Chapter Text
Finally,finally she would be gone from this place.
The city had worn out it's charm long ago.
Why did she ever leave her hometown and get a job in this wretched place?
City life seemed exciting at first until the glaring things like noisy nights,smog and the star viewing was crap too.
Not to mention the dredge that was her social life,too many bad dates,hollow situations and fake smiles,all those so called friends at work who kept plotting and backstabbing each other to get the all the extra materials so their class would look better.
She did feel bad about leaving the students but she just couldn't take it anymore.
It might hurt but this was better then slowly withering until her drive to bother caring about the work became nothing.
What was needed now was a job where she didn't have to look over her shoulder every day.
It had all started about a couple weeks ago when she was looking for other jobs,it went from other towns and cities until she got smaller and found a place several states away.
An unassuming town called South Park,the job offer said they were looking for just about anyone and weren't too picky about qualifications.
Well she had a bachelors degree,minimum requirement for this sure but maybe her language arts studies and admittedly self taught art and poetry skills would bump it up to make it more tempting for them to accept.
That and despite her two years of teaching experiance,if they were as desperate as they appear to be and she shows she's very willing to drop everything and come as soon as she can this would be in the bag and good riddance to all this.
She calls the number and a man answered,he said his name was Mr Mackey.
It wasn't a long call,she kept things brief on her end,he did explain what they were looking for and he seemed satisfied by everything she tells him about her teaching skills.
He's a little surprised by her saying she'll will get there as soon as possible but after talking a little more and agreeing on how things will be finalized when she gets to the school she feels a weight lift.
After the call is finished she sends her credentials to them,makes plans,calling Coldwell Banker there to find a house,it was surprisingly cheap.
Then she began selling all the things she didn't need keeping her clothing,personal items and vast collection of games,books and whatever else she couldn't part with along with essential house goods.
And some furniture,she didn't want to completely start from scratch on that.
It took many hours to pack it alone but it was done and she helps them load it up.
A small moving truck will deliver it all after she arrived.
She would be traveling,one way ticket on a twenty hour bus drive.
The greatest part was leaving her notice about it all,she made sure it was seen,told a few people she did like about her departure,the nurse and old janitor making it clear she was very serious and had a
new job,they said goodbyes and the rest didn't seem to take it seriously not even the principal it hadn't been the first time she threatened to leave,two times last year as things went downhill she did.
But she had told them with her chest that the first chance an opportunity arrived she was leaving for good,now she was making on that promise.
Well good luck finding someone on such sort notice,she had given the weeks notice in advance and plastered it in the teachers room and principals office if they didn't take it seriously that's not her problem.
Now...sitting on this bumpy ride she smiles as she thinks about how when they discover this she'll be long gone to her new life.
A new home...new beginning...real friends...
Maybe even love?
Eh maybe a little too soon for that after the disasters she'd already had.
Friends sound great though.
After some stops and sleeping through a lot of hours she sees the town sign,the driver waves her off,she takes her bag and exits to her new life.
The cold mountain air was refreshing.
But she needs to head to her new house fast.
She gets there and a man greets her,giving her the keys to her home after making sure everything was in order.
It was a modest home,roomy surprisingly low cost for the size and the outside paint was a nice sunshine yellow,perfect.
Inside it was empty except for a bed in one room upstairs how or why it got left she didn't know but a queen sized bed of all things was nothing to sneeze at.
She was exhausted so she throws caution to the wind and decided to sleep on it with just her travel blanket like a barbarian.
There was a day between tomorrow and meeting the man from the call.
So she'd get some food and sheets,explore her surroundings.
Hopefully the locals wouldn't be too up in her business yet,she needs a little space first.
Well that and a car,something secondhand if she can.
Jessie curled up and went to sleep just as the sun went down.
She wakes up around nine and slugged out of the bed.
Making herself look presentable then dressed in her large hoodie and leggings,making sure to layer.
It would take some time to get used to this weather.
Going on the sidewalk to the downtown.
She passed by a house and almost got hit by a guy moving out of his driveway when he went up on the sidewalk,he was going faster then he should have too.
Jessie was able to get out of the way and landed on the lawn grass.
The mustached man stopped,rolls down his window and yells at her that he's trying to get somewhere important and she needs to pay attention.
Got a lot of nerve there buddy...
Jessie couldn't be sure but she thinks the guy was drunk or stupid,maybe both.
He sped off tires squealing,she sighs.
Could be worse she supposed.
More houses in a row,it's pretty quiet.
But then she hears yelling and laughter,along with the sounds of plastic hitting plastic.
In the yard of another house is a group of kids playing some sort of fantasy game,they seemed to be in 'battle'
Some were dressed like elves others human warriors,one of them was a paladin another a ranger,wizard others she couldn't tell from first glance.
They seemed to be having a Larp,how cute it was seeing them swing at each other with their plastic bows and....was that garden tools and the green hat one had a golf club..?
My my...they like to play rough don't they?
Are any of you my future students I wonder...
She has to continue on her own journey however so she leaves and finally reaches the small store.
Grabbing only a few things.
Bread,peanut butter,jelly the sheets of course and a few other small things she can carry without much effort.
She's making her way to the counter,a small girl with pigtails is in front of her.
A candy bar is on the counter and she's clutching a little bag.
"Sorry honey that one's not on discount."
"But..it was in the discount pile.."
"Must have been put in there by accident."
She's trying to buy a Kit Kat from what Jessie can see.
"I don't have enough for it."
"Well then you'll have to find another one or come back with more money."
"It's okay...I'll have to come back another day.."
Looking closer she can see the girl wants to cry and her heart stirs.
Jessie gets a good look at her now,she's somewhat scruffy and thin,the girl also appears disheveled and instead of clean clothing it has some tears and stains.
She must be from a poorer family.
Quickly slipping a twenty from her wallet she places it on the counter along with another Kit Kat.
"On me."
The girl is stunned by her appearing and says nothing at first.
She watches her pay for the chocolate and waits for her to finish her own shopping.
They're silent before she turns to her as they exit the door.
Jessie hands her the candy bars along with a ten dollar bill.
"Miss..is this really okay?"
"I meant what I said...and keep the change there,use it for something important."
The little girl tears up some,from happiness this time.
"Thank you so much! Miss.."
"Call me J."
"Thank you Miss J!"
"Mm and what's your name?"
"I'm Karen."
"I see,well you enjoy that Karen."
"I will..I'm gonna share it with my big brother too."
"Alright then,I must be going now."
Karen waves goodbye bounding off to wherever she came from.
I hope that makes your day brighten..if only a little bit...
The walk home is uneventful other then a few people staring at her curiously.
But that's to be expected.
She gets home and puts away the small foodstuffs she's gotten.
Scarfing down a sandwich before getting her papers in order and whatever else was needed for tomorrow.
After taking a shower she gets ready for bed,making sure to set the alarm.
Kenny had been outside all day and returned home.
He was tired,playing as princess was fun but also draining at times.
Karen greets him when he gets inside bouncing over to him and tugging his hand saying she has a surprise.
She leads him to her room,he indeed gets quite the surprise when Karen pulls out a Kit Kat and a tenner,she hands it to him.
"Look look,it's for you and you can keep the money safe so I'm giving you that too."
"Karen..where did you get it?"
"Oh this lady at the store bought me candy and gave me the change."
"She was really nice,just like my guardian angel."
"I see.."
Kenny had mixed feelings,on one hand some unknown person was with his sister and that concerned him on the other,said person had been kind enough to buy her chocolate unprompted and let her keep the change at that.
It was a mystery then,who did it?
"Did she give you a name?"
"Well...she said to call her J."
"Ah...well if I see J I'll have to thank her."
And maybe do some investigating into this J person too..
Was he paranoid? Yes but after living in this town his whole life he would be crazy not to be.
For now he'd rest for the day and not make any worry known,Karen was happy and he wanted it to stay that way tonight.
When Jess got out of bed the following morning she had a lot to do.
After eating another sandwich for breakfast and double checking her binders she headed to the bus stop,fortunately they had an early bus run in this town she had made sure the night before.
She stepped out a block before the school,making the final stretch on foot.
It was a decent sized building,it had a little playground too with swings,a tether ball pole and those bouncy animal things,she couldn't remember what those were called.
And a merry go round.
Ah what wonderful memories...
Jessie peered up at the large clock,nine sharp.
Saturday,so no school or activities going on either but some staff were here doing some things and in her case she would finalize her position here.
She walks through the doors into the main hall,it looks about how she thought it would,trophy cases,posters,a logo for the local team,the janitor was inside taking care of some things.
A couple other people walked through as she passed.
It didn't take her long to find the office.
She wasn't sure why the school counselor was the one doing her interview but she didn't care about the finer details,right off the bat she can see they have a shoestring budget.
They even have the kinder gardeners here at the school too.
A knock and she's quickly told to come inside.
In front of her is a middle aged man with glasses and a rather impressive cranium.
"Oh,are you Miss Chambers?"
"I am,we spoke on the phone I believe."
"Mkay I thought so,I'm Mr Mackey the schools counselor. Mkay."
"We just have to finalize some things here,go over your info and sign papers then we can put you on our staff officially."
He gestures to have a seat.
"Mkay well we went over the credentials you sent after our call and agreed it was acceptable for our school.
"A bachelors in history yes?"
"Yes with a minor in language arts."
"You also..."
Mr Mackey glances down at the papers.
"Ah you said you also have experiance with the arts too?"
"Not formally trained but yes I do."
"Well we don't require anyone to have specific degrees for those classes so we can work with that."
"Are you okay with teaching multiple subjects,including the arts? Maybe also music classes?"
"I can yes."
"However I don't know how to read music so that one is a no."
He makes some notes.
"I see,this still helps us a lot. Mkay...and...this.."
Mr Mackey was muttering a few things,she waited for him to continue with whatever else he needed to ask.
"Mkay we'd be putting you in the fourth grade classroom we have some binders for you to read about the students."
"Ah I see."
"You would be replacing Mr Garrison,he's still here as of now but uh..er how do I put this..."
"Well...he and a lot of other things is the reason we sought you out..someone out."
"I..see?"
He takes a deep breath.
"Mkay...Miss Chambers I know you came all the way out here and said you had no reservations but..."
"There's some things you need to know before you agree."
"Such as..?"
"Well you are replacing the last teachers position and he um well,he did a poor job and the students grades aren't the best for a lot of them."
Mr Mackey goes into detail about how Mr Garrison was a good teacher when he tries but he tended to go on about random subjects instead of teaching and his personal issues.
She was feeling less confident about her decision to drop her old life and go,even if she did hate it by this point."
"Okay...anything else I need to know?"
"Um well...it's better if I show you.."
He pulls out a binder.
"Some of the students...they're a little..."
Mr Mackey was struggling to find the words to put it in a nice manner she can tell.
"I'll start with the first thing then..a lot of the fourth graders have some...issues."
He flips to a page with pictures of some students.
"See..some of them have mental health issues and a few are special."
An anxious looking blonde with an uneven buttoned shirt stood out.
Flipping again to more pictures,there's a happy boy in a wheelchair and one with crutches,he's also smiling widely.
"Ah that's no problem."
"Uh well that isn't the issue I meant,but I thought you should know about them before anything else."
Once more he flips to a page with a chubby boy in a hat and red coat.
"There's four of them that tend to cause some trouble but he's the worst out of all of them."
"He is the one you need to be concerned about."
She looks at the picture,just what kind of trouble did he cause for him to warn her in advance.
"So..what did he do then?"
Mr Mackey is quiet for a moment.
"What hasn't he done is the better question."
It's explained in this binder and in this one.
He places a second binder on the table.
".......?!"
"It's...it's all in that?"
"Half of the first binder has incidents in it involving him the second one has the rest."
"What..about the other students then..."
"Oh all of them are just in the first half of binder one."
Good freaking gravy...
"Mr Mackey...If I may be so bold..why was this not mentioned before I left?"
He hesitates but then he answers.
"It's...Mkay this will sound bad Mkay.."
"Well the last person who got to this part said nothing and ran out of the school."
"When you said you were looking to just up and go we...we umm...we were hoping you'd be the one to...stay."
"Please understand I didn't mean to come off like we were tricking you,we're all desperate for more help after last year.."
"Hm."
Just what did I walk into...
Jessie is quiet for a couple minutes thinking and Mr Mackey gets nervous.
But then she answered.
"I meant what I said when I told you I was ready to drop everything and leave."
"Regardless of all this I have no intentions of going back to my old place."
"Let me see what I'd be working with.."
Opening to a random page there's something about how he had made chili out of some guys parents and fed it to him.
What the actual..?
She skims through the pages,there's several other incidents but that one has to be the worst she sees so far.
Eric Cartman was his name.
He sounded like a grade A psycho in the making.
One notable other time she reads is him locking up another kid in a bunker because he wanted to go to this cool restaurant for a birthday party.
Another he chained a kid to the pole and tried to trick him into sawing off his leg by saying he had poisoned him and the antidote was in his leg,he was fine and didn't hurt himself fortunately.
That poor kid..
Apparently he also regularly torments the others and staff in particular someone named Kyle Broflovski.
She has to stop reading,this was way too much right now.
"He's...certainly a lot."
"Look I understand if you want to back out after seeing all that."
"Hm...No I'll do it."
"Wait..really?"
He fumbled in shock gathering the paper for her to sign.
"Before I give you this you are certain you want to do it?"
"I am."
I've come too far...
What I'll do...is uncertain...but I'm not going back there...
Jessie reads over the paper,making sure she understood the agreement.
Then signed her name,sealing her fate.
"Mkay well everything should be in order now."
"Well get you a staff badge made and mail it to you."
"Should take a few days,you can get settled and get your materials together."
"Monday...ah not this Monday following I mean Mkay."
"Kay.."
"Uh can I take those binders with me to study?"
"They're copies so feel free Mkay."
She takes the binders putting them in the tote bag she brought.
"Before you leave is there anything else I should know from you?"
"Ah...well..there is one thing.."
"Mkay I'm listening.."
"..............."
"Okay...it shouldn't be any problem."
"I'm primarily here for the students but if you need to talk you drop in too Mkay?"
"Okay I'll be in touch,see you later Mr Mackey."
"Mkay bye now,you be careful on the way home."
Jessie leaves the school mind consumed by her thoughts.
Maybe she had been a little hasty with the choice to up and leave to this place.
But on the other hand she had been unhappy for some time now.
Yet...the whole thing with Eric Cartman and many students with troubling issues.
It would be a challenge.
Will I regret this before anything else I wonder...
She decides to go home for the day,the moving truck should be here tomorrow.
Whatever happens next she's certain of one thing.
South Park wasn't going to be a dull,quiet place after all.