Welcome to a Nightmare

Elsewhere Part 3: Chapter 28: Snow as Ice

Elsewhere Part 3

A/N: Warning mature subject matter incorporated into the chapter

"Can anyone tell me the answer?" Miss Blanchard asks her students as she stands in front of her class at Stygian Elementary School. She's trying to teach them a lesson on ecosystems, particularly different types of birds and where they build their nests.

However, like every day she gets no eager answers or even any attempts to respond. Most of her students are falling asleep, texting on their phones, or even just doodling in their notebooks. No one wants to answer and why would they want to; no child had a legitimate future outside of the city anyways. Many of the children would merely end up working in fast-food restaurants, casinos, or unfortunately even just living on the streets. All skills that they would not learn from sitting in a classroom. Even children as young as Grade One knew there was no point in trying to learn because the knowledge would get them nowhere, despite how fun Miss Blanchard tried to make it for them. The only reason they even showed up to school was that it is required by law and the parents needed someplace to dump their children to work their many jobs to stay afloat in this unpredictable economy. And unfortunately, due to budget cuts and two teachers being under investigation for drug abuse, Mary Margret Blanchard is stuck with a Fourth, Second, and Eighth Grade classes to teach. It was almost like working in the one-room schoolhouse of the past, trying to educate multiple levels of students, but what seemed to be the point when it wasn't worth trying.

One fourth grade girl lazily blows a bubble with her gum, despite the teacher's "no gum policy," a couple of eighth grade boys are throwing wads of paper and old cafeteria food at each other, and a few second graders have their heads down on the desks, not even trying to hide the fact that they were tired.

"Well..." the teacher sighs. "If you must know bluebirds face competition with invading sparrows and starlings for nesting spaces, often leaving these poor creatures without homes..."

"And that's why you built the birdhouses, we know that already," one eighth grade girl calls out rudely, visibly rolling her eyes.

Mary Margret opens her mouth to scold the teenager, but then the bell rings. The students frantically gather their books and belongings before going out for recess.

"Now I want you all to bring in your science textbooks when you come back in!" she shouts frantically as the children hurry out of the room without a second glance at their teacher.

Once all of them are gone, Mary Margret collapses into her desk chair, completely and utterly exhausted and that was only the first period of the day.

She runs her hands through her short, raven-coloured hair, which amazes her that it hasn't turned gray with stress, biting her lip, and trying to fight back the tears. Her body cannot take much more of this. Working curriculums for three separate classes, plus running the school science fair and her night job since this one can't pay the bills. It didn't help that her classroom was very badly run down and disorganized; desks that were safety hazards and a risk of falling apart, pieces of wood being used on a broken window to keep the cold from entering, filthy floors which likely had rats scurrying along them, chairs that were either too small or big for the various students, and all of them being squished into the tiny room without much space to do anything. She wonders how she's been able to carry on this long in such a toxic environment. If the world wasn't so cruel, she'd be at home with her son, on maternity leave and not having all this excess dumped on her because she wouldn't say no... or couldn't. It felt as though she had some sort of wicked spell cast over her, being unable to stand up for herself, being pushed around by the other teachers and especially the mayor, who would like Mary Margret to help with secretarial duties at the office as well.