Chapter Text
The familiar ring of the bell echoes throughout the school halls, signifying the start of a new period.
A new period with a group of unenthusiastic students.
Great.
You try to remind yourself of what could have possibly compelled you to take this low-paying job. Your incomplete education is the only sensible conclusion you can arrive at.
“Everybody settle down!” You call out, attempting to bring a little order to your small classroom. “Get away from the windows!”
A few of your students lingering by the windows shoot a dirty look in your direction, but comply nonetheless, slumping down into their respective seats.
Good, you think.
You were in no mood to argue.
You smooth down the non-existent creases in your shirt, and clear your throat. “Today’s lesson objective is to be able to differentiate scalars and vectors by their characteristics.”
A few dreadful groans sound out from around the classroom, but you choose to ignore them.
“I hope you’re all up to date on your textbooks.” You continue hopefully, though part of you already knows none of them will have bothered to even open their text books, let alone keep up to date with them.
And to prove your point, you’re met with silence.
“Alrighty then!” You exclaim exasperatedly, tired. “Let’s begin with the lesson, then. Shall we?” You continue weakly.
The lessons passes by just as slow and as painfully as it usually does.
You’re met with zero cooperation from your students, all of them disinterested.
It’s more like you’re talking at them than to them.
Finally, after what seems like years, your saviour arrives. The bell rings out loud and clear, a wave of relief washing through you as it does so.
Finally, you think.
Nobody waits to be dismissed, they all stand and begin to file out of the room. The low hum of chatter filling the room.
All except for one.
Morty Smith.
Not the brightest kid, but polite nonetheless.
He’s a decent student, he gets his work done most of the time (when he isn’t daydreaming or asleep) and is respectful. Well, that is when he is actually around. A lot of the time, he isn’t. Morty’s attendance is concerningly low. Sometimes he will even disappear halfway through the school day.
Always whisked away by that green glow.
’Rick’s portal gun’ he had called it when you asked.
Though you’d never met Rick formally, his character was clear. He was a man of science like yourself, which you had inferred from his white lab coat. Self care was something foreign to him, anybody who looked at him could guess that. He was bony, and his hair was constantly disheveled, soft tufts sticking out in multiple different directions. You gathered he was Morty’s grandpa, as you’d heard Morty refer to him as ‘Grandpa Rick’ before he was ushered through the portal by the man.
Enough about Rick, though. You turn your attention back to Morty.
He remains at his desk, forehead pressed into his folded arms. He snores lightly, drool puddling beneath his agape mouth, murmuring incoherently every so often.
Slowly, you approach his desk.
You stand before him, unsure of how to approach this situation. How were you supposed to wake him without startling the boy?
Before another thought can even form in your head, Morty rises like a zombie and leans over his desk, reaching towards you with both hands out-stretched. He’s rambling sleepily again. Something about his classmate Jessica?
You jump, surprised, and take a hasty step backwards, which causes him to lose his balance and face plant into the desk with a soft thud. The sensation alone is enough to jolt him awake.
He gasps, his head shooting up towards you. “Miss?”
“Good morning, Morty.” You respond with a concerned expression. He looks tired, extremely so. His eye-bags are heavy and prominent, his eyes sunken deep into them.
“Did I fall asleep?” He asks, an apologetic expression etched onto his face. “A- aw geez, man. I’m sorry about that, P- professor.”
You clear your throat awkwardly. “That’s quite alright, Morty… let’s just try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, alright?”
He nods, sheepishly avoiding your gaze. “Y-yeah, totally. It won’t happen again, I swear.”
That’s when the question slips out before you can stop it, before you can even really think about it. “Morty, is everything okay at home…?”
Morty tenses up, his eyes finally meeting yours. “W-w-what do you mean?” He asks.
“You look a little… tired. That’s all.”
“Yeah, I guess I do.” Morty chuckles, though there’s no real humour to it. “My Grandpa Rick has been asking a few favours of me, lately. Maybe a little more than I can handle.”
Your brows furrow, both concern and sympathy etched onto your face. “You know you don’t have to partake in everything your Grandpa asks of you, right?”
Morty nods, a little too enthusiastically. “Y-yeah, of course!” He stammers. “I don’t know, I just—”
Before Morty can continue, there is a sound that you wouldn’t have expected to hear outside of a Sci-Fi movie. Behind Morty, a green, glowing disc materialises and out of it steps…
You guessed it. The one and only Rick Sanchez.
“There you are, Morty!” Rick announces, completely ignoring your presence. “I’ve got an errand to run in a whole different dimension, I need an extra pair of hands.”
“Oh geez, Grandpa Rick… I was kind of in the middle of something.” Morty responds sheepishly, his gaze downcast.
You study his sheepish expression, before lifting your gaze up towards Rick. It didn’t appear that Morty really had much of a say in what they did.
Rick’s gaze meets yours, his expression quick to turn into annoyance. “W-what? You’ve never seen a guy enter through a portal before?”
You’re unsure of whether or not he wants you to answer the question, as the answer is more than obvious.
“Didn’t think so.” He says smugly when you don’t respond. “Now come on, Morty. We’ve got to- we gotta get the hell out of here and go take care of business—urpp—” Rick grabs Morty by his collar, pulling him from his seat and shaking him. “Come on, Morty.”
“I- I don’t know, Rick. I can’t leave school again.” The boy tries to reason.
Rick is having none of it. “Do you have any idea of the concept of how much higher the stakes get out there, Morty?” He deadpans. “What do you think, that I can just do this all by myself? Come on!”
“Aw geez, okay…” Morty responds, defeated.
Rick produces some sort of gun from his pocket and aims it at nothing in particular. He pulls the trigger, and another one of his signature portals opens.
Rick extends his arm out towards the portal, gesturing for Morty to step through, but you place a hand on Morty’s shoulder, stopping him before he can enter.
“Wait just a second.” You say.
Rick frowns. “W-what the hell are you doing, lady?”
“I’m sorry, Sir, but Morty has a lesson to get to as of right now. I’m sure whatever errand you have to run can wait until after school, or better yet: you could do it on your own.”
“Y-y-you think I don’t know what’s good for my own Grandson? Is that what you’re implying, huh?”
You feel Morty tense up beneath the hand you have resting on his shoulder, and you squeeze it reassuringly.
“He shows up to school exhausted. Actually, it’s rare he even shows up at all.” You reason. “He’s missing out on valuable education time.”
“V-valuable education time my ass.” Rick responds. “Most people won’t agree with this, but school is stupid. The guy in the front says what’s two plus two, the ones in the back say four. You get given a carton of milk at lunch and a piece of paper that says you can go a— go take a shit.”
You open your mouth to argue, but quickly close it again.
“It’s not a place for smart people, like me.” He adds, gesturing towards himself with his hands. “And once again I know a lot of people might not agree, but that’s just my two-cents. And my two-cents is more often correct than not.”
You try to compose yourself, a million different things you could say swimming around in your head. Some words more vulgar than others. Finally, you settle on something polite. “From what I understand, you’re a smart guy, Mr. Sanchez—”
“—Well, I’m glad we’re on the same page. You’re smarter than I thought. So not that smart, I don’t think much of you.” Rick responds, cutting you off. “Come on, Morty. Let’s go.”
Morty gives you a helpless look as Rick shoots open yet another portal and grabs his wrist yanking him towards it. Your hands slips from his shoulder, and you reach out in front of you as if to grab one of them.
“W-wait!” You stammer. “I wasn’t finished.”
Rick groans, turning abruptly to face you. “Sweetheart, I just shot open another portal! You’re wasting valuable portal fluid h-here!”
“Well you wouldn’t have had to waste any if you’d stop interrupting me and listen to what I have to say.”
“I don’t care about what you have to say.” Rick responds bluntly.
“R-Rick!” Morty shrieks, mortified.
“No, it’s alright, Morty.” You say calmly, despite the storm of emotions swirling inside of you. “It seems your genius Grandpa has this handled. You know, he’s probably the reason you’re passing all your tests after all.”
“B-but I’m failing…?” Morty squeaks.
“Precisely.”
“What the hell are you trying to say?” The man snaps. He looks offended, almost. For someone so smart his ego was surely easy to bruise.
“You are the reason he’s failing. You’d think he’d learn a little something on the Sci-Fi adventures you drag him out on, but he learns absolutely nothing.” You fold your arms over your chest, taking a step closer to the man. He’s seething at you, his eyes narrowed into a sharp glare. “Maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are.”
Silence.
The only sound that can be heard in the room is the sound of the portal dissipating into nothingness behind Rick and Morty.
Morty looks nothing if not uncomfortable.
“M-me? Not as smart as I think I am? Baby, this ego is earned.” He snarls.
“Then why is it so fragile?”
Rick opens his mouth, and then closes it. His frustration is evident and it takes a lot of strength from you not to burst out laughing.
“I don’t know why I’m wasting my breath on an imbecile like you. I have a device in my lab coat pocket that could rearrange your molecules and turn you into an even lower life form than what you already are! And that— which is nearly impossible, b-b-by the way.” Rick turns away from you for a final time, grabbing Morty’s wrist once more.
“O-ow, Rick! You’re hurting me!” Morty protests feebly. Rick continues to drag him along, shooting open a portal in front of them.
“C-come on, you little twerp.” He murmurs, dragging the both of them through the glowing, green portal.
You watch as the two of them leave, an eyebrow raised in what could only be described as fascination. Not by his technology, but by the man himself.
He was truly something else.