Work Text:
Maia White was a very normal girl. She liked to gossip with her friends, flirt with the football players, and count the days of school left until summer break. This year, it turned out, was going to be different. Maybe even mildly interesting. All because of a new math teacher with a British accent and beef with the well known ice-cold language arts teacher.
Maia has Mr. Josten first period, and it isn’t a very bad way to start the day. Listening to his accent as he explains whatever math concept for that day is a very pleasant way to spend the first fifty-seven minutes of her day. She had Mr. Minyard fifth period, right after lunch. She hears this is a blessing because he’s always calmer after he’s gotten to eat and have some ice cream.
-The first time anyone sees them interact is during the back-to-school assembly. She’s in the back of the auditorium with the rest of her math class and the teachers are all leaning against the back wall. Minyard is as usual not talking to anyone and Josten looks uncomfortable. The principal announces they have a new teacher this year and the spotlight wheels around to shine on him.
“Er, well, hello,” he says in his posh accent. He waves and there’s an outcry from the student body, some jeering, some shouting out ‘hello’s.
Maia is close enough to hear Minyard scoff and say, “Dear lord, the Queen’s infiltration has started.” She’s also close enough to see Mr. Day, a history teacher and possibly Minyard’s only friend, facepalm.
-The next time they interact, Maia is changing out her books at her locker when Minyard comes strolling down the hallway as the same time Josten is. They look like they’re going to collide and for a second, Maia wonders if she’s going to see her two favorite teachers run into each other.
Their shoulders end up brushing and Minyard bites out a ferocious “watch it.” They keep walking in opposite directions but the traffic keeps them close enough that they can keep talking.
“My bad,” Josten offers, swerving to avoid being elbowed in the nose. They’re both ridiculously short which Maia thinks serves them right.
“Oh, do make sure to forward your apologies to the Queen,” Minyard says in the most sarcastic and awful pretend British accent.
Josten scowls and has the good idea not to respond to that.
-Next time they pass in the hallways Josten, ever the sassy one, calls out, “Praise the land of the free.”
Minyard shoots him an impressive, ice cold glare that could likely freeze hell and retorts with, “Did you and the Queen come up with that at tea time yesterday?” in his god awful accent and a heavy dose of sarcasm.
Josten looks offended, mockingly pressing a hand to his chest. “No I came up with that one all on my own. The Queen did approve though.”
Minyard flips him off as he walks away. Maia was standing at the water fountain refilling her bottle as the encounter happened and she feels like she just watched the startings of an epic rivalry. Josten sees her staring and winks, winks!, at her as he strolls away.
When she tells Avery about it later Avery cries she laughs so hard. Rumor has it the next day, that Josten and Minyard are flirting.
-It is no big secret that every morning Josten comes in with a travel mug of tea. One day, he stumbles in five minutes after the bell rings looking slightly dishevelled and without his tea. He starts the lesson like he would anyday, but his voice is thick with exhaustion.
Near the end of the period when everyone is working on their homework there’s a knock at the door. Josten looks puzzled but opens the door and Minyard pushes past him. “When you came by my classroom making a troubling amount of noise this morning, I noticed you didn’t have your necessary morning drink. So I took it upon myself to introduce you to a proper American morning drink -coffee,” he says, pushing a steaming tumbler into Josten’s chest.
Josten chuckles and takes the drink setting it on his desk. “That's a good one. You know they drink coffee in London though. I thought that would have come up in your beloved little books by now,” Josten delivers the blow with such ease and teasing smile that Maia almost believes he isn’t trying to be rude or sarcastic. She also sees where the rumors of their flirtations come from.
-The one day Maia misses because she’s sick, apparently Josten and Minyard had an encounter. According to Avery, Josten sashayed into Minyard’s third period class with a box of British biscuits because “the ones you all have here in America truly are disturbing”. If anyone didn’t before, the entire school ships them now.
Maia thinks it's foolish, to concern yourself with the love life of two fully grown adults who are technically responsible for you from 7-3, five days a week. But that doesn’t stop anyone, she even hears Mr. Hemmick and Ms. Walker -the German language and religious studies teachers, respectively- talking about it.
That day Maia lingers after the bell rings ending the fifth period so she can turn in the previous day’s work to Minyard. He looks up when she approaches his desk but doesn’t wave her away like she was half expecting. “How may I help you Miss White?” he asks, taking his glasses off his nose and pushing them into his hair.
“I just needed to turn in the essay that was due yesterday because I was absent,” she stammers. Minyard rubs his race with his left hand and she speaks and she notices a white gold band sitting on his ring finger. A wedding band to be more specific.
He accepts the work and adds it to a pile already on his desk. “So tell me, what did you think about Daisy’s character?”
Maia stumbles, fumbling through her brain for any words to work. All she could think about was seemingly Minyard’s ring and how he kept flirting with Josten, not that it was her business. “I think it was wrong of her to let Gatsby take the blame and wrong of her to see Gatsby even though she’s married,” she finally settles on. It’s reflective of the thoughts whirling through her mind at the moment.
“But, Maia, have you ever considered it was all for love? Would you take the blame for a lover?” He asked, resting his chin on her hand and looking at her intently.
Maia thought about it for a few seconds. “I’ve never been in love. I love Avery, my best friend, but I don’t think I would take the blame of somebody’s death for her. Would you do it?”
Minyard tapped his fingers against his chin and bit the bottom of his lip. “One day, you’ll realize there’s a person you would do anything for no questions asked.”
Maia accepted the answer with a shrug, it was a pretty in character line from him. She turned to walk to the door when he spoke again. “If you ever need anything, Maia, I -and your other teachers- are here for you.”
Maia gave him a smile and then dashed out of the classroom so she could get to her next class on time, not bothering to try and figure out what he was talking about with his last comment.
-The fact that Minyard was married apparently had no sway over a bored and gossip hungry high school. The rumors were still running rampid, and everytime she saw Minyard she felt like he was sending her a nonverbal message, like he was saying this is crazy right?.
Everytime Josten and Minyard passed in the halls they would make biting remarks at each other about the idiosyncrasies of being either American or English. Minyard’s were usually in that horrific faux British accent and Josten’s were usually overly sarcastic and thoroughly thought out.
For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, a different traditional Thanksgiving dinner side was left in front of Josten’s door and the day before break started there was a whole roasted turkey there. Josten being the charm he is, let the ravenous highschoolers pick at the offerings which were obviously from Minyard even though there was never a note. Having mashed potatoes during math at seven in the morning certainly was odd but made Maia’s day.
The day before Christmas break someone (cough cough Josten cough cough) hired a group of British carollers to follow Minyard around the school singing traditional British Christmas carols. Maia has no idea how this was allowed or not stopped at some point during the day. Especially when there was the rumor that they even followed him into the restroom.
Their rivalry was stronger than ever, the comments in the hallways continuing now with pranks and acts of the such included.
Per usual Minyard walked into class two minutes late and the entire class was holding its breath. When they had come in there had been math equations scrawled across the board in chicken scritch like handwriting that Maia knew belonged to a certain math teacher.
Maia thought this was sacrilege, to put math on a poor literature teacher’s board. And apparently, Minyard thought the same thing because he squeaks when he walks in. “Dear lord help me,” he says, staring at the board. “Someone get this math off my board before I pass out.”
He sets his briefcase down and then walks towards the door. He rests his hand on the door jamb, glaring out the window in the general vicinity of the math wing. “This simply won’t do. And we all know who’s responsible for this,” he says, turning to look at the class. Some boy has erased the board and Minyard pats it twice as he passes it and picks up his phone. He presses a few buttons then sets it back down as it fills the room with a ringtone.
“Andrew, to what do I owe the pleasure in the middle of my class?” Josten asked, his accent sounding tinny and stretched through the phone.
Minyard scowled at the phone. “Why was there math on the board when I walked into my classroom?”
Josten laughs and the class giggles too, trying not to bring attention to themselves. “Oh my, I was writing down the time for my dinner reservations tonight, I must have wandered into the wrong room by accident.”
“That is bullshit, Josten and you know it. There are so many fallacies in that statement, that I don’t even know where to start,” Minyard says, turning his nose up as he examines the board as if he’s searching for any more traces of math.
“Oh well, it’s such a shame you must have erased it already. However will I know what time I’m supposed to meet my husband for dinner,” Josten says snarkily, amusement and laughter twirled in his voice.
Maia notices the tips of Minyard’s ears go pink and for a second she wonders if they were ever rivals at all. Someone in the class laughs out loud at the remark and Josten clears his throat. “Am I on speaker phone Andrew?” he asks calmly, his voice still filled with laughter.
“Yes,” is all Minyard says. He’s gnawing on his bottom lip and holding his elbows like he's waiting to see where this conversation will end.
“Oh well then I amend my words. Maybe you should write down the equation and solve it so you know what time to meet me for dinner. I wouldn’t want you to miss our anniversary after all,” he says and the smirk is evident in his voice.
Minyard’s eyes widen slightly and his cheeks flush ever so slightly.
Josten speaks again, “If anyone catches a picture of his face right now I’ll give you a bonus point in my class.”
Before Maia even considers it her phone is in her hand and the picture of Minyard is snapped. She instantly emails it to Josten and when she receives a smiley face emoji back from him she laughs to herself.
-When the news that Minyard and Josten spread around the school there was outcry. Most were thrilled to have called it. Some shouted out the usual slurs about them and at those who were supporting the pair of teachers.
Maia of course thought this was all extreme and unnecessary but she never said anything. She thought, maybe it was a good thing since it gave a few kids the courage to come out and Avery could babble about how wonderful it was to have the teacher of her favorite subject be “like her”, in her own words.
The final straw of her minding her own business was on Monday. Maia walks into math and Josten’s laptop is connected to the projector, the picture of Minyard she took beaming onto the smart board as his laptop screensaver.
In lit class that day, Minyard’s laptop is up with a video about Romeo and Juliet for them to watch and as he closes that tab so he can pull up the tab with worksheets it takes him long enough that the class notices his wallpaper is a picture of Josten with two cats and a kitten passed out of his stomach.
That day on her way out of school Maia sticks a post-it note on each of their doors. They both say: you mean a lot to the students “like you”, as my friend says. i think you guys are cute together, i hope ur happy.
Maia doesn’t know if they ever saw her post-it or if they were cleared away by the janitors but there is one thing she does know: she never did get that bonus point.