Year; 2342
Planet; Unknown
'Miss! Do you miss it?'
'Miss what, sweetie?'
'Your home, of course.'
Clara frowned, 'My home's here now,'
A blue little lad with bright yellow eyes stared up at her, 'But your real home, Miss, do you miss it?'
She bit her lip in thought. Did she? Did she miss the kids at Coal Hill? Of course she did, but she couldn't exactly go flying back there now. Could she?
Clara smiled at him and set the book that she was reading to her class down by her feet, she climbed down from her chair and sat between all twelve of the kids, her legs crossed, 'What makes you so interested in my real home, darling?' she asked, her voice as sweet and as kind as ever.
The blue boy, whose name was Dahh'rren stared up at her with big eyes, his small body copying her actions, 'Well…' he whispered, turning to the girl next to him with vibrant pink skin and wide eyes.
'All of us wanted to know where you come from, you know where we all come from,'
Clara smiled sadly, her eyes switching between the boy and the girl, 'I know where you come from because you're all different species… I'm the only one of my species who's able to travel the stars,'
A green boy with antenna's stuck his hand up, as polite as ever, 'But Miss, why do you travel the stars? Where's your species? Are you the last of your kind?'
She frowned and thought for a moment. Maybe in this year, maybe in the year 2342, Earth ceased to exist. But, Clara was a time traveller, stuck between one heartbeat and the next, she had all the time in the world to jump from year to year. She could be in the nineteen twenties, partying with high class American's, sometimes she'd bump into Captain Jack Harkness, he was always on the same mind wave as her, party all day and party all night. Other times, she could travel back to the seventeen hundreds and stop for tea with Jane Austen… And other things.
No matter what she did, she still seemed to miss the normality of her old life.
Waking up at six thirty in the morning, having her breakfast, brushing her teeth and getting dressed for work. She'd be in at half eight to do early marking before classes would start, then she'd stand in the corner and tell Courtney Woods off for sticking gum in another students hair. Clara missed the normality and the schedule she had in her previous life, right now, she wasn't sure she even knew what time it was or even what planet she was on.
Since she was forced to leave The Doctor, nothing seemed to make sense anymore.
Everything in her head was muddled up, nothing was in order, she never knew where she might end up but she knew it wouldn't be back on Gallifrey. Clara wasn't ready for that quite yet, she had some more exploring to do and a whole book to fill, except she hadn't just visited a hundred different places in the world, she'd visited thousands of different planets in different era's and happened to be the only human being to do so. Except, she wasn't really human anymore, that was taken from her by the Time Lords.
The day The Doctor forgot her, her life didn't have any meaning. And it wasn't because he was her support, or the only thing she had going for herself – she had a lot of things going for herself, she had her flat, her father, her kids at Coal Hill, she had a normal life. It took The Doctor turning up on her doorstep to realise she was more than just human, she had more to live up to than that and she knew one thing, her mother would be so proud of her. But, since she had been forced away from The Doctor's grasp, her body felt empty, never to be filled again.
Until she met all these kids.
Now, her life had meaning. She had something to be, something to do.
She didn't need The Doctor to find what she needed. Of course, she missed him with the last beat of her heart, but she didn't regret running from Gallifrey on that day – she had turned into him, she had become something more than just human. Every day was a gift, every day she ran from the Time Lords was a gift, a constant reminder that she was okay, she was still here, she didn't feel as empty as she did when she first ran. Her new life had started exactly like The Doctor's had – running away.
Clara bopped the green's boy's nose, 'I suspect by now, I probably am the last of my kind. I'm not sure what happened to my planet, but I'm from Earth. Have you heard of Earth?'
The young girl with the pink skin almost bounced on the spot, her hand in the air, 'The Doctor, Miss!'
Clara's head snapped around to the girl, a frown on her face, 'What did you say?'
'The Doctor, he has saved Earth thousands of times, he is Earth's protector. We learnt about him yesterday. Is The Doctor Earth's protector?'
Clara sniffed, her heart suddenly feeling heavy as a single tear ran down her face, 'Yes – Yes, I suppose he is Earth's protector and I hope he protects my planet for years to come. Maybe I can go back there one day,'
'Why don't you, miss?'
'Oh,' muttered Clara, wiping the tears before any of the children could see, they'd only worry, 'I'm not allowed back there, I'm afraid,'
The blue boy gasped, 'Did you do something bad, Miss?'
The pink girl giggled, 'Of course not, silly. Miss Oswald wouldn't do anything bad. Would you, miss?'
Clara lent forward, a special kind of glint in her brown eyes, 'If I tell you a story, will you promise not to tell anyone?'
All twelve children nodded, their eyes wide.
'On Earth, many, many years ago, a single leaf blew onto the Earth and into the path of Dave Oswald…'
'Who's Dave Oswald, miss? Is that your dad?'
'Sh!' the green boy whinged.
Clara laughed, 'Let's not worry about that part. Anyway, if that leaf hadn't landed on that specific face, I wouldn't have been born,'
The pink girl gasped, her hand over her mouth, 'Is that how humans are born, miss? By leaf's?'
'No, sweetie. But, that's how my parents met. Soon, they married and then I was born-' before she could finish, a red skinned boy grumbled from the back.
'Just like everybody else! This is boring, miss!'
'Sh!' the rest of the kids exclaimed, glaring at the boy behind them.
Clara laughed, 'As I grew up, I was given a book. A book that my mother had, that she passed down to me and I wanted to travel to a hundred and one places on Earth.'
The pink girl climbed into Clara's lap, her head resting on her chest, 'Do you still have the book, miss?'
'Yes, but it's filled with much more than just Earth's places. It's filled with planets all over the galaxy. And do you know how I got to all these places, kids?'
They all shook their heads, a lot of them laying down to listen to her.
'A silly man in a bow tie turned up on my doorstep just after I turned twenty four. He knew me, but I didn't know him.'
'How can you know somebody without really knowing them, miss?'
'He thought I was somebody else. But, this silly man in a bow tie took me away, you see. He promised I would return to Earth at the right time, on the right day. And at first, I didn't believe him. Until, I met his Time Machine.'
'Woah!' they all collectively gasped.
'He was what you would call a Time Lord. The Time Machine was called a TARDIS, and she was alive. She flew us to where we needed to go and we saved people, planets and whole galaxies.'
'Why did you stop, miss? What happened?' asked the blue boy.
Clara smiled softly, 'Typical story, darling. Boy and girl meet, boy and girl fall in love and then they are torn apart.'
'You were in love? Ewww!' all the children collectively complained.
Clara only laughed, 'Yes, very much so. No matter how much he pushed my buttons or wound me up, he was always the man for me. And do you know why?'
'Because he took you away to the stars?'
'No, because he showed me unconditional love, he always loved me, no matter what. And that's what broke us apart,'
The pink girl stared up at her teacher, 'What was his name, miss?'
'He didn't have a name, that's what made him special. He was impossible, he was the only man I could ever want,'
'What was his name?' the girl whined, squirming in her lap.
A Scottish voice spoke from the corner of the room, standing in his shades with his arms crossed over his chest, 'His name was The Doctor,'
Clara froze.