Another school chapter! These are actually a lot of fun, but again, mostly filler.
When Florian and Juliana returned to school, they didn't expect to find teachers in the cafeteria.
"Mr. Saguaro?" Florian asked, and the teacher jumped back.
"You!" He obviously wasn't pleased to see him. "What are you doing here?"
"I want a sandwich," Florian said, trying to keep his tone neutral. "I think we both know what would happen if I tried to grill my own cheese."
Saguaro nodded. This boy was only passing Home Economics because Arven and Juliana were his teammates, and because his non-cooked sandwiches were edible. "I suppose it's fine," he said. "Sometimes I don't feel like cooking, myself. I just want a peanut butter and banana sandwich."
Florian would have ignored it, and he wanted to. But as he grabbed a plate for his grilled cheese, he heard other students talking.
"Is that Mr. Saguaro? In someone else's kitchen?"
"No way! It is!"
"What do you think he's going to get?"
"Probably something super spicy! A guy that tough eats spicy food, right?"
Saguaro gripped his own plate tightly, and Florian noticed. "Two peanut butter and banana sandwiches," he ordered, and Saguaro looked back, startled. "One for Mr. Saguaro. I do kind of owe him for blowing up one of his ovens."
Saguaro was torn between anger and relief. "Well, then. A sandwich won't pay off your debt, but I'll take it as a partial payment. Thank you...eh, I want to say Florence, but I know it's wrong."
"It's wrong," Florian confirmed. He handed Saguaro one of the sandwiches. "Sorry about the oven. I'll work it off, I promise."
Saguaro seemed happy with his sandwich. Florian could have made his own peanut butter and banana sandwich, but he did need to apologize to this teacher.
While Florian was dealing with Saguaro, Juliana found Tyme in the kitchen area. Forgetting that students weren't allowed back there until their third year of Home Economics, she followed the teacher in.
"Ms. Tyme?" she asked, and the teacher jumped slightly.
"Miss Juliana! You startled me!"
"Sorry." Juliana looked around. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be in line to get your food?"
"I'm not here to eat." When she noticed Juliana's confusion, she explained. "I felt that intense gaze again. I ducked in here to see if I could spot anything."
"I still say it's a Haunter playing tricks on you," said Juliana, "but what do you think?"
"I trust my sister," Tyme insisted. "I don't know what's going on, but..."
She trailed off as she noticed a girl enter the cafeteria. Juliana looked, too, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
Until the student looked around, muttered to herself, and left.
"So it was a student?" Juliana asked herself.
Tyme laughed, relief tainting the sound. "Oh! I worked myself up over nothing! I'll have to talk to that student, then." She looked back at the other student. "Thank you for distracting me, Miss Juliana, but I don't believe you should be here."
Juliana shuffled out of the kitchen and to the back of the line. She was starting to like her math teacher, and that had never happened before.
Florian took his peanut butter and banana sandwich to Ms. Dendra. Dendra was in the nurse's office, trying to convince Miriam to eat one of her own sandwiches.
"No way!" Miriam insisted. "I treated a boy for food poisoning not long ago, and my first thought was one of your sandwiches."
"What, the Florian kid?" Dendra didn't notice his presence, or the fact that he was astonished that she remembered his name. She just continued speaking. "He gave me pointers! I'm not going to put anyone in the nurse's office again."
"And what about the 'sandwich' with meat filling and meat for bread?"
"I'm here to show her the proper structure of a sandwich," Florian interrupted. Both women looked startled by his approach, but they remembered him. He held out the sandwich from the cafeteria. "This is a sandwich, Ms. Dendra. Notice that it still qualifies as a sandwich despite the lack of meat."
Dendra pulled a wrapped sandwich from her pocket. It was slightly crushed. "I put bread on it this time!" she said, sounding excited. "The meat is only in the filling!"
"Good for you," Florian said, genuine. "Now, what's the filling, besides meat?"
"That's a spoiler!" She handed the sandwich to Miriam. "Well? Give it a shot!"
Miriam reluctantly took the sandwich. She looked at Florian. Florian crossed his fingers, then Miriam took a bite.
"It's not awful," she said when she swallowed. "Still has only meat on the inside, but it's getting better. Thank you, Dendra!"
"No problem!" Dendra grinned and held out a fist to Florian. Confused, he gave his teacher a fist-bump, which was apparently what she wanted.
Juliana was searching for Occulture magazines in the library when she bumped into Mr. Hassel again. This time, she noticed that he was finishing up a round of tears.
"Should I come back later?" she asked, and Hassel shook his head.
"I'm over it," he promised. "I just had to send my cousin back home."
"So that's why you're upset?"
Hassel was quiet. "No," he admitted. "It's why I'm relieved."
Juliana stared for a few seconds, not comprehending. "Can you explain, or...?"
"My father is the head of a Dragon-taming clan back home," Hassel told her. "As the heir, I had certain responsibilities that I wanted nothing to do with."
"Like...?"
"Staying in the clan." He laughed. "I was a wanderer, Juliana. I wanted to be a musician and tour the globe."
"But you're a teacher. You have to stay in one place here."
"I wasn't as eager to explore once my interest in songwriting faded. I wrote to my father to tell him that I wasn't coming back. The whole clan took it to mean that they'd have to drag me."
"Sounds like your family needs to chill."
"My father's calmed down a little in his old age," Hassel admitted. "He found my phone number a few years ago. We talk on birthdays and holidays. He asks, I refuse, we let it go. My cousins, on the other hand, aren't quite willing."
"Won't one of them be in charge of the clan, since you abdicated?"
"It's not that simple. I have to name my heir myself...and to tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure I won't return home eventually."
"So why are you a teacher?"
"A year and a half ago, the previous art teacher left. I was job-hunting. I liked art, I liked teaching." He laughed, the last tears disappearing. "It worked out."
"And your dad can't tell them to cool down because...?"
Hassel gestured to her. "And there is the root of the problem, Miss Juliana. He's calmed enough to accept that I don't currently want to go home. He doesn't accept that I may never return."
"So it was your cousin that came to talk to you?" she asked. "That time in the schoolyard, when we were doing art?"
"A different cousin, but yes."
"And you're not leaving us?"
Hassel smiled down at her. "It's getting less likely by the day."