CHILD'S PLAY, quentin beck

X. TEACHER AND SUPERHERO SIDEKICK

Josephine had been right, those glasses of wine late at night did absolutely nothing positive for her mood the next morning. Maybe it was the fact that she had gotten no more than three hours of sleep before the sound of her alarm blasted through the hotel room, no doubt waking her neighbors as well.

It took her exactly eighteen minutes to get out of bed. If it wasn't for one of her colleagues knocking on her door, letting her know it was time for breakfast, she would have fallen asleep again. Josephine was too exhausted to notice if it was Roger of Julius at the door.

Josephine whispered a 'thank you', directed at herself, when she saw the outfit she had picked out for herself the day prior. It had eventually taken her seven minutes to get ready, two minutes to mentally prepare herself for a long day full of eventful plans that Roger had come up with, and one minute to walk to the breakfast hall.

'Morning, miss Colby,' an equally tired student greeted her. Josephine smiled at the girl and wished her a good morning as well before she walked towards the table where Julius was already seated.

When Roger sat down as well, he must have noticed how tired Josephine looked. 'Oof,' he mumbled under his breath. 'I think you could use some coffee,' he said as he handed the two teachers a mug filled with the hot drink.

Josephine looked at him with a grateful expression on her face. 'Yeah,' she sighed. 'Didn't get a lot of sleep tonight so I'll need all the coffee I can get.'

They all spent the next hour and a half eating their breakfast. Some students were chatting with each other, most were sat in silence as they nibbled at their sandwiches and fruit. Josephine had no doubt they all spent the night not in their beds but hanging around the five-star hotel with the first bottle of booze they could get their teenage hands on. Josephine knew a hangover when she saw one.

'Listen up, everyone,' Julius spoke with a raised voice while he looked at the students gathered around him. 'Just because the travel company messed with our itinerary a little bit, does not mean we will be sitting around all day doing nothing. Our plans for the opera are still on.'

'Not to worry,' Roger assured. 'It will be, as you guys say, lit.' His attempt at twenty-first century slang earned him a lot of frustrated groans from the students.

Josephine laughed. 'Come on,' she spoke, trying to get everyone quiet. It worked. 'However, since our plans for the afternoon were cancelled, you all have until three pm to explore the city and go shopping, or whatever you want to do.' They all cheered at the knowledge of having some freedom today. 'Make sure to be back at the hotel at three thirty, we'll all have dinner together and afterwards we'll be heading to the opera.'

Peter and Ned were the only students who stayed behind while the others went back to their rooms to get ready.

'Uh,' Ned mumbled when Roger asked them about their plans for the rest of the day. 'Undecided? But we need to talk to Jo-, eh, miss Colby.' If only the other two teachers knew about what those two boys were up to everyday.

Josephine sat down at a table with them after Roger and Julius walked to their own rooms to prepare for the day. 'Everything okay?'

Peter nodded. 'So, about the opera tonight,' he began.

'We can't go because Peter needs to save the city,' Ned interrupted him. 'There's gonna be another massive monster, Elemental or whatever, attack tonight. Peter and Mysterio are gonna fight it.'

The other teenage boy sighed at his best friend's blabbering. At least it spared him from having to explain everything to his teacher. 'But everyone else has to be at the opera, it will be safe there.'

Josephine shook her head in disbelief. 'I don't like this,' she said. 'Your safety is my responsibility, okay? I can't keep you safe if you jump headfirst into danger.'

Peter nodded understandingly. 'I have to do this,' he said, not liking it either. 'I can't just sit around and wait for the danger to pass, knowing that I could have done something.'

They made a deal. Josephine would make sure everyone was safe and present at the opera with Roger and Julius. She had no choice but to cover for Peter and Ned, they were going to leave that night no matter how often Josephine protested. She wasn't about to tell everyone else the truth, she couldn't do that to him.

She would just have to play a superhero sidekick tonight.

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i changed the cover since i didn't really like the old one anymore. let me know what u think!

and on a completely unrelated note, are there any john wick / santino d'antonio fans in here?