the staff room || reddie

1. mr.tozier paints a picture ( goes pretty well )

working with kids wasn't some people's cup of coffee. they're usually loud, obnoxious, and ugly. but eddie didn't actually mind it. he loved his job, however many detentions he has to give out or however many people call him gay behind his back ( eddie knew but never addressed it ). the pay wasn't the worst ( it was better than mcdonald's, which eddie was always scared of due to the probable lack of hygienic precautions ), the students were friendly for the most part, and some were such good artists, eddie was amazed. he was proud to teach such a class.
eddie made sure to come to school at least twenty minutes early each morning. not only did he talk to the teachers, he also stole their coffees when they weren't looking. he could afford it, but why waste your money on a coffee when you could use it to buy a refill on your inhaler?

he wore a white turtleneck with blue cuffed trousers- a casual yet professional outfit. eddie dressed completely different outside of his workplace, but why would he turn up in a pastel blue shirt and overalls? that would go against the dress code. eddie was strict on himself with that.

unlike his coworker. richie tozier, teacher of ninth grade english, was the complete opposite. half the time, his flannel was buttoned up wrong, and hair looking as if it's never been within a five mile radius of a hair brush. that was only one of the many reasons eddie couldn't stand the ninth grade english teacher. he was also flirtatious around eddie. eddie probably wouldn't have minded richie's flirting as much if he didn't interrupt his classes with it. he had- on numerous occasions- came into eddie's classroom with a cute compliment or a crudely drawn artwork, commonly featuring the two on it. it looked like scribbles, but richie took no time in showing it to eddie. you could see improvements if you looked carefully though. the lines appeared thinner on his recent ones.
once, eddie could recall, richie had happily let himself in to eddie's art class. he held a canvas, turned away from eddie so eddie couldn't see it.
" good morning, mr k! lovely to see ya!" richie said happily, " love what you've done with the place."
there were no changes in eddie's classroom.
" i've got something for you!"
eddie lightly rolled his eyes, turning his attention from organizing papers on his desk to up at richie's grinning face.
" you always do," he said in a bored tone. but eddie wasn't bored . deep inside, he laughed at richie's sucky drawings. but he would never let richie see that side of him. he tried to be as uninterested as possible around richie, though that wasn't the case at all.
richie had been making eddie drawings since around february of the year before. they started out as little doodles on sticky notes that he would bring in whenever he wanted to, and over time evolved into drawings richie actually spent his lunch breaks on. they were less shitty than before, some were even good (compared to others). eddie had a little drawer, the bottom right one of his desk, that he kept the drawings in. he knew it was silly to keep doodles that one of his coworkers- not even his friends- had drawn for him, but they made him happy. to his knowledge, richie didn't know about the drawer.
" i think it's my best one yet, actually. you'll be so proud. wanna grade it for me? i'll put it on my cv." richie smiled and showed eddie the canvas.
" if you haven't noticed, i actually spent my hard-earned money on a canvas. i'm not rich, y'know. this shit's expensive."
richie realised he swore in front of the class but didn't comment.
the class were watching them but this was normal at this point.
richie had painted eddie. it was in a stupid cartoon style that richie hadn't perfected yet, but 10/10 for effort. he actually mixed all the colours himself. which explains why his flannel now had paint stains on it. even his face did. don't ask me how that happened.
" do you like it, eds?" richie asked. again, richie didn't care about being in front of the class. if they started calling him eds too, it would be a win for richie. though eddie might hate him afterwards.
" mr tozier, don't you have a class to teach?" a student asked.
richie looked over, " i'm free this lesson to cry and watch netflix. lucky me, right?" he smiled, " i'm cool like that."
that was no word of a lie, actually. he really did just spend that hour watching netflix. it was meant to be for planning lessons, but richie just closed his eyes five minutes before a lesson, picked out a shakespeare play, and decided that was what they would study. usually, it worked out well.
"don't call me that," the words were reflex by now. richie had been calling him the (not so) ugly nickname since eddie started working at the high school in the class next to his, and he absolutely hated it. "and don't swear." he knew the kids didn't really care, and as long as none of them ratted richie and him out to mr. uris, the principal, they'd be fine.
the painting wasn't actually bad. richie had spent time on it, and it wasn't a stick figure, unlike most of richie's earlier drawings. the fact that richie went out of his way to go buy a canvas and paints to paint something for eddie made him want to smile. but eddie was pretty good at hiding emotions, especially when it came to letting richie have the satisfaction of making eddie happy
eddie didn't want to hurt richie's feelings, though he didn't know if making a joke about the painting would. sure, him and richie would go back and forth (mostly richie being nice and complimenting eddie and eddie telling him to shut up) but that was all games.
the art teacher let himself slightly smile at the gift richie had given him. "this is a step up from your other drawings," he admitted, scanning the painting. after a moment passed, he glanced up at richie.
"it's cute, rich- mr. tozier." he suddenly remembered they were at work, and just because richie called him the most unprofessional nickname didn't mean that eddie could slack off on his professionalism, too. it actually made him want to be more formal to make up for richie.
richie smiled brightly at that. eddie had never admitted richie's work was anything good, and quite frankly, richie didn't care because he was still gonna make it.
" really? damn. i'm an artiste." richie hummed, " i can throw away all my books now. books are boring."
richie actually didn't think so. in the staff room, when he wasn't either making stupid jokes, spreading rumours ( sometimes about fights between the students' DID YOU KNOW JESSICA AND ANDREW ARE DATING? HOLY FUCK ' ), painting or trying to see if porn worked on the school internet ( no reason, but the other teachers often got scarred ), he was reading.
" i'm redecorating my classroom. i put some of your drawings up. they look cute. they're next to my stack of 30 fuckin' copies of macbeth."
"richie!" eddie lightly slapped at his hand. "stop swearing, if you didn't remember, there is a class of thirteen year olds sitting right there." he kept his voice down, but the kids could still hear him.
"actually i'm fourteen." one of the kids raised her hand. eddie glanced over at her.
"that's good for you," he smiled in the fakest way possible. some kids snickered. it obviously wasn't the best comeback, it shouldn't even be qualified as a comeback, just a slightly sassy remark, but coming from the teacher it was funny."
" and i'm 24." richie smiled, " good for me too. i'm old and gonna die soon. don't tell mr urine i said that. he's about to turn 24."
the majority of the class chuckled at richie's remark, and the rest were on their phones (there was one kid taking a nap).
" is it true you and mr uris had an affair?" one of the students called out. richie burst out laughing. he didn't care.
" who said that? i have standards." he joked, " but no, i don't have the time."
that was a lie but oh well.
eddie took a deep breath. this happened a lot when richie came into his class in the middle of a lesson.
"alright, get back to your portraits. that's enough of that for today." he smiled at the class, but it wasn't a soft smile. it was a 'get the work before i fail you all' smile. eddie wouldn't do that though.
the class went back to their work, other than the kid that was napping. eddie looked up at richie and continued to talk with him in a quieter voice. the kids could hear, since it was the only noise in the room other than their pencils scratching
against the paper, but they continued to work and listen.
"you can't just come in here whenever you want, richie." eddie said, a sense of authority slipping into his voice.
" hey, sweetheart, it's not that bad. i mean, i give you some hella good work too. i say i've outdone myself." he hummed.
"don't call me that." he mumbled. "if i grade it will you leave me alone until like.. lunch break?" he asked. he knew richie wouldn't leave him alone if he just asked without anything in return.
" sure can do, mr k!" richie said in one of his voices, " feel like an art student. it feels the same as being an english teacher. that's weird."
eddie didn't bother commenting on his voices, "yeah, okay. see you later." he waved once to richie, turning in his seat to face the class.
" m'kay. see you around, eds. love you." richie joked, ruffling eddie's hair and leaving.
eddie huffed, fixing his hair and muttering something to himself angrily. he didn't look up at his students, but started to get out a rubric to grade richie's art.

author notes+warnings (ifneeDed)

-*lipemoji*

oof hi um this was really fun to write so u should vote on it and also comment bc that's what all the cool kids r doing.
aleks is the cool one btw she did all the good shit.
uwu ok sweet dreams reddie is real cowards
or good morning.
idk.
ok bye xx

hi these are my notes uwu
i'm vv lucky to work with a writing queen
this was hella fun to do
vote and comment bc cool kids do that
we worked on this for two hours or some shit
and we even made a great outtake
i'm rlly cool
and uuh writing queen writes eddie rlly well and i'm quaking bye x

-aleks