Mary Sue - Coming Home

Chapter 7 - The New Teacher

Reina and Destiny walked down the empty hallway. It had been a pep rally and then a football game, so everyone else was out of the building, presumably enjoying being dominated by a nearby local team. Football was one of the only sports Reina wasn't allowed to play, by the lack of virtue of her vagina. Even Liara and Amelia were at the football game. Amelia to support her friends who were still on the cheerleading team, and Liara to study human reactions (sort of an anti-example for her current AI boyfriend plans.)

All of the teachers love football, so it was a surprise to hear what sounded like cursing coming from Mrs. Crenshaw's history classroom. Mrs. Crenshaw loved football. She loved the teenage children hurting each other. She loved the trash talk. She loved the fact that no one could reasonably attribute the incredibly vicious and hurtful things she said to a little old lady. There's no way Mrs. Crenshaw would miss a football game and a chance to shout invective at minorities. So, who was in her room?

The teenagers crept closer, inching toward the open door. Inside, there was a sound of something tearing. They peered around the large door frame that all schools seem legally required to have. Inside was a small, but solid black man standing on Mrs. Crenshaw's desk. He was wearing comfortable, but professional clothes and had a hand on one of the posters on the wall. It had torn as he was trying to remove it, but he didn't have a freehand to unhook it, as one of his hands was holding him up. "Should've moved the desk closer to the wall first," remarked Reina without thinking.

"Thank you," the man said with only slight indignation, turning toward them, before breaking into a grin. "Sorry, students. I, uh... thought you were adults." He smiled warmly, all trace of irritation gone. "Could you maybe give me a hand here?"

Destiny moved immediately to support him, while Reina shoved the desk closer to the wall with him on it. The whole thing seemed like it was intended to toss the man into Destiny's arms, but the two males narrowly stayed perched where they were. Destiny glared at Reina. "Maybe wait until the person on top of the desk is safe before moving it?" Reina blushed as Destiny helped the man down. The teachers' chairs all had rollers, so it was a big step down.

The man brushed the white dust that is ever present even in modern schools off of his black pants. "Thank you, young man," he attempted, "but what are you two still doing in the school? I understood that there was a football game and that that was a serious thing around here."

Destiny looked away. "Not super much for school spirit, I guess."

Reina shot him a look. "I've got plenty of school spirit, but they wouldn't let me play football, so I'm boycotting."

The man sized them up. "Hmm. Okay. And your names?" he said perfunctorily.

Destiny was uncomfortable. He'd already dealt with this once today, and didn't feel like doing it again. "Excuse me, sir, but, um... what is your name? And why are you in Mrs. Crenshaw's class... taking stuff off of her walls?"

The man looked uncomfortably between them, "Well, I guess you would have found out tomorrow anyway..."

Reina gasped, "Oh, my god. Did she die?" It wasn't an unreasonable question, She had to be in her late seventies, at least. Destiny had always figured she was too mean to die, and she had kinda always been at the school. There were pictures of her from the 80s, still grimacing out of the frame at some imagined slight and looking nearly the same.

The man shook his head. "No. I hear she moved away suddenly, which is why you need a teacher in October." He looked ruefully at the desk. "I'm... uh, Mr. Llewellen. I 'm going to be your history teacher for the rest of the year."

Reina nods. "Ms. Crenshaw was always threatening to quit."

Destiny turned back to Mr. Llewellen. "And why are you taking down her posters?" Destiny looked at the posters, maybe really looked, for the first time. They were like layers of sediment, piled on top of each other. Who knew how far down they went.

Mr. Llewellen nodded. "Well, I don't want to insult a fellow educator..." The teens rolled their eyes. "But some of these posters are wrong.... And some are kinda racist."

Both of the teens nodded. "Yeah. That makes sense, " Destiny said.

Mr. Llewellen looked stunned. "You mean you knew?"

"Oh, yeah," Reina said. "She is... was... so so racist."

Llewellen held up a map that had been on the wall for years. "This map shows Africa smaller than the United States."

Destiny gaped. "You mean Africa is bigger?"

"Yes! Much bigger. Much, much bigger." And he gestured to the poster that had torn when he was climbing down. "And this guy fought for the wrong side in the Civil War."

Destiny nodded. "Nathan Bedford Forrest. We had a whole week on him. Mrs. Crenshaw said it was because we couldn't forget our history..."

"But we're pretty sure she was into him. She would get all hot and bothered when she read his speech," Reina added. All three shivered in a moment of silence.

Finally, Mr. Llewellen turned back to Destiny. "You said she was always threatening to leave?"

Destiny tries to remember. "Yeah. Something about Acapulco?"

Reina laughs, but it is thoughtful. "Yeah. She said the Mexicans there were always polite and spoke English. We tried to tell her that was just on tv, and maybe vacation resorts, but she claimed she knew more than a..."

Destiny puts a hand on Reina's arm. "You don't have to..."

"But I do. You know the nicest thing she ever said to me?" Destiny shakes his head, the new teacher forgotten. "It was the school dance last year. I went with my cousin Angel, because he didn't have a girlfriend and I really wanted to go." Reina sighed. "Mrs. Crenshaw was chaperoning, because of course she was, and she saw me, and was clearly surprised to see me in a dress. I usually don't care how I look, but I'd spent hours getting my hair done, and my makeup, and everything. And you know what she said?" She waited, and Destiny just looked sad. "She said, I looked 'spic-tacular.' She took all my effort, all my work, and made it into a lame fucking racial slur."

Reina was on the edge of tears, and Destiny hugged her, which she relaxed into for a moment, and then pushed away. She turned away from them both and stood by the door, looking out. "Sorry, Mr. Llewellen. You caught me on an emotional day. Don't expect this level of intimacy and introspection, generally," she said, a note of irony in her voice.

Destiny saw recognition and frustration in Mr. Llewellen's face. "Noted," he said quietly. "I can't begin to understand what you've been through, but I promise I'll try to be better than Mrs... Crenshaw, was it?"

Destiny nodded. "You can't be much worse, Mr. L. Do you want some help with the posters?"

Mr. Llewellen shook his head. "I think I'm done dealing with these racist posters for today. I'm going to call it a day, and deal with all of this tomorrow."

"But tomorrow is Saturday," said Reina, looking back and firmly in control again.

"It is, but there's no chance any kids will hear me swearing at Mrs. Crenshaw," he said, and both teens laughed. It was freeing. When they left a few minutes later, it felt like some sort of catharsis. Maybe this year wouldn't suck completely.

They didn't notice the small shadow hiding behind the trash can as they left the room.