Work Text:
1.
Mr. Johnson was one of the teachers at Tipiskaw High with a certain reputation. He was known to be harsh when grading and even crueler in his teaching methods. Those who took History always dreaded the possibility of getting him for a teacher.
So when Lake Muller saw him on her schedule, she knew she was utterly and completely screwed. She hadn’t been to the school for long, just recently transferring from Germany, but she knew of the horrors from the friends she had made.
She was sort of… Confused, when her first class with him went well, though his personality was a bit much. There was one weird thing involving a different teacher, one she had during the last semester of school. Mrs. McLane, one whose reputation was of equal amounts of terror to Mr. Johnson, and someone who taught right next door.
Through the slightly opened door to the classroom came Mrs. McLane, popping her head in.
“Oh, Derek—” First name basis? “I just need a few of your papers for the lesson plan, sorry to interrupt class,” she said, apologetically.
“Please, Kristal, it’s never interrupting when you’re doing it. I have them over here.” He gave her a warm grin and pointed to the basket by the desk.
“Thank you, Derek, so much. I completely forgot and it was— Sorry, you’re teaching right now, don’t let me keep you,” she said, before patting him on the back and almost walking out the door before Derek interrupted.
“Don’t worry, you can tell me later. We’re still up for drinks tonight anyway.” Kristal gave him a smile and shrug and left with the papers.
Lake shared a glance with her desk partner Maggy before he continued with teaching like nothing. It was weird how… familiar they seemed. Their reputations both preceded them, but casually going out for drinks like it was nothing was sort of strange.
So Lake had decided to bring it up to the lunch table, consisting of friends she had recently made, they were more familiar with the environment of the school and the teachers themselves.
“Do any of you guys think it is odd that Mr. Johnson & Mrs. McLane are so close?” she asked, moving her fork around the tray of mashed potatoes.
“Oh, those two? It’s basically an open secret that they’re definitely hooking up,” her friend, Aiden, responded through bites of spongy meatballs. “They also both have gold rings on their fingers, do with that what you will,” he said in a sing-songy voice, continuing to chew.
“Yeah, one time we saw them walking out of a restaurant with the two counselors. It looked like a double date,” James responded, not looking up from his phone. “I have a picture, it’s almost sort of cute, if they weren’t who they were.” He brought up his phone screen to a photo of Mrs. McLane, Mr. Johnson, Mr. McGregor, and Mrs. Campbell all walking together, smiles on their faces, out of an Olive Garden.
“Happy for them, I guess even the most sadistic teachers in this school deserve love,” Jake joked, peeking over at James’ phonescreen while Aiden continued to scarf down the (terrible) school lunch.
“Even the counselors too?” Lake asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, I always thought Mr. McGregor was gay -- apparently my gaydar was way off. Makes sense though,” Jake shrugged, before laying his head on James to get a better view at the tiktoks he was watching.
“So, everyone in the school knows?” Lake questioned.
“Pretty much,” Aiden said, finally finishing his lunch. “If you take either one of their classes and don’t think they’re fucking, you’re probably not very perceptive.”
“I guess… I’ll keep that in mind,” Lake said, picking at the spongy meatballs and sighing.
2.
Tess Morgan wouldn’t say she particularly disliked her main counselor. He was fine. A little over enthusiastic and it felt like too much, but she knew he genuinely cared about her. It was nice to have that feeling, even if it was out of obligation.
Today though, she was more on the fence about that ‘not disliking him’ thing. Despite having a set time to meet, it was Mr. McGregor who was late, somehow. He usually made it a point to be on time, or at least to be there before she even got to his office.
“Tess!” His over eccentric voice came booming through the now opened door, startling her. “I’m so sorry, I had a thing. Emily, I mean, Mrs. Campbell needed help.”
He quickly rushed into his seat, furiously holding some paperwork with his clothing and hair all messed up from bolting to the room.
“SO! I wanted to talk about the progress you’ve made so far,” he grinned.
“Sure. But, uh, you have a thing,” Tess gestured to her cheek, indicating Mr. McGregor should do the same. Right on his cheek was a lipstick stain, clearly the shade of lipstick Emily used. He paused, before laughing.
“Gosh, silly me.” He shook his hand in dismissal. “I forgot to wipe it off because I was already running late. God, can Emily wear lipstick that doesn’t… Stick? Gah— talking to myself, sorry”
He took out a napkin from his cabinet, because he has those for some reason, and began wiping the stain off.
“It’s fine,” Tess stated flatly, holding her cheek in her hand. She knew that those two were close, one of the pictures on Mrs. Campbell’s desk—she saw it when she occasionally met with her—was of the two of them at some hangout, but to have a blunt implication of them dating was weird. Especially considering the lack of ring on Emily’s finger and the shiny one on his. Well, maybe she doesn’t like rings, she thought for a moment, before realizing that she didn’t really care to speculate on her counselor's love life.
“So, what I was saying about the progress you made—” Mr. McGregor started, throwing (and missing) the napkin into the waste basket.
3.
“Do you guys think any of the teachers at this school are gay?” Hunter said, holding up some rainbow streamers as he decorated the gym hall for the mini pride event they were holding for Seniors.
“Please, it’s more like who isn’t gay in this godforsaken school,” Yul responded as he blew up the multi-colored balloons. “God, why did I get stuck with this dumbass fucking job,” he grumbled.
“Because you’re a nuisance, and getting out of detention,” Ally said, rolling her eyes, as she painted the banner. “But I do agree with you there, it feels like a lot of the staff here are pretty queer.”
“It’s probably easier to make a list of which teachers are straight,” Aiden laughed, painting alongside Ally. “I mean, Mrs. McLane is definitely the straightest woman I’ve ever encountered.”
“Right?” Ally laughed alongside Aiden. They shared that class together in Junior year, and grew a really strong bond after a sort-of rivalry in Freshman year for their inability to work on set together as two of the main roles in a not quite good production of Legally Blonde. They still have nightmares about the wigs.
“I’d bet top dollar on Mr. Johnson being straight, as a professional heterosexual myself,” Yul said, continuing to blow up the balloons. “If he’s any sort of LGBXYZ then I’m a homosexual too, because the world would be flipped upside down.”
“You’re only betting on that because of guaranteed odds,” Hunter said, rolling his eyes. They all sort of knew Yul was deep in some sort of closet, and his denial only made it worse.
“Yeah, you’ve gotta get out of that closet sometime,” Aiden said in a sing-songy voice, causing Yul to run over and smack him in the face with one of his balloons. “Hah, not enough air.”
Aiden stuck out his tongue as Yul rolled his eyes and walked back to the helium. “Too many fucking balloons,” he muttered under his breath, before going back to the table of way too many flaccid balloons.
Just then, the doors to the Gym opened with a creak, and Counselor McGregor poked in through the door. “Hey, kiddos!” he started, leading to a groan from Yul.
“If you do that again I’m increasing your community service,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Yul, leading to everyone, aside from Yul, whose face was flushed, to burst out laughing. “Anyway! I wanted you guys to know that just Derek and I— I mean, Mr. Johnson, will be chaperoning. Since apparently Mrs. Campbell wanted to go to a pride event without us on the ONE day we’re chaperoning. Curse her.”
“Wait, Mrs. Campbell’s gay?” Hunter asked.
“You thought she was straight?” Mr. McGregor responded with a raised eyebrow. “Anyway, that’s not important, it’ll be just the two of us. Kristal is also busy because of something because of course she is. That’s all I wanted to announce, have fun kids!” He made a small wave and popped out of the door, closing it with a slam.
“I really thought those two were dating, to be honest,” Hunter bluntly stated.
“Well, at least we know those two are pretty big allies,” Ally shrugged, before continuing to paint.
“Yeah, allies, PLEASE, like that counselor guy isn’t the most fruity twink ever,” Yul rolled his eyes.
“Firstly, he’s been pretty openly into women, and secondly, like you’re one to talk,” Aiden responded, starting a fight.
“Pot calling kettle, aren’t you?” Yul responded with a laugh. “Being called a twink by the skinny gay man with two boyfriends is like being called out for being autistic by Hunter.”
“Yul, can you please shut up,” Ally responded, giving a warm smile towards Hunter, whose face was full of sadness, before glaring at Yul for his blatant asshole-ry.
“And they’re not even my boyfriends, asshat.” Aiden said, frustrated, and threw his paintbrush at Yul, getting paint stuck in his hair, and making Yul stumble into the table, knocking him out as he hit his head on the center and into the deflated balloons.
“Wh— Aiden!” Ally now shot her glare at Aiden.
“He kinda deserved it, though,” Aiden shrugged.
“Well, yeah, but we still need balloons and a paintbrush!” she exclaimed.
“I… didn’t think that far ahead,” Aiden laughed nervously.
4.
“You know, it’s kinda nice to chaperone, just the two of us,” Derek said, leaning back against the wall as he watched all the kids go off on their own shenanigans.
“Fun, isn’t it?” Trevor said, giggling before taking a sip off of the water bottle he brought.
“Yeah, only ‘cause it’s with you. Hey, damn, is that kid dancing with two guys? Good for him, I guess,” Derek eyed over to the main floor as Aiden, Jake, and James all were doing some sort of dance together. He wasn’t really sure Top 40s pop music necessitated a dance that looked straight out of the 1800s, but who was he to judge?
“I concur, good for them. Hey, wait a minute,” Trevor paused. “Derek, I’m sorry, but I have to go. I think someone brought their child here and that child is attempting to spike the punch bowl. DUTY CALLS!” he yelled, before sprinting off to the other side of the gym.
And at that moment it was a perfect time for Derek to get absolutely jumpscared by some kid coming up to him.
“Mr. Johnson?” Kai asked, as Derek jumped.
“HOLY SHIT— I mean, heeeey kid! What’s up?” Derek said, pretending to be completely chill.
“The energy you and Mrs. McLane have is overwhelming, and the bond that flows between you two is akin to a river,” he said, in all his vague metaphor-ness.
“So, what does that mean exactly?” Derek narrowed his eyes and leaned forward.
“Well, how did you get the chance to interlink your spirits?” Kai said, with pleading eyes.
“How we became friends? I mean, I sorta just went up to her and talked to her,” Derek shrugged, then grabbed his designated water bottle from the table. Kai looked up at him with hopeful eyes.
“I hope the budding flower of me and Maggy’s relationship will end up like yours, thank you. Congrats on your guys' marriage, by the way,” Kai said, adding that on the end before running excitedly over to Maggy, stunning Derek for a moment.
At that same moment Trevor came back to his position. “Ugh, Derek, that child BIT me, but at least the punch wasn’t spiked!” he said, holding up his arm to show a small bite mark.
“By the way, what was that kid talking to you about?” he asked earnestly, stealing Derek’s water bottle (despite having his own on the table)
“...I think we were having two different conversations,” Derek said, still stunned a bit.
+1
Hunter would call himself a pretty smart cookie, he found his grades to be passable in most classes, but some he would say he completely aced. One of those classes was NOT History.
While he didn’t have strong opinions either way on the class itself, the learning material was seriously a struggle. He didn’t really know why, but it just completely went one ear and out the other.
Luckily, it was lunch time, and not only that, he was pretty sure Mr. Johnson allowed students to ask questions (which he desperately needed to ask, he processed none of the last unit of World History and it was getting pretty bad.)
He already didn’t eat lunch at the cafeteria and was usually wandering around in the hallways or staying in a teachers classroom out of comfortability, and he just happened to be eating in Mrs. McLane’s room, right next door!
He walked over to the door, which was unlocked, and opened it. His eyes widened as he saw the scene in front of him: Mr. Johnson, grabbing onto Mr. McGregor (the counselor?!) by his tie and kissing him. Immediately when the door creaked open the two men shoved themselves off of each other.
“Derek, the one time I go along with this.” Mr. McGregor said in a panic, as he desperately fixed his tie, while Mr. Johnson just stared at Hunter, stunned.
“Uh… I think, I’ll ask you later?” Hunter said before quickly slamming the door and trying to forget it happened at all.
He thought back to a situation where Mr. Johnson requested he go check in with Mr. McGregor for any troubles and saying something along the lines of ‘Trev’s the greatest guy I know, I promise you.’ He didn’t really assume that would equate to a relationship, but he also didn’t clock either one as queer, so, maybe he was a little dumb.
One thing was for certain, though, he’s taking witnessing that to the grave.