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a/n: bit of another longer chapter as we start the 'school reunion' episode. I'm so glad so many people are reading and liking this story, I really think I'm improving with every chapter I write. We see lots of bonding and character development in this chapter. Please tell me what you think about Nova and the Doctor in reviews! Enjoy this chapter 3
Chapter 8:
Nova was in the library, sat on the rim of the oddly placed swimming pool dipping her feet in l with a book in hand. She crunched on an apple as she flicked to the next page, splashing her feet slightly. She was bored, extremely bored. Rose had gone home to quickly visit her mum and Micky. Leaving her… studying. So much for the hands-on approach, she sulked.
Getting up off the side of the pool, she dried off her legs by shaking them. And put the book she was reading down on a table facing her. The library was huge, like a maze. So, the Doctor had arrows put on the floor for her so she wouldn't get lost. She began to explore the library and its dusty shelves until she came across an old book that had circles as the text, Gallifreyan writing. She wasn't very good at reading Gallifreyan yet, a little rusty with her memories still slightly being displaced. Tracing her fingers over the bumps of the spine she picked the heavy book up. It was wrapped in a red leather-like material, she couldn't really read the title all too well, but she recognised the word timelord.
She quickly flicked her thumb through some pages and noticed pictures of familiar landscapes, she cocked her head in curiosity humming before taking it to her chair to attempt to read.
The book showed native species of Gallifrey like striped pig-bears and different types of flutterwing butterflies. It seemed to be an encyclopaedia of sorts or maybe a history book.
she felt around the circles of the writing, tracing it with her hands a faded memory surfacing in her mind. A school? The academy. She remembered the Academy and the year she spent there, and the silly red robes they had to wear. But then like a door being slammed in her mind the memories stopped and her head hurt.
Grimacing she grasped onto her head, the pain felt horrible, emitting like a migraine behind her eyes. She guessed she wasn't quite ready to remember things yet, but her curiosity got the better of her as she soldiered on skipping through the book. Not really reading it but just looking at the pictures. She heard footsteps faintly as someone entered the library until the pace quickened and just as she looked up she saw the Doctor with a scary expression on his face as he swiped the book from out of her grasp.
"What did you read?" He asked a slightly frantic tone in his voice.
Nova looked down, embarrassed to tell him she is still behind on the Gallifreyan he was teaching her, she didn't know what to say. But that Doctor interpreted that differently.
"The Time war…" He started as Nova looked up to him startled.
'I wasn't reading about that' she thought
"Oh" He replied after hearing her projection, his tense demeanour softening.
"Boring, nasty stuff anyway that," He said chucking the book behind him, it clattering off in the distance definitely breaking something. Nova just looked at him.
"What is it?" He asked, bending down to her eye level. "What did you read then"
"I… didn't"
"Don't... Lie to me" He said softly to her but there was underlying bitterness to it.
"I'm not I swear," She said getting up angrily, readying herself to strop off from him. He grabbed her gently by the wrist to stop her.
"Please just tell me the truth, you don't need to be scared of me"
"Why would I be scared?" She asked "Is there something I need to be scared about, who is lying to who here"
The Doctor let go of his grasp on her, and sighed, she mustn't have gotten that far into the book he surmised.
"That's not what I meant" He started
"You lie to people all the time, you lie to humans, you lie to yourself and you lie to me," She said as anger began to bubble up in her chest, she wasn't very good at controlling her emotions. The Doctor tried to regulate them by sending her calm but she harshly rejected the bond.
"And if you must know, I couldn't even read it" She huffed, tears of embarrassment in her eyes.
"Wot?"
"I still can't read the bigger words," She said sulking looking down at the floor scuffing her shoes into the tiled flooring.
"Oh… OHH" He said going to her trying to hug her.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" he hugged her and she accepted with a huff before hugging him warmly back.
"It's okay, I know you'll tell me one day"
"About what?" He said already knowing the answer.
"What you're running away from"
OXO
Rose eventually returned with Micky, the Doctor talked to them both for a while before going to check up on Nova in her bedroom.
"I know I promised you somewhere pretty but…" He said interrupting her reading as she was sat on her bed.
"I have to stay here?" she guessed
"No, we need to check something out here before we go, is that okay?"
"Okay"
oxo
The Doctor made an elaborate plan to get one of the teachers out of the office by letting her with the lottery so he could take her place as Dr John Smith, a teacher at Deffry Vale high school.
He also enrolled Nova as his daughter in the class he was going to teach as Nova Smith.
The only space left they had to hire staff was dinner ladies which Rose had to apply for.
Nova was sat at her usual desk next to a kid with spiky gelled hair. She was wearing a grey jumper over a white blouse and striped tie. It felt weird to be back at school when she had already technically finished high school when she had a human life here. This was her second day at the school now, and she had mostly kept to herself but she didn't mind Kenny her desk mate.
She had been placed in year 9, they were a bunch of 14 to 15-year-olds roughly. It made her reflect on how her body had changed as she realised that she did look younger than she did before, her time tot biology rewriting her current body.
Then the Doctor strode into the classroom, glasses on and white converse sneakers with his usual suit. He leaned against the teacher's desk at the front of the class.
"So, physics. Physics, eh? Physics. Physics. Physics! Physics. Physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics, physics. I hope one of you is getting all this down. Okay, let's see what you know. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?" He said panning his eyes around the room, looking at Nova with a smile before a young blonde boy with glasses on puts his hand straight up.
"Yes, er, what's your name?"
"Milo," The little blonde boy said.
"Milo! Off you go."
"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge," Milo said causing both Nova and The Doctor to raise their eyebrows at him.
"Correctamundo!" The Doctor shouted enthusiastically before cringing as Nova snorted a laugh which made the other students look at her. " A word I have never used before and hopefully never will again." He finished before thinking of another question.
"Question two. I coil up a thin piece of microwire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this. How do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?"
Just one hand goes up, Milos. Everyone else in the class looks totally bored, with one kid throwing an eraser at Nova.
"Someone else. No?" He said glancing at Nova who was too busy huffing at the child behind her. "Okay, Milo, go for it."
"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and a voltmeter." He said quickly.
"Two to Milo. Right then, Milo, tell me this. True or false. The greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings." The Doctor shot another question to the unphased boy.
"False."
"What is non-coding DNA?" Asked the Doctor quickly to the boy firing questions at him.
"DNA that doesn't code for a protein"
"Sixty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-three times five?"
"Three hundred and twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifteen," Milo replied blankly
"How do you travel faster than light?"
"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of thirty-six point seven recurring." He said causing both the Doctors and Nova's jaw to drop.
Then the problematic child at the back of the class threw something at Milo.
"Oi," Said the Doctor sternly as he gave the child a glare.
"Right then open your textbooks to chapter two…" The Doctor said assimilating to the role as a teacher pretty perfectly.
oxo
The class bell rang, as the children were dismissed from class to go to lunch.
Nova loitered at the back of the class until everyone had left so it was just her and the Doctor.
"He knew too much," She said to him, who just hummed in response.
"Definitely, something weird is going on here. Come on, let's go check out the canteen then" He said grinning at her.
The canteen was a large hall, filled with children eating quietly. The lunch ladies are dishing out large stacks of chips onto children's plates, as well as mash and sausages.
Nova sat at a table with Kenny who seemed to be on a packed lunch rather than a communal dinner like the rest of the kids. He gave her a shy smile.
"Hiya," She said "Hope you don't mind, I don't really know anyone yet"
"It's okay," He said with a smile.
"Two days" Rose moaned on the other side of the canteen talking to the doctor over the canteen food display.
"Sorry, could you just? There is a bit of gravy. No, No, JUST, Just there" He said pointing behind Rose as she awkwardly fumbled about the kitchen area.
"Two day's we've been here" She moaned again passing him a pot of gravy.
"Blame your boyfriend. He's the one who put us onto this. And he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth." He said popping a chip into his mouth as he carried his red tray full of food down to a table, Rose following behind him with a cloth and spray in her hand as she began to wipe the table he placed himself on.
"You eating those chips?" Rose said nicking one off the Doctor and putting it into her mouth.
"Yeah, they're a bit different." He said scrunching his nose at them.
" I think they're gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this." Rose said sitting down beside the Doctor.
"it's very well behaved, this place," He said looking around the room until he noticed a familiar fiery-haired girl sat beside a boy he recognised from his class. She seemed to also not be keen on the chips and the boy she was sat next to seemed to also be the only boy not eating the dinner like the rest of them.
"I thought there'd be happy slapping hoodies. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones. Huh? Huh? Oh, yeah. Don't tell me I don't fit in." He said humming looking around once more.
Then the head dinner lady comes over, Mrs Jackson.
"You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting." She scolded Rose, as she stood up from the dinner table.
"I was just talking to this teacher…"
Nova looked behind her and noticed Rose was being told off by a dinner lady who was in an all-white apron and matching hat.
"Not really nice these chips," She said pushing the plate away from them. She looked at Kenny's dinner before glancing at her own, not wanting to waste it. "Do you want one?" She asked offering a chip to the boy.
"No, my mum won't let me." He said sadly looking into his Tupperware box.
Melissa, the girl also sat with them laughed. "It's not like she'd know," She said to the pair.
Then a tall lanky dark-haired man approached their table. Mr Wagner a teacher.
"Melissa. You'll be joining my class for the next period. Milo's failed me, so it's time we moved you up to the top class. Kenny, Nova, not eating the chips?" He said eyeing up the pair.
"I'm not allowed." Said, Kenny
Nova just shrugged at the teacher before trying another one out. "Just not keen on them sir," She said pushing another one into her mouth before grimacing at its slightly odd texture and taste.
"Luke. Extra class. Now" He said to the boy sat next to melissa.
"Miss Nova, will you accompany us to the study session?" He said as Mellisa, Luke and her follow mister Wagner out of the Canteen.
The Doctor eyes them all up warily as he notices Nova leave Kenny and follow two students with the teacher.
oxo
The headmaster took them down several cheerily decorated corridors before they came to a computer lab. He opened the door and let them inside, Nova noted that he had also locked the door as they entered. The classroom was full of children typing away at the computers.
The screens were flashing with green code running along with them with abstract images and equations.
The teacher made them all sit down at the computer and put a headset on.
Nova's mind was flooded with so many questions, equations, problems and answers it was so overwhelming.
The children start tying slaved to the computers, faster and faster.
oxo
Meanwhile, the Doctor was in the staffroom, wondering where Nova had gotten up too. Her emotions were just neutral but he couldn't feel her thoughts which he assumed was maybe from their minor argument in the library the other day.
He was getting lost in thought worrying about her until a familiar face came into a view, a certain ginger lady whose hairstyle hadn't changed in 30 years. Sarah Jane Smith.
"Excuse me, colleagues. A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak. Don't spare my blushes." Mister Finch the headmaster introduces her before leaving.
"Hello," Sarah says to the Doctor who is grinning like a mad man at her.
"Oh, I should think so." He said ecstatic with joy.
"And, you are?"
"Hm? Er, Smith. John Smith." He said a bit deflated that she didn't recognise him but he thought it best for now not to reveal himself, especially as he didn't know whom in the staffroom he could trust. So he continued to pose as a simple human teacher.
"John Smith. I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name." She said a nostalgic smile sweeping over her face.
"Well, it's a very common name."
"He was a very uncommon man. Nice to meet you." She said shaking his hand, he shook her hand back grinning again.
"Nice to meet you. Yes, very nice. More than nice. Brilliant." He said smiling with joy, and awkwardly tugging the back of his left ear.
oxo
Kenny wondered where his friends had been taken to, so he decided to try and find them, he was peering into the glass of the doors that look into the classrooms until he noticed his new friend, Nova sat down in one of the computer labs.
"This isn't your classroom Kenny, now run along"
After a while, the class bell rang, and the students were released from their enslavement to the computers, their minds fuzzy from their afternoon of non-stop information being poured into their brains.
The Doctor found Nova at the front entrance of the school as she was lingering around waiting for him to finish with his class.
"You alright?"
"Yeah, I suppose, just tired really." She said yawning as she held out her hand for the Doctor instinctively. He smiled warmly and took her hand, as they walked down the streets together to get into the Tardis.
He made her some food and they were sat in the Tardis living room with Rose and Micky as they devised a plan to break into the school after hours. Micky seemed taken back from meeting the child.
"Oh right, I don't know I just assumed you guys were all just adults or something," He said laughing at the Doctor.
Nova had decided she was going to wait in the Tardis tonight as she was too tired to come to the after-hour investigation.
"Good girl, that's right you get some rest for school tomorrow," He said to her, a weird feeling stirring in his chest that felt weird to say out loud again.
Once they had finished planning what they were going to do, the trio had set out the Tardis to the school. Nova had decided to do some reading and practice some Gallifreyan as the Doctor suggested but after a few hours, she got bored, restless. And she could feel the Doctor, he felt a little anxious and it made her worried.
She decided to venture out of the Tardis to try and find the Doctor, something was just pulling her towards him. The bond didn't like her being too apart from him and she felt a little clingy, scolding herself that she should have gone with them she crept out the Tardis and realised it was parked in a storeroom inside the school.
As she slunk out the door of the Tardis she heard a gasp, a ginger middle-aged woman was staring at her. Nova stared at her wide-eyed.
The Doctor meanwhile had been running down the corridor back to the Tardis as he felt Nova's emotions pull him towards her, that's when he saw Sarah Jane staring at the Tardis and a rather shy Nova stood in front of the Tardis door.
"Hello, Sarah Jane," He said to her as she slowly turned around, taking her gaze off the child in front of her and looking at the Doctor.
"It's you. Oh, Doctor Oh, my God, it's you, isn't it? You've regenerated." She said breathlessly as she raised a hand to carefully cup his new face,
"Yeah. Half a dozen times since we last met." He smiled down to her."
"You look incredible." She said looking at him, her heart beating faster in her chest.
"So do you." He said taking her hand off his face and firmly holding it in front of them both.
"Huh. I got old. What are you doing here?" She said sadly letting go of him looking down to the floor.
"Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. I couldn't resist. What about you?" He said cheekily grinning at her before noticing her change of emotion.
"The same. I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must have died." She said tears brimming her eyes, threatening to flood her face.
"We lived. Everyone else died." He said darkly.
"What do you mean?" Sarah pressed on "We?" She said turning to take another look at the ginger child who was now moving to go to the Doctor.
Nova moved to go hug the Doctors side as she felt his deep grief and sadness flood inside him.
"Everyone died, Sarah." He said not wanting her to press on any further.
"I can't believe it's you." She said looking at the child who was now hugging the Doctor, face buried into his French coat.
"Who is she?"
"My daughter, Nova."
"Your wot?" She gasped shocked
but before he could explain a high pitched scream echoed throughout the corridors.
"Get back inside the Tardis," The Doctor said to Nova who was scrunched up in his coat.
"No," She said muffled into his side.
"Come on please we don't have time for this, ugh never mind," He said grabbing onto her hand pulling her alongside him as they ran down the corridor to the source of the sound.
Rose had also caught up to the Doctor and the pair of ginger girls running alongside him.
"Did you hear that?" She asked the Doctor before asking "Who is she?" looking up and down at the fairly aged lady beside Nova.
"Rose, Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane, Rose." The Doctor said introducing the pair as they approached a classroom where the screaming had come from.
"Hi. Nice to meet you." She said shaking hands with Rose before retorting "You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger." She said looking at Rose and then Nova.
"I'm not his assistant," Rose said to the lady with a bit of spite in her tone.
"No? get you, tiger," Sarah said jealously.
"Me neither" Pouted Nova.
Rose just smiled at her and patted her on the head, Sarah looked at the interaction.
"Is she yours then?" She asked Rose
"No?"
As they approached the classroom Mickey was fumbling in a cupboard "Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I started looking through some of these cupboards and all of these fell on me." He said fumbling through all the vacuum packed rats.
"Oh, my God, they're rats. Dozens of rats. Vacuum packed rats" Rose said putting a hand over her mouth.
"And you decided to scream." The Doctor said with a smirk on his face looking down on Micky who was sat on the floor.
"It took me by surprise!"
"Like a little girl?" He jested
"t was dark! I was covered in rats!" Micky protested.
"Nine, maybe ten years old. Younger than Nova. I'm seeing pigtails, frilly skirt." The Doctor said laughing.
"Hello, can we focus? Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Rose shouted.
"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them. Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?" Sarah Jane said again with a vicious tone causing Nova to frown at her.
"Excuse me, no one dissects rats in school anymore. They haven't done that for years. Where are you from, the dark ages?" Rose retorted back to the lady matching her tone.
"Anyway, moving on. Everything started when Mister Finch arrived. We should go and check his office." The Doctor said awkwardly looking at the pair, then tugging behind his ear again.
As they all walked down the corridor the pair of jealous girls started talking again.
"I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who exactly are you?" Rose asked Sarah
"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the Doctor." She said rather proudly.
"Oh. Well, he's never mentioned you." Rose said coldly to her causing Sarah Jane to stop in her tracks offended.
"Oh, I must've done. Sarah Jane. Mention her all the time" The Doctor said ushering them to keep walking.
"Hold on. Sorry. Never." Rose stated blankly at the Doctor and Sarah.
Nova awkwardly shuffled her feet she didn't like this tension.
"What, not even once? He didn't mention me even once?" Sarah Jane said sadly looking to the Doctor for any affirmation before Mickey butted in.
"Ho, ho, mate. The missus and the ex and the child. Welcome to every man's worst nightmare." Mickey joked causing everyone to glare at him.
As they all stopped outside the headmaster's office, the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open the lock.
"Maybe the rats were food," Nova said looking to the Doctor.
"Hm maybe"
"Food for what?" Rose asked as they all stepped foot into the headmaster's office.
"Rose, you know you used to think all the teachers slept in the school? Well, they do" He said looking up to the ceiling as giant sleeping bats were hanging off there.
"No way!" Micky said as the doctor quickly shuts the door as one wakes up and he locks it with his screwdriver.
They run down several corridors and then outside into the schoolyard trying to escape the onslaught of the waking bats.