Enjoy
Cool wind whipped around the playground of the state comprehensive as winter drew ever closer to the blustery city. Almost all the staff had gone home, bundled in winter jackets and scarves into their nice warm cars but one teacher remained, sat with a teenager whose face held the promise of breathtaking beauty in its bone structure. The coursework they had between them was close to completion but both had been working at it too long- their word choices seemed clumsy or sameish and they both wanted more than anything to go home. It was an odd stale mate of wanting to finish more than anything but also wanting to escape.
"If we don't finish this in the next 15 minutes we should call it a day" the girl suggested and her teacher wholeheartedly agreed
"Yeah I'm totally frazzled".
They continued to work on as the temperature in the room plummeted, causing both to reach for their earlier discarded scarves in hopes of finding some warmth.
"They'll have just turned off the heating in the main school" the teacher said to no one in particular "only the head gets heat after five" the teenager teased back and her teacher swore she would have been fine; that she could have dredged up the sarcastically disapproving mask that said 'don't mock the head in front of me even though I hate her too'. She swore blind but the cheeky grin the spread across the teenage girls face pushed her over the edge, she dissolved into a wholly undignified fit of giggles soon the be joined by her companion.
Poppy had always liked her English teacher more than her other teachers for moments like this- when she would be quick to smile, when she laughed at her bitter jokes and didn't treat her like she was made of glass, like she was broken in some way. Having spent 3 months in an inpatient clinic when she was 14 Poppy lived in a world of asterixes, foot notes and whispered conversations they pretended they weren't having and she pretended she didn't know we're about her. She likes her because if she wasn't treated like she was broken it was so much easier to pretend that she wasn't too.
Their impromptu fit of laughter was interrupted suddenly by a great gasping groaning sounds that reverberated around the room with a violent wind. Both leapt to their feet just in time to see a navy blue box materialise in the corner by the door- her teacher was rapidly backing away, trying to pull Kate with her but she shook her hand from her wrist and stood her ground in fascination.
When it had fully materialised she took cautious steps towards it but was rapidly pulled back by a violent pull on her shoulder.
"You have no idea what that thing is or why it just appeared in the middle of my classroom!" She berated "what the hell are you doing?"
"Exactly! I'm investigating!" She replied excitedly, nothing exciting ever happened in the relatively small school she attended and this had definitely piqued her interest.
"What are you? Nine?" The immediate rebuttal came and she thought the second it left her mouth maybe it was too harsh, maybe she hadn't made the right decision; but if that was the case Poppy didn't indicate any sign to confirm it
"Seven, actually" she quibbed back with such speed any worries about offence were quelled and she continued her slow approach, slowly circling the box and stopping back at the door, turning to give her teacher a wide eyed stare.
Poppy's eyes were like shimmering dinner plates they were so wide, sparkling with excitement as she reached out to touch the smooth, navy wood with the same reverence you would if reaching to touch a lion as it stared back at you- dead in the eye. She pressed her palm flat against the worn body of the box, almost as if she were comforting it before she wrapped her hands around the icy cool metal of the handles and pushing them decisively inwards.
Nothing happened.
She pulled them towards her and pushed away from her again but they merely rattled uselessly. Locked. The bitter feeling of anticlimax swelled within her and she was about to turn back around when she heard... Felt... A click in the wood and the doors creaked ominously open. She stepped inside hesitantly but still without a second thought assuming the inside to be a small room, just big enough for herself with a line of frosted Windows above her. She was entirely wrong. She had stepped into a massive room, much bigger than her classroom, that was brightly lit and had ceilings that swooped highly above her. She was so absorbed taking it all in that she didn't notice the door slam shut behind her. The brightly lit pillar, the complicated looking console; it was all so absorbing. Suddenly an assault upon the door could be heard echoing around the room. She could hear her teacher pounding against the door
"Poppy?" Followed by another flurry of beatings "Poppy!?" The latter cry had stepped up a notch in panic and desperation, snapping Poppy out of her gaze of wonder to turn around and pull the door open wordlessly. Her teacher tumbled in and immediately froze. While Poppy was taking in the pair staring at her in shock her teacher turned around looking at the utterly inexplicable room around her
"But- but... I saw you- you walked around it- it's"
"Yes bigger on the inside- isn't it cool?" The man Poppy had singled out as the leader of the pack- a lanky bean pole wearing trousers a little too short and a tweed jacket- finally made his appearance as he bounded over to them. Leaving the tall, thin red head behind, he came in close, looking Poppy straight in the eye
"That door was locked" he stated in the same slightly stilted, slightly childish manner as before
"Evidently not" she replied without missing a beat. She felt like she was hanging on by a thread. That if she let herself rest for even a second she would tumble down into the gibbering wreck she was desperately trying to avoid; physics had never been her best subject, but even she knew this wasn't fitting in with the laws that would come up in her physics paper. She didn't voice this thought instead calling over to the red head "I like your top"
"Thanks" she replied, both Poppy and her teacher picked up she was Scottish "but that door was locked. Who are you two?" She asked, coming towards them with her eyes narrowed.
"Kate" her teacher interjected suddenly "I'm Kate and this is Poppy" she finished shakily, not entirely sure what was going on
"Poppy and Kate!" The man interjected suddenly, whizzing around the console doing things which seemed too intricate for anyone to ever follow "great pair of names- like an old fashioned detective drama" he suddenly took off his jacket and flung it at a seat "I'm the Doctor, this is Pond" he said gesturing to the red head but she interrupted with a slightly exasperated utterance of "Amy" before he continued. Poppy bobbed her head in the direction of the woman but Kate was otherwise preoccupied looking around in wonder. Poppy decided their best bet of a straight answer was Amy so she strode over while Kate sat hesitantly on one of the seats; part of her wanting to run very far away, but not without Poppy who was looking worriedly settled in this odd situation.
"Where am I?" Poppy asked Amy quietly as she noticed the doctor focus his concentration on the small monitor, tapping away at speed "and why doesn't he care that we're here?"
"What makes you think that he should care?" Amy replied, looking her up and down with very little subtlety, trying to get a gauge on her. She was a tall, willowy kind of girl who would look at home in a floaty dress, living in a bohemian teepee, but, as if she knew her delicate features encouraged this, she dressed in an almost completely opposite fashion. She wore an average uniform for an English school kid- black blazer, tie with school colours, white shirt- but she'd made a few modifications; her skirt was one of those short, tight ones that heads of years hated, she had a hoodie layered underneath her blazer and a fashionable scarf wrapped around her neck. Despite the fashionable style of the scarf it wasn't the same design that every teenage girl seemed to wear- she wore a pair of black suede boots with chunky heels instead of the regulation ballerina flats and back combed her hair. Amy couldn't quite get a handle on her, she wasn't mindlessly 'alternative' but also seemed to resent the clone-like fashion of the popular girls; an outcast of sorts, really.
"Because I know that this-" she cut off to gesture around "isn't normal, and when things aren't normal they're normally under wraps; and just as a quick word of advice- appearing in the middle of an English classroom isn't subtle" she teased lightly
Amy rolled her eyes but began explaining all the same "he does care. In fact he was just talking about how how the TARDIS is the single most secure place in the universe, he'd just made a big deal about sealing the doors to their highest security level and then they rattle. He's all 'ha! See I told you-' and then in you barrel, cutting him off and proving him wrong. He's trying to figure out who you are and what you did"
"Well I didn't do anything; what did you say? A tar-" Poppy just had time to ask before her teacher strode over to her, grabbing her hand and attempting to pull her away
"Come on, Poppy. We're not staying here any longer, it's probably dangerous" she said firmly, deciding that, as the adult, it was time to take charge. Poppy stumbled after her a few steps before pulling her arm away and standing her ground
"I'm not going anywhere. We spend most of our time in a small school, in a small city, on a small island in a very big world. Can you honestly say that anything this interesting is ever going to happen to you again? Isn't there some part of you that's screaming to know?" She appealed
"Well yes but-" Kate began but Poppy cut her off
"But what? But nothing" she paused slightly before spinning back around to face the doctor "now tell me, where am I and what is this place?" She asked firmly
The doctor looked first at Poppy and then at Kate before he began to speak. "This is one of the most secure places in the universe and you just walked in" he looked as if he were going to continue but suddenly the floor tilted abruptly sending Poppy careering into a a metal pole and Kate sprawling painfully on the floor.
"What are you?" The doctor screamed as the room continued to roll around them.
"Did you just call me a 'what'?" Poppy shouted back over the racket bouncing around the room, hanging onto the metal bar she was pretty sure had just bruised her ribs.
"Is now really the time, Pop?" Kate called over in an exasperated tone before staggering drunkenly towards Amy having been thrown off balance.
"I'm a who, not a what!" She called back, to which Amy laughed delightedly as she was tossed around, she always thought the doctor could use a light ribbing every once in a while. The doctor managed to pull himself around the console, pressing things as he went, and then, just as suddenly as the room had begun tilting around them, it stopped; the change was so sudden that Amy nearly ended up face first on the ground. The doctor just sighed in relief and straightened his bow tie before he began to whiz around the console, pushing buttons and pulling levers and looking important "we've just shifted into the vortex. Why have we just phased?" He muttered to Amy, but Kate seemed to have found her voice. "Shifted into the what?" She looked towards Poppy "he's a mad man Pop, and we're not staying here a moment longer" she finished and, rather than trying to drag her out, she instead just shifted her head in beckoning, knowing that may be more effective.
"You can't leave" the doctor said, not quite realising the gravity of his words "What do you mean we can't leave?" Kate blurted out, panic lacing through her voice "Poppy." She began again "get behind me" for once she didn't argue and went and stood next to her teacher; this was all fun and games and cool science until they couldn't leave.
"Yet. He means you can't leave yet" Amy quickly amended with an eye roll and a sigh.
"What is going on?" Kate demanded all of a sudden, her voice low, eyes hard. "No distraction techniques or cryptic answers, tell me what's going on right now"
"This is a time machine" the doctor began distractedly as he tapped away at the monitor, Poppy wondered if he ever just did one thing at once "the TARDIS, stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. I can basically take you anywhere in all of time and space with this but I've barely got control right now. We shifted into the time vortex without me doing anything, step out of those doors and time itself will rip you to atoms and scatter you around the universe" Poppy noticed her teacher pale in fear slightly so she squared her shoulders and stared him down on her behalf "why does any of this matter to us?" She asked quietly.
"I don't know" he replied "but I didn't land in your classroom either, it's like she was drawn to you two" it looked as if he was going to begin questioning them but suddenly, as if deciding against it at the last minute, began to fiddle with the console in a routine that seemed comfortable to him and within a minute the lights dimmed a little and stopped shifting through colours, the spinning at the top of the column slowed and it was almost like the room just took a massive breath out around them. Like a living thing that had just relaxed.
"I've just put her into sleep mode, a little nap and she should be fine" he told them and circled back around towards them "so- Poppy and Kate; Kate and Poppy- how are you doing? Okay?" He asked the bewildered pair "no? Okay- what's your favourite subject at school?" He tried again
"History." Poppy replied with caution, feeling oddly as though she had whiplash.
"Oh you are gonna love this, kid" Amy told her with a smile
Cue doo weee ooooooo-ing