Chapter 4
Pilot
It has been a week and a half since their arrival. They have moved into their new home and already met their neighbors, the Lockwoods. Being the curious person that she is, Carol Lockwood dragged her husband and son to meet the newcomers. She heard quite a bit about them from Sheriff Forbes and her daughter Caroline. The introductions were a little tense, but everyone was polite with fake smiles. Mayor Lockwood and Fenrir kept their distance from each other after their wolves bristled when they shook hands. Tyler Lockwood stayed quiet until Leilani said she was the new history teacher at the high school.
“Wait, what? Tanner was the football coach. He just up and quit? There goes the season,” Tyler slumped in his spot on the couch. “You know, they didn’t say anything about him being the coach. The administration just told me he quit after ranting about hating kids. I do know something about coaching a team, I was captain of my team in school. We played Football, but I think it’s called something else here in the states.” Tyler cut in, “Soccer. It’s called Soccer.” Lei nods her head, “Thanks. I could coach until someone better is found.” Tyler perked up a little bit. He’ll have to talk with the team about a girl coaching them.
“Wonderful. Well, we must be going. It was nice meeting you all,” Carol stood up, her face still plastered with a fake smile, and once again dragged her family back home. She could tell those people are from old money by the looks of the expensive furnishings, the paintings decorating the walls, and a few portraits that she could have sworn moved. Once the front door of the Lockwood home was closed the Mayor stomped into his office for a stiff drink, his wife and son followed behind him. Setting his glass down, the Mayor turns to his son, “I don’t like it. A woman coaching Football.” He decided to go with that route instead of explaining to his son that Fenrir had a scent of a wolf, a very dangerous wolf. He lifted his glass and took another drink, “I’ll contact the school board and find someone to coach as soon as possible.” Tyler wanted to argue, but he knows it was no use when it comes to his father.
Hermione could feel the apprehension from Fenrir as she watched him look out the window towards the Lockwoods’ home. She stood next to him, “What’s bothering you?” Fenrir sighs and moves away from the window, “My wolf felt on edge the whole time the Mayor was here. When I shook his hand, I could smell his wolf but it was different. His son gave off a little bit of a wolf scent. I could tell the Mayor smelt my wolf, he practically jumped to the other side of the room.” “I did notice that. Carol is probably another Fudge, wanting to keep everyone in this town happy so her husband will stay in office. We’ll keep our distance for now. However, there was an article in the paper about the anniversary of the town. There’s a party, parade, carnival, beauty pageant, and a ball.” Hermione scrunched her nose in disgust thinking about the ball, she was not looking forward to wearing a dress.
Over the next few days, Leilani was getting the rest of her paperwork filled out at the high school as well as getting everything for the coaching position. She looked over some of the playbooks and added some of her own notes. Packing those away for the time being and finished up her curriculum for the year. It took some convincing, but she got approved for what she wanted to teach. At first, the administration didn’t want to hire Lei because she was so young, but she showed her (magically conjured) proof of being a teacher’s aide in college while getting her teaching degree. Leilani loved magic, really she did.
The night before the first day of school Lei was pacing between her closet and desk to make sure she had everything. She didn’t want to embarrass herself on the first day by forgetting something. Lei was rummaging through her closet for something professional to wear, however, after thinking it through, she decided to be comfortable. So, skinny jeans, tee-shirt, sneakers, and Sirius’ leather jacket. She was getting changed into sweats and a tank top for bed. The black Grimm on her right shoulder stretched and yawned, curling up into a ball on her back. He was soon snuggled by a massive Stag that usually stands tall on her left shoulder. Finally, a scare-covered and overly tired werewolf wrapped himself around the other two. She smiled as she watched Padfoot, Prongs, and Moony through the reflection in her bathroom mirrors.
Surprisingly, Hermione didn’t have to drag Leilani out of bed in the morning. She leaned against Lei’s bedroom door frame and watched her sister tie up her shoes, “Are you ready for today?” Lei sat up, rubbed her clammy palms down her jeans, then stood up, “As I’ll ever be. You think McGonnagal would flip if she knew I was teaching?” Lei puts on her leather jacket, holstered her wand, and grabs her crossbody satchel with all her school and coaching materials. “I think she would be a little miffed that you’re teaching at a muggle high school since you turned down the DADA position. But she would also be proud of you because you are good at teaching,” Hermione said.
They went downstairs to the three-car garage that only housed Sirius’ motorcycle. Leilani had the motorcycle worked on by a halfblood mechanic after she got it back from Hagrid when the war was over. It ran like a dream, and all the spellwork was redone to Lei’s specifications. Leilani had the sidecar in the garage after she detached it. Hermione shook her head, “I can’t believe you’re actually riding that death trap.” Lei puts on her helmet, “Hey, would you rather I fly my Firebolt?” Hermione sighs, “Good point. Have a good day.” Hermione turns to go back inside but adds one last thing, “No pranks.” Lei salutes mockingly at her sister as she starts the motorcycle and drives out of the garage.
Lei parked in the lot with the other teacher’s cars. She walked through the school to get to her classroom. Her first class was about to start in a few minutes. Some students were already in the classroom. They just watched her set things down on the teacher’s desk, followed by writing her name on the chalkboard. Lei took off her leather jacket and put it on the back of her chair, and took a deep breath. She kept her eyes on her desk until the final bell rang. Lifting her head, she saw every desk had a student seated.
Stefan Salvatore walked into his first class with Elena Gilbert. When he crossed the threshold, he shuddered from the amount of power radiating from the teacher. He wondered if these people were going to cause problems in Mystic Falls. He had heard rumors floating around town about the new people, but this was the first time he has seen one of them. Stefan sat at a desk near Elena. They were separated by a desk but had a clear view of each other. He couldn’t take his eyes off Elena, at least until the teacher spoke.
“Alright, good morning everyone. My name is Leilani Evans. I mostly go by Evans. I’m going to ask that you bare with me, this is my first time teaching on my own. Normally there’s a stuck-up old hag telling me what to do,” Lei got a few laughs from that. She looks down at Tanner’s lesson plans, “I have been informed that some of Tanner’s lessons will have to be covered, otherwise the lesson is open for me to do as I please. History is a subject I always found boring. In fact, at my school, it was renamed ‘Naptime.’ And with a professor that sounded like Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off didn’t help any. Okay, let’s do a roll call, and if I mispronounce your name don’t be shy to correct me.”
After the roll call, Lei leaned against her desk, “I’m going to try and make this class as easy as I can get away with. Every week will be the same except during certain events in this town’s history. Now, I’m going to write down different history topics on the board. I want everyone to vote on which ones they’d like to learn about. The topic with the most votes is the era of history we will cover. It is why there were no textbooks assigned to this class. Homework will be due that Friday before the end of class. Research can be done using books in the library, documentaries, and the internet but not Wikipedia.”
Lei could see the class was interested, almost everyone was paying attention to her. Almost. She noticed two students staring at each other with heart eyes. Lei turned to her desk, “Any questions?” She faced the classroom.
Caroline, Elena, and Matt raised their hands. Lei picked Matt first, “Yes, Matt?” He put his hand down, “Is it true you’re the new coach?” Leilani smiled, “I am. For now at least, until someone better is found. I played Soccer for five years, and I was captain for three of those.” Matt nodded his head but he did have doubts. Lei could see the doubt in his eyes, “I know it won’t be easy to work with me, considering I played soccer and not football and I’m a girl but we’ll see how it goes.”
Lei pointed to Caroline, “Caroline?” “What happened to Mister Tanner?” The bubbly blonde asked. The whole town had been talking about Tanner quitting and moving abruptly. “I’m not sure. The office just said he quit with hardly any time to find a replacement. It was by sheer luck that I came into the office the next day asking about any open teaching positions, and got his job,” Lei shrugged her shoulders.
“Elena? You have a question?” Lei got the girl’s attention away from staring at a boy in the class. “Uh, yeah. I was wondering where you are from? And not to be rude, but how old are you?” Elena had heard from Caroline and Bonnie about some new people moving into town. “Elena, that was rude,” Bonnie whisper-shouted at her best friend. Lei sighed, “It’s the accent, isn’t it?” She laughs lightly, “Me, my sister Hermione, and her husband Fenrir are from Surrey, England. I turned twenty on July 31. I made it my goal to get my teaching degree before I turned 21 and I did, ahead of schedule too.”
One of the other students raised his hand, “What about the rest of the week?” Lei clapped her hands and moved around her desk, “Good question. The rest of the week will be for research, and further discussion if needed for your homework. If you’re done with the homework then you can work on your other class assignments. And as long as your voices can’t be heard outside the threshold then you can talk. My syllabus will be the same for all four years. Makes it easier for me.” Lei points to herself with both hands. “Any exams, including the final will be open notes. On that note, I’m going to list the topics so we can vote.” Lei wrote “Ancient History, History of the Middle Ages, History of the Modern Age.”
With the votes tallied, the chosen topic was History of the Middle Age. The rest of the class was spent discussing where to find information about the time period. Leilani made sure her students knew they could come to her for anything if they needed to. She felt that her being close to their age, it would be easier to talk to her than a counselor or any other teacher.
During each class, Lei had gone through things Tanner left behind. She had found files labeled with students’ names with degrading nicknames written next to the labels. Three files stuck out more than the rest due to the nicknames and thickness. These files were sitting on Lei’s desk. She was going to shred them, they held nothing but detention slips, written accusations of school violations, and disciplinary actions. Nothing pertaining to their actual academics.
Tyler Lockwood, the Angry Brainless Jock, was the thinnest. Elena Gilbert, nicknamed Entitled Brat, was stacked in the middle. The last one was the thickest out of all of them, almost like Tanner was stalking the poor kid. Jeremy Gilbert, also known as Asshole, Jerk, and the most recent Druggie. Lei shook her head, “Definitely another Snape. Poor kid.” She opened the file to scan its contents, and she could tell Jeremy was not taking the death of his parents very well. Leilani already knew about the death of his parents from his sister’s file, however, Elena was handling her grief a little better.
The last class of the day went the same as the rest of the classes. Lei noted that Jeremy Gilbert was in this class, he sat in the back with his head laying on his folded arms. When the class ended, Leilani asked, “Mister Gilbert, would you mind staying back for a moment?” She was rewarded with an eye roll typical of a teenager as he threw his backpack onto his shoulder by one strap.
Jeremy stood in front of the teacher’s desk impatiently. Lei picked up the file with his name on it. “I was going through Tanner’s things and came across files he had put together on students he declared “Problem Children”. Apparently, it seemed like he had vendettas against certain students.” Lei air quoted, problem children. She set down the file in front of Jeremy, “That’s yours. Do with it what you wish. I’m going to shred the rest of them.” Jeremy picked up the thick file and stuffed it into his backpack.
He turned to leave but Lei started speaking again, “Look, I’m not going to play shrink or anything like that, but if you want someone to speak to, I’ll listen. I may not know exactly what you are going through…” Jeremy rudely cut Lei off, “No, you don’t know a damn thing.” He took two steps towards the door before Leilani’s voice stopped him. “My parents were murdered in front of me then the attacker tried to kill me when I was a baby.” Jeremy slowly turned back to the history teacher with wide, sad eyes. “Then the only true family member I had left was also murdered when I was fifteen and again I saw everything. And to top it off, I was told to suck it up and be in class the next morning. A class that was taught by a professor who hated me just because my father and his best friends were his bullies.”
Jeremy hung his head in shame. Lei stepped around her desk to stand in front of him. “So, if you need someone, I’m here. If you need some time to yourself, just show up Monday for the topic review, and Friday long enough to turn in your homework.” Lei ran her fingers through her hair thinking about her parents and Godfather, “It's been five years since I lost my godfather, and it hasn’t gotten any easier.” Lei cleared the lump in her throat, “That file of yours…If you’re gonna burn it, please do it safely.” She heard Jeremy snort as he turned and walked out the door, almost running into his older sister, who was almost in tears.
Elena had wondered where he was and went looking for him. When she found him speaking to the history teacher, she listened to the conversation. What she heard Miss Evans say almost brought tears to her eyes. She held them back as Jeremy walked out and almost bumped into her. Jeremy looked at his sister, shook his head, and kept walking towards his friends. Elena went to catch up with Bonnie and Caroline before cheerleading practice.
Lei packed everything of hers into her satchel and made her way to the football field. The first practice of the season was spent going over the roster, everyone’s positions, uniforms, and checklists. Lei asked the team, “Any injuries over the summer?” A chorus of no was all she heard. “That’s good to hear. Okay, I read through Tanner’s playbooks, and let's just say I was tempted to throw them out. Some look like a toddler playing with a sharpie.” Some players shook their heads while others laughed.
“Tanner only seemed to care about winning, and nothing else. That train of thought is what led to the team losing. He was so focused on winning the game, he lost sight of each play. He would dish out the plays and the patterns but he didn’t truly pay attention.” Lei paced in front of the team on the field. They were listening to what she was saying while thinking about Coach Tanner’s actions. Lei stopped in the middle of pacing, “While I’m coaching you will not concentrate on just winning, but playing the game to the best of your ability. But mostly to have fun, if you only think about winning then mistakes will be made. The captain will be assisting me with the plays I come up with.
“During practice and scrimmages, the plays will be analyzed for weak areas and strengthened. Scrimmages are scheduled for every Friday except for game days, it gives you the weekend to recover. And please hydrate. I made the mistake of playing dehydrated once and passed out on the field.” Lei laughed at herself, “At the beginning and end of practice, we will stretch. I highly suggest doing some calisthenics in the morning before school and stretching before going to bed. Believe it or not, this helps to further prevent injuries and muscle soreness. And I will see you all in class tomorrow.”
In the locker room, the team discussed the new teacher/coach. “What do you think?” Tyler asked his teammates. Matt spoke first, “I don’t know. She seems to know what she’s doing but at the same time she doesn’t.” Another guy said, “I say we do what she says and see how it goes. If we win the first game then she stays.” Tyler sighed, “My dad is not too happy about a girl coaching football. He’s looking for a replacement already. She did say she’ll be the coach until someone better is found. But I think we should give her a chance and I’ll tell my dad to hold off on the search for now.” They all closed their lockers and left for the day.
Leilani had just barely walked into their home when Hermione bombarded her with questions about Lei’s first day. Lei gave a summarization of her classes and football practice. Hermione listened and nodded her head, “Sounds like a good first day.” They walked through the house, entering Lei’s bedroom so she could set her stuff down. Hermione crossed her arms, “Are you going to your art room?” Lei stayed silent but nodded her head. She always had a talent for painting, she dove into the hobby after Sirius’ death. Lei was currently working on his portrait. It was going to take time since there is an incantation to be recited with each stroke of the brush. Hermione exhaled heavily, “I’ll have Pip make you a snack, but you will join us for dinner.” She walked away before Lei could argue.
AN: I changed her teaching material. My brain completely fritzed out and forgot their magic reacts horribly around electronics. It is also why they don’t have cell phones, only a landline.