Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Octavius stepped out from his short, sleek, red car with a box in his arms and a confidence that other men his age only wished that they could own. He closed the car door with one foot, looking up at the large building he had yet to enter. His new job was one in this very location, a large school in a midwestern state in the US. Now, teaching wasn't the best job, he'd heard, but it was something he'd very recently gotten interested in. The idea of teaching a new generation a dead language was certainly something that spoke to him, and with the many degrees that ha'd gotten in college, he could do pretty much whatever job he so liked.

Octavius stepped forward to the front doors of the school, fishing in his back pocket for his wallet. He reached the entrance just as he'd gotten it out, and set his knee up on the door with the box precariously balanced on top so he could take out the plastic ID card that had came in the mail just the week prior. With a swipe over a grey box next to the door handle, there was a harsh beep and the door clicked itself open. The walk to Octavius' classroom was certainly a difficult one. The school was so large, but he hadn't thought to check the layout of it on the school's website before he came, and now, he was regretting it.

On the bright side, he did get a look at just how large the place was, and how nicely it was kept, too. Back where he lived in Europe, the people loved to trash on Americans and their poor sense of building structure, and just how odd they were in general. Octavius knew it all not to be entirely true- some states were definitely worse than others- but it was still a bit baffling for him to see it for sure. Now that he had moved to America, he saw how quite a lot of things were stereotyped. He had to do immense research on what school to apply for, as he wanted to teach at a good one, and saw that most American schools kept their buildings well cleaned, as well as serving pretty okay food.

Once Octavius reached his room, he saw remnants of the old teacher that occupied it inside. The desks were arranged in a small U shape with a larger U surrounding them, there were still a few words written on the whiteboard, and there were posters on the wall, all a bright purple, about rules and expectations. The small glance around the room let Octavius know that making the room his own wouldn't be a difficult task, but a long one. he spent the better part of two hours tidying up the room and cleaning every surface that he laid his eyes on. Once the room was finally clean and smelled distinctly of alcohol and lemon, Octavius began to unpack some of the things he brought with him. Decorating a room certainly takes time, but it was something that Octavius had never been the best at. Of course though, he needed it to look perfect to give his students the right environment to work in. he put up a few posters of his own, some about the language of Latin, and one or two about the Roman Empire, simply because the man was fascinated by it. His desk was something that had stumped him when he was first packing things to bring, but he had finally decided on minimal decoration. It wouldn't be nice to have a cluttered desk to do his paperwork on, most certainly.

After the room was fully decorated, Octavius sat down at the desk and sighed, finally relaxing. He rubbed his hands over his face, taking a moment to himself, before he glanced up at the clock. It read 1:20. Octavius knew there was supposed to be a teachers meeting that day, and in fifteen minutes, to be exact. He stood up and stretched, then headed out the door. He knew he should have started going down to the room earlier than he really needed to. It wouldn't be a good look to be late to a meeting on his first day. Besides, being early is on time, and being on time is late. Using a map he had found in the desk drawer- most likely left by the previous teacher- he had easily located and made it to the meeting room with about seven minutes to spare. He walked inside and sat down at a table with room for two- the other seat empty- and saw a small group of other teachers inside. Octavius glanced around the room to familiarize himself with the place. It was probably one of the most boring rooms he had ever been in, and that was saying a lot. He used to work an office job where the people there seemed to be allergic to any bit of color if it wasn't blue-gray or black.

He occupied himself with the map, hoping to have at least one floor down in his memory by the end of the weekend, as the last few people trickled in. There was a large man with long, black hair who had a tiny, college aged boy trailing behind him. The boy was holding a clipboard close to his chest and was rattling on to the older man about the recent classes he had been taking. The two sat down at a round table next to a man with a mustache and a woman with two long braids. He would have listened in on their conversation to get to know his new coworkers when he heard distractingly loud footsteps stalking in the doorway.

In the door was a tall man with blonde hair and big cowboy boots, who walked inside just at the very last minute before it had turned 1:35. His blonde hair was light and airy. The lights in the meeting room almost made it look like a halo surrounding his head. He sat down at a table for two next to a blonde woman with her hair done up in a ponytail, and the two immediately began excitedly conversing despite the short amount of time they had left to do so. Octavius stopped himself from rolling his eyes, having far better manners than this strangely etherial man who had decided to tempt fate by almost being late to a mandatory teachers meeting. He instead let his eyes wander down to the cowboy boots that had distracted him just a minute before. Under all of the dust, there was the slightest hint of blue at the toes and soles, but the backs of his heels were hidden by ridiculously large pant legs. Something about midwestern people and their bootcut jeans, Octavius reasoned. His gaze lingered up to the man's belt, which had a large, golden buckle on it in the shape of an oval. Octavius didn't want to be caught staring at such a place, so he averted his eyes to the door as the only man in the district he was familiar with entered, the superintendent; Dr. McPhee.

Octavius sat up a bit straighter to listen to the meeting, although it was very boring. Almost everything Dr. McPhee had to say was about how important it was that the school maintain the good reputation its earned while subtly glaring over at the football coach. Octavius couldn't bring himself to fully pay attention, as his gaze kept being stolen by the shaggy headed blonde man, who he'd just realized had a crooked nose. Octavius could vaguely hear everyone going over the latest quarter of school- Octavius had joined the district right in the middle of winter break, and when the students came back it would officially be the second semester and third quarter- and reporting detentions given to certain students. It made Octavius feel the slightest bi of nervousness. Of course, no matter how good the school, there was always bound to be a few misbehaving students in each grade. Octavius was worried that he'd get too many in one period, however. A possibility like that meant he had to figure out a way to establish rules on the first day that his students met him. He needed to have the correct teaching environment to make it so that none of his students even think about acting out for any reason. As soon as the meeting was over, Octavius immediately began to brainstorm as the rest of the teachers in the room stood up and left.

-----------------------------------

Once he was back in his classroom, Octavius had decided to begin setting up the computer that the school had given him. He was trying to distract himself from thinking of the man from the meeting room. There was something so intriguing about him that Octavius couldn't figure out. Maybe it was his height, his hair, his very blue eyes, or the oddly southern sounding accent he had despite living in the midwest. It was annoying. The man was invading his thoughts. Octavius shook his head and went back to mindless clicking at the computer. The peacefulness of setting up a school email by typing in what was on the back of his school ID had eventually cleared Octavius' mind enough to look around the room to keep his brain occupied. The lights were awfully bright. Maybe he could be one of those teachers in America who place decorative lights all around and have the main ones off. He humored the idea in his brain for a short while before he found that the soft yellow glow of the light bulbs had turned into a halo of white surrounding fluffy, blonde hair. Octavius groaned loudly to himself and furiously mashed on his keyboard, pulling up the official school website to find a list of faculty and staff.

The site had to have been made back in 2005, because everything from the link color to the font had a distinctly outdated feel to it. After clicking a few buttons, Octavius reached a page that enthusiastically stated that it had the list of every single faculty member in the district, which Octavius highly doubted, knowing there had bound to be a few people they missed. Octavius clicked on the high school section of the page and was brought to a screen full of low quality pictures of the people he'd seen back in the meeting room, give or take a few. There, in the middle of the page, was the tall, blonde man that Octavius couldn't get his eyes to stray away from. He glanced down below the picture and read the man's subtitle; "Jedediah Smith, Ag Ed teacher and FFA director." Ah, so the man taught.... whatever Ag Ed was. Octavius couldn't exactly say he had heard of that class. Maybe it's something they only teach in America, or it could be a class that's only recently started to be taught in schools. Octavius did feel the need to remind himself that a multitude of classes have just started to pick up since he'd left the learning environment years ago. He would be 50 in just three short years. It didn't mean he was getting old, necessarily, but it did mean he was starting to get up there in age. Octavius wasn't the youngest man around anymore, not like when he had joined an office job fresh from college. There were teachers walking around this place who were fresh from their four years, not to mention the tan boy Octavius had seen shadowing a man named Atilla- Octavius had found his name right here on the website- who still looked to be about a year deep into his.

Now that Octavius was looking at the smiling faces on his computer screen, he realized that he did want to get to know his coworkers. He had to be proactive if he wanted to know more than just a name and a face. He'd have to go visit and talk to them. Where to begin was the biggest question. He certainly couldn't start with Jedediah Smith, but maybe he could start with the librarians, Theodore and Sacagawea. It would be good to at least be aquatinted with the two, as Octavius has a study hall period and plans to bring his students down to the library to grab a book. He picked up the map again and made his way down the school to the first floor. He passed by the music room and pushed open one of the library doors.

Inside stood the two librarians. One, the man with the mustache, was sitting at the front desk, typing away at a computer, while the other, the woman with the black braids, was pushing around a cart full of books. She turned around once she had heard the heavy door get pushed open, and smiled gently at Octavius while walking over.

"Hello there! You are the new Latin teacher, correct?" the woman asked, tilting her head. She clasped her hands together and brought them down to the front of her brown dress with tassels hanging down. She had on matching fuzzy, brown boots and a delicate necklace with two little feather charms on it, as well as a pair of sparkly earrings.

Octavius nodded, putting out a hand for her to shake, "Oh, yes. My name is Octavius. I teach up on the third level." The woman took his hand without hesitation and led him over to the man at the computer, who grinned nearly ecstatically at him.

"Good evening, sir, my name is Theodore, but you may call me Teddy!" The man- Theodore- took Octavius' hand and shook it firmly before he could even stretch it out towards him. Octavius' couldn't respond in his surprise, which made the older man chuckle and pat his hand, "I do apologize, my good man! I get excited when we get new teachers."

Octavius regained his bearings by shaking his head, "No, I understand. I've learned of how short staffed some schools are. It's a very high value job, a hard one to fill." Theodore nodded happily at him, as if agreeing, before turning back to the computer. Octavius sighed and reached up to fuss with his hair. Again with his specificities, Octavius did not like having his hair messed with, not one bit. It always revealed his greying strands, and he hated being reminded that his dark, brown hair would not remain the same shade forever.

The younger lady in front of him looked to the ceiling in thought before her eyes went wide. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "I never introduced myself! My name is Sacagawea. Me and Teddy are married" Octavius glanced down at her left hand to confirm. Surely, a shiny, diamond ring lay on her ring finger, fused with a smaller, golden one. He looked back up to her eyes and nodded in confirmation.

As the usual silence of the library settled in, Octavius thought back to the meeting room. Even if Sacagawea and Jedediah weren't sitting at the same table, she surely knew the man, right? He hesitantly looked toward her, "I have a question." She turned back from the book cart and leaned in inquisitively, as if to ask him what it was. "The Ag Ed teacher, Jedediah. It's about him."