Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Pixar movies or characters.
"Parents, you can find what class your child is in by looking at the monitors hanging in the lobby. Please take your child immediately to class. We warmly wish everyone a great first day at Pixar Elementary." The PA system gave a loud burst of static and turned off. Children, clutching the hands of their parents, were rushed to their respective classrooms.
The third grade teacher leaned back in his chair to massage his temples. He sighed and glanced at the clock to see that he only had a few more precious minutes before his room was invaded by the noisy students. Another year as a teacher. It wasn't that he hated children, quite the opposite; he just hated the disregard all the kids had for the rules. The rules were made for their own safety, but they seemed to believe they were there to prevent them from having fun.
He straightened quickly and pasted a smile to his face as the children entered. "Hello class," he said cheerfully. "I know we're going to have a great year together. You can put your book bags and such in the cubbies and sit down at the desks. After that, we'll play a getting to know you game."
"I hear this guy is pretty strict," a boy with startlingly bright red hair muttered to his friend.
"Aw, we haven't even met him yet," the other whispered back, a thick Southern accent apparent. "I'm sure he's a nice feller." The kids all shuffled to their seats. They stared at their teacher with shock, or more specifically they stared at his pure white hair. It wasn't just greying; it was 100% white hair. The man smiled brightly, oblivious to their stares.
"Alright, now that everyone is seated, we should begin by introducing ourselves. We'll go around the room and say our name, favorite color and what you want to be when you grow up," their teacher said. "Why don't you start?" He gestured to the kid with bright red hair. The kid looked startled to be called on, but tried to play it off.
"My name is Lightning McQueen, my favorite color is red and I wanna be a racecar driver!" All of this was said at the top of his lungs and in a single breath so it was barely comprehensible.
"Er, thank you for that, Lighting," the teacher said, sounding shaken. "Next?" he looked to the boy sitting behind Lightning.
"Yessir!" the boy said cheerfully, running a hand through his dark brown hair. "My name is Mater. Like Tomater, but without the 'tuh'. My favorite color is light blue and I wanna work with cars when I grow up."
"It's nice to meet you Mater," the white haired man said.
The next person to speak was a girl with metallic blue hair. "My name is Sally. My favorite color is obviously blue." She gestured to her hair. "And I want to work in my parents' hotel when I grow up."
"My name is Wall-E and I like the color of rust!" The teacher raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't stop the boy. "When I grow up, I want to collect all kinds of cool things!" His eyes shone when he mentioned collections.
The girl beside him with white hair, much like the teacher's, cleared her throat. "Eve. White. I want to study plants." All of this was said in a very clipped and professional tone.
"My name's Molt. I like the color green and I want to be a teacher when I grow up! My big brother teaches here!"
The third grade teacher looked interested. "By chance, would you be referring to Mr. Hopper who teaches second grade?"
Molt beamed. "Yup! That's him!" The teacher nodded and motioned for the next kid to introduce themselves.
"My name is Marlin and I can't choose whether my favorite color is orange or white. I want to study sea creatures when I grow up."
"Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!" A girl with blue hair that had yellow streaks next to Marlin waved her hand in the air excitedly. The teacher gave her a small smile and waved for her to go. "Yes!" she cheered. "Okay! My name is Dory, my favorite color is blue and when I grow up…" she scrunched up her face in concentration. "Hm… I don't remember… Oh wait! I want to be a psy… psychologist? Is that how you say it?" The teacher looked impressed.
"Indeed. Good job knowing such a big word." Dory beamed. "Next?"
"My name's Gill. I like both black and white. I want to see the world." He had a determined glimmer in his eyes.
"Oh, am I last? I didn't even notice…haha." The kid had dirty green hair and spoke in a relaxed manner. "The name's Crush, dude. I like the color green and I dunno what I want to do when I grow up. Just go with the flow, man." He leaned back in his chair, an easygoing smile on his face.
"Thank you, Crush," The teacher said, almost as a question. "Well, I should introduce myself. My name is Auto, I've always been partial to the color white and, as you can see, I am a teacher, but growing up I wanted to be a ship captain." Auto clapped his hands together to ensure he had everyone's attention. "Since there aren't that many teachers at Pixar Elementary, most of the teachers also lead other subjects besides homeroom. I will double as the school's computer teacher. I hope we can all have a good time this year." Auto looked at the clock.
"Well, that took a little longer than expected. Looks like we'll have to head straight to gym. You'll be sharing that period with the second grade class and the subject is led by the second grade teacher, Mr. Hopper. Now line up." Auto directed the children to stand in single file. "Okay, good," he smiled. "Follow me." He led them down the hall towards the gymnasium.
~~~~~~Gym Class~~~~~
"Come on! I know you kids can run faster than that!" Coach Hopper bellowed at the students as they ran laps around the gym. The kid with red hair, Lightning, was currently competing for first place with a second grader, Dash. They glared at each other as they attempted to one-up the other.
"You're pretty fast for a second grader," Lightning huffed.
"You're not too bad yourself," Dash responded, trying to speed ahead. Lightning gritted his teeth and surged forward.
'There's no way he'll beat me,' both kids thought as they raced around the gym.
"You got 'em buddy!" Mater cheered as they lapped everyone for at least the fifth time.
"They're so fast," Flik groaned, trying to finish the lap. He was almost about to collapse. Flik was always more of a scientist or an inventor. He preferred not to do a lot of physical activity if he could help it.
"I can't believe that kid is beating Dash!" Atta remarked as she kept pace with Flik. "Dash usually outruns even Coach Hopper."
"Hmph. Show offs," Francis grumbled, attempting to keep up with his friends. "Come on, slow poke!" the kid yelled over his shoulder. "You're getting lapped!"
The kid behind Francis was sweating heavily. "I'm not made for this!" His face was bright red as he tried to suck in more air.
"You can do it, Heimlich!" Atta yelled behind her.
"Come on, maggots!" Hopper roared at the kids.
"Coach," Auto admonished. "You shouldn't call the kids maggots. We'll hear from their parents."
"Who cares? My job is to whip these kids into shape!" the coach snorted. He turned back to the runners. "You call that jogging?! My nana runs faster!" The kids continued doing laps for another twenty minutes. "Alright. Water break!" the coach bellowed. Both the second and third graders immediately collapsed.
"The coach is mean," Dim said, bent over from exhaustion.
"He said I was too spindly, whatever that means," Slim said, bracing a hand against the wall to keep himself upright.
"It could be worse, right?" Gypsy asked. She was sitting on the ground, knees drawn up to her chest.
"I doubt it," Manny muttered, heading towards the drinking fountain again.
"And this is only-" Tuck began.
"-the first day," Roll finished for him. They grinned at the other students.
"It's scary how you twins do that," Slim said, eyeing the duo.
"We have no idea-"
"-what you mean." Slim rolled his eyes.
Auto stepped forward and eyed the children with concern. He turned to the coach. "If you do this every day, you're going to run my kids into the ground."
"Yeah, yeah," Hopper said, not looking up from the schedule on his clipboard. "You guys should be heading to music with Mr. Ray, right? My kids need to go to art."
Auto glanced at the high-tech digital watch on his wrist. "Ah. You're right." He clapped his hands together to get his class's attention. "Line up! We're headed to the music room. We have music lessons with the first graders next." The kids all perked up at the mention of something easy and nonviolent.
~~~~~Music Class~~~~~
A man with dark blue hair stood up in front of the first and third graders in his room. "Hey guys! My class already knows me, but for you third graders, my name is Mr. Ray." The third grade class muttered hellos.
Marlin was keeping a careful eye on his little brother in the first grade class, Nemo. Nemo was currently sitting with his friends, Sheldon, Squirt, Pearl and Chad. For similar reasons, Crush was watching Squirt out of the corner of his eye. He grinned at Marlin. "Sometimes we just got to let the little dudes be on their own, right dude?"
"I guess," Marlin said, ever the overprotective big brother. Dory gave one of her reassuring smiles.
"I'm sure little Nemu is fine!"
"His name is Nemo!" Marlin whispered, agitatedly. A first grader sidled up to Marlin.
"Is that your mate over there?" he asked. Marlin could plainly tell the kid had a strong Australian accent.
"He's my brother."
"I thought you looked alike," The kid said, sounding satisfied.
"And you would be?"
"Call me Nigel," the white haired teen extended his hand. Marlin looked at the hand for a while before finally shaking it.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but you seem like you should be older than a first grader."
The kid chuckled. "I was supposed to start when most kids do, but my mom decided to make me wait a year because we were moving from Australia."
"I see…"
"It's the same with the kid over there. He transferred from somewhere really far away. The bloke doesn't talk much." Nigel gestured to the kid sitting off to the side who had purple hair and scowl.
"Who is he?" Marlin asked, worried for his little brother.
"That's Randall. Don't worry, bloke's harmless." Mr. Ray interrupted their conversation.
"Okay kids, let's get started!" he rubbed his hands together. "Since it's the first day, we'll do something easy. It's just a sing-along, okay?" The kids nodded. Mr. Ray took notice of the one kid sitting alone in the corner.
"Hey!" he called. The kid's head jerked up. "Why don't you join us, M-O?"
"It's not clean over there," the kid complained.
"What are you talking about?" Mr. Ray asked, looking confused.
"There's all kinds of dirt and stuff!" M-O said.
Mr. Ray was about to respond, when Auto decided to step in. "I got this," he muttered to the bewildered music teacher. Auto walked over to M-O. "So you think it's dirty?" he asked. The kid nodded. "How about this. I spray some disinfectant over there and then we can sing with the others, okay?" M-O nodded again. Auto got up, searched the cabinets for disinfectant and sprayed a small area of the room. "That better?"
M-O got up and crossed to the disinfected spot to sit down. Mr. Ray raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything about it. "Alright kids," he began. "You'll just sing after me. Oh~ Let's name the zones, the zones, the zones~ Let's name the zones of the open seaaaa~…"
~~~~~Lunch~~~~~
Half an hour later, it was time for lunch. The third graders waved goodbye to the first grade class and Mr. Ray and trooped down to the cafeteria. "Now grab a tray," Auto instructed. "Stay in line, single file. Lightning, don't push. Crush, pay attention. The line's moving. Dory, focus. You can't eat everything." Auto nodded thanks to Chef Remy and his class finally made their way to the table.
Auto sighed. "Lightning, don't shovel down your food. It's not a race," he admonished the red haired child. Lightning smiled apologetically and ate a little slower. Barely.
"Mr. Auto?" Auto looked down at Sally, who stared innocently back at him.
"Yes?"
"Who're those kids?" she asked, pointing at the other table.
"It's rude to point and those are kids in the fourth grade."
"Wow!" Lightning said around a mouthful of food. "They're really tall!"
"That's because they're starting to hit their growth spurts," Sally said knowledgably.
"Yes," Auto replied. "You'll also be going to recess with them every day and their teacher also doubles as the art teacher."
"So we'll see them again?" Dory asked excitedly. She all but squealed when Auto nodded.
~~~~~Recess~~~~~
Auto pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he spotted yet another kid crying on the playground. "Should I take this, or do you want to?" he asked the fourth grade teacher.
Andy held his hands up in defense. "I got the last one. This is all you."
Auto let out a small sigh. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days. Auto strode over to the red haired girl. "What's wrong?"
The girl sniffled. "Buzz pulled my pigtails really hard and it really hurt!"
"Alright." He offered her his hand. "We'll go talk to Buzz." He crossed the playground to a boy with blonde hair next to another boy with brown hair.
"Buzz," Auto addressed the blonde one. "Jessie says you pulled her hair." Buzz looked at his feet. "You need to apologize. You know we have to play nice."
"Sorry," Buzz muttered, still staring at the ground.
"Buzz, you need to look at Jessie when you say that." The blonde jerked his eyes up from the ground.
"I'm sorry," he said to the red haired girl.
"I forgive you," Jessie said with a smile.
"Good," Auto said. "Now, how about you let Jessie play with you and Woody?"
"Okay!" Buzz agreed. "Let's play space rangers!"
"I wanna play cowboys!" Woody whined.
"I wanna play cowboys, too!" Jessie exclaimed.
"Two against one!" Woody said triumphantly as Buzz frowned and crossed his arms stubbornly. He suddenly stopped pouting when another kid with dark green hair walked up.
"Hey, can I play?"
"Sure, Rex!" Woody smiled. The kid gave Woody a wide grin, showing off lots of pointed teeth.
'I wonder if he files them,' Auto thought absentmindedly, walking away from their game. He wandered back to where Andy was standing. "Has anything gone wrong on your first day?"
Andy laughed. "Nothing really. Mike and Sulley have been worried about their little sister, Boo, since this is her first school year."
"Oh, Boo's a kindergartener now?"
"Yup!" Andy replied cheerfully. "Oh, and Carl has made good friends with Ellie, even though they just met today."
"That's nice. Ellie just moved here, right?"
"Yeah. I'm glad she made a friend so fast. Moving to a new place is always rough."
"Sure is. Hey, shouldn't we be rounding them up? I need to get my kids to science." Auto said.
"Yeah, I need to get them to gym," Andy said, glancing at the folded up schedule he pulled from his pocket.
"Good luck with that," Auto snorted. "Hopper is going to be tough on the kids this year." Andy groaned.
"Better or worse than last year?"
"Worse." Andy groaned again.
"He's going to get this school shut down!" Auto just grinned in response.
"Alright, line up!" the third graders assembled, used to the command by now. "Good job guys. Our next stop is the science lab." He waved to Andy who waved back absentmindedly, counting his kids.
"7…8…9… wait." Andy glanced around. "Where's…? Oh, there you are, Violet." He grinned at the raven haired girl. "You need to speak up! It's almost like you were invisible there." The girl simply rolled her eyes and blew a strand of dark hair out of her face.
~~~~~Science Class~~~~~
"Why do we have to take a class with the kindergarteners?" Lightning complained.
"Don't whine. I assure you, the kindergarteners won't get in our way. It's their nap time," Auto stated.
"My little brother is in there," Wall-E said, trudging down the hallway next to Eve.
"Really? What's his name?" She asked.
"His name is Hal. He doesn't talk much," Wall-E replied, stopping abruptly when Mater, who was in front of him, did as well. Auto swung the door open, admitting them to the lab.
The kids gaped at the beakers full of colorful chemicals that bubbled and shot jets of steam into the air. A man with dark blue hair stood at the front of the classroom, hands folded behind his back.
"Please, have a seat kids," he said in a welcoming, grandfatherly voice. "You can call me Doc Hudson. Today we'll be learning a little bit about what chemicals we use in cars."
"Cool!" Lightning and Mater exclaimed simultaneously. While she said nothing, Sally looked equally interested. Auto just smiled and sat next to the kids who were sleeping on the cots while giving a short nod to Doc Hudson. The other man nodded back and began talking about various chemicals while drawing pictures on the board and gesturing to various beakers.
The kids, from what he could read on their name tags, were Hal, Jack Jack, Dot and Boo. They all snored peacefully, as if there wasn't a small explosion occurring two feet from their cots. He recognized that all of them were siblings of kids he either had in his class or were in other classes in the school. Jack Jack was, at least according to his last name, the younger sibling of Violet and Dash. Hal was Wall-E's little brother. Boo was related to Mike and Sulley who were both fourth graders. Finally, Dot was the little sister of Atta, a second grader.
Doc Hudson finally wrapped up his lecture on various chemical compounds and the group was off to the second to last class of the day, art. The students all said they were really looking forward to the next science lesson. They left the room just in time to escape the large mist filling the room that smelled like rotten eggs.
~~~~~Art Class~~~~~
"It's great to see you all again!" Andy announced. "For those of you who have forgotten, my name is Andy and I teach both fourth grade homeroom and art. Today, since it's only the first day, we're going to have a free draw. Draw whatever you like! I have crayons and markers already out on the tables." The kids all rushed to find a seat.
"Check it out, Sulley." Mike nudged his best friend. Sulley looked at the lime green haired kid to his right. "It's a Cyclops!" Mike said proudly.
"I drew a monster too!" Sulley exclaimed, holding up his paper. On it, a blue hairy monster with purple spots and spiky horns had its arms raised in a threatening manner.
"Cool!" Mike said, going back to perfecting his drawing.
"What'd you draw, Marlin?" Dory asked, trying to glance at his paper. "Is that a fish?" Marlin blushed, embarrassed.
"Y-yeah. It's a clownfish… it's not that good though."
"I think it's good!" Dory said. "I drew a fish too!" she held up her drawing of a bright blue fish with yellow fins. "I saw one of these the last time I went to the aquarium with my mom! It was a week ago! Or was it two weeks? Three?" she shrugged.
"I'm drawing a spaceship," Buzz said to Woody. "You?"
"This is my dog!" he showed Buzz the drawing of his wiener dog.
"I drew my horse!" Jessie said, showing off her image of a brown horse galloping across a field. "His name is Bulls-eye!"
"I drew a dinosaur," Rex said, examining his Tyrannosaurus.
"Hey Wall-E," Eve said, looking at his paper. "Is that a robot?"
"Yeah…" Wall-E trailed off, stooping down to pick up a piece of wadded up paper and throw it in the trash.
"Oh, thanks for doing that Wall-E," Auto said, beaming at the kid. "I was just about to head over there."
"No problem," Wall-E replied. "I like picking up other's trash." The bell chimed.
"Kids, grab your drawings and line up!" Auto said. The third graders scrambled around to clean up and line up near their teacher. "Alright, our last class is computer class."
"That's your class, right Mr. Auto?" Sally asked.
"Yes it is," Auto replied, leading them out the door.
~~~~~Computer Class~~~~~
Auto stood behind a computer whose actions were being projected on the wall to show the students. "What you're going to want to do is type the same word that's projected on the screen without looking at the keyboard. By doing this, you'll be able to become a faster and more efficient typer when you're older." The kids all nodded and clicked the program open.
The teacher leaned back as he listened to fingers scamper across the keys for a few minutes. He stretched and began walking around the room to observe the kid's progress. Lightning was undoubtedly the fastest typer, but he made a lot of mistakes from going too fast.
"Slow down," Auto gently told the kid for what seemed to be the 200th time that day. Molt was slowly punching keys in, but he was far more accurate than Lightning. Eve was typing away at the keyboard, hitting the right key every time, and trying to simultaneously explain her method to Wall-E who was struggling with the concept. A couple of time, Auto had to get Dory back on task as her eyes started to wander away from the computer screen. Crush was half-heartedly trying, not entirely taking the lesson seriously, but still trying to be respectful. Mater wasn't even looking up from the keyboard, spending a few seconds to search the entire keyboard for the right key before hitting it and then repeating the process all over again.
They had a long way to go, but it was only the first day of the year, so Auto decided to cut them some slack. After another half hour, they trooped back up to the room they started in.
"No homework," Auto declared, causing the kids to erupt in cheers. "Get your things together and I'll lead you down to the carpool lane to wait for your parents." The kids did so, gathering their backpacks and lunch boxes before the third graders went to the lobby. Many of them reunited with their younger siblings and waited on the curb for their mom or dad's car.
When his final student stepped into the car and waved goodbye, Auto returned to the school's teachers' lounge. Hopper, Doc Hudson and Mr. Ray were already in the lounge drinking coffee.
"How was your first day?" Auto asked the others, pouring himself a mug.
"I'm excited for this year," Hopper grinned. "The school board approved dodge ball." All the other teachers felt faint at the idea of the number of lawsuits they were going to receive this year.
Mr. Ray tried to lighten the mood. "Well this year, I finally convinced the board to buy a piano, so I can do a lot more songs with the kids." Auto smiled. The music teacher had been trying to get a new piano in his room for as long as anyone could remember. The one they had was desperately out of tune.
"I've got a lot of ideas for new experiments," Hudson offered, taking a sip of his coffee. At that very moment, Andy walked in.
"Sorry! Did I interrupt something?" he asked, looking around at the other teachers.
"No," Ray said cheerfully. "We're just talking about our classes."
"I see," Andy said, smiling. "The kids seem really interesting this year, huh?" All the teachers had to agree with that.
A/N: Aaaand... done! :D Wow, the plot bunnies man... they just don't leave you alone... Seriously, I had the idea for this right as I was going to bed. The next day I finally decided to actually write a oneshot based off it, but it was torture to try and keep all the kids and classes straight.
So I used characters from A Bug's Life, Up, Monsters Inc., Cars, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Toy Story. Sorry to everyone who wanted to see someone from Toy Story 3, Ratatouille, Brave or any other Pixar movie I left out. The thing is, I haven't watched Brave, so I don't think I write the characters very well and I was getting overwhelemed by how many people I would need to put in... I mention a Ratatouille character for about 1 second. Kudos if you found it.
Please review! Please! :D
