FRERARD ONE-SHOTS

Field Trip to the Museum

I hate children, I hate children, I hate children.

Now why did I decide to be a teacher?

Oh, yeah. I wasn't doing any money as a writer.

So now I have to put up with dozens of preteens, screaming in my ear, running around a school bus on our way to the museum.

Kill me.

'How you doing over there, buddy?' Mrs. Chandler says to me. She's the other teacher in charge of this field trip. She used to be my teacher, too. That's how old she is. So us chaperoning this trip together is weird, especially when she keeps talking to me as if I'm one of the students.

'I'm good,' I reply, despite looking like shit. I barely slept last night because I was writing. Or more like, I tried writing, but I was on my phone, and playing with my dog. 'So, is it always like this?' I ask her.

She just laughs. Is she laughing at me?

I take a deep breath, reminding myself that I shouldn't be planning on murdering children, and hope we get to the museum, soon.

***

The Monroeville Museum of Art.

I've only been here a couple times in my whole life, the last time being when I was these kids' age, so I don't remember any of it. But I'm their history teacher, and Mrs. Chandler signed me up for this trip, so I had no choice.

'Hey - you - ' I still don't know how to be a professional and keep wanting to call them motherfucker, or assholes ever since I started teaching, so I have to bite my tongue every time. 'Listen to me, if one of you doesn't behave we're all going to return to the school, and I'll make sure you never go on a field trip again in your lifetime.' At least they're afraid of me. Mrs. Chandler reads them the rules again, and tells them to form a line to get off the bus. 'Remember guys,' I tell them as we start to walk in. 'You break it, you pay it. And it ain't cheap.'

Since this is my first field trip as a teacher, Mrs. Chandler is in charge of checking in with the museum staff, while I hand out brochures to the kids.

The first floor is all about Modern Art, so Mrs. Chandler, being the art teacher in this equation, is in charge of the students, while I stay a little behind, making sure no one wanders around.

I'm not a huge fan of art, other than written and music, so I'm starting to get bored back here. I take a seat in the main hallway, and check my phone. Dry as usual, but it'd would be really irresponsible of me to start playing games. Of course, I'm playing Sudoku on the job.

Until I notice two people standing not so far away from where I'm sitting, talking about – I don't know what they're talking about. But the guy talking catches my attention. He's wearing a gray sweatshirt and has long hair and beard, and yet manages to look gorgeous as hell. Okay, maybe it's just the sunlight coming in this way and making everything look beautiful. But no, he absolutely is.

Shit, I looked for too long.

I'm back on my phone, when I finally see Mrs. Chandler coming this way. That means we're heading to the Egypt exhibition, so that's my cue. 'C'mon this way,' I tell the kids, and lead them to the main exhibition room at the end of the hallway. We walk by where the man in the hoodie is, and either I'm hallucinating, or he smirks at me. I do a double take and turn around, and he winks at me. Fuck. Control yourself!

I somehow manage to focus on my job, and give my students a history lesson without thinking about that gorgeous man, and I don't know if it's the coffee, or the wink that put me in a good mood but I don't feel like yelling at them for once.