Jamie Harper was a very forgetful person. For that reason, and that reason alone, he had been forced to eat in the lunch hall with all of the children. Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought any food with him. It had happened before, and Robin made sure it never would again.
The next day, when lunch came around, Jamie found himself at the counter, picking up the grainy macaroni cheese when he saw an odd sight. A grown man at one of the dining tables, holding a lunch box close to his chest.
He found himself smiling. Then, he sighed to himself, before dragging the tray along with him. Jamie sat down in front of him, and smiled.
"Hi."
The man sheepishly looked up. "Hello."
He was chubby, with wide eyes and stubble coating the lower part of his face. It didn't look like he knew how to shave properly, and his clothes were ever so slightly mismatched. Honestly, he seemed kind. Kind enough for Jamie to make an effort.
Not many things or people could do that.
"I'm Jamie."
"Mr Poppy."
"Oh." The Harper boy knew exactly who he was. "You're Mr Maddens' new TA."
"Well, yeah, suppose. What do you do?"
"My mum's the music teacher." He informed. "I'm doing a placement for college."
"Is it good?" Mr Poppy asked, curiously.
Jamie shrugged. "It's not bad."
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No one ever said that teaching was easy: Robin was proof of that. She loved her job more than anything, she loved that she got to teach her son too. However, children were stubborn little things.
They wouldn't sing solo without a friend, which then meant it wasn't a solo. All she had wanted to do was layer their voices so they sounded amazing. Clearly, it wasn't going to work.
"Okay, then, how about this?" Robin smiled, cheerfully. "Everyone stand up!"
There was a loud ruckus as they did so, pushing their chair in. Some leant over, some didn't. Some weren't paying much attention at all and took a while to get up.
"Right, stand up straight." She told them, and then they all faced her properly. "I don't want you to feel like you have to sing everything in one breath. You don't. Take as many as you need."
Alfie put his hand up. "Why?"
"Because it's good for you." Ms Harper made sure they knew it was true. She couldn't go into detail. They would get too confused.
It took a while. But, eventually, she did manage to get them to sing in rounds. Christmas Is Coming had a new spin on it and Robin was thoroughly impressed with her work.
Perhaps the Christmas Nativity wasn't going to as awful as it usually was. They seemed to be trying a lot more this year, and she could have been happier.
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At lunch, the teachers lounge was bustling with life. Every one of the staff was running around, making extra coffees for Mr Maddens. They felt like they owed him for taking over on the Nativity.
The most definitely did.
Miss Rye sat around one of the large, white tables, with the rest of the faculty. Robin wasn't the greatest fan of her. Quite often, she seemed to be disingenuous and Robin couldn't stand people like that. This was the first of many reasons as to why she and Gordon Shakespeare didn't get along.
He was an absolute ass. There was no other way to say it. Robin didn't like any of Paul's friends from drama school, and that included the dreaded Jennifer who broke his heart.
Even if he has been such a misery ever since she left, he would be better off in the long run. It was one of those things. It was just going to have to hurt for a little while.
"Here's to a five-star review of the St Bernadette's nativity directed by Paul Maddens and Robin Harper." Miss Rye called out, clinking their coffee cups together. "Cheers."
"Cheers!"
Robin joined in at first, and then left as soon as she didn't have to be involved. Paul was sitting alone on the small blue sofa, anyways.
She flopped down next to him, flinging her head back dramatically. Paul took one look at her, and his straight face broke. Robin grinned too. It just seemed to be easy with him.
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Jamie Harper had taken it upon himself to introduce Mr Poppy to Mr Maddens' class. His initial thought process had been simple: the better aquatinted they could be, the easier the job. It hadn't been done with malice in any way- he just didn't seem to understand all of the work that went into it all.
It was easy to get all of them in, especially as it was his younger brothers class. (Though, Matt had made him promise a whole bar of chocolate in his favour, one of the massive ones.)
And they loved him. Mr Poppy was a hit with them, and very quickly, he was wrapped around their little finger.
They ended up singing loads of songs to get acquainted. One of the favourites, however, seemed to go in for an age.
"When Susie was a child, a child Susie was. She said Miss! Miss! I can't get this! I got my knickers in a right old twist! When-"
That was when Mr Maddens walked into the room. He saw what was happening and stopped in his tracks. There was a strange man with one of his godsons, singing with his class. It seemed like a weird fever-dream.
Paul marched over to the man, and leant down. "Who are you?"
"Mr Poppy." He stood up from his crouching position, sort of nervously.
"Yes, what are you doing here, Mr Poppy?"
"Oh, I'm... I'm your teaching assistant."
"Right..." Mr Maddens wasn't convinced in the slightest. "And what are you doing here Jamie?"
The Harper boy smiled sheepishly, and shrugged. "Singing?"
He shook his head. "Go back to your mum."
Jamie agreed, patting his brothers head as he passed by. "I will go do that."
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That night, Paul made his way round to the Harper household, as he often seemed to do. They had to work on the script and music for the night- but Mr Maddens thought it would be better to complain about Mr Poppy instead. Perhaps it was for the best that Jamie was out with his friends (Christian, Max and Noah).
"He is a literal child of a man!" Paul shook his head, pinching his brow. "I don't understand how a human being can be so... dense!"
"Maybe you should just calm down." Robin offered. "Have a drink, and we can work on the play instead."
"You haven't had to work with him."
"You haven't had to work with Jamie."
There was a silence. "Yeah... sounds about right."
Paul sat at the dining table when Robin was making the drinks. She had insisted, of course, even if he did end up doing the work half of the time. The woman had been dancing around the kitchen, screaming the song lyrics to all of the best Christmas songs, and even doing the iconic Mariah Carey riff without a single mistake. All of which happened while he was miserably distracted.
When they re-entered the living room, the Christmas tree lights were blaring. Matt loved it when they changed colour, and she'd just forgotten to change them after he had went to bed. Paul's dislike for the holidays weren't going to ruin hers.
"I was trying to work out lyrics." He said after a short while, finding the best time to bring it up.
"Yeah?" Robin chuckled, shaking her head, turning to face towards him. "You'll be putting me out of a job."
"Oh, come on." He huffed. "Just tell me what you think."
"Okay. Okay, go on then."
"In Nazareth." He sang a high pitched note that made her back line with goosebumps. It wasn't in a good way. "Or: in Nazareth." The second was lower, but still not amazing.
"It's uh..." She struggles to find the words. "We can use it."
"Wow, thanks Rob."
"I didn't-"
"I know what you meant."
Robin pulled the keyboard onto her lap and began to play with the chords. They had worked on the main concept which meant the songs were next. With Paul's determination and her creativity, she knew exactly where she was going and how it was all going to play out.
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Lunch time the next day, Robin had been dragged into Mr Maddens classroom. She had wondered why, but he had started to rant rather quickly.
"He's her nephew." Paul gritted his teeth, completely and utterly pissed off. Though he was angry so much of the time, he rarely got so aggressively upset.
Robin closed her eyes, rubbing them lightly. "Yeah..."
"You knew?"
"Jamie might've mentioned it."
"Ah."
For a moment, it was quiet. Paul was thinking of how to express his anger, and came back rather swiftly.
"I'm going to kill your son, and I'm going to kill that stupid teaching assistant."
Robin just laughed. "Rather violent, don't you think?"
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After break that day, Mr Maddens didn't know what to expect. Mr Poppy was a nightmare to work with, and when he was working with Jamie, he acted like a six-year-old. It wasn't as if they did anything useful anyway. All they did was put the others off.
However, what he didn't expect was to see all of the scripts that he and Robin had made, being thrown around the classroom. They were in paper airplanes and crumpled balls. Everyone was yelling, and screaming, forgetting who they were and how old they really are.
At the sight, Paul was furious. His students could tell too. They quietened within moments of his shouting.
"Mr Poppy! Mr Poppy! Be quiet! Sit down now!"
For the last lesson of the day, they had a lovely craft session. Robin wasn't in need of her son, so Jamie had been roped into working with Mr Maddens alongside Mr Poppy. The kids loved him, though.
Mr Harper was the most fun out of everyone. Perhaps it was because he was young, and he understood them a lot more than the adults could.
They were making cute little Christmas decorations to be put up around the house. Some made snow angels that had their hands tied together, others snowflakes, and some were making trees. Jamie enjoyed helping them.
He and Mr Poppy were sat on the back table together, monitoring the children and their scissors. It probably wasn't the best idea to have a bunch of eleven-year-olds with sharp objects. But there was nothing they could do.
"Why is Mr Maddens such a grumpy grocks?" Mr Poppy asked the children.
He had questioned Jamie about it before, but he preferred not to talk about it. It was a little too close to home. It was slightly too close to who he was, and who his family were. Paul was the nearest thing that he and Matt had to a father. Even though he was sometimes more like a grandfather, or an angry uncle, they needed him.
Crystal, a girl with dark plaits and wide eyes whispered. "His girlfriend left him at Christmas time."
Mr Poppy sighed, understandingly. "Where's his girlfriend now?"
"In America."
"America, how cool is that?"
Jamie shrugged, trying his best to seem involved. "I know, right?"
"It is cool, but it is a long way away from here." Crystal added, sort of confused. "He's less angry with Ms Harper."
"Is he now?" Mr Poppy seemed invested, but was cut short by Mr Maddens.
"Can we keep it down over there, please?"
All of this was giving Mr Poppy ideas. And if there was one thing that should never have been done- it was to give Mr Poppy a motive.
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2047
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Disclaimer!!!
I do not own Nativity. I do not own the cast or the characters. The only things I own are my changes to the storyline and my original characters: Robin and Jamie Harper. I do not own the character of Matt either, just the change that he is related to my original characters. Please do not copy my work. Any similarities to real life are purely coincidence.