Starlight ★ TENTH DOCTOR

They Can Smell Your Fear

The piercing ring of the bell was like heaven to Elizabeth's ears. She has been on the verge of tears for the past 20 minutes. So far, travelling with the Doctor has been the most wondrous experience, but this latest "adventure" they were currently on was Elizabeth's least favourite.

Two days ago, Rose got a call from her boyfriend saying that he thinks there's something weird happening in a local school and UFO sightings nearby. The most shocking thing about this to Elizabeth was not the fact that Rose was receiving phone calls from 2006 in the year 2534 but that the blonde had a boyfriend. Don't get her wrong, Elizabeth doesn't think that Rose couldn't pull anyone, it's just that she can very obviously see the heart eyes that the blonde has for the Doctor. But it isn't her place to meddle, so she let it go, for now.

After not much persuasion from Rose, the Doctor did agree to investigate. He snagged a job as a physics teacher, Rose was a dinner lady, and poor Liz got stuck with the french substitute job. To be honest, she's never been good with kids, actually, they kind of scare her. Especially the teenagers. Elizabeth has constructed this idea that they can smell her fear, like a pack of bloodthirsty dogs. It was only the second day, but she was so over it.

Finishing up writing the home assignment on the chalkboard, Elizabeth turns to the kids with a sweet smile. She tries very hard to come across as the cool substitute, but seeing the kid's bored faces, dims her ambition a bit.

"Très bien, la classe est renvoyée. Au revoir!" Before she finished her sentence, half of the class had already left. Some did say their goodbyes to the woman, but most of them just ignored her. Elizabeth slumped back into her seat at the desk and put her head in her hands.

'Just two more classes for today. Just two more.'

★★★★

The Doctor had instructed them to act casual and pretend like they actually didn't know each other. But this didn't stop Elizabeth from plopping down in the seat next to the man at lunchtime. She pretended just to make friends with him.

"Do these chips taste funny to you?" The Doctor was inspecting the chip on his plastic fork. There was something off about them, but it could have just been him. Having a new mouth with different taste buds really messes with his perception of food.

"Yeah, they're disgusting. That's why I pack my own." Elizabeth pulled a face at the sight of the disgusting yellow chip. To her, they just tasted like leather and too much oil. In turn, she pulled out a chicken sandwich that she had previously prepared in the Tardis kitchen. After a couple of minutes, Rose made her way over to their table to clean up.

"Two days."

"Sorry, could you just? There's a bit of gravy," The Doctor pointed his fork to a clean spot on the table, "No, no, just, just there."

"Two days, we've been here."

"Blame your boyfriend. He's the one who put us onto this. And he was right. Boy in class this morning, got a knowledge way beyond planet Earth." Elizabeth was glad that at least he got some leads, and they weren't just wasting their time here.

"How long do we have to be here though? You know I can only take so much teenage sarcasm before I burst."

"Oh, they can't be that bad." The Doctor bumped Elizabeth's shoulder, trying to cheer her up. In turn, she narrowed her eyes at him.

"You, darling, haven't tried to have a proper conversation with a preteen before, have you? They are mean."

The Doctor fake pouted at her. She threw a napkin at his stupid face.