SPACEMAN AND THE MOON ― doctor who

one ; school reunion part one

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chapter one ; school reunion!

LUNA CHEWED ON HER PEN THOUGHTFULLY AS SHE READ THE ESSAY IN FRONT OF HER, frowning at the lack of mistakes. It seemed a copy, as though the children had all teamed up and decided to copy and paste a historian's essay page, before turning it in the next day. But this wasn't even the first time.

For the past three months, the curriculum had changed drastically and the students...got smarter. Not that they weren't before, but there was the handful with A's, majority of B's, a few C's and the kids who slept in the back during class.

Now...not a single kid slept, not a single child fell below a B. And each student had miraculously learned proper grammar, spelling, and each major historical event -- in surprising detail.

"Miss Peterson?"

Startled, Luna glanced up, her pen slipping from her hand. "Oh, hello, Milo, what can I do for you?"

Milo, small boy of twelve, walked in nervously, stopping in front of her desk. "It's just...Headmaster Finch said I can't be in your class anymore...he said I've failed him and the only way to get smarter is to drop your course."

Luna's eyebrows raised in surprise. "I-I'm sorry Milo, what does that mean? Did he send you here? He can't un-enroll you from my class, love, you're okay. Your essay was brilliant, by the way, so don't think for a moment that he's forcing you to leave. I'll have a word with him after school to settle things, alright?"

Milo nodded somberly. "Yes, Miss Peterson."

Luna opened her mouth to say something else but the boy had scrambled off in a hurry, leaving her alone in a quiet fury. Taking a child out of her class? Luna may have been on the younger side but she was a qualified, professional teacher. She'd graduated from the University of Cambridge three years previous, with honors, and dived straight into a teaching career. With an emphasis on History and Creative Writing, she pushed students as hard as she could, blending the past with modern day in essays, projects, and important pieces of literature.

But with the Headmaster of the school taking her students out of her class? How was she supposed to fight that? Honestly, it was preposterous. Luna was one of the few teachers that didn't require a computer in her class, it was strictly mind-centric. She focused on group projects and encouraged them to think outside the box, use their imagination to complete homework.

Luna sipped her tea curiously as she left the classroom, heading to the staff room to grab a biscuit left out by Mr. Parsons that morning. He was celebrating his birthday, but the other teachers were far too wrapped up in their own worlds to notice, but Luna had even bought him a present.

"Yesterday, I had a twelve year old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy in cubits," Parsons explained to the new Physics teacher. Luna hadn't met him yet, he'd only just started, but mostly steered clear from things like that.

History and English was her forte; math, science, physics? She tried but seemed to always end up with a boggled mind.

"What're we gossiping about, birthday boy?" Luna slid into the conversation, taking another sip of her tea and grabbing a biscuit from the table on her way over.

"Oh, Mr. Smith was wondering if I'd seen anything strange since working here."

"Well did you tell him about the lottery numbers?"

Parsons shook his head, but immediately jumped into explanation. "Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that. Luna's the only one other than myself," he turned his attention to Luna. "And thanks for the gift, by the way."