September, 2020:
"Good morning, Ms. Pierce."
You look to your left and smile at Rachel as she grins faintly, "Morning, Ms. Berry." You chuckle. She laughs softly and bumps your arm with hers as the two of you walk down the halls of McKinley high school on the first day back.
"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, how was your vacation?"
"Rach, you saw me like the weekend before last." You tell her and she shrugs, "It was fine. Peaceful. Beyond boring but what can you expect, right? It's Lima."
"Lima has its charms." You scrunch your nose and look at her in disbelief. Rachel tilts her head, "Okay, there isn't much charm, isn't much of anything really but there are worse places to be."
"I'll give you that." You nod in agreement as you enter the teacher's lounge, "What about you, though? How's it going with Finn? The two of you seemed to be doing well the last time I saw you."
"Finn's lovely but I don't feel the spark anymore."
"Rachel Barbra Berry." You say with a wide smile and an intrigued gaze, "Please tell me there is someone else and it's not just a falling out."
Rachel tries holding back a smile as she rolls her eyes fondly and you swat her arm playfully, "Who is it?"
"There's no one. And even if there was we would not talk about this here?" she asks and you narrow your eyes suspiciously, glancing around the room. Your eyes jump from each of the teachers in the lounge, Mr. Jenks and Mr. Tenacrious, both in their fifties and balding with beer bellies. Your face contorts in disgust and you slowly look to Rachel, silently begging her to let you know it wasn't one of them. "Oh dear god, no!"
"For a second there-"
"No, Brittany. I can assure you it is neither of those two-I mean there isn't anyone."
You smirk, "This will be fun." You nod when the bell goes off overhead, signalling the beginning of classes.
Rachel opens her mouth to protest and you just turn on your heels and head for the door, waving in goodbye to the shorter teacher.
"Hola, clase!" you beam as you walk into your classroom, reciting the greeting your favorite high school teacher used when you were in her class years ago.
Your heels click as you head to your desk and you place your purse on the floor at your desk while putting your binder on top of it. You pull your chair out and lift your head, looking around at all the faces of students sitting in front of you and smile.
Your first class was with your freshman class. You are their very first high school teacher so it's your job to calm their nerves before they head on to some other teachers that aren't the nicest.
"My name is Brittany Pierce," you say while tapping the name plate on your desk, smiling at the nervous students sitting straight in their desks, "but you can call me Ms. Pierce or Ms. P, whichever you prefer, although I'd prefer Ms. Pierce. I'm sure you can understand why." You chuckle and most of the kids laugh with you. "Alright, so today we'll just be looking over the course outline. Can I have a volunteer to hand them out while I take attendance?" you ask and look around.
A couple hands shoot up and you nod, pointing to the closest student, a short brunette girl with big glasses and a wide smile.
Oh dear lord, it's a miniature Rachel Berry, you think as you smile and hand her the pile of outlines.
You finish quickly with the attendance before moving on to reading through the outline, glancing up and making sure all the students are following along with you. You flip the page and swallow, starting the bit on plagiarism, "Plagiarism or any other form of cheating in examinations, tests, or academic work is subject to serious academic penalty." You begin. You go through the rest of the page and flip the last page of the outline over, placing it down beside you as you sit on the edge of the front of your desk. "Now…" you say, glancing at the clock hanging on the wall behind your desk, "We only have a few minutes before class change so I'm going to make this quick."
"High school is very different than junior high. The way it's portrayed on television and in movies isn't the reality of things. You will be pushed beyond your limits at times whether it be by peers around you or teachers and school work. I'm not saying this to scare you, I just want to prepare you and give you a heads up. It can be very stressful, and at times it may seem impossible and I guarantee each of you, at one point, will say the infamous words of every single student in the world 'I'm dropping out'. But you know what?" you smile, crossing your legs, "You'll get through it and it will feel amazing when you do. But with that being said I want to remind you that we have a counselling office if you ever feel like everything is becoming too much and to check it out; and if you're not comfortable with going to our counsellor, then I ask that you come to me. It's my job as your teacher to take responsibility and ensure that you are healthy, safe, and happy while in this building, alright?"
You look around and wait until you get a nod from each student before glancing over your shoulder when the bell rings. You smile and get up from your desk, moving around it as everyone stands up and heads for the door.
You smile and wave as they leave before picking up your binder and moving to the shelving unit at the back of the room. You exchange the freshman binder for the senior binder and head back to your desk at the front of the class as the seniors gather outside your room. You pull open the metal rings, pulling out the outline for this class and lean to the side, smiling and waving the group in, "C'mon in, guys. Take a seat."
You close the binder and look up, smiling at the familiar faces from last year, a few from the years before that and move to the first row of tables, counting the number of booklets for the row and handing them to the first student before continuing down until you get to the back of the room while doing the same thing.
"I'm going to ask that you take about five minutes to skim over the outline while I quickly send in the attendance. You've already had three years here and the outline is pretty much the same for every class but just to jog your memory can you all do that for me?" you ask and they flip open the outline, looking through it as you move to your chair behind the desk, opening the attendance window.
"Knock, knock."
"I'm busy." You sing and Quinn laughs as she walks in your classroom. You smile and look up at her as you lean back in your chair, your computer screen brought up to your freshman science attendance. "I'm studying. I try to learn the names and faces by the end of the first week." You explain to Quinn when she arches a brow.
"Ah, that's right." She nods, moving to your desk. She leans against it and you eye her curiously.
"What do you want?" you ask carefully. Quinn rolls her eyes and gives you a look you've been getting since you became friends in elementary school. "Seriously, you have that I-won't-ask-just-sit-here-until-she-brings-it-up look that you always have when you want something." You state knowingly.
"You're very observant."
"I pride myself on being able to see through your bullshit." You say, whispering the curse, with a smile.
"Is it so hard to believe that I just wanted to visit my best friend in class?"
"A little bit, yes."
"Brittany, come on."
"I can count on one hand how many times this has happened." You tell her pointedly. Quinn huffs and looks down to the end of her dress, playing with the hem.
"Fine, whatever, I'll go back to my boring classroom with kids who think it's funny to call me Ms. Fabgay." She says, giving you a glare. You laugh, remembering the time you let the name slip while speaking with her in her class. In your defense her students were supposed to be reading.
Your laugh dies down and you frown, "Why are you here if you have a class."
"They're reading the outline." She waves her hand and you shake your head.
"Get back to your class, Quinn." You chuckle and she rolls her eyes before winking playfully and heading out.
"Oh, you have a visitor." Quinn says, stepping back to let the person in.
You lift your brows when Santana walks in, giving Quinn a polite smile as the blonde heads out, and cross your legs, smiling faintly at the girl as she walks over holding one strap of her backpack tight against her.
"Santana, how's your first day going?" you ask and she lifts a shoulder making you chuckle.
"It's going."
"What's your schedule like?"
She frowns, looking down at the paper in her other hand, "It's…it's okay. Not exactly what I wish I could take but what can you do?"
You hum and nod slowly in agreement, looking over her in question. You arch a brow and smile faintly in amusement as she looks around, "Is there something I can help you with?"
"Oh, right!" she laughs awkwardly and furrows her brows as she pulls her backpack off, searching through it for something. "I actually have a reason for being here, so you don't think I'm like…stalking you or something."
"I didn't think that." You laugh and Santana snaps her head up with wide eyes. Her lips form a small smile before she looks back at her bag and pulls a paper out.
"I was hoping you'd sign this." She says, holding it out to you.
"Sure, depending on what this is." You tease, taking the paper. You look over it and lift your brows, "You want to transfer to my class?"
"Yeah."
"Can I ask why?" you look at her, twisting slowly in your chair as you watch her.
"Honestly?" she asks and you nod, "Well, okay, I like biology but I have Mrs. Maddison and we only went over the outline in class but her voice is so monotone and dull that I don't think I could pay attention to anything she teaches; I'd be too busy planning my funeral."
You stifle a laugh and Santana lifts her brows as she starts to smile, "How come for your reason of requesting a transfer you just wrote not what I had in mind?"
"Because listening to someone who sounds like Roz from Monster's Inc. is not what I had in mind." Santana states and you bite your lip, holding back a laugh as you shake your head at her.
"Santana…" you chastise lightly.
She just smiles and lifts her shoulders, "You wanted honesty."
You roll your eyes fondly and grab a pen from your desk, lowering it to the paper before pausing, "You know you won't be getting any special treatment just because you're dating my nephew, right?" you arch a brow at her and she nods quickly.
"Oh! Y-yeah…that never crossed my mind actually." She mumbles and you study her for a moment before signing your name, approving of the request. You hold the paper out to her and she lets out a relieved breath. "Thank you."
"Don't worry about it." You wave it off and get up from your seat, moving to the back of the room to the shelving unit. You pull down a textbook for your senior biology class and walk over to Santana, handing it to her.
"God, a textbook already?" she mumbles and you glance at her with a knowing smile while marking down the number of the book being loaned to her.
"We won't be using them for another two weeks but I hand them out because some of the students like to scan through the first chapter before we start. It gives them some starting information." You explain, tapping the end of your pen against the book as Santana holds it in her arms.
She nods in understanding and you look between her eyes with a smile forming as she averts her gaze.
"Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"Uhm, no. I think that's it." She nods, looking back at you. You purse your lips and nod.
"Alright. Then I'll see you tomorrow." You say and move back to your seat. "Have a nice day, Santana."
"You too."
A/N: So let me know what you all think ;) Mwah!
-B
