It's Just Casual

Chapter 1

In the past year, we'd constantly had to switch between bosses. The former principal, Mr. Glass was a lousy man who was horrible at his job. We didn't want to fire him, because of his severance pay, so we annoyed him until he couldn't handle us anymore. The one before him was a pretentious snob, who got a job offer somewhere else, thank God, and the first one was ready to retire.

The constant introductions of new bosses were starting to agitate me and no matter how horrible she seemed, we needed to make this work.

Ruby was ready to start this discussion with Belle, but I quickly mentioned the time, getting everyone off their chairs and into their classrooms.

The school was rather small, because Storybrooke wasn't a big town. The only people living here were the ones that had grown up here or were escaping some life in the big, wide world outside of this town. For me, the first one was the reason I lived in this quaint town. My parents had raised me here and I loved it. I wouldn't want for my son to grow up anywhere else.

When I entered my classroom, I gasped. Someone had sucked away all the life from the room. I'd filled it with flowers and paintings, but everything was gone. Even the couch in the corner of the classroom, it'd been surrounded by books scattered around the floor, but the couch was gone and had made place for an ugly grey box, which I assumed contained the books.

"What the actual fuck," I muttered. I dropped my bag and sat down on my chair. Everything looked dull and formal, not the way I wanted a classroom for ten year olds to look like.

"I figured you might respond that way." Miss Mills confidently strutted inside the classroom and admired the empty walls, before she turned her gaze back to me. "And I don't accept such foul language. I certainly hope you don't use such profanity in front of the students."

I didn't respond, because my mother had taught me that it's better to say nothing than to say something rude and I couldn't think of any words that wouldn't come out screaming.

"Children are here to learn, Miss Swan," she said and looked defiantly at me. "These bright colors that you'd covered your walls with lead to distraction and problems regarding concentration. You wouldn't want that to get in the way of their education, would you?"

We couldn't have another principal walking off, so I just smiled politely. "Of course not, Miss Mills," I agreed softly. She seemed content and left the classroom. As soon as I heard the door shut, I groaned loudly.

Miss Mills was making everything much more difficult than it needed to be.

~~~~~

The whole apartment reeked of pancakes, but that was just the price I had to pay for making my son and his friend some great food after school. It had become a tradition to do so on every first school day after any vacation and we both liked it. His friend, Luke, seemed less content.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, concerned, but the boy plastered on a smile and nodded, before he took his first bite. His eyes lit up and he quickly continued eating.

"I don't like the classroom nearly as much as I used to," Henry said and Luke nodded agreed. I'd heard that the other teachers had suffered loss in their classrooms as well, but no one was as outraged as Ruby. If it'd been possible, steam would've come out of her ears.

"It's very boring, the way Jack changed it," Luke agreed. They both had Jack as their teacher and apparently, the man hadn't told them what had really happened to the classroom. Neither had I, when my students had asked about the disappearance of the couch and drawings. I didn't want to put blame on Miss Mills, she had yet to win everyone over, including the students and their parents.

I kept listening to the boys' conversation. It was very amusing to hear them talk about school and friends, because I knew everyone they were talking about. Henry didn't always like that I worked at the same school he went to, but Storybrooke only had one Elementary School and it had its advantages too.

"Luke, will you eat dinner with us?" I asked, when I noticed it was time to start cooking. He looked at the clock and quickly shook his head.

"No, thank you, Miss. I have to get home before my mother notices I've left."

I was too baffled to say anything else and the boy had left before I had the opportunity to do so. Then, I slowly turned to look at my son who guiltily stared at me.

"You told me you'd discussed him coming over with his parents. I can't have you lying about this, Henry. His parents must've been worried sick, they're definitely going to complain. Why did you do this?"

Henry shrugged. "Luke's nice, but his mom never lets him play after school. We figured if we didn't ask, she couldn't say no."

"Henry, you made me kidnap your friend," I said and rubbed my temples. "You can't pull this crap, you're seven now. You can't lie to me like that, okay?"

He nodded and I offered him a smile. I knew he'd only done this with his best intentions. He hadn't wanted to cause any trouble, he'd just wanted to hang out with his friend and give Luke an opportunity to play with someone outside of school. Perhaps I was also to blame for not speaking with the boy's parents, but I was always in a rush to get away from home to school. Henry already had to wait longer for me than other children had to wait for their parents, because I always wanted to make sure the classroom didn't look too chaotic when I left.

"He said his mom probably wouldn't even notice," Henry said, trying to make things better and I appreciated his attempt, but it didn't make it all much better. However, I tried to push it out of my mind and deal with it if Luke's parents were going to make it hard on me.

~~~~~

I hadn't heard anything from Luke's parents, so I drove to school with a good feeling, the next day. Henry was in the backseat, chatting excitedly about the things he expected from this school day.

We were always right on time and I was proud of that, given the fact that my mind was one big chaos, especially in the mornings. I always made sure I'd prepared my classroom after a school day, so I wouldn't have anything important to do in the morning. I'd just have to greet my students.

But after I'd dropped Henry off in his classroom with Jack, had a quick chat with the man and seated myself in my own classroom, Miss Mills came barging in with an unsatisfied smile on her lips.

"You're late," she stated and looked at me. Her piercing gaze felt incredibly intimate, but she didn't seem bothered by it.

"No, I'm not," I replied. For once, I was actually quite early. No students of mine had arrived and school wasn't about to start for another ten minutes.

"I don't like people talking back to me," Miss Mills said. "Especially not in such a rude manner."

"Major bottom energy," I whispered to myself. She really seemed like someone who only pretended to have things under control, not someone who actually handled a lot of power. Fortunately, Miss Mills didn't hear me. She merely raised an eyebrow, expecting me to clarify myself. "My students have yet to arrive. I don't know why I'd be late."

Miss Mills walked a few steps forward. "I require my employees in school twenty five minutes before the day starts."

I was baffled to hear this, because it made no sense whatsoever. What was I supposed to do in those twenty five minutes? But, I didn't want to have Miss Mills on my bad side. As a team, all the teachers needed to make it work with her, so I just nodded politely.

"I understand," I said and offered her a smile. "I'll be on time, tomorrow."

It was clear that Ms. Mills had expected some discussion, but she seemed pleasantly surprised when she realized that wasn't going to happen.

"Thank you, Miss Swan. I appreciate that."