Explosive Physics
Clara smiled as she prepared her board for her lessons that day, school would be starting in about a half hour and she just wanted to make sure she had everything in order. It was Friday and she and J were planning to spend the weekend together…or weeks, depending how his piloting went, but they'd agreed that she'd be back, ready to start teaching again on Monday. It was weekends like this where she knew she'd be going on an adventure of some sort that she didn't plan on handing out any short exams or paper to grade that weekend, she just wanted to have a nice time with J and having to grade assignments was rather dismal business when you were sitting on an interstellar beach…and J was quite distracting too. She'd tried to give him one child's assignment, just to see if he could help her grade it and had ended up needing to invest in whiteout for how much he'd scrawled comments all over it. It was sweet, that he wanted to help, but he got a bit too invested in what people were saying, thinking it was fact, instead of remembering it was what the children were trying to recall.
She smiled though, he was so brilliant. She wondered, at times, what he would be like if he were ever to actually try teaching for real. She doubted she'd ever find out though, he had the patience of a toddler at times and standing in front of a handful of children and lecturing them would drive him barmy after a few hours. He'd probably end up setting fire to the physics room by the end of the day.
"Clara!" one of her friends, Janine, a curly haired ginger woman with rather big glasses, ran in with a wide grin on her face, "You'll never guess what's happened."
"What?" Clara smiled, turning and setting her notes down, done with writing on the board. She was planning mostly a review day for the children anyway. But Janine just grinned even wider, "Janine what is it?"
"You know how Mr. Tulkis is down with the Spanish Flu?"
"Yeah," Clara nodded, Mr. Tulkis was the school's science teacher, he was a very old, very lovely man, the kids adored him and had had rather a bad string of luck with the substitutes that had taken the man's place till he could recover.
"And you know how the school's been rotating the substitutes?"
"Yeah," Clara frowned, as much as she loved Janine for how perky she was, she was a tiny bit absentminded and tended to ask questions you already knew the answer to.
"Well you are going to DIE when you see the sub they've brought in this time. He's GORGEOUS!"
Clara blinked at that, "I thought that Mrs. Brannigan was scheduled to fill in today…" and Mrs. Brannigan was NOT gorgeous in any sense of the word, especially in her personality, she was rather miserable.
"Well that's the funny thing, Mrs. Brannigan called out," Janine smiled, "She won the lottery! Do you believe that!?"
"No," Clara dead panned, "No I don't," she sighed and rubbed her head, "Listen, Janine…this bloke that's filling in…doesn't happen to wear a bow-tie, does he?"
"What?" Janine laughed, "God no Clara, no. A bow-tie?" she scoffed.
"Sorry," Clara smiled, "Just…wondering."
Though she inwardly let out a breath of relief at that. The Doctor was infamous in using the lottery to get someone out so he could slip in and to know that HE wasn't the cause of this…well that was a big relief. He was rather…well, not him, more his luck. It tended to go badly and then things would escalate. It was like the worse his luck the higher and quicker things escalated. And she really didn't want her school to be blown up like he'd done that other one with those bat things Evy had told her about.
It had to be a coincidence then, just a very random and ironic coincidence.
"Well I wish Old Branny the best," Clara nodded, "Guess I'll see this new boy at lunch?"
"Oh I bet," Janine grinned, "Really though, Clara, he's so lovely," Janine sighed, her eyes getting soft as she seemed to swoon over the man.
Janine was a lovely girl, but she did have quite the personality, she just needed the right man to come along. But till then Janine seemed to occupy her time with romance novel after romance novel. But then again, Clara had been the same way before she'd met J. She smiled, thinking about him…when she looked up as the bell rang, signaling the children to start making their way in.
Janine gave her a little wave before she hurried out of the room to go to her own classroom, leaving Clara to handle the boys and girls for the morning.
~8~
Clara was about halfway through her morning when she saw someone running down the hall, many someones, and quickly hurried to the door, calling for the kids to take a few minutes to work on the last question she'd asked her. She ducked out, only to look down and see that the children weren't running from something exactly…but seemed to be ushering something else down the hall.
"Tommy?" she called out, recognizing one of the children, "What are you all doing with the frogs?"
And it was true, the frogs were hopping down the hall, the children laughing and ushering them off, swatting at them and nudging them on, like parents ushering their children to school.
"The substitute told us to free them!" Tommy cheered with a wide grin, "Ain't that awesome!"
"Isn't that," she corrected, "Does the headmaster know about this?"
"Yeah," Tommy nodded, "We passed his office and the substitute stopped to talk to him. He seemed really angry but the Chairman of the Governors was there for a meeting. The Chairman just sorta laughed and told us to go on."
Clara frowned and blinked, surprised at that, but she just turned to watch the children go, pushing the frogs on as they went.
"The substitute said it was barbaric to dissect frogs, to dissect anything. Seemed really angry about it actually so he just opened their containers and told us to grab 'em and run, to set 'em free, so we are!"
"Right," Clara nodded slowly, "Well, don't let me keep you."
She turned, slowly shutting the door, a frown on her face as she considered that. Not many schools dissected animals like that anymore but this one was one of the few. She didn't agree with it, but it seemed like the new substituted didn't either. She wasn't sure what was going on though, surely the sub would NOT be the one instructing the children on dissection. Which would mean he had set the frogs that Mr. Tulkis was planning to use for dissection later. Oh the man wouldn't be happy about that but if the Chairman of the Governors had sanctioned it then it couldn't be too bad.
She sighed and looked up to see the children staring at her, "Come on," she clapped her hands, "Back to work."
~8~
Lunch had rolled around at its normal time but it felt longer to Clara, she'd been in her classroom the whole time, staring at the door, watching as the children came back in from freeing the frogs, but she hadn't caught sight of the substitute at all. Whoever decided to free those poor frogs she wanted to shake the hand of. But he hadn't appeared. So she eagerly awaited lunch so that she could try and see who this mystery man was. She'd practically grabbed her little bagged lunch and ran to the teacher's lounge to try and see if the man was there…but it appeared not.
She walked in, a bright smile on her face, that fell when she saw it was all the same teachers that she saw every day, except the sub. She sighed and looked over to Janine who was standing with a few other women and…now that she noticed, the room seemed to be all a buzz about the substitute and divided in 3 separate sections. The women were all talking and gushing about the man, and half the men were speaking in impressed tones while the other half were less than thrilled (seemingly with how the women were reacting). So she headed over to Janine and gave the women a bright smile.
"Hello," she greeted, "Where's Mr. Tulkis's the substitute?" she asked them, "I thought he'd have some lunch with all of us so we could get to know him better."
"Chairman Chesterton's speaking to him," Janine told her, "Apparently Mr. Chesterton's a friend of the family's and he's letting the man talk to his parents on his mobile telephone outside."
Clara frowned at that, the last time she could recall anything about a mobile telephone it had been when she'd first met Evy and the Doctor and LJ…and they had been talking about the TARDIS. But that was silly, loads of people had mobile telephones and they were most certainly NOT TARDISes, so there was no reason to think that this was such an event…still it didn't stop her from casually moving to the window and peeking out…but there was nothing, no blue police telephone box or anything of the sort.
She shook her head at how foolish she was being and turned back to the women, taking her sandwich out of her bag and starting to munch on it as they all spoke about this handsome stranger, though her eyes were fixed on the door to the room should the substitute and Mr. Chesterton enter.
~8~
Clara nearly cried when her free period came, halfway between lunch and the end of the school day, the one period she didn't have a class to teach. Normally she was bored when it came around, she'd just go to the library and work on her lesson plans for the next day, excited to be able to get back and teach, to distract herself. She'd found that her Time Lady mind worked much faster than her human one, her thoughts and processing getting faster and faster each and every day as her mind got used to doing more with it. Sometimes she'd end up getting too much done and be left sitting there waiting, her mind racing, so the lesson plans helped her to focus and use her time productively.
But right now she was on a mission. She didn't know what it was but she was SO curious who this mystery teacher was. It felt like everyone else had seen him except her and it was driving her bonkers to not know. So she slowly and quietly walked through the halls, trying not to disturb the lessons going on. Some of the doors were open as it was slightly warm and a good breeze could be made if the windows and doors were open. She didn't want to bother anyone with her wanderings. It was normal for some teachers to walk the halls, but not often. Yet there she was, peeking into some of the science classrooms, trying to catch a glimpse of the science teacher…
She'd only made it halfway down the halls that tended to hold most of the science rooms…when there was a small explosion at the end of the hall and a mass of purple smoke started to fill the hallway as the door to the room was thrown open and the children ran out…but instead of being frightened, they were opening their mouths to try and inhale the smoke it appeared. She looked up, waiting for the sprinklers to go off but they didn't…even as the cloud started to make its way towards her, as thick as when it had first entered the hall..and cold?
She blinked at that and reached out, touching her hand to it as she backed up only to see a bit of purple stick to her. She frowned and brought her hand to her nose, sniffing.
"Grape?" she whispered to herself before she tentatively tasted it only to laugh, it tasted like a purple lolly, grape flavored.
She had to laugh as the doors to the other rooms opened and the students ran out to check, watching as they began to inhale the small bits of smoke still there.
Edible smoke, that was new.
~8~
Clara was fidgeting now, staring at the clock in her room, watching it tick closer to the end of the school day. She'd given up trying to focus the last few minutes and given the children free time as she just waited. After the small purple explosion she had had to go back to her classroom, as was her luck, just as the purple started to disperse the period had ended. She had ended up back in her classroom, struggling to make it through the rest of the day. She wasn't sure if it was anticipation of hopefully finding out who this mystery substitute was or if it was the knowledge that J would be there soon and she'd get to spend more time with him. Either one was niggling at her mind.
She was watching the clock like a hawk, fairly certain that the students were going to be wondering if she was alright as she hadn't looked away or moved or even blinked in the last 3 minutes. There was only 5 minutes left of the day and then she'd be able to…
BOOM!
Clara nearly fell to the ground as there was a loud boom, louder than the purple explosion.
"Is everyone alright?" Clara looked at the students, all of whom were still in their seats thankfully, but quite startled, "Children?" she waited till they had given her positive answers before hurrying to the door, "Stay here!" she ordered, reaching the doorway just as she saw Janine rushing the opposite direction, "Janine! What happened?"
"Mr. Tulkis's substituted just set the physics lab on fire!" Janine cried.
"Was anyone hurt?" Clara gaped.
"No," Janine sighed, "No, they were all out before it exploded."
And then Clara blinked as Janine's words hit her, "Hold on…they blew up the physics lab and set it on fire?"
"Yeah," Janine nodded, "I've got to get the headmaster…"
Clara shook her head and was nearly about to rush off towards the explosion, able to see smoke wafting in just as the fire alarm systems went off and the children began to file out of the building. She led her class out in a hurry, doing her best to make a quick headcount of them, before she got one of her coworkers to watch them before she ran over, FINALLY spotting the substitute.
"Cap'n!" Clara huffed, not just from the event before her but for seeing a TARDIS key around his neck that was hard to look at and realized he'd been purposefully hiding from her. No wonder she hadn't sensed it was him. He probably wanted to surprise her but things just…got in the way.
The children watched as their substitute stiffened, wincing at the tone in her voice before he slowly turned, covered in ash and dust and smoke, to grin at her as he pulled his necklace off, "Hello Clar."
"You blew up the physics lab!?" she shook her head.
"Yes," he nodded slowly.
"What were you thinking!?" she stared at him.
He rubbed the back of his neck, "I think it was something along the lines of…dad'll be so proud and mum's going to kill me and at least it wasn't the entire school?" he gave her a sheepish grin, "You've got to admit, with my luck and my dad's history with buildings, ONE room is pretty good, right? Yes? Eh?"
Clara just put her hands on her hips and gave him a look.
"Ooh, hands on the hips," he frowned, "That's not good is it?" he turned to the students, "Not good right?" they shook their heads, seeming a little amused that the two knew each other, but he turned back to her, "Um…no one was hurt?" he tried to placate her.
Clara let out a breath at that, as though realizing that someone very well could have been hurt, she knew it wouldn't be the children, not ever, ALL of them were perfectly fine, not even dusty…but HE was covered in it. She walked right up to him and hugged him tightly, feeling him let out a breath of relief as he wound his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her hair.
"Don't you ever scare me like that again," she told him.
"I won't Clar," he promised, kissing her hair again, "And everything'll be alright, no worries, the room'll be fixed up in no time."
"Oh yeah?" she pulled back, "And how's that?"
"Chesterton was dad's companion," J smiled at her, "Let's just say there's a fund out there somewhere in UNIT for dad's damage control…sort of includes me a bit in it too."
Clara just shook her head before she looked at the building, at the smoke rising from it, the small hole in the side of it where the physics lab used to be, "You really are your father's son aren't you?"
He just grinned widely at her, "Had to prove it somehow."
Clara nearly laughed at that, but just kept shaking her head. She really should have known the moment she found out someone had set fire to the physics lab that it was him.
A/N: Lol, all I kept thinking was how J and Physics in a school would end up being slightly like the Doctor's attempt at it :)
Also, just a note, I had up on my FF profile that the spinoffs were delayed, but I've since resumed them :) And, since I'll be adding 2 more spinoffs to my 4 already going, I'm reworking the schedule for posting this story, this story will now be updated on the 10th of every even month (June, August, October, December, February, April). The 'even months' holds true for the new spinoffs the UNIT Files (the 20th) and Dragon's Fire (the 30th, Merlin). Recollections will be the 10th of the odd months (May, July, September, November, January, March), with TAOSAT on the 20th, and AAO on the 30th ;)
I've managed to come up with a potential extra spinoff for TL7, if it is popular after that series ends (as I have one for Sherlock/Leena in mind) I'd have an even 8 and would rework the dates again, but I think we're safe for a few more months :)
Some notes on reviews...
Yup, Clarana :) It's from the Main Lunar Cycle that it's an ongoing joke that in each life Clara had some variation of Clara or Oswald (much like in the show) ;)
I'm not much a fan of the DW novels, just because some of the earlier ones I feel aren't quite canon. But you never know for the future :) I like Jenny because I believe that the relationship she was able to build with the Doctor in just one episode was beautiful and that there was so much potential that was left almost wasted in not having her stick around, so I try to incorporate her into my stories :)
I am planning to do a J/Clara video :) I don't know when it'll be up though, I seem to be adding OCs faster than I can get videos made lol :) But thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the stories :)
This story will be updated the 10th of the even months :)
