Chapter Text
Buck is cleaning vomit out of the carpet.
He is on his knees, rubbing bleach into the rug he got for the class a week ago while Ravi laughs at him like the traitor he is. Buck glances up from his humiliating position and casts the deadliest glare he can muster. “Can you at least try to help?”
“Hey, it’s your kid who threw up,” Ravi says, raising his hands. “Thank God I don’t have to deal with that. 5th graders are awesome.”
“Fuck you.”
“Watch your mouth, Mr. Buckley, you teach six year olds.” A voice rings from the doorway, and Buck sighs. Great, another one.
Ravi cheers. “Chimney!”
Chimney skips into the room and surveys the disaster. “I miss how cute the kids are, but man, I don’t miss that.” He drawls, and it takes everything in Buck to not throw the vomit-soaked sponge at the man. He can hear Maddie’s sharp reprimands already. God, why did he ever introduce them at that stupid faculty party?
“What do you want, Chim?” he groans instead of resorting to bio-terrorism. “Are you just here to antagonize me like Ravi?”
Chimney shrugs. “Initially, no. But now I am.”
Maybe Buck can stand Maddie’s scolding. “What’s the initial purpose?”
“Bobby called for a meeting.”
Ravi lets out an interested hum. “Is this about that new second grade teacher?”
“Yeah, I actually just caught a glimpse of him.” Chimney says excitedly, scooting to sit on the desk beside Ravi. Like Buck needed a second pair of eyes hovering above him. “He is a beautiful man.”
“How beautiful are we talking here?” Ravi asks.
“Remember the news anchor man that was here last year?”
“Obviously.”
“Times that by forty-five.”
Ravi whistles. “Shit.”
“And Buck, he looks so your type.”
“I really don’t want love life advice from my sister’s husband,” Buck says. He is still scrubbing.
Chimney swings his legs like a little kid. “Maddie would say the same. I’m doing this for the better of the world.”
“You haven’t dated anyone in ages. We can’t let you go back to Firehose because of a dry spell,” Ravi says, and Chimney makes a disgusted sound at the phrase dry spell. Or maybe the Firehose part.
Buck throws the sponge into the bucket. He did what he could to salvage the rug. If time fails, he’ll just do the old and reliable trick: flip it over. “Why do you guys have to bring up Firehose?”
“You’re the one who used to dress up as a firefighter every Halloween to sleep with people.”
To be very fair, it was the beginning of Buck’s teaching career, where nothing was stable and he would go bar hopping almost every weekend. He only stopped after some of his hookups came to the school to see him, and Bobby was incredibly adamant about stranger danger.
Not that Buck blames him. It was highly inappropriate for him to tell the exact location of his job to people he met overnight.
“I am not going back to Firehose,” Buck grumbles and stands to his feet. “I’m not interested in dating right now, anyway.”
“You’re going to change your mind after you see this guy.” Chimney chimes, and hops to stand as well. “We gotta get going, though. Athena is already here.”
Ravi scrambles to get off the desk.
Maple Elementary and Middle School stands in the middle of Maple Street with its four-story building. The red brick structure remains unchanged since its establishment in 1972, and despite the occasional renovations, the pipes leak more often than not. Due to its underfunded nature, both the conjoined departments are run by Principal Bobby Nash.
Bobby is loved by all staff and students alike. Buck once overheard some kids calling him their school grandpa, or peepaw, which he did have a good chuckle over.
His wife, Athena, is the education head of the local government, and drops in here and there to either give Bobby his forgotten lunch or check in on how they are managing. Sometimes, she drops Harry off when her oldest, May, can’t drive him on the way to her high school.
Buck loves them both. Athena, for all her intimidation, makes visible efforts to try to get them the funding they need, even if Bobby tells her otherwise. She did scare Buck once upon a time, but that torch has been passed to Ravi, who remains afraid of the woman even after a year.
The main office is located on the second floor, three doors away from the fourth grade classrooms. Its glass windows are decorated with scattered drawings and posters through the semesters, and Buck loves looking at the creativity of students celebrated like this.
Everyone is already gathered by the time they make it inside: Hen, chatting with Athena next to the coffee machine, Karen sorting through paper works, Josh and Maddie, and a few office members huddled around a laptop, and other faculty members milling about here and there.
Buck goes to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Have you met this new guy yet? Chimney is raving about him. Called him, and I quote, ‘beautiful’.”
Hen snorts. “Where’s the lie? And I like girls.”
Athena sighs and sips her coffee. “Bobby’s out giving him a tour right now. They should be back anytime soon.”
“Where’s this guy from, anyway?” Buck rolls his eyes. “From how Chimney’s talking, I’m starting to think he rolled straight out of a Hollywood movie.”
“He’s a veteran.”
Both Hen and Buck whirl at her. “What?”
“Yes,” Athena says matter-of-factly. “He came back from Afghanistan, got a degree, and came to the city hall asking for a teaching job. I knew Ms. Finnigan was going to be out for a while on paternity leave here, so…” she gives a half-shrug. “He’s more than capable, I’ll tell you that. I know his professor, and she told me he was top of the class.”
“Who becomes a teacher after enlisting?” Buck mutters, and earns a hit on the arm from Hen. “Ow!”
“You cannot seriously be jealous of a guy you haven’t even met yet.”
“I’m not jealous!”
“Oh, hush, they’re coming back.” Athena says, and Buck looks at the direction everyone seems to turn to.
It’s like time briefly stops.
Buck is lucky he put his coffee down beforehand, because somehow, every muscle in his body seems to tense and lax at the same time. All sound drowns out of his ears, leaving his thundering and speeding heartbeat to ring in his eardrums like a booming speaker. Everything narrows down to one person—one man—who enters the room, smiling warmly and shaking everyone’s hands.
No, no, no, it can’t be—
Then, his eyes slide to Buck’s, and they widen.
His hearing comes rushing back just as Bobby opens his mouth.
No, please, no, no, no—
“Everyone, I want you to meet our new second grade teacher, Eddie Diaz.”
Fuck.