Chapter Text
Over and over again, Jessica Stonewood pushed back the pesky strands of hair that threatened to fall from her tight ponytail. Simultaneously, she triple checked the buttons of her shirt while clicking her stilettos together— They were suffocating, she should have worn flats. But she was desperate to make a good impression.
Her first day at a new school. She was hired quickly due to another teacher quitting with no two-weeks notice. Also because, for some reason, the school was terribly understaffed.
Whatever got her a job, Jessica supposed. Although she was concerned.. She hadn’t met the principal or any staff. There was no interview, only an email saying she was hired.. Pretty sketchy, if she were to be honest.
All she had going there was her itchy stockings, tight stiletto heels, a ponytail that left her head throbbing, and a dream.. Plus some pretty important papers.
“Now arriving at Petal Peak Station.” The conductor's voice boomed throughout the train car, doors opening swiftly.
It seemed nobody besides Jessica had to get off the train, leaving her pushing many and struggling to keep herself from falling over amidst the crowd of office workers.
Unfortunately for Jessica, as soon as she escaped the vehicle, she toppled over onto the station's concrete. Papers scattered everywhere, catching the attention of a nearby worker who ran over to help her.
No more heels, she decided angrily, kicking them off her feet before being hoisted off the ground.
The man handed her all of her documents, along with her heels which she just tossed. From a distance, she could see where she would be working: Petal Peak High School- Impressively large and beautiful, while also being intimidating in comparison to the much smaller Springdale Elementary, where she originally hoped to work.
Even so, she was excited. Gone were her days of substituting classes filled with misbehaved children who didn’t care about a word she said.
The replacement would be respectful students who were ready to learn. After all, high schoolers were bound to be more mature than those in elementary school, weren’t they?
This would be, like, a walk in Triangle Park, or something.
_____
Inside Petal Peak, it was desolate. If there were students who came early, they were nowhere to be seen. Nor were any teachers, yet the lights were on.
There had to be someone. She continued walking down the halls, ceiling lights flashing ominously above her.
“Hey, you new here?”
Jessica shrieked, startled by the sudden nasally voice. Behind her was a woman with short black hair, round glasses, and a navy blue jumpsuit; she held a mop in one hand with a gray bucket in the other.
“Y- Yes,” Jessica huffed, “I’m a new teacher..!”
The stranger looked Jessica up and down.
“Ah, you’re Eric’s replacement.. Okay. My name is Zoey, I’m the janitor here. Have you introduced yourself to Hailey yet?” Zoey barely waited for an answer before speaking again. “She’s really loud, eccentric, wears a lot of junk.. And is the principal, somehow.”
“Oh, no.. No, but I do need to speak with her! Could you tell me where her office is, please?!”
Zoey gave a slow nod, pointing further down the hall with her mop, “Her office is down to your left, you’re welcome,” she focused on Jessica once again, looking down. “Might wanna put those heels back on.”
Right.. her shoes, Jessica forgot. She blushed, doing as suggested immediately and proceeding to run, nearly stumbling thanks to the stupidly thin heels.
At long last, she was in front of a door with a nameplate that read Ms. Thomas. She pulled back her loose hair strands for a final time, dusted off her pencil skirt, and moved her papers close to her chest, wedged in one arm as she finally turned the knob to enter Hailey’s— The principal’s office.
Sitting down in the room was a woman with medium length purple hair that was covered in childish hairclips, she also had on pink rubber duck earrings, and glasses with beads and charms glued to their frames.
Hailey Anne Thomas. The woman certainly fit Zoey’s description so far.
She was distracted on her pink laptop— the device decorated with a plentiful amount of stickers that overlapped one another. Jessica assumed she was doing important work, only to realize thanks to the reflection of Hailey’s glasses that she was playing a rhythm game.. It explained the aggressive taps of her acrylic nails and figures that cluttered her work desk.
“M- Ms. Thomas..?” Jessica greeted, forcing herself to sound enthusiastic. Hailey paid her no mind at first, continuing to play her game. “Ms. Thomas.”
“OH NOES..” Hailey cried, “I missed one. There goes my full combo.” She then slammed her laptop shut, getting up to do— Jessica wasn’t sure. “EEK! Who are you?”
Annoyed, Jessica struggled not to roll her eyes. “Good morning, Ms. Thomas. I’m Jessica Stonewood, the new math teacher. Remember that email you sent me?” She quickly pulled out one of her many papers, handing it over to Hailey.
Hailey skimmed the paper, proceeding to put it down on her desk carelessly. “Oh, yeah! I totally remember. I’m so happy you’re here! Our last guy Eric quit because my cookies gave him food poisoning and this new strain of— Never mind that. Welcome aboard, Jessica!”
A new strain..? Jessica gulped. Don’t accept any food Hailey offers, she told herself.
“Your room is 302, you’ll be teaching math to our first, second, and third years.. I think..? One second.”
“.. Just math?!” Jessica asked, watching as Ms. Thomas searched around the office to grab loads of books and papers. “And all of the years? I thought I’d be teaching one year, and one class.”
Hailey dropped an absurd amount of materials in Jessica’s hands, crumpling her documents underneath them.
“I run things differently,” Hailey said with a smile, “You’ll enjoy it! Trust me.” Math was Jessica’s favorite subject. “Now.. You can get settled into your classroom, or chill in the teachers lounge. It’s not far from my office. Have fun, tootles~!”
From there, Jessica decided to find her classroom first, marching all the way to the third floor.. Her feet were killing her.
On the bright side, the room was already decorated thanks to the teacher before her. He didn’t bother taking down his educational, cheesy posters and students' previous work hung up on a bulletin board, or the apple sticker on the door. That would save her a lot of money, even if she would still like to purchase some items herself— Make things more personal to who she was and the teacher she wished to be.
Pushing that thought aside, Jessica decided to kill time by checking over the lesson plan provided by Hailey and going to write Ms. Stonewood on the board.
Such simple tasks, yet she felt unprepared and anxious.
Her students would probably miss Eric, whoever he was. He seemed to care about them deeply, judging by the room's interior. Those cookies must have been damn near poison for him to quit his job entirely.
Another thing— He had left a chalkboard. Jessica hated chalkboards, whiteboards were always preferred because they didn’t terrorize her ears; While a chalkboard was scratchy and overstimulating to work with.
Alas, a chalkboard she had, picking up a tiny piece of leftover chalk and managing to write her name before the stick crumbled into nothingness.
With a sigh, she began looking for a box of chalk, certain there would be one somewhere in the room. She checked the closet, her desk, every nook and cranny..
No chalk. Crap.
How could she teach her lesson with no chalk?! This was a travesty, a disaster, a nightmare. It was hell. She sat down, slumping in defeat and glancing at the clock above her. Her first period started in three hours.. Maybe she could go buy some chalk?
Or, better yet…
_____
“You’re going to give them a written test on dodgeball? Come on, Bear. PE is the one class where you get a break from writing.”
Bear sighed, staring at his test sheets that he just printed hundreds of.
“You don’t get it, Eddie! Sometimes I barely feel like a teacher. Half of my students purposely don’t bring their gym uniform just so they can walk around and text on their phones. This is my chance to get them engaged in class, it’s important. They’re failing PE!”
Eddie shrugged, checking his laptop, “I wish I didn’t have to deal with grading tests. I mean, look at this,” he moved his laptop for Bear to see its screen, “I worked on this stupid site just for the coding to be easier for them— They barely have to remember shit,” his eye twitched, “And yet they write “I don’t know” on their TESTS. Half of the answers say it, and can you believe this girl added a smiley face next to it?!”
“You think that’s annoying,” their coworker, Katie, joined in, taking a sip of apple juice. “All of my first years cheated on their big test using a group chat they named “Bitch Ass Forester.” And I mean ALL of them.. As if English is such a hard subject.”
At that, Eddie and Bear tried their hardest not to laugh. They weren’t the only teachers struggling, either. The school’s biology teacher, Buck, fell out of his chair laughing at her little story.
“Thanks a lot, Buck,” Katie said sarcastically. “You don’t know what it’s like, you only have to put up with the second years..”
Buck wiped a few tears from his eyes, catching his breath, “Yup, and the second years are great.”
“They are.” Nate, who taught art (and Spanish on Tuesdays) agreed, biting into a blehgel. “First years are too loud, and mean.. All of them laughed at me because..” he frowned, “I slipped on a banana peel…”
“Well, that was objectively hilarious,” Eddie chuckled, “By the way, one of the first years threw the banana—“
“SEE.” Nate cut off his colleague, “They’re mean!.. While the third years are just kinda lazy. I gave my classes an assignment to sketch their favorite items at home, and all one of the third years did was draw a water bottle cap… I couldn’t even tell it was a water bottle cap, it just looked like a tiny circle that he said was a water bottle cap!”
The teachers continued complaining about their students, their workload, and all of the struggles that came with teaching.
Then, the door of the teachers lounge creaked open— Loud enough for them to all hear it and stare, expecting a familiar face; Usually Diana and Francesca popped in at this hour.
Instead, though..
“H- Hello..” Jessica croaked, closing the door softly, “Uh, nice to meet you all..! My name is Jessica Stonewood..”
Everyone looked at Jessica in silence, wondering if she was lost until Katie gasped knowingly, “Oh my God. Eric really quit.”
Her realization made the other teachers gasp too, and personally, Jessica felt herself shrink a bit at their reactions. They all seemed to forget about her presence, rambling about Eric’s departure. Two of them saw it coming, the other two were hoping he’d leave anyway, and Katie was devastated.
“Uh,” Jessica coughed, “So, do any of you have chalk..?”