Out of the Woods | ✓

34 | sweet home vancouver

Jensen was called to the Legendary set three weeks after her call with Lucille. Apparently threatening a lawsuit gave her triple the amount of time she'd requested. It made her smile. Softly. When people weren't looking. She was going to have to grow a spine at some point if it meant she was going to stay in Hollywood. And... she was considering that was the way to go. There was no way to get used to it by running away.

There was a week until her classes were going on their field trip. Which meant that they were a week and a half from the end of the school year.

"Can we settle down for a moment, please?" Jensen asked.

And end of the school year meant that nothing was settled.

There were scripts being thrown over theatre seating. Talking over talking over talking. Laughs and giggles and ears turned off. Jensen was dreading the following day: yearbook distribution. If they weren't getting any work done before the yearbooks were out, productivity was going to be in the negatives when they were out.

She didn't mind when they were released with a couple days left of school. But they were starting to get earlier and earlier and it just threw her entire class out of whack. Jensen was never going to get used to not having lessons planned for an entire week. It seemed unnecessary—how many signatures were they going to get, really? (Jensen knew she was being dramatic.) (Head of the drama department meant she had a lot of theatre kids yearbooks to sign and she tried to make them all as personal as she could.)

The room was buzzing with end of the year excitement and Jensen liked to think that a small part of that was their field trip. Some of her seniors had already told her about how they'd been accepted into various film school programs all over the world.

That was what she was there for. Reference letters and seeing acceptance letters. Watching students' faces light up when they told her they got into their number one. It was even better when old students came back and told her how things were going in their lives after high school. Jensen liked being home. She liked being Miss Rhodes, drama teacher and occasional writing 12 substitute.

"If you give me a couple minutes to talk," Jensen said, "I'll try to let you out early tomorrow for yearbooks."

That silenced the class. Students settled into their seats. Their eyes on Jensen leaning against the orchestra pit, her hands on the netting above it. Comfortable. Reminded her that this was her normal and that was okay. Was she going to miss them if she went back to Hollywood? Absolutely. But they found their ways—they were the ones who organized the video call. Jensen would never miss a production again.

"Thank you," Jensen said. "So, as I'm sure you're aware, we're headed to the new branch of Walker Studios next Monday."

There were a few scattered cheers and whoops, which made Jensen happy.

"I've enlisted Miss Faith to help chaperone you guys, because she is extremely knowledgeable about film-making, as I'm sure you all know."

"She told us to call her Liberty otherwise she wasn't going to respond to our questions."

"Of course she did," Jensen said. "So, Liberty will be joining us."

"She's not going to make us watch Pulp Fiction again, is she?"

"No, she won't. I'll make sure of that." Jensen let out a small laugh. "Do we have any other questions?"

She tucked her hands into her pockets; a pair of overalls was the least warm thing she'd found to put on that morning that weren't shorts. Showing up to Northside meant she didn't know if the AC would be blasting like they were a new branch of Antarctica or if they would cut the AC entirely to keep costs low. It was a toss up. Pair that with a white t-shirt and Jensen had goosebumps prickling at her arms. Probably didn't help that she had tied her hair up in a wrap and exposed her neck. Indiana Rhodes had chosen poorly from her closet that morning.