Chapter Text
The final bell rang as the new PE teacher, Lilah Silver, let out a sigh.
After a long day of not really teaching these kids, she’s just a PE teacher, she can just assemble the kids and let them play dodgeball for 15 minutes and then leave them to their own devices. She can finally go home, do some odd jobs on craigslist for money, and then hit the bar right after.
Her home life is terrible, no relatives, no parents, and no partners either. It has always been her and only her in this terrible world. Sometimes she wonders what even is her real purpose in this life, besides making money and paying rent.
Lilah does want to sort her life out, she doesn’t want to live like this forever where the only thing that is keeping her awake is her burning desire to get some alcohol in her veins. She wants to get sober, she wants to get her life together.
But sometimes that euphoric feeling of whiskey down her throat after a long day of work, she can’t help but down another glass in just a blink of an eye.
She got this job as a teacher at Blackmore because of Abrams, they were good friends back in the day, trouble making in every alley of New York. But they split ways, after Abrams tried to reform his life, which is something that Silver couldn’t do.
Seeing his former best friend struggling with the ways of life. Abrams, who is also a teacher at Blackmore High, reached out and got her a job.
The kids are nice enough to her, they give her enough respect for being more of a laid-back teacher. But she doesn’t care that much if one of them is gonna be rude to her, if anything she’s just gonna let them curse right at her face, as long as she can get that monthly paycheck, she couldn’t give less of a damn.
After she’s done putting back all of the equipment in the locker. Silver was just about to leave before the school’s speaker rang.
The principal of the school, Hieremias King, announced.
“This is Mr. King. I would like to call Ms. Silver, Ms. Paige, Ms. Holliday, and Mr. Abrams to my office please.”
“Ugh.” Lilah ran her fingers through her messy hair and she is clearly displeased about this sudden summoning.
This is her first time being summoned like this, the school board clearly didn’t deem her worthy enough to do anything of importance before, so why now? They always gave it to someone more “reliable” like Holliday or Abrams.
Speaking of Holliday, Silver knows that she sees her in a bad light. In Holliday’s eyes, Silver is nothing but an alcoholic numb nut who should be nowhere near or even teaching the kids. She usually doesn’t care, not even a little. But working with a person like this is definitely gonna get under her skin sooner or later.
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At the sound of the principal's voice, Holliday cursed internally, she knew the prom was coming but she didn’t know it would arrive this fast. And after being in charge of organizing the damn thing for almost 3 years straight, maybe she thought the principal would pick someone else, but she proved that she was just too reliable to do that.
She’s also on the hunt for “The Troubador”, an anonymous student in the school who has been threatening the school's files that include exam answers and every single teacher and student’s personal info.
She dealt with misbehaving students before, but “The Troubador” is on a whole ‘nother level. As their threats kept coming in, she can’t help but feel worried of the consequences if she failed.
Holliday is working day and night, asking everybody who might even have an idea of who this “Troubador” person is. She has lost sleep over this anonymous threat. She can’t help but feel sluggish every time she arrives at school. And she would just try to take little naps every time the kids are taking their quizzes.
And doing that while trying to organize the prom soon, she can’t help but feel like she’s being crushed under pressure.
Also with the element of working with the new PE teacher, she can’t help but just want to jump off a bridge. Lilah Silver is a hazard to the kids. Everybody knows she's not there to actually teach them but just to steal some paychecks.
She’s unkempt and dirty, just the image of being near somebody like that makes Holliday irks a little.
She puts her backpack on and prepares to go the Mr. King’s office. But before that, Paige peeked inside Holliday’s classroom, which is neatly decorated with historical figures and old maps.
“Hey Holliday.” Paige said in her unusually high pitched, cheery tone.
“Hey Paige, you got summoned by Hieremias too right?”
“Yeah, wonder what is that for.”
Paige looks puzzled. It’s understandable since she’s a new teacher here in Blackmore.
Holliday steps out of the classroom with Paige and locks it tightly.
“If I had to guess, it’s probably the prom.”
Holliday sighed as she spoke, Paige’s face lits up a little at the prospect of being able to organize something that has such so much importance to the students like the prom.
“Prom?! Really?”
“Yes Paige, prom.”
However, Holliday doesn’t sound as excited as her.
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Hieremias’ office gives off a cozy feeling as Silver steps foot inside the office. The room is lit up with amber lights and a small little fireplace opposite to his desk.
Abrams, Paige and Holliday have already arrived at the office and as Silver opened the door, everybody turned to look at her.
“Ah, everybody has arrived. The meeting can start now.”
Hieremias said in his low, gravelly tone as he approached the groups of teachers.
“As you may or may not know, the annual Blackmore High’s prom is coming up.”
Silver takes a look at the other teachers. Abrams looks calm and collected, as always, and Paige is bearing a huge smile on her face.
However, she can’t help at how annoyed Holliday looks. Holliday looks like she doesn’t want to be there even more than Silver.
Silver had thought a person as competent as Holliday would chomp at the mouth doing something like this. But apparently not, Holliday looks tired, stressed out, and doesn’t want to spend a single second on this anymore.
A feeling stirs inside Silver, she wonders what could cause Holliday to look so worn out like that. She is confused at Holliday’s state, she can’t even start to comprehend about the possibilities of what could make her this tired. Is it because of her students? Her homelife? Or maybe it’s even because she has to work with her.
This feeling is foreign to Silver, why does she care about her co-worker like this? Silver never had anybody to care for, she has no obligation to feel like this, so why does she care for Holliday’s condition?
Before she could sort out her weird emotion, maybe she should focus more on Hieremias’ speech.
“I have gathered all of you here to help organize this event.”
“Ms. Paige and Mr. Abrams, I am assigning you to organize the prom’s entertainment, that includes the prom king and queen event and the music that will be played during the event.”
“You got it Hieremias.”
“I won’t disappoint you Mr. King!”
Abrams and Paige replied to Hieremias’ orders, which leaves Silver and Holliday to be paired up with each other.
“And Ms. Silver and Ms. Holliday, you’ll be in charge of everything else, the catering, the decoration, and the tickets.”
“Got it.” Silver nodded.
Holliday quickly followed but she sounded even less enthusiastic than her.
“Copy.”
“Remember that you can always ask your students to assist you for the best possible outcome.”
“The prom is in your hands, teachers. The meeting ends here.”
At the announcement of the end of the meeting. Everybody besides Hieremias quickly leaves the office.
Damn, she really got paired up with Holliday.
Silver has no clue how this is supposed to work out. If she was paired with Abrams, things would have gone much smoother and way less awkward.
But now, Holliday is her new partner for this, and she just has to try her best to get this done with.
Before Silver could even approach Holliday, the opposite had already been done as Holliday stood right in front of Silver.
“Lilah, you’re free this evening?”
“Depends. Why are you asking?”
“We should buy all of the decorations now, I have a lot of things to do lately, so it’s best if we get this done asap.”
Silver probably could have guessed that she was busy based on how exhausted Holliday looked previously.
She nodded, agreeing to Holliday plans.
“Sounds good to me.”
“You got a car?”
“Nope. I only have a motorcycle.” Silver replied.
Holliday’s face immediately winced at her response. Maybe the possibility of riding a motorcycle with Silver didn’t seem that enticing to Holliday. But she lets out a defeated sigh.
“My car broke down yesterday. Could you take us to the department store?” Holliday sheepishly asked.
Silver stood in silence for a while, seeing Holliday so defeated and tired. That worry inside Silver for her co-worker is slowing growing.
“Stop! She doesn’t need you to worry for her!” Silver cursed internally, she tries to press down that feeling inside her as she lets out a sigh.
“Sure.”
As Holliday followed Silver to the parking lot. Silver hops on her bike and grabs her helmet that was dangling off the handle and throws it to Holliday. Holliday took a step back as she catched the helmet.
“Put it on, you’ll need it more than me.”
Usually, Holliday would immediately reject somebody who is trying to help her in the slightest. And this situation usually is no exception, Holliday on a normal day would throw the helmet back to Silver and hopped straight on the motorcycle.
But she’s way too tired to even think about objecting to somebody thinking about her own good.
But still, this doesn’t change her view about Silver.
Holliday struggled to put on the helmet as she hopped on behind Silver.
The ride was completely silent, Silver and Holliday are practically strangers with views that might not see each other in the most positive light.
Holliday sees Silver as an alcoholic junkie with no real goals in life. On the other hand, Silver sees a competent teacher who clearly doesn’t seem to take that much of a liking to Silver.
Holliday is clearly tired and all she wants to do is buy all of the things that are necessary for the prom and then go home and do some more research about The Troubadour.
She isn’t even touching an inch on Silver’s body despite how little the space on the seat is. She’s trying to make as much distance as possible between her and the PE teacher in front of her.
Silver is going slow, too slow for Holliday’s liking. Maybe Silver thought that Holliday couldn’t handle high speeds through the streets of New York. Holliday could still feel that uneasiness that has been brewing inside her since she started doing investigation work on The Troubadour.
She slowly feels doozy, she feels so tired that she could just practically drop dead right then and there. And dropped dead she did.
Her eyes close as her body involuntarily leans in front, but who she has leaned on is the real problem.
It’s a really beautiful day in New York as the sun is shining through the streets. It’s been a while since Silver rode her motorcycle without wearing her helmet as her messy hair is flowing through the air.
But Holliday needs the helmet more. If they crashed, she would prefer that Holliday survives instead of the deadbeat that is driving both of them.
At the thought of Holliday popping up in Silver’s mind again, she quickly shook her head as she tried to focus on the road.
But she quickly finds herself unable to do so as Holliday leans her whole body on Silver's, almost clinging on to her as head rests on Silver’s shoulders.
Goosebumps immediately rises on Silver’s skin, She has never had anyone clinging on to her like this. Let alone it being Holliday, the person whose relationship in her mind is absolutely confusing for her.
She can feel the heat in her cheeks rising a little as Holliday shifts even closer to Silver.
Silver is confused, should she wake her up? Or let her continue sleeping on Silver’s shoulder, letting her rest for the time being.
Her heart beat is pumping as she tries her best not to crash because how close Holliday is to her. Silver could hear Holliday murmuring something through the helmet.
“Need… to catch… The.. Troubadour…”
Silver tries to calm down her mind that is going wild for Holliday to question herself at who she is talking about. Maybe a friend? But why would she need to “catch” a friend?
Silver spends the rest of the ride thinking about the multiple possibilities of who this “Troubadour” could be. Because inside her, there’s a slim chance that she could actually help out Holliday at whatever is troubling her.
Wait. Why does she even need to help Holliday?
She clearly doesn’t like Silver, she thinks Silver is a hazard to everybody around the school. So why is her mind so obsessed with this image of the woman in the back of her seat?
“Stupid fucking brain.” Silver berated herself.
As they arrive at the department store, Silver realized that she haven’t even woke up Holliday up yet. Silver nudges her shoulder that Holliday is resting on and Holliday immediately sit straight up like an instinct.
“Wake up sleepyhead, we’re here.”
Silver could hear Holliday grumbling something before she hopped off the motorcycle and took off the helmet.
But as she took off that helmet, Holliday whipped her hair around. The sunlight that was shining through the streets of New York today shined on Holliday.
At that point, Silver’s heart was immediately captured more than it was before.
As Holliday whipped her hair around, the sunlight made her look dazzling and more beautiful than ever.
Her green eyes are practically shining as Silver made contact with them.
She can practically feel her heart stopping for just a second.
As Silver keep peering into Holliday’s soul, Holliday’s face winced a little as she took a step back.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Holliday said, clearly annoyed a little.
Silver shook her head as she got caught by Holliday just gazing at her. A blush creeps in Silver’s cheek as she looked down to the ground, a bit ashamed.
“Fuck. Sorry.”
Holliday groaned as she handed the helmet back to Silver.
“Just get off the motorcycle Lilah, I really don’t have that much time.” Holliday stated.
Feeling that she already feel like a weirdo looking Holliday like that, Silver didn’t even want to object as she hopped off her vehicle and went to the department store with her co-worker.