billy suddenly turns to her with a mischievous smirk.
“What if we helped them?” he grins at her.
“Helped how?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Just… give them a little push,” he shrugs.
She’s quiet for a moment before smiling back at him. “Alright, I’m in. What’s your plan?”
“They definitely need to spend time together outside of school hours somehow…” he strokes his chin, thinking hard. His eyes suddenly light up as he remembers his baseball game coming up.
~
“Would you… maybe want to come to my baseball game this Friday? My parents can’t come and I’d.. really love it if you could be there,” he says her shyly, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
It works like a charm. She sighs. “I suppose I can stop by…” she says reluctantly.
He whoops from his seat and she rolls her eyes, a small smile pulling at the edge of her lips that she tries to hide.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re lucky I don’t hate you.”
“Oh, please. I know I’m your favorite,” he says smugly.
She gives him the stink eye before going back to the papers on her desk. Inwardly, Billy is doing a little jig. Step one of operation AgathaRio: Complete.
He asks Rio to come to his game the same way and she, of course, says yes. Step two: Complete!
~
On game day, he sits in the dugout and watches the stands eagerly, waiting for Agatha to arrive.
“Waiting for someone?” Eddie asks him as he ties his cleats from the bench across from him. Billy feels himself instantly blush.
“I- um.. Just my friend. Hannah! My friend, who’s a girl. A girl that’s just a friend!” He actually wants to crawl in a hole and stay there forever. Why does he ever open his mouth?!
Eddie chuckles. “Okay, cool,” he says as he leaves the dugout. Billy slaps his face with both his hands. He probably just has to die now.
His phone dings and he reaches for it immediately. It’s a text from Hannah.
The eagle has landed.
Gotcha!
He finds Agatha in the bleachers and watches Hannah ask to sit with her. The game starts and he obsessively looks over every few seconds to see how they’re doing. When Hannah texts him to let him know Rio has arrived, his head shoots up just in time to see her shyly ask to sit with Agatha.
He’s full of anxious excitement as he watches them talk and try to hide their smiles, he can see their blushes from here. When Rio offers her popcorn to Agatha and she takes it, he lets out a little squeal.
He shakes his body out and gets ready to play.
~
“You should’ve seen them, they were so cute, looking all domestic, sharing their popcorn,” Billy tells Hannah the next monday.
“Ugh, I’m pissed I had to leave,” Hannah grumbles.
“I’m so invested, this is better than any tv show,” Billy gushes.
“Oh, I know. I saw them smile at each other in the hall this morning and I almost started giggling uncontrollably.”
Operation AgathaRio has become their absolute new favorite topic to talk about, they spend all of lunch betting who would ask who to marry them first. Billy swears it would be Agatha but Hannah has money riding on Rio.
Billy happily walks into his English class after lunch only to stop dead in his tracks when he sees the scowl on Agatha’s face. He frowns.
She was in such a good mood earlier.. What happened?
She snaps at multiple students throughout the class, you could cut the cloud of tension surrounding her with a knife. Agatha Harkness in a bad mood is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Even Sarah, the usual one to disrupt class, has smartly stayed silent today.
The scowl doesn’t leave Agatha’s face for the rest of the day, and he can only pray it’s not because of Rio. Eventually, he knows that it is.
Every time Billy catches them interacting during the rest of the week, they’re back to glares and icy tones. At least on Agatha’s side, that is. Rio tends to look at her like a lost and confused puppy. It would be quite adorable if it wasn’t so sad.
“I don’t know what happened, Ms. Harkness seems to have done another 180. We’re back to square one,” Hannah says at lunch on Thursday.
“We might need to up our game,” Billy says seriously.
Hannah gives him an unamused look, squinting at him. “How?” she asks sarcastically. “I think they just need to figure it out for themselves.”
“But what if they don’t!”
Hannah just smiles. “They will.”
~
Come Monday morning, Billy is watching Agatha’s classroom like a hawk, waiting to see what kind of mood she’s in today. That’s sure to tell him whether or not they managed to patch things up in any way.
Just as he’s texting Hannah, who’s perched in front of Rio’s door doing the same thing, he hears the telltale clicking of heel that signals Ms. Harkness approaching.
His head shoots up and his jaw drops when he sees her walking down the hall, looking so happy she’s practically skipping. He can hear her humming to herself as she gets closer. Humming!”
“Good morning!” she says happily as she passes Billy to get to her classroom, Billy merely gapes after her, feeling like he might get whiplash from how fast her mood changes.
He runs to Rio’s room where he has first period only to find Rio smiling to herself as she writes their schedule on the board.
“Good morning, Ms. Vidal,” he says numbly.
“Good morning, Billy!” Rio beams.
“How was your weekend?” he asks, fishing for any clues.
Rio smiles widely. “It was wonderful,” she says with a sigh.
Billy smiles to himself as he watches Rio joyfully teach for the next forty five minutes.
Hannah is walking through B building when she hears people shouting.
“I said I have nothing to say to you. Leave me the fuck alone,” Hannah hears Ms. Vidal hiss. She’s never even heard her cuss before…
She peeks her head around the corner and sees her speaking to some woman, looking extremely angry. Hannah doesn’t hesitate, she takes off in the other direction, running straight to Agatha’s room.
She doesn’t know who that woman is or why Ms. Vidal is so upset, but she has a feeling Agatha would want to know.
“Ms. Harkness! Something’s wrong, Ms. Vidal is fighting with some lady. She seems really upset,” she says out of breath as she rushes into Agatha’s room.
Agatha is up and out of her seat in an instant, the sight warms Hannah’s chest more than she’d like to admit. She gives her a bit of a head start before she follows, creeping up to the door to listen once she’s back at the room.
“I won’t let her, darling. Don’t you worry,” she hears Agatha say sweetly and Hannah covers her mouth to stop a scream from escaping.
So they are together! Oh my god!
When she hears Ms. Harkness say goodbye and move towards the door, Hannah takes off at a sprint and hides behind a corner, immediately taking her phone out to text Billy.
YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!!!!!!
The next few weeks are full of lingering eyes and small touches that last just a little too long to be friendly. Billy is absolutely eating it up, ecstatic every time he’s lucky enough to catch them. One time, he actually sees them holding hands as they walk into school together. Holding hands!
He’s at the grocery store with his mom one day when he hears her say, “Isn’t that your teacher?”
His head whips up to find none other than Agatha Harkness at the end of their aisle. He watches her pick up a cereal box and study the side of it, surprised to find that it’s a box of Fruit Loops. The most sugar he’s ever seen her eat was an apple that one time.
“Yeah! I’m gonna go say hi,” he tells his mom.
He takes a few steps forward before coming to an abrupt halt and almost tripping over himself when Ms. Vidal comes strolling around the corner. He gasps quietly and hides behind a display so they don’t spot him, watching as Ms. Vidal walks straight up to Ms. Harkness and puts her hand low on her back. Ms. Harkness seems to tell her something, pointing to the box, before she laughs and snatches it out of her hand, putting it in the cart. Their cart.
But it gets better, Ms. Vidal turns and grabs Ms. Harkness’ hips, pulling her in for a kiss. Ms. Harkness has a pout on her face and seems to grumble something before Ms. Vidal laughs and ducks her head to kiss her again and whisper something in her ear. He can spot the blush on Ms. Harkness’ cheeks all the way at the other end of the aisle, watching a bright smile bloom on her face.
They turn and leave together, Rio bumping their hips together. Agatha turns and bumps her hip against hers harder, sending her stumbling and laughing loudly. As they turn the corner, he covers his mouth and lets out a half laugh-half squeal.
“What’s that for?” his mother chuckles.
“Oh, nothing,” he says with a dreamy sigh. “I love love.”
~
When he sees Ms. Harkness wearing a New York Giants sweatshirt the following Monday despite having said on multiple accounts how much she despises the sport, he just can’t help himself.
“Have you changed your mind on football, Ms. Harkness?” he asks after class ends and the rest of the students begins trickling out.
“What?” she asks with a confused frown. He points to her sweater, she looks down at it and blushes.
“Oh. Um… no I haven’t. I’m… borrowing it,” she says awkwardly and he holds back a laugh.
“From Ms. Vidal?” he says cheekily.
“How did-,” Her eyes go wide for a moment before she squints at him. “Oh, you hush,” she says and he finally lets out a laugh.
“You guys are so cute!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she deadpans, but he can see the way her cheeks flush slightly.
“Mmmhm. Okay,” he says smugly. He picks up his things and as he’s about to leave, he turns with a soft smile. “I’m happy for you guys,” he says quietly before ducking out of the room quickly, not giving her a chance to respond.
~
Valentine’s Day arrives and, despite being painfully single, he adores the holiday. Love is beautiful and it should be celebrated!
The school does this big event every year where you buy roses for someone and they hand them out after lunch, it’s very sweet. He’s sitting right in front of Ms. Harkness’ desk when they arrive.
She rolls her eyes and pauses her speech on The Great Gatbsy when a student walks in holding them. “Let’s get it over with then,” she says, waving her hand dismissively.
He calls out Billy’s name and he raises his hand excitedly, already knowing who it’ll be from. Except, when he walks over to Billy’s desk, he sets down two. Billy opens the cards hesitantly, not sure who the second one could be from and a little scared to find out. Sure enough, the first one is from Hannah and it reads, “Love you, nerd!” The second makes his breath catch in his chest. “To my favorite baseball player - E.”
There’s no fucking way…
As he has a small internal meltdown over the possibility of Eddie sending him a rose, another student walks in holding a decently sized bouquet of red roses in a vase.
Ms. Harkness had sat back at her desk, waiting for them to finish and leave, when she glances up and her eyes catch on the bouquet. She raises an eyebrow at the frightened student slowly walking up to her desk.
“Um.. these are for you,” the student says before setting them on her desk and practically running out of the room.
There’s a collective aww from the class that she silences with a look as she stands to grab the card. Distracted for a moment from his own crisis, Billy watches her eagerly. She snatches the card off the top of the bouquet and visibly softens as she reads it, a small smile curling the edges of her lips.
She looks up to see the entire class watching her and she clears her throat, schooling her expression. “Alright, back to work.”
If she has a soft smile on her face for the rest of the day, Billy doesn’t comment on it.
~
Spring break came and went and it was wonderful. He spent most of it with Hannah and Eddie, his boyfriend. Coming back to school is a bit of a downer, but he won’t mind an update on his favorite show.
His favorite show being Ms. Harkness and Ms. Vidal being ridiculously in love and completely unable to hide it, no matter what they think. It’s so obvious.
He got dropped off early today and thought he might as well torment Ms. Vidal about her relationship since he has time to kill before class. But when he arrives, he sees the door cracked and he can hear voices coming from inside. He recognizes Ms. Harkness voice instantly and, being the nosy gay he is, he absolutely eavesdrops.
“No, my love. We will not be doing that,” she says with a chuckle.
The pout is audible in Rio’s voice when she speaks. “Come onnn, pleeease?” she whines.
Agatha just laughs and he hears the light smacking of lips, no doubt she just leaned in to kiss her. “I should get back to my class, darling. I’ll have to work through lunch, but I’ll see you at home?”
“Mm, I love how that sounds,” Rio says in a tone that Billy definitely should not have just heard. There’s more smacking sounds and his faces scrunches up a little.
He can’t take it anymore, he needs to tease them about this so bad. Whipping the door open, he casually strolls in and takes his seat. He sends them a cheeky smile as he watches them spring apart from each other and clear their throats awkwardly.
“Billy! Hi! You’re… early,” Ms. Vidal says nervously. As if the whole school doesn’t know they’re dating. Puh-lease.
“Yup!”
Agatha narrows her gaze at him, twisting her lips, clearly trying to hold back a chuckle. She turns to Rio with a soft smile. “Well. I’ll see you later,” Ms. Harkness tells her sweetly.
Ms. Vidal blushes and nods. As Ms. Harkness leaves, sending one last lingering look over her shoulder, Ms. Vidal turns to him with a playful glare. He just sits their with his hands clasped on his desk and a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Shut up,” she tells him.
Billy gasps mockingly, bringing his hand to his chest. “The way you talk to your students…”
“Double shut up.”
“That doesn’t make any sense!”
Rio laughs and throws a balled up piece of paper at him, laughing louder as it bounces off his forehead. Billy’s jaw drops and a smile involuntarily creeps up his face as her contagious laughter gets to him.
~
The end of the school year comes quickly and he spends a magnificent three months falling in love. Soon enough, he’s a senior. One year left and then college. He tries not to let it freak him out too much.
He’s lucky enough to have Ms. Harkness again this year for 12th grade English. Three out of four years, how crazy is that?
She’s much nicer this year, much more likely to goof off with her students. Well, as much as she can goof off, she’s still quite strict when it comes to learning. But Ms. Vidal seems to be a good influence on her.
Him and Hannah spend their snack breaks in Ms. Harkness’ room most days and Rio will usuaully join them if they ever stay during lunch as well.
“Ya know, we’ve been your number one supporters from the very beginning.. even before the beginning,” Billy tells them one day at lunch.
Agatha's fork pauses mid air and she looks up at him suspiciously. “What do you mean before the beginning…?”
“He means we totally got you guys together. So we better be invited to the wedding,” Hannah says cheekily.
“I- What?!” Rio exclaims, blushing furiously at the mention of a wedding.
“That first baseball game you guys came to and bonded over, all orchestrated. And our master plan totally worked! Look at you guys now!” he exclaims, a smug smirk creeping up his face. “You’re welcome.”
Agatha and Rio both stare at him blankly for a moment before slowly turning to each other. “I’m gonna kill them…” Rio says casually. “Visit me in prison?”
“Of course, darling. I’ll make sure to write.”
Billy and Hannah bust out laughing as Rio turns to glare at them.
“Hey! You should be thanking us not threatening our lives!” Hannah says in between laughs.
Rio huffs and Agatha smiles into her coffee mug, neither of them willing to admit how thankful they truly are. Maybe they would have gotten here on their own, but the push from the kids definitely sped things along.
~
Agatha and Rio both help him and Hannah with picking out colleges when the time comes, even as they spend weeks agonizing over all the options and worrying about getting accepted. They are totally their favorite students.
When the senior trip comes around, Billy and Hannah make it their own personal mission to get them both on the biggest ride at the park. And when Ms. Harkness shows up to class on the last day of school with a beautiful ring on her finger, he squeals for at least ten minutes straight. She laughs and accepts his congratulations with a soft thank you, telling him to please never make that sound again.
They keep in touch after he graduates, sending emails back and forth through the years to keep up with how everyone is doing, and he visits the school every so often just to say hi.
Him and Hannah are both invited to the wedding a few years later. It’s a beautiful affair, both of their teachers looking absolutely stunning, Ms, Harkness in a dress and Ms. Vidal in a suit. Billy cries like a baby when they say their vows, and him and Hannah spend the whole reception dancing and gushing over the pair just like they used to in school.
He's overjoyed when he opens the email saying they’re having a baby. He calls Hannah up to tell her the good news and they reminisce on their high school years for a good hour and a half, both of them beyond happy for their former teachers.
They truly are perfect for each other and he’s so happy life is working out for them. He emails her back telling them congratulations and they’ll have to get lunch soon.
Operation AgathaRio : a definite success…