Chapter Text
“Thats the bell!” you clapped your hands together before smiling out towards your class. As the students packed up their belongings, you hopped up and sat criss cross atop your desk. September. The students were just finally adjusting to their schedules, but it was still near enough to December that everyone longed for winter break already.
“Now remember, we have our first big writing project coming up next week!” You pointed towards the whiteboard, where black dry-erase marker spelled out the assignment.
THE OUTSIDERS- ANALYSIS: SEPTEMBER 28
Of course, the students groaned at your reminder. It was Friday, after all, not a day that they wanted to sit around and think about literary analysis. You didnt blame them, you didnt want to do that either and you were their English teacher.
“Come on guys, it's nothing crazy. It's all the stuff we’ve been talking about up to this point. I’ll walk you through it. But right now, have a great weekend! Enjoy the warm weather while it still lasts!” You had to shout towards the doorway by the end of your sentence, as the class had cleared out to the hall, heading to the next. You hopped off your desk and went to the door, watching as the students filed into different classrooms. This was your planning period- the one time of day you didn’t have to communicate with anyone or yell about anything in particular. It was just you, your laptop, and a bunch of missing grades. You started your planning period the same way you always did on a slower day: turning all the overhead lights off and putting your head down to decompress. You loved your kids, you always do, but every teacher knows that your sanity is what goes first.
Your classroom was warmly lit by the alternate lighting you hung all around. The honeyed glow of the string lights cast away all the stressors you faced in your previous blocks. Deep breath in-
Hold…
Hold…
Deep breath out.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough to rejuvenate you for the rest of the day. You were lucky, your planning period was during fourth block. You would have the rest of the day to work on your own things: grading, lesson planning, filling out lease paperwork you really should be doing at home on your personal laptop but really can't be bothered to. You began by doing a sweep of your classroom, making sure students didn’t leave anything behind that they might need for the weekend. Usually you would just keep things in a crate near the reading corner, but weekends were different. You couldn’t stand the thought of parents emailing you or calling you on a friday night in hysterics because a child left their phone in their desk.
Today it was a nice looking water bottle left behind by Carter Averill, the class clown who sits in the middle towards the front. You go to your computer and pull up his student profile on Power School. Science. He was in science class right now. Okay… No biggie. Who was his teacher? You clicked on the class profile to view more information. Dr. Ryland Grace. A name that you’d heard from some of your students, but hadn't managed to put a face to. Of course, this was your first year at Grover Cleveland Middle, you hadn't met many of the staff outside of your main circle. (and even then, your main circle consisted of a secretary, a nurse, and one math teacher.)
Since it wasn't a teacher you were previously warned about, like Mrs. Jeffries, you figured it was safe to quickly run by the classroom to drop off the bottle. Where was Dr. Grace’s classroom located? Room 105B. Second floor, not too far of a walk honestly. As you walked to the room, you just hoped with all your heart that Dr. Grace wasn't some evil old man who would make your life a personal hell for interrupting some weird science documentary that none of the kids were paying attention to in the first place.
You knocked on the door, a student opened it.
“Hey! So sorry to interrupt, Carter left his water bottle in my room. Didn’t want him to leave it here over the weekend… that's just asking for mold.”
“Carter!” A man’s voice called from the back of the room. You quickly located the source of the voice, to your surprise it was Dr. Grace, who was not some crotchety old man after all. He was young, maybe just a tad bit older than you. “Retrieve the bottle at once! We know how evil mold can be.” He bounced a crocheted hacky sack in his hands, acting as if it was burning. “Samuel!” He quickly threw the hacky sack to a boy across the room, who caught it and immediately began to bounce it in his hands as well. You watched, intrigued. “What is the hottest planet in the solar system?”
The child began to stumble, clearly trying to guess the answer as fast as possible.
“Ah- uh-....”
“Samuel, it's burning your hands!” Dr. Grace shouted, encouragingly.
“Thank you,” Carter took the water bottle from your hands and ran back to his seat.
“Venus!” Samuel called out before tossing the hacky sack back to Dr. Grace. Much to your surprise, he suddenly looked at you.
“Heads up!” He tossed the sack, you caught it. “It's Lava!” you immediately understood and began to bounce it back and forth like it was melting through your hands. It was a game, duh. “What is the largest planet in our Solar System?”
The sack in your hands, which you now see is a beanbag that resembles the planet earth., was a symbol of knowledge. The students looked at you with glee, eager to see if a random teacher would get it right. Of course you would… This is sixth grade science.
“Jupiter!” You called and tossed the beanbag back to Dr. Grace.
“Woah! See kids, even non-science teachers know science stuff.” He spoke to the class before smirking at you. “Science is important. Now, everyone pull out your notes from yesterday. The class began to groan, a familiar sound to you, as they took out their notes. Dr. Grace approached you as they did so, extending a hand. “Sorry, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Dr. Grace, but you can call me Ryland.. Or Grace. Either works.”
You accepted his hand, telling him your name. His hand was warm, but not the weird gross sweaty warm you usually encounter when shaking someone else's hand. The students began to chit chat behind him, he quickly turned and gave them the teacher look.. The look that means “Stop talking if you don't want homework.”
“Unfortunately, I have a zoo to run. You understand.”
“Of course, I’ll leave you to it.”
“Wonderful meeting you, I'm sure we’ll run into each other again.” He turned to the class and began to teach, you took this as your opportunity to leave and return to your planning period.