Chapter 2: Routines (by: queenofthearts)
Gabriel groaned as his alarm clock sounded. He rolled over and glanced at it, 5:00 AM. He yawned sleepily and sat up in bed rubbing his eyes. His thoughts drifted back to his nightmare and the letter from Dumbledore as he got into the shower. It felt good to have the hot steamy water caress his tired body. This task Dumbledore had given him was beginning to become stressful.
At first it had been fun, even exciting! It was a chance to get away from his family and see the world. It was an opportunity to prove himself. He was excited to see if he could make it on his own in a new country. He'd discovered that he was quite good at living on his own, after all he'd spent much of his life alone even when he lived at home. However, the student teaching job was something else! The American students he taught were rowdy, noisy, obnoxious, and often disobedient. He couldn't seem to control them and this exasperated him!
As he got out of the shower and dried his dripping body with a large fluffy towel, he made a vow, as he did everyday, to find a way to get his class under control and make it an enjoyable experience for all of them. "Today will be the day," he told himself. "Today I'm going to earn their respect. Today things are going to turn around."
He sighed as he threw the towel in the laundry hamper and chose his clothes for the day. He chose a pair of comfortable but stylish black slacks and a denim dress shirt with a crimson tie. As he pulled on his socks and black leather shoes, he reviewed his lesson plan for the day once again. He was going to be teaching the students about vampires. First he planned to go over the habits of vampires. Then he would show them ways to tell if a person is a vampire and lastly he would focus on how to destroy one.
His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sound of his alarm on his watch sounding. He had set it to go off a half an hour before he had to be at school. He had a long morning commute ahead of him and he needed to hurry.
He grabbed his black leather jacket and locked the door to his apartment. Gabriel loved being a wizard but he loved living in a muggle city. He liked being able to live among them and study their ways. He found a lot of things about muggles fascinating. He liked their music, their clothes, their cars, their books and movies. He thought that muggles, especially ones in this huge city of New York had it good!
As he stood at the bus stop near his apartment building he shivered. It was a chilly, gray day and he was glad that he had chosen to wear long sleeves. He pulled his jacket tighter about him and stamped his feet to keep warm. Then he felt the first cold drops of rain fall onto his face. "Aww man," he grumbled, using the American slang he'd picked up, "not when I'm wearing my leather jacket!" He frowned knowing that rain wasn't good for leather but also knowing it was too cold not to wear it.
His bad mood was improved, though, when he saw the bus coming down the street. It screeched to a stop in front of him and he quickly climbed aboard. Gabriel looked about and noticed that it was still early and there weren't many people on the bus. He chose a seat in the back and sat down.
Then Gabriel looked around him and noted that the only passenger close enough to see him clearly was a little old man who was snoring loudly with a bottle of tequila in his lap. Gabriel smiled mischievously and pulled a small wand made of cedar from a pocket in his jacket. He held it close to his body, in case anyone should walk by and see him, and pointed it towards his messy, wet hair. "Beutificous," he whispered. Suddenly the young wizard's dark locks were perfectly arranged and dry. He smiled to himself and settled back in his seat for the ride to the New York City School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Gabriel always smiled when he thought of the school's name. Americans obviously weren't very creative with the names of their buildings… Thomas Jefferson High School, National Library of Congress, and the like. The Lincoln Memorial, Gabriel had always thought was another very silly one. What else would you call a huge statue of President Lincoln? Oh well. As dull as the names of things could be, America still suited Gabriel just fine. He was really finding his niche here and establishing his own identity and he loved it!
Gabriel smiled as the bus pulled up to the stop closest to the school. He hurried down the block to the school building and inside to his classroom. He tossed his jacket into his chair behind his desk and pulled his teaching materials for the day out of his desk drawers and stood at the front of the room just as the first few students arrived and the bell sounded announcing that class would begin in five minutes. Gabriel felt a little apprehensive about what the day might hold, but whatever it might be, he felt sure he'd be ready.