Clueless Teachers and Determined Students
A TenRose One Shot
I think I got this idea when my school served French fries a few days ago. I had just taken a bite when I thought, "This has something to do with Doctor Who. What is it?" It wasn't until I looked over at my whovian friend, who was glaring at me with a scared expression on her face, that it hit me. We both proceeded to freak out and she asked me about a million hard questions. After I only answered one or two correctly, we relaxed, but promised each other that if a teacher brought us to the computer lab we would scream and run the other way.
Enjoy! This is set in America cause I don't know anything about schools in Europe. Also, forgive me if I get the physics dialog wrong, I did the best I could. And Rose MIGHT be a little OOC, but I'm trying to do everything in my power to make it so that does not happen! Thanks!
And thank you to ElsaRose01 for proofreading this for me! I don't know what I'd do without you, really. There might be a day that I don't come running asking for help because I'm unsure of a Doctor Who fanfic I've written... one day.
CTaDS
"So... Physics! Physics, eh? Physics! Phyyyysics! Physics! Physics! Physicphysicphysicphysicphysics, physics!"
Rose Tyler covered her mouth, stifling a laugh. John Smith, the Doctor to his students and the occasional coworker, did this every year with his new students, and it never got old. Besides Mr. Harkness, the gym teacher, John has to be the most favored teacher in their middle school. All the seventh graders hope to get him for eighth grade, because even though he talks about a mile a minute and runs around the classroom like a maniac, he makes learning fun and teaches his subject in a way that the students understand. It also doesn't hurt that he has an award winning smile and amazing hair, but no one would ever admit that.
Rose blinked once and shook herself out of her thinking. No need for any of that now. No, she had a job to do, and she couldn't let her daydreaming get in the way of her finishing it, so she quickly smoothed out her skirt, threw her hair over her shoulders, and opened the door.
The minute John heard the door open, he stopped his rambling about the curriculum and how the students were going to be graded and turned around, having been facing away from the door when Rose stepped in. When he saw her his face split into his trademark manic grin, one that she couldn't help but return.
"Ro- Miss Tyler!" Rose stifled a giggle at his little slip up. "What can I do for you?"
"The phoning system's on the fritz. I was already in the office so they asked me to tell you that you haven't submitted your attendance yet."
"School's been in session for all of five minutes!"
Rose's eyebrows shot up, and a grin graced her features. "You do realize school has actually been in session for twenty minutes, and you've spent all of that time messing with your seating chart like you do every year?"
John opened his mouth and then closed it again. His eyes darted over to the clock, and he slumped ever so slightly. "Never mind that! The people down at the office need to learn to be more patient anyway!"
"You say that every year too. Just get in your attendance, all right?" She gave him one of those tongue touched grins, and he smiled back at her. Neither noticed the students whispering with wide eyes, how they'd glance at the two teachers ever so often then quickly avert their gazes. It wasn't until a student coughed rather loudly and obnoxiously that the two snapped out of it and John went over to submit his attendance.
"So I'll see you later, then?" Rose asked, pretending not to sound too hopeful.
"Correctamundo, a word I have never used before and hopefully never will again," he said as he came back from the computer, hands shoved in his pockets. Rose would have gladly stayed there forever, but her first class of the day was in just about twenty minutes and she had to get back to the classroom to make sure she had everything she needed to make the class run as smoothly as possible.
"Right, then, I'll be off. See ya later, Jo- Mr. Smith." Good grief, she was just as bad as him! With one more grin she turned on her heel and walked out the door.
Back in the classroom with John, the students looked at each other. Their teachers really were clueless, weren't they?
...
Rose stood in front of her first class of the day, mentally cataloging all the supplies she needed for this first rotation- paint, glue, paper towel strips, hot glue guns, mask templates, and lots of cardboard- and quickly taking attendance. It would be a while before she memorized all these student's names, but since she remembered a lot of them from the year before, she figured she'd be fine.
"Right, then," she said, raising her voice so the rowdy students would quiet down. "I recognize a good amount of you from last year, but not all, so I'll just introduce myself again; I'm Miss Tyler and I'll be your art teacher this year." Rose took a few more minutes to go over the curriculum and how she expected the class to behave and so forth, trying to be as brief as possible so as not to lose the attention of her students. "Any questions?" she asked at the end.
A girl with short brown hair and a bright blue hoodie, who's name was Elizabeth, Rose remembered, raised her hand. "Are you and Mr. Smith dating?" she asked, leaning forward onto the table, head propped up in her hands.
Rose was taken aback. "I'm sorry? I don't think that's an appropriate subject for-"
"Yeah!" Another girl, Alyssa, cut in. "What's going on between you two?"
Rose frowned. "Nothing is going on between us, we're just friends!" Unfortunately, she added silently.
"That's the most classic line in the book!" A boy named Landon complained, rolling his eyes. "Everyone knows that when someone says that they're 'just friends' with another person, that they're really not 'just friends'."
"I actually don't think that's true-" Rose tried to get in before she was interrupted yet again by Sabrina, a quiet, thoughtful girl.
"Actually, I think it's pretty true. And we've seen how you look at him," Sabrina said, giving her an "all knowing" look.
"So come on, please tell us?" Mark, the straight A student begged. Those whole class burst into pleas for information, until finally Rose put her foot down.
"That's enough!" she yelled, and the class fell silent. "Now, I want to make this clear; Mr. Smith and I are just friends. We've known each other for quite some time now, and we've been nothing but friendly. Now unless you've got any questions that pertain to the class, please put your hands down."
All the students that had been raising their hands put them down.
Rose sighed. Her relationship with John was complicated. Sometimes he would just look at her, and she'd feel like she was the only important thing in his world, but then they'd get closer and suddenly he would pull back, and they'd be at square one again. She shook her head. "Thank you. Now, time to get to work."
As she talked about their first project, she failed to miss the exasperated looks that the students were giving each other.
...
During the students' lunch break, the Rose and John met up with each other in Rose's classroom, eating their own lunches, chatting about everything and nothing, as was customary.
"So," John said before taking a big bite of the banana muffin Rose had brought him, "how did your first half of the day go?"
Rose rolled her eyes as crumbs spewed out of his mouth. "It's rude to talk with your mouth full, John." She grinned at him, her tongue pointing out ever so slightly, to let him know she was just teasing, and when his gaze darted down to her mouth, she spent forever trying to discern whether it was just her imagination or not.
"Yup," he said, swallowing. "That's me; rude and not ginger." He gave her one of those award winning smiles and her heart melted a little. "Now, back to the question: how has your day been going?"
"It's been alright, thanks. A little crazy with my first class, but I got it all straightened out. You?"
"Pretty good. The students seem really bright, so I'm excited to get to know them." Rose nodded, and they were silent for a few minutes. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, per se, but Rose could tell by the way John fidgeted that he wanted to tell her something.
"Out with it," she said. "What's on your mind?"
His eyes widened and he tugged on his ear, trying to look anywhere but her. "Well..."
But then the bell rang, and John's eyes widened further as he realized he had three minutes to get to his classroom- and it was on the other end of the school. "Right then, gotta run!" he exclaimed, and took off.
Rose sighed and resisted the urge to scream as her class filed in. He could just be so difficult sometimes! It was always one step forward and then two steps back; they weren't getting anywhere. But then the bell rang again, and Rose had to start her class. She could pout about John later.
...
Over the next few months, everything stayed pretty much the same. John and Rose continued to dance around each other, getting close and then separating, and the students got more and more frustrated with their teachers' tentative behavior. It was so incredibly obvious that the two had chemistry. So why couldn't they see it?
It wasn't until a few days before Christmas break that the kids finally decided to go and do something about it.
...
Rose rubbed her temples, trying to get rid of the headache that had been present for about an hour now. Why the kids in her first class had to start a paint war right before Christmas break, she had no idea, but now she was stuck watching them in detention, when all she wanted to do was go home and take a really long bath and read her book. She just didn't get it; her kids were usually so well behaved! What changed?
Just then, John poked his head in to her room. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, "but I just printed some sheets out for the kids in my detention, and you're the only one with a working printer up here." He shook his head. "Can you believe they decided to get into a spit-ball fight? It took forever for the janitor to clean the room up."
Rose nodded. "Same here. Except mine decided to get into a paint fight." She put her head in her hands. "Why now? I've been so busy getting ready for the holidays, and I don't need more of this."
John crossed the room, forgetting the students that were watching their every moves, and wrapped her in a hug. "The day's almost over, and soon it will be Christmas break, and you can relax. Just keep your eyes on the prize." He frowned. "'Eyes on the prize'... don't let me say that again."
Rose nodded with a giggle and thanked him, pulling back from the hug.
"What're you doing for the holidays?" John asked. Behind them, the printer stopped whirring, but they ignored it.
"Oh, the usual. Mum and Mickey and me are gonna spend the day together in our jim jams and do the usual Christmas dinner with crackers and all that. What about you?"
He tugged on his ear. "Not quite sure, actually. Usually I spend it with Donna, but, as you know because you were at the wedding, she got married and it's their first Christmas together and I don't want to intrude." He shivered. "Plus they're going to be all mushy and I can't handle it all."
Rose giggled again. "Right, because any sort of domestics like that means the end of the world to you."
"Quite right," he said with a smile.
"Well," Rose said, drawing the word out, "you could always spend it with me. Mickey and I haven't been a thing for years, and it's not like Mum's gonna be snogging him, so you won't have to worry about all the 'mushiness'. Or is even that too domestic for you?" she asked with a grin.
"No, that should be fine," he teased. "As long as your Mum doesn't slap me. I swear, the last time she did, I thought I had died."
"Oh come on," Rose laughed.
"I did!"
"Don't be rude! I just invited you over for Christmas and that's how you treat me? I'm starting to think about withdrawing that invitation!" She gave him that tongue touched smile to let him know that she was teasing. He grinned right back.
"Rose Tyler, I would love to spend Christmas with your family." He smiled and pulled her into another hug, which she happily accepted. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Then she remembered the students were watching and pulled away. "Right. Better go get your papers then."
John nodded and headed towards the printer on the other side of the room. He was almost there when all the students stood up and pushed him into Rose's supply closet. He yelled and struggled, but they refused to let him go. Even though they were just kids, there were at least twenty of them, and he didn't want to hurt a single one.
"Let me out of here!" he shouted as they locked him in. Rose stood up from her desk in alarm and screamed at her students to let John out of the closet, but then they just turned on her. The students from John's detention filed into the room then, and they all shoved her into the closet and locked it once more. The two banged on the door, demanding to be let out, but the students refused.
"Great," Rose moaned. "We're stuck in here."
"Why on Earth would they do this?" John yelled, kicking the door. "Kids, if you're still out there, let us out this instant!"
"No!" one exclaimed. Rose recognized the student as Elizabeth, the girl who always wore the frayed and clearly well loved blue hoodie that Rose had seen since the beginning of the school year. "We're not opening the door until you guys work out some things that clearly need to be worked out!" And with that, the two heard the students walk away.
Rose groaned and fell back against the door. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark pretty quickly, and suddenly she was very aware of how close she was to John. Because the shelves took up so much room in the closet, they were chest to chest, with only a little wiggle room in between. If she moved forward at all, they'd be touching. Really if she moved at all they'd be touching in one way or another. She was glad it was dark so he wouldn't be able to see her blush.
"Haven't you got a light in here?" John asked.
Rose shook her head. "I did, but it burned out a while ago and I haven't bothered with replacing it because I'm not in here often- and even then I can see just fine with the light from the classroom." She sighed. "What did they mean 'work out some things that clearly need to be worked out'?"
She could feel John shrug. "We should focus on getting out of here. Then we're going to focus on finding those kids. Alright?"
"Sounds good. I've got a bobby pin we could use." Rose pulled said item out of her hair and turned around slowly so she could try to get to the doorknob and in doing so brushed her chest up against his. She froze when she heard his breath hitch and dropped the bobby pin, her heart rate suddenly speeding up. "Sorry," she whispered.
John cleared his throat. "It's alright. Let me just..." He trailed off as he leaned down to try and find the bobby pin, but was thwarted when his lips brushed Rose's ear. She gasped and her knees buckled in surprise. "Whoa!" John exclaimed as he caught her by her waist. "Careful, there. Wouldn't want you to whack your head or something." When Rose was steady, she realized that he hadn't let go of her waist. Her breathing suddenly got faster and harsher, and her heart rate spiked again.
"Rose?" John whispered in her ear, causing her to shiver involuntarily.
"Yeah?"
He swallowed and gripped her waist tighter. "I want to kiss you. Right now."
Rose's heart skipped a beat and she grabbed his arms for support. "Okay." She said it so softly that she didn't think he heard, but then his lips were slamming into hers and she had no doubts.
Rose wrapped her arms around John's neck, fisting her hands in his hair as the kiss deepened. He entangled one hand in her hair while the other stayed clutching at her waist and brought her closer still, so no space was between them. They would have gladly stayed like this forever, but they needed air and reluctantly parted. The two stood facing each other in the dark, chests heaving.
"Rose Tyler, I have been wanting to do that since the day I met you," John said. Rose's heart, which had just slowed down a little, sped right up again.
"You have?" she asked softly, not believing him. He cupped her face in his hands.
"Oh, yes," he murmured before bringing her back in to meet his lips. And then they were too busy to talk, or to worry about their students anymore. They had each other, and that was all that mattered.
...
Outside the closet, the large group of students exchanged high-fives, none of them caring that once their teachers did get out of the closet, they'd all likely be facing suspension and a bunch of detentions. They had done it!
The End
Thanks for reading this! If there are any typos, it's because my cat is blocking the keyboard so I can't really see. Peace out! And Happy Holidays to you all!