Teachers and Screechers

Lena had taught herself not to be surprised at certain revelations in New Sol, but she was still slightly disappointed to find out that Lavender Hall wasn’t a hall of lavender. It was in fact a hall of very small children – aka a school.

The PFP group didn’t step inside the red bricked school building, instead skirting around the side and finding a gate to get them through a line of trees. The trees formed a perimeter around a large grassy field. Lena thought at first that it was for privacy, but as she stepped through the gate’s threshold, she realised it was also for sound. Immediately, she was engulfed by the sound of kids screaming and screeching in joy. The adults outnumbered the children almost 2 to 1, and yet things were chaos.

While the other three walked onwards, Exer and Lena lingered by the gate.

“You good?” Exer asked Lena, hoping she would say no, and they could leave under the pretence of caring for her.

But Lena, despite her scrunched up face, nodded. “Just, uh, surprised by the noise, is all.”

She looked at Exer, and they shared a knowing look, before soldiering onwards onto the battlefield.

An unassuming woman approached their group, and shook Mizlin’s hand.

“Thank you so much for coming.” She said, already sounding exhausted.

“Not at all.” Mizlin gestured to the four people standing behind her. “These four will be utterly at your disposal.”

Mizlin’s cool composure cracked for a moment as she hurried away, presumably to a place more ordered and less loud.

“Right…” The lady watched Mizlin for a moment, then turned to the rest of them with a clap of her hands. “I’m Maria, one of the teachers here. We’ve got about an hour before the activities start, and quite a few things to get through.”

Maria spoke gently, yet in a way that was somehow unsettling to Lena. She scratched at her arm and glanced at the others to see if they shared the same discomfort, but it appeared she was alone in her feelings. Even Exer seemed reassured by her tone of voice.

“There are a few jobs we need help with.” Maria continued. “We need to make sure everyone is sitting in the right places: the kids with their teams, and the parents to the side. Then there’s the refreshments which are being prepared inside, and the equipment over there that needs sorting. Well, mostly it just needs guarding from the kids’ grubby little hands.”

“I’ll do the refreshments.” Exer volunteered, clearly wanting to be inside.

Maria nodded, then handed each of them a blue lanyard. “These are to show you’re volunteers. All the teachers are wearing purple lanyards, so if you need help ask one of us.”

Lena carefully slipped on her lanyard, being careful to not get it tangled in her hair. By the time she was finished and looked back up, Exer was gone.

“I’m good with kids!” Zan said proudly. “So, I’ll get them into their teams.”

“I’m good with parents.” Hamish said less proudly.

“Thank you, that’s perfect.” Maria turned to Lena, making her tense up slightly. “Are you happy to look after the equipment?”

Lena nodded curtly. The three separated to do their individual jobs.

Lena’s job didn’t consist of much, she just had to sit by a few boxes and make sure kids didn’t start poking around. At the very least, it gave her the opportunity to see how her friends were doing.

Zan was very much in her element. She herded up the children skilfully, allowing them to tug on her clothes. One even climbed her like she was a tree, and he was a little monkey rapscallion. It was unfathomable to Lena that Zan could keep them under control – it was common knowledge that the chaos of children increased exponentially with each child added to the fray.

And Hamish wasn’t lying either when he said he was good with parents. He got them to sit down quickly, with lots of smiles and giggles all around.

Every so often Lena found herself watching Maria, but only for a few moments before she became too uncomfortable. There was something off about her, and Lena couldn’t place it, or dare to think too much about it.

Once the hour of preparation was up, Exer came outside and joined Lena in her guard duties. The two sat together and watched the sports day commence.

Hamish helped organise the egg and spoon race, a race wherein a child had to hold a plastic egg on their spoon and make it to the finish line as quickly as possible, without breaking it.

Lena looked in wonder as the race commenced and fake eggs fell all over the place. As a Natural, she’d also participated in the coveted egg and spoon race, but they’d use real eggs and cause a mess. She was a master of the sport, winning every single race she’d entered.

The next activity was a sack race, and Zan went around shoving each child in a sack. It was another activity Lena had participated in herself, though she was only average at these ones.

Exer didn’t have the same familiarity with these events as Lena did, and was left wondering if every ‘sport’ on this sports day would be a race with an odd gimmick. They weren’t completely wrong.

A painful amount of hours and races later, the field began emptying of all the scamps and their families. Exer ran away as soon as it was socially acceptable and Lena was preparing to leave too, when Maria approached her.

Lena tensed up and put on a polite smile, her heart thumping so loudly in her chest she thought Maria might hear it.

“Lena, right?” Maria questioned as soon as she got within earshot, then closed the remaining distance.

Lena nodded in affirmation, steeling herself so she didn’t flinch or shuffle back. Or run away.

“Thanks for your help today.” She said in an unsettlingly sincere tone. “How’d you find it?”

Lena shrugged and folded her arms over her chest to hug herself. “Yeah, uh, it was nice.”

Her awkwardness finally rubbed off on Maria, who cleared her throat and straightened her posture.

“Sorry, I realise this might be impolite to ask, but…” Maria took a deep breath. “Are you a Natural?”

Freezing in place, Lena couldn’t even get herself to nod. But Maria didn’t need an answer.

“I am too. Or, I was.”

Lena let out a deep breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding. No wonder she found Maria uncomfortable. In a place of entirely new experiences, she felt far too familiar.

When Lena looked back at Maria’s soft smile, the sincerity actually felt real for the first time.

“Sorry.” Lena clutched at her chest, trying to lower her own heart rate. “I haven’t met another Natural since…”

She trailed off, not needing to finish her sentence for Maria to understand.

“It’s the same for me. It’s been almost thirty years.”

“Wow.”

Maria hummed in amusement. “If you have the time, would you like to join me for a cup of tea?”

Lena thought she’d need time to think over such an offer - did she really want to go dredging up memories of the past? But somehow she found herself nodding her head almost immediately, her body making the choice long before her mind could.

“I just need to, uh…” Lena tapped at her bracelet, bringing up a hologram. “Message my, uh, Vera.”

“Of course.”

As Lena very slowly typed out a message to Vera, saying she was having tea with someone, Maria stood patiently to the side. She kept her hands clutched in front of her, and offered polite goodbyes to the few families the wandered past them on their way out.