CHAPTER 26

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At first Janine had really been looking forward to going to the new school for the children of time travelers that Rose Tyler had set up, but now she wasn't so sure. She was all alone now with a bunch of kids that she didn't know who weren't talking to her. The school was being held at the House of Lungbarrow on Gallifrey so that was cool but even being on another planet wasn't helping her get over the first day of school jitters.

She suddenly felt extremely nervous about the whole thing because she didn't see Oswin or Molly around anywhere. She really felt a strong need to see a familiar face right now to keep her from wanting to run out of the room.

Then she saw who she thought was Oswin walk into the room, and she quickly got up and embraced her. She was so relieved to see who she thought was a familiar face that she didn't even notice it when 'Oswin' started to look slightly uncomfortable.

"You're Janine, Oswin's friend, right?" Clara said in a gentle voice.

Janine immediately let her go as she realized her mistake. Her face turned red with embarrassment as she said, "I'm so sorry. I thought you were her."

"Believe it or not, that does happen sometimes. We are basically the same person after all. It's okay, Janine. Don't worry about it. Are you alright?" Clara asked as she sensed how tense Janine was.

"No. I'm nervous. I just wanted to see someone that I knew," Janine admitted.

"Well, you know me so that's a start. It'll be alright. We won't bite I promise. Well, I'm not so sure about Idris, but the rest of us won't bite for sure," Clara said with a grin.

Janine laughed and began to feel better. She liked Clara already. She was automatically making her feel better just like Oswin always did whenever she had a problem. Which only made sense really.

"Are you going to be our first teacher today? Please say yes," Janine begged her.

"No, but you're definitely going to like her," Clara said with a mad grin as Oswin walked in.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Janine shouted with joy as she looked upwards.

Oswin began to laugh as she said, "Thanks! I don't think I've ever had anyone that happy to see me in my life. Usually, I seem to get the opposite reaction."

"She's really nervous," Clara said to Oswin.

"Yeah, I thought she might be. That's why I asked Rose if I could go first. I'm always thinking," Oswin said as she pointed at her head.

"Well, someone is certainly trying hard to be the teacher's pet," Ace joked.

"She's my friend that's all. I'm not a brown noser," Janine protested.

"Whatever you say," Ace said.

"Ace, lay off. She's just nervous," Clara said.

"I know. I was just kidding around. No harm meant," Ace said to Janine.

"Apology accepted. I get that you were kidding now. I'm just kind of all tensed up," Janine said.

"Don't worry so much. This isn't going to be like a regular school. This one is actually going to be fun, or at least that's what Mum told me anyway to keep me from blowing it up," Ace said.

"Blowing it up?" Janine asked.

"I kind of have a history of blowing up places. Especially when I get bored," Ace said with an evil grin.

"Can you be my new best friend?" Janine asked eagerly.

"Sure. We're going to be the best of pals, Munchkin," Ace said.

Oswin and Clara both looked at each other and sighed. This little duo could be trouble in the future.

Oswin then started the class as Clara stood by in the background watching. She wanted to see how Oswin handled things before trying it herself later in the day. Oswin couldn't help but think that it was kind of weird being watched by herself.

"Alright, class. I'm new at all of this so bear with me if I make any mistakes. I'll probably make plenty. I'm Oswin Oswald and I'll be teaching you about Daleks today," Oswin said.

She stopped for a minute while she organized her papers and tried not to smile as she began to hear the conversations break out about her immediately. She was very happy to hear what happened in the next few minutes.

"She's going to teach us about Daleks? I'm not sure I want to learn about them. They seem kind of scary," Henry said.

"They're not that tough. I once killed one with a baseball bat. Of course, it was a specially treated baseball bat," Ace said.

"I wonder how she knows so much about Daleks," Amanda said as she studied the seemingly normal woman in front of her.

"Well, she used to be one for starters. Oh, and she's their freaking Empress!" Janine spoke up.

"Wait a minute! Are you telling me that you're friends with the Empress of the Daleks?" Amanda said impressed.

"Yep! Best friends actually!" Janine said proudly.

"That is so cool! Do you have any Dalek friends?" Julia asked in excitement.

"Well, I know Epsilon and Omega pretty well. They're very nice," Janine said.

"Nice Daleks? Now I've heard everything!" Ace said as she rolled her eyes.

Oswin smiled as she realized that Janine was making friends and becoming less nervous. Sadly she had to cut this moment short so that she could get started.

She started things up by taking a roll call. She wanted to familiarize herself with her new students by talking to each one of them a little. Many of them were already somewhat familiar to her, but some she had never met at all or had only seen briefly.

"Okay, I know who you are of course, Janine, but for the benefit of the class could you describe yourself a little?" Oswin asked.

"Uh, well, I'm the daughter of Peri Brown. She was a companion to the Doctor once. I'm a good friend of yours, and I travel around with Marissa Queen who used to be the Rani. Some of you may have heard of her as being a bad guy, but she's not anymore. She's a sweetie pie now," Janine said with a fond smile.

"I'm not sure Mari would like being called a sweetie pie, but she would appreciate the sentiment. Okay, thanks, Janine. Next up is Henry Barnes. Tell us about yourself, Henry," Oswin said.

"I was created by an alien race called the Bane to be a weapon against humanity, but I ran away to live a normal life. Now I live with this really cool Time Lady named Rani Chandra. She's taking care of me, and she's the nicest person that you'll ever meet. Oh, and I'm friends with Sarah Jane Smith too. She's just beyond awesome. She knows everything and seems to be friends with everybody. She was once a companion of the Doctor's too," Henry said.

"You know Sarah Jane? I didn't know that. I love Sarah Jane!" Ace said.

"Okay, next is Amanda Thomas. Talk to us, Amanda," Oswin said.

"I originally came from the year 1890. I was just an ordinary girl until my parents were killed by Carmilla, one of Dracula's wives. Then I was adopted by a nice lady named Katherine who turned out to by a vampire herself. She's not evil though. She's very kind and has never hurt anyone in her life who didn't have it coming. Rose took me and Mum to this time, and I live at UNIT HQ now with a group of very powerful ladies named the Bad Wolves. They're all like aunts to me and we go off and investigate all kinds of weird things. Oh and did I mention that we have a werewolf and a witch on our team?" Amanda said with a mischievous grin.

"I met a werewolf once. She was actually a sweet girl except for when she turned and tried to kill me. She was very sorry about it afterwards though," Ace said.

"You've had a weird life," Mary commented.

"I know! It makes you jealous, doesn't it?" Ace said grinning.

"Hardly," Mary said.

"You're jealous, and you know it. Everybody secretly wants to be me," Ace said.

"Alright, Ace. Since we can't shut you up about yourself why don't you go next?" Oswin said with a giggle.

"Well, the less said about my first mother the better. The only real contribution that she ever gave to me was a name that I hate. I'll just say that we had a falling out, and I left home at a young age. I then wound up at Ice World which was a ship on another planet. I thought that I took myself there by creating a massive explosion, but it turned out I was taken there to be used as a pawn against the Professor by a rotten scumbag named Fenric. I didn't know that at the time though. Anyway I was a companion of the Professor's too for a few years until I ran into the present version of him, and I went with him and Rose. Now they've adopted me as their own daughter. I also have cool Vortex powers that I can use against anyone here who calls me anything else but Ace. Remember that because I like to blow things up," Ace said in a threatening voice.

"What is your name? It can't be Ace," Henry asked.

"What part of don't call me by anything but Ace do you not understand?" Ace said in an angry voice.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it," Henry said in a shaky voice.

"I'm sorry too, kid. Don't worry about it. I just get a little defensive about that name," Ace said.

"I don't even know what your real name is," Henry said.

"Good. Let's keep it that way," Ace said with a grin.

"Ace, watch the anger in the future, okay? I don't want to have to tell you again," Oswin warned.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare the kid," Ace apologized.

"I believe you. Just don't do it anymore," Oswin said in a gentler tone.

"You've got it. I'm not going to be the class troublemaker honest. That'll probably be Alex," Ace said.

"Speaking of which, let's hear from you, Alex Wilkes," Oswin said.

"Well, I'm Alex and this is my older sister, Mary. She's just a year older than me, but she always lords the whole older thing over me every chance she gets," Alex said.

"I do not. I just like to keep him in line when he's being a brat," Mary said.

"Which is often," Ace added.

"Ahem! As I was saying, I travel with my sister and my grandmother Polly, who used to be a companion to the Doctor herself, on the Doctor's TARDIS. We also have to travel with Ace here too unfortunately," Alex said.

"Watch yourself!" Ace said.

Alex stuck his tongue out at her, and Ace used her powers to create a very, very tiny explosion on the end of it. It didn't cause any damage of course since Ace was not a malicious person. It just made his tongue feel like it would if he had bit it. Alex screamed out in pain as Ace said, "That'll teach you to smart off."

"Ace! I already warned you once! That's it! You're going to detention," Oswin said.

"I'm sorry. I just don't like him sometimes. It didn't even hurt him. Much," Ace said.

Oswin pushed a button on her desk, and Dalek Omega suddenly appeared in the room. Henry started to freak out, and Oswin said in an attempt to calm him, "It's okay. He's one of mine."

"DO I HAVE TO DO THIS? IT'S EMBARRASSING!" Dalek Omega complained.

"Yes, you do. I need you to take Ace to detention. It's just a small little room where she'll sit alone until this class is over. Then you'll bring her back here and let the next teacher have a crack at her. I hope you'll be nicer to her. She tends to shoot people who make her upset," Oswin said.

"Alright! River! We'll get along fine. She and I are best mates," Ace said.

"Why am I not surprised?" Oswin said with a grin.

"HELLO, ACE. LONG TIME NO SEE," Dalek Omega said as he started to lead her out of the classroom.

"How's it going? So you've gotten yourself a name now, huh?" Ace asked as she followed him.

"YES, IT'S NOT TOO BAD. I KIND OF LIKE IT," Dalek Omega said.

"You know you're not so bad when you're not trying to kill me," Ace said with a smile.

"YOU'RE NOT SO BAD YOURSELF," Dalek Omega said.

"She knows him?" Alex asked in disbelief as soon as the two of them had gotten out of ear shot.

"I said she had a weird life," Mary replied.

"The two of them met back on Earth in 1963. At least that's what Dalek Omega told me anyway. I thought who better to keep her in detention," Oswin said.

"Are you kidding? She'll probably talk him into helping her blow up the detention room," Clara said with a sigh.

"She'd better not. I do not want Rose mad at me," Oswin said.

"Rose isn't so bad. She was always nice to me," Julia said.

"That's because you're a little girl. You haven't seen her when she gets really angry. It's not pretty. I've seen you before with Amy, right?" Oswin said.

"I guess I should introduce myself too since everyone else has. I'm Julia Bates. My parents were killed, and I was adopted by Amy Pond, who was also a companion of the Doctor's. She's a Time Lady and a major butt kicker when it comes to fighting the bad guys if I do say so myself. Oh, and it turns out that my older sister was actually a hidden Time Lord and is Amy's sister by blood. So I guess my life is a little weird too," Julia said.

"I guess all of our lives are kind of weird," Mary admitted.

"Ace's is still the weirdest," Alex said.

He screamed a few seconds later as another explosion went off in his mouth.

"How did she know?! She's not even in here!" Alex shouted in irritation.

"Okay, now that we all know each other let's get to the subject of Daleks. Then tomorrow I'll teach you what I know about the Cybermen. I'll have an amusing little story about one called Mr. Clever that I can tell you," Oswin said with a grin.

"I've met him before. Was he giving you some trouble too?" Clara asked.

"Oh, he almost took over Skaro that's all," Oswin said.

"You'll have to tell me about that one," Clara said.

Oswin spent the rest of the next hour telling the kids everything that she knew about Daleks including what it was like to be one. She also told them a few stories about the recent attack on Skaro that she had just led. Needless to say, the kids ate it all up.

She smiled to herself as her first class proved to be a success. Being a teacher wouldn't be so bad after all plus she liked all of her new students. Even Ace.

Janine felt a little uneasy again when her next teacher took Oswin's place. This time, it was a mad looking blonde woman named River Song. She taught them about the importance of keeping secrets about the future.

"Always remember this important rule. Whenever anyone asks you something about the future and you don't know what to say you can always use my favorite phrase. What is it? Say it with me, children," River said.

"Spoilers!" all of the students said.

"Very good! Always remember when all else fails just say that word and that will shut everyone up," River said.

"It's very irritating too," Janine commented.

"Exactly," River said with a grin.

"So you mean that you're trying to be annoying so they quit asking you about things that they shouldn't know about," Janine said suddenly understanding.

"You've got it. You're going to be a star student. I can already tell," River said.

Janine decided that she liked River. She was less nervous when the new instructor came along this time and was beginning to calm down at last.

It helped that the new arrival was incredibly handsome. All of the females in the room looked at him with wide open eyes and open mouths while Alex rolled his eyes at them. He didn't consider the guy that great looking himself.

"My name's Captain Jack Harkness, and I'm going to teach you about the importance of teamwork. I run this little team that some of you might have heard of. I won't say its name though because it's classified. If any of you do know it then just keep it to yourselves. You never heard it from me," Jack said.

He went on to talk to them about how to work better together as a group and how to get along and keep from killing each other. Janine got the feeling from the way he talked about it that maybe this team of his had had some problems with him. She thought that she remembered Oswin or Mari saying something about one of them trying to kill him once. She wondered why. She couldn't understand anyone wanting to kill him herself. Of course that might just be the huge crush that she had on him talking.

Janine's next instructor was very confusing to her. She was supposed to be teaching them English, but she barely seemed to have a grasp on it herself.

"My name's Idris. I am was will be your English teacher today," Idris said with a huge smile.

"Which is it?" Amanda asked.

"Sorry?" Idris asked.

"You said am was will be our teacher. Which tense is it?" Amanda asked.

"I have to admit that I don't know for sure. I always get my tenses confused. For time travelers like yourselves, it can become very hard to understand which tenses will apply as well. All of them may apply to some situations. Time travel is a very disorienting business you know. You can see the life of Melody Pond in your textbooks for an example of this. Lily Wright," Idris said.

"What?" Janine asked.

"You were about to ask me who your next instructor was. Now you don't have to," Idris said.

"She takes some getting used to, but you'll like her eventually. Either that or she'll drive you nuts. Whatever," Clara said with a chuckle from where she was still watching in the back of the room.

Next, true to Idris' word, was Lily. Janine wasn't sure what to make of her. She seemed a little out there but nice enough. She even made Idris seem sane though sometimes.

"I'm here to teach you about the early history of the Time Lords. Now this book that you have is just full of factual errors so don't pay any attention to it. Only believe what you hear from me," Lily said.

"How do you know it's full of errors? Were you there?" Alex asked sarcastically.

"Yes, actually. I was," Lily said.

"The time period that we're going to be talking about was a billion years ago," Alex said in disbelief.

"I know. I've lived a very long time, kid. When they say someone is older than dirt, they're probably talking about me. Not that I'm really old. I hate that word. I prefer the term chronologically challenged," Lily said.

Janine was pretty sure that Lily was a complete lunatic, but she was a nice one. She decided that she liked her.

The final instructor was Clara. Oswin had returned to provide her with moral support, and she was the one to stand in the back of the room this time. Now Clara felt how weird it was to see yourself watching you.

"Hi, I'm Clara Oswald, and I'm here to teach you about life on other worlds. I hope that you'll learn a little something about each of them here today, and it will make you respect their cultures," Clara said in a nervous voice.

As she continued to talk though, Clara's fears left her, and she swiftly became more confident. She told the entire class about the cultures and way of life on several different worlds through the universe. Janine was astounded at how much she knew about them all. Janine could only think that she must have traveled a lot. She seemed to know as much about each world that she described as a native of that place would. It was almost as if she had lived on each and every one of them all of her life.

Of course, that was impossible.

Oswin smiled at Clara even as she talked. She was glad that she didn't remember all of her other lives. Just remembering having two different lives was bad enough. She sometimes wasn't sure what had happened to her as Oswin and what had happened to her as Clara now. She couldn't imagine having to keep the details of hundreds or thousands of lives straight. The Doctor must have had to help her in some way to keep her from going mad.

Molly then showed up and began to talk with some of the other teachers once classes were over with. She wasn't scheduled to come in yet, but she wanted to get some tips from them on what to do when she did have to teach a class. She particularly paid attention to a man named Donald Noble who had also come there on his day off to be with River. He was full of information on how to teach a class. He was going to be the physics instructor.

Now that it was finally the end of the school day, Janine was tired and more than ready to go home. She ran to Oswin and said, "Can you take me back to Mum now?"

"I certainly can. I'm dying to go home myself. So did you learn anything useful?" Oswin asked.

"Yeah, I learned that language can be extremely confusing, living too long can drive you insane, picking a fight with someone with Vortex powers is generally not a good idea, being irritating can keep people from asking you too many questions, people working together in teams can get on each other's nerves pretty quick, Daleks can be our friends as well as our enemies, and that I like Clara a lot. That last one is no surprise though because she's you. I love you, Oswin," Janine said as she hugged Oswin tightly.

"I love you too, sweetie. Well, I'm glad that you learned something. What else did you learn though?" Oswin asked.

"Not a thing," Janine admitted with a laugh.

"Yeah, that sounds like my experience of school too," Oswin said as she activated her temporal shift and took both her and Janine back home to Marissa's TARDIS.

No matter how much her life changed, Marissa's TARDIS would always be home to her and not Skaro. Being with Marissa and the rest of her friends was where she belonged. They were her family.

Next: Oswin meets someone who could change her life forever. That's right. She finally finds a guy. Will the Daleks approve of him though? Or will they drive him away?