AN: Sorry for the delay. There's really no excuse I have with the exception of writer's block. I'm gonna try a Frozen High School AU with Teacher!Elsa and Student!Anna and before you ask, no, this will NOT be a romantic story. It's just your average high school antics. Ever had an assignment you lost but claimed you did said assignment when it was time to collect? Well, this is one of those stories. Again, you know the drill. The Frozen brand is owned by Disney.
The clock's hands began to move towards 9:00am, a sign that first period at Arendelle High School was winding down. Elsa was at her desk, watching over her students with an icy look. She was one of those teachers students both loved having and dreaded having because of her insistence on watching her students work like a hawk, possibly to make sure they weren't slacking off on their assignments. Luckily, only the students in Arendelle High's resource program had to deal with her. Elsa looked at the clock. 8:56. She coughed, a signal to stop working in her class.
"Okay, pencils down and take out your Agenda Books", she said as she turned to face the board, marker in hand. The students, with the exception of Anna, the resident cheer captain, groaned but obeyed. It was music to Elsa's ears at the sound of backpack zippers being opened, shuffling for the Agenda Books and placing them on their desks, opened.
"Okay. For Homework: Work on Practices 1-4, pages 2-6", Elsa stated, recording the assignment down on the board. "Also, you guys know the drill, turn your work in to Mr. Marsh as you leave. Oh, and Kristoff? If I see you with that stuffed reindeer on your desk again during Resource period, so help me, you will see a slip on your desk. I've let it slide long enough. Same deal with you, Hans, I've lost count of how many times I told you: No fake swords allowed in the classroom!" That was the typical closing ritual for Elsa's resource English course before she remembered something else. "Oh, Anna? A word with you", she motioned for Anna to come to her desk. Anna gulped, thinking she was in trouble, as she approached her teacher's desk as the bell rang.
"Yes, Ms. Winters?" she asked apprensively.
"Everyone else can go", Elsa dismissed the rest of the class first and then turned to Anna. "Now, Anna, I was gonna go over this with you over our Resource period but I figured, as your Resource teacher since your sophomore year, I should have brung this up after your first IEP meeting when I took over for Weaselton when he retired. I've always felt you were ready for a Regular Ed English course because my Resource English class seems to be a little too easy for you. I have to ask you this. Do YOU feel it's too easy? Because I can easily arrange a transfer to a regular English course if it is", Elsa stopped, giving Anna a chance to take in everything she just heard. She was just being offered to possibly join a regular English class on a silver platter with the regular text instead of the dumbed down versions of the text used in the class but most of her friends were in the class she was in now.
"What's wrong with this one?" Anna innocently asked. Elsa chuckled and looked at the clock. Advisory period was next.
"I'll discuss it during the individual portion of our Resource class. Get to Homeroom, you don't wanna be late", Elsa said and shooed Anna out of the room.
True to her word, during her 3rd period Resource (which had most, if not all of, the same kids from her first period), Elsa and Anna discussed Anna's possible transfer out of her current class and into the regular English classes and even though she would still receive the support from the Resource department, she couldn't have both. It had to be one or the other.
"I'll stay", she said.
"You sure? Because I'm not upping the coursework to accommodate your needs", Elsa stated, giving Anna one last chance to reconsider but she remained firm in her decision. Elsa was secretly hoping for that, though, because while most of her students were good and attentive, Anna was the only one who actually seemed to apply herself in both periods while everyone else seemed to vary, being the only one to actually receive an A in both classes, which she had brung up to Anna's parents constantly during the annual IEP meetings. However, that was only part 1 of the stuff that would lead into the main event, one that will test Anna's resourcefullness to its' very core.
It all started in the aforementioned class: Ms. Elsa Winters' Resource English class where they just finished reading the book of the week. Usually, she would give the class a quiz based on the book in question but it got to the point where the class actually began to expect the quiz portion of the "weekly book" so she decided to change it up a bit.
"Okay, I know you guys were expecting a quiz after the previous books we read ended with me assigning you guys a quiz based on them. However, I decided to try something different this time around. This will be a 'on your own time' style project but it will be due next week. Today is Tuesday so next Tuesday would be the due date. Each of you will write an essay which will demostrate to me your comphreson of the book we read and also tell me who was actually reading the book", she finished, her eyes glaring at Hans, whom she was well aware of the fact he had a tendency to actually not do the required reading portions but would actually skim last second before class began. She also added that they could start the project during their 3rd period or whenever, just as long as it was finished by next Tuesday. Class was dismissed.
After Elsa assigned the essay, she would know that some of the lazybones would rather actually start the project early during 3rd period when Kristoff and Hans swamped her desk, both asking for the book. Anna and Olaf, on the other hand, opted to focus themselves on other class assignments and get the book needed to complete the assignment after class ended. Only one problem: Elsa didn't tell them exactly WHAT to put in the essay about the book at the end of first period that morning. Anna figured she'd ask so she put her hand up but saw that Elsa was helping someone else with their work. While she was aware that the other student had top priorty as he asked for Elsa's help first, she needed some help on the essay structuring as she planned on doing the paper later on after cheer practice.
"Ms. Winters?" Anna didn't want to disrupt the other student's time with Elsa but she was trying to take notes to guide her when setting up the essay and she didn't really want to work with Mr. Marsh, whom, to Anna, had this really imtimidating vibe to him. Hans seemed to be the only one willing to work with him.
"Mr. Marsh, go see what Anna wants and I'll be there shortly", Elsa's angelic voice rang forward. He obeyed because as a para-ed, he was supposed help the students when Elsa was preoccupied with other matters or students or if it was an area where she couldn't help in. He got up from his desk and approached the table the redhead was sitting at, pulling up a chair.
"What is it you need help with, Anna?" he inquired.
"I need to know exactly what needs to go into the essay", she stated.
"What book was it you guys just finished?" he asked
"The Autobiography of Malcolm X", she answered.
"Possibly what the book was about and your personal feelings towards it", he answered, trying to be a little helpful. Luckily, Elsa and the other student finished and she was able to provide help to Anna, only to realize she failed to mention how to structure the essay during first period.
"My first period kids, the essay should go like this: A little background of how the book came to be, what it's about and what you thought about it", Elsa stated. Once the first period group clarified they understood it, 3rd period ended.
Anna devoted the weekend to working on the paper, aside from cheer practice and cheering Arendelle High's nightly football games. When she wasn't there, she was working on the essay. The problem was the book was half an inch thick although Elsa had said to only focus on the chapters they read in class. Only problem was Anna was reading the book outside of class as well and she wanted to integrate that knowledge into the paper as well. By Sunday night, she finished the paper but she didn't have to worry about it until Tuesday, right? Wrong. Monday was okay but early Tuesday morning, Anna left for school in a hurry, leaving the essay on the dishwasher.
Everyone showed up for class with their finished essays and borrowed books to return, everyone, that is, except Anna. Elsa immediately suspected something and went to Anna's desk to find out what it was.
"Everyone else, work on practices 1-5 in your books. Anna, come with me to the table", Anna gulped and followed her teacher to the table in the back room, proceeding to sit opposite her.
"Anna, this is a first. You always turn in your classwork and homework on time. Mr. Marsh, since you're always here before me, did Anna, by any chance, come into the room beforehand?" she asked the classroom aide.
"No, Ms. Winters, I didn't see her enter", he clarified.
"So, I'm assuming she didn't turn in the essay during that time, since she didn't enter. Would I be correct in that assumption?"
"You would be because I only received the essays from Hans, Kristoff, Olaf and your second period", the aide clarified. Anna knew she was in deep hot water. She had to find a way to diffuse the problem.
"I did do the paper, though!" she tried, hoping Elsa & Mr. Marsh would see reason and spare her.
"Anna, if the paper isn't on his desk, we have to assume you didn't do the assignment and we have to mark you down for it as a consequence", Elsa explained and Anna knew her teacher was right: If the paper wasn't was turned in when it was due, they have to assume it wasn't done and she would be marked down for the assignment but Elsa sincerely believed that Anna did do the essay so she decided to strike a deal with Anna.
"Anna, knowing that you make an effort to do my out-of-class assignments and try to meet my deadlines, I believe you so I'm gonna make you a deal. Mr. Marsh & I will hold off on grading the papers until Wednesday. You have until tomorrow to find the essay and turn it in. If you don't, we will assume you lied to us and will mark you down for the assignment", Elsa said.
"Yes, Ms. Winters", Anna nodded.
"Good, now go back to your desk and work on the assignment", Anna did so and Elsa assumed her post at the board, ready to conduct the day's lessons.
All day long, Anna tried to think where she could have left the essay. She tried to mentally retrace her steps and find possible areas where she could have been with the essay. The gym was out because that's where the cheerleaders practiced, the stadium was out because that's where the home games are held and that only left one school-related area, the library so she went there. The problem with that was she never went into the library to work on the essay, which was confirmed when she asked the student librarian. She exhausted every possible place at the school where she could have done the essay. Anna plopped down on a bench, trying to think further of where that blasted paper could be. The girls' locker room, maybe?
Nope, no essay there. 'Of course', Anna thought. Going back to the bench, she sat down again to ponder. She heard Elsa's voice in her head, telling her she had one day to prove her & Mr. Marsh wrong with the fact she was telling the truth when she claimed she did the paper. She chuckled a little bit as this was the first time a teacher directly challenged a student to prove them wrong although with Elsa, it wasn't really a challenge and more of a plea. Finally, the pieces began falling into place.
"Since I finished the paper on Sunday night, the last place I was at before Saturday's game", she mumbled to herself, suddenly getting it. "I was at HOME! I left it somewhere at HOME!" she exclaimed to herself. All she had to do was wait for school to get out and then go through cheer practice and run home and get the paper. Equipped with the new insight, Anna blasted her way through cheer practice and finally, almost ran all the way home.
Once she got home, she shot through the door like a rocket, running almost into her mother along the way.
"Anna, watch where you're going!" she said sternly.
"Sorry, Mom! But I was looking for my English paper", she said and once she slowed down, she explained what happened. When she was finished, her mother looked at her.
"You mean, this?" she asked and pulled out an envelope and inside it was the essay. "I saw it on the dishwasher and I had called the school earlier to reach your teacher. Your teacher wasn't there but her aide was and he answered the call. He said to put it in an envelope, take it to the office and he'll have Elsa pick it up when she got in", she further explained.
"Strange, Mr. Marsh never mentioned the call", Anna mumbled. "But, there's no need for that now, Mom, Is there?" she said, slightly louder this time.
"Nope", her mother agreed.
Wednesday showed up and true to her word, there was Anna, essay in hand, running into class JUST after the final bell rang. Needless to say, Elsa was NOT pleased with Anna's grand enterance.
"MS. WINTERS! MS. WINTERS! I HAVE IT! MY ESSAY!" Anna shouted. Elsa didn't even acknowledge Anna's lateness as she was too busy writing something on the board
"Sit down, Anna", she said without looking back at her.
Anna impatiently waited until Elsa set the book work assignment on them then she could turn in the essay and get a grade for it. After she did so, Elsa led Anna to the table and sat her down.
"So, Anna, I trust you were able to locate the paper?" she quizzically asked.
"Yes, Ms. Winters", Anna said and produced the essay, explaining that she left it at home in her rush to get there on Tuesday but her mother actually got to it first and had contacted them to find out what to do with it but she got Mr. Marsh instead, who told her to take the essay to the office and have them drop it in Elsa's box but now, she didn't need to do that. Elsa seemed pleased with the essay and Anna's dedication to it.
"Well, Anna", Elsa said, thumbing through the essay. "Seems like you deserve an A+"
AN: Well, that's it! Disney References include: obviously, Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Hans & Olaf are from Frozen, Kristoff's stuffed reindeer is Sven, Mr. Marsh is, obviously, Marshmallow & the student librarian is Belle from Beauty & The Beast. Also, if I took too long to get to the main crux, it's because it's my first time writing a High School! AU for the Frozen fandom and plus, I was aiming for some form of realism in the Resource Class I had envisioned for the story because I, myself, needed remedial instruction in some areas during my school years. Anyway, R&R!
