Born of Fire (Doctor Who AU)

Chapter 26 Transitions

Thus far, the day's only high point came in the form of the bike ride to school. Daniel walked out of the building into a clear, bright, sunny day. The air held just enough chill to make the gym class's football game fun. At least for most of the kids. That did not apply to his class. They trudged behind him, grumbling every step of the way to the football pitch.  This was the first year that the authorities allowed his students to mainstream into the regular gym classes. Actually getting his rambunctious group to enjoy the privilege was proving almost as difficult as getting the head powers to agree that his students were entitled to be treated the same way as others. Their attitude made a less than spectacular day worse.

The slide into misery started at eight fifteen. with the appearance of the district's head teacher for special education. Miss Monica Campbell. Her personality fit the clothes she wore: a grey skirt and jumper. He glanced at her, standing in the corner with her clipboard, looking over half glasses, watching him like an Ice Warrior waiting to pounce. She'd spent most of the morning criticising his teaching methods. Her constant disapproving looks and ever so slight shakes of the head, mixed with marks on an assessment form, sent the fiery Melody Pond off on a tangent. 

Every ten minutes, the curly headed, mouthy teen jumped up, asking the rather grumpy woman who died and made her god. She mixed the question with remarks of the woman's ties to the Sassenach and her mother's heritage. When he had no choice but to send her the office, the hurt in the girl's voice made him feel like a failure. For that, he would never forgive Miss Campbell. He signed her into detention, glared at Sarah Jane and returned to class, ignoring the anger in Melody's green eyes. It would take weeks to reclaim her trust. Now, the group trudging behind him made their complaints about head teachers and unfair evaluations well known. Dealing with dead creatures in spaceships or horny, harem loving aliens in warehouses was so much easier than this bunch of first and second years.

One of the boys pushed ahead to grab the ball, shaking Daniel from his thoughts, sending him racing to stop the kids already on the field from becoming targets of an impromptu Dodge Ball game. Did this universe even have Dodge Ball?  

"Nathaniel, I swear, if you do anything but kick that ball properly, I will have you in the office next! The rest of you, stop whinging and shift!" he snapped.

"Yes, sir," the boy's answer came back, with another thirteen choruses of the same coming from behind.

Daniel turned to the middle-aged somewhat portly man the district had sent to be his assistant teacher. "Mr Addis, can you watch them?  I just need to check something."

The man nodded, but the way he shrugged his shoulders told Daniel he was less than happy.  He had just about had it with the day as well and it wasn't even two. Daniel moved to the edge of the field and pulled out his mobile. It had buzzed at least dozen times during the day. He scrolled through the messages to find four from Torchwood, three from Don and two from Nora. Nora never sent messages to his mobile. For that matter, neither did Don, but the priority for answering went to Nora. 

 His stomach twisted when he read the first and sank when he read the second. With the head teacher still in the building, he didn't dare call. He couldn't afford to be suspended from a second job. What kind of an example would that be for his students?  It was disconcerting to swallow his pride for the sake of a paycheque? There was a new thought, actually worrying about money.  Daniel looked over at the field, made sure no-one could see him sending texts back to her and typed are you ok? At least she would know that he wasn't ignoring her. Kids yelling drew his attention to his students running up and down the field. It was a relief to see they'd settled into the game and apparently, were actually having fun. One hour and thirty minutes 'till this day is over, he thought whilst tucking the phone in his back pocket. At two, his class trudged back to class with Mr Addis whilst he reclaimed Melody for the long, silent walk back to class.