The mother
Agatha has been filling in for the Spanish class, only during the second period, for some weeks now. She knew some Spanish but wasn’t very good at it, the basics she knew, sure, but anything past that was lost on her.
See, Agatha has been working at westview public high-school for some years now, she got her teaching licence ten years ago and worked at a highschool in Salem for a couple of years before a pretty bad breakup and greatly timed job offering as the drama teacher at westview highschool.
She loves her job, the kids in the drama class are always extremely well-behaved and most of them love drama and acting as much as she does, plus she’s able to see her son during lunches since the elementary school was only a five minute drive from the highschool.
Her son is eight as of tomorrow, which unfortunately isn’t a weekend, but Nicky seems pretty excited to hand out cookies to his classmates during lunch period.
What Agatha doesn’t love is teaching the Spanish class.
Frankly, the students are all rather annoying and most of them seem to have no respect for actually learning in this class. She wouldn’t have to be teaching this class if a certain someone(ahem, Sharon, ahem) hadn’t gotten themselves fired due to drinking, during school hours, on school grounds! Even Agatha was smart enough to at least wait for the buses to leave the school.
The most recent meeting between the staff had revealed that a new Spanish teacher was starting soon, which Agatha could not be more excited for, she missed having second period open so she could actually get some work done!
7:00, Agatha has pretty much just arrived at school, She laid out food for her son and his lunch is ready to put into his bag, Jen, Agatha’s(reluctant) best friend who teaches at the middle school always makes sure Nicholas gets on the bus for school, she’s really sweet, even with how much Agatha hated her at the start.
Agatha was in her classroom by 7:03, she has just opened her computer to do some organising and grading before the class started, which is in an hour when she saw the email Lilia sent out late last night, that woman and always sending emails at ungodly hours…
Dear teachers,
Please stay late after school ends so we can sort out the situation with the new spanish teacher starting tomorrow.
Regards, Lilia.
That’s a little annoying, Agatha wanted to get home early tonight. The email was forwarded to her, Kat and Monica. Kat and Monica are the two other teachers that knew any spanish and happen to be teaching the spanish class during other periods.
Kat is someone Agatha has talked to maybe once, she frequently supplies at the highschool, Monica is a science teacher at the school.
Agatha closed the email, she jotted it down on a sticky note at the corner of her desk so she wouldn’t forget it.
——
Saturday December 2004, year 2 university.
“Rio?”
It was dark, almost midnight. Agatha woke up due to a clutter coming from somewhere elsein the apartment, she noticed Rio wasn’t in bed a couple seconds later.
The light of the kitchen could be seen, Rio likely was making herself food. She did that often, especially during exams, when Rio stayed up late studying.
“In here, mi vida!” Rio called out to Agatha, her voice definitely coming from the kitchen, which confirmed Agatha’s suspicions on Rio making herself a midnight snack.
Agatha peered around the corner, just to see Rio pulling out a large tray of nachos from the oven
“Rio?” Agatha’s voice was now a soft question, rather than a nervous yell like it had been a couple moments before.
“Mi amor.” Rio took a second to glance at Agatha while she was placing down the nachos onto a placemat to prevent burn marks on their very new table.
“Rio, it’s two in the morning.” Agatha reminded her, entering the threshold of the kitchen and standing next to Rio. A gentle hand moved to rest on Rio’s upper arm, lightly squeezing it to get her attention.
“I know.” Rio turned to face Agatha and smiled at her, Agatha smiled back just as lovingly. “Why are you up, baby?” Agatha whispered now, attempting to keep the eerie yet calming quiet of the night they had previously disturbed.
“I was studying.” Agatha rolled her eyes and glanced at the nachos, then back at Rio. “For your culinary class, that you don’t take?”
“No, I got hungry!” A laugh filled the air as Agatha took in Rio’s words, which were full of affection and amusement.
Agatha let her head rest against Rio, a smile full of affection on her face.
A calm silence washed over them, no words, just the unspoken promise of ‘forever’ they both thought they’d keep.
“You should go to bed.” Agatha broke the silence.
“But my nachos-“ “After the nachos, then.” Agatha’s smile softened, she always loved little moments like this. Rio leaned her head closer to Agatha and whispered.
“I love you.”
——
Agatha blinked back the tears forming in her eyes, a shaky sigh left her lips as she shook the memory away from her head, she really needs to get over her ex, preferably sometime soon.
The knock of the door knocked Agatha out of her thoughts, how long had she been spaced out? That was way unusual for her.
The knock repeated and made Agatha realize she still had to unlock the classroom door. She got up and opened the door for whoever it was.
“Hi Ms. Harkness!” Billy greeted Agatha. She glanced at the clock— 7:52, eight minutes until the bell. Had she really been out of it for that long? What is wrong with me today? Agatha wondered.
“Hi, Maximoff.” Agatha greeted as kindly as she let herself be towards students. Well, Billy is technically her nephew , but she didn’t play favourites.
Billy beamed at her and entered the classroom. Her nephew had always been extremely early to classes, he had a pretty decent record, minus the one or two times Agatha may or may not have encouraged him to skip, and he genuinely loved the Drama class.
The kid is 16, a grade ten student. Agatha has always been close to his family, his parents— Wanda and Vision(what kind of name is Vision?) are some of Agatha’s closer friends. Well, Wanda is, she barely knows Vision.
Wanda always invites Agatha over to join the four for dinners on fridays, and oftentimes Billy and Tommy would go hang out with friends or each other at the park by the school and Agatha would drive them home.
Tommy didn’t take drama, he was always the more science-y twin out of the two of them, something Agatha actually appreciated about him, the kids a genius.
As the rest of Agatha’s students filed into the classroom, Agatha took a breath to prepare herself a little better for the day. The warning bell rang at 7:55 and five minutes later, the class started.
“Okay, class.”
——
1:05, Agatha’s personal phone rang. It went off a couple of seconds before she finally picked it up. “Agatha Harkness.” She answered the phone gruffly as she stepped out of the classroom.
A couple of words were exchanged between Agatha and the person on the phone before she re-entered the room. She glanced at the clock anxiously, her hand tapping at her thigh.
Immediately, she began dialling the number to the office on the line in the class, Lilia picked up.
“Lilia, Is there anyone who can cover my class for the rest of the day? I need to go, my son's school called.”
“Oh, of course I believe we can spare someone to cover your class for the day, you go get your son I’ll send someone down.”
Agatha said a quick thanks and returned to her class, it only took about five minutes(which was about five minutes too long) for someone to arrive to cover her class.
Agatha hurried out of the classroom and began her way to Nicky’s school, fumbling with her keys before getting into her car and driving a little faster than legal to Westview elementary.
The dark blue car pulled into the parking lot and into the closest open space, she did a decent parking job, as well of one as a concerned mom could.
Nicky sat patiently in the office, a young boy with blonde hair sat across the room, glaring daggers at the young brunette. The blonde was holding ice against a forming bruise- which stemmed from a bite mark on his arm. Nicky, however, nursed a limp arm and puffy red eyes, biting his lip and attempting not to cry. Something was definitely broken, Agatha was pretty sure it was a bone.
“Oh my gosh, Nicky, baby, are you okay?” Agatha kneeled down to Nicky’s height, immediately attempting to soothe him, she tapped his arm lightly and he winced, tears streaming down his face. “M-momma, He-“ “Mrs. Harkness?” A woman Agatha recognized stepped forward. Agatha gave her a weary glance as she stood up, keeping one eye on Nicky. “Why is my son injured? What happened?”
“Mrs. Harkness, your son, Nicky, and his classmate got into a fight during recess and Nicky bit his classmate-" “Why is Nicky injured?” Agatha demanded. “You know what? This can be an email, I’m taking my son to the hospital.“
“Mrs. Harkness, please just a moment?” The secretary pleaded. “I said, I am taking Nicky to the hospital, have a good day.” Agatha swiftly picked up Nicky and grabbed his backpack in one slightly less fluid motion and left immediately, not sparing a single glance to the school.
Nicky sobbed into Agatha’s shoulder, it broke her heart to see her boy cry, but she knew he needed to cry, he‘s clearly hurt and sometimes kids just need to cry.
The single mother rushed Nicky to the emergency room, where they waited far too long for Agatha’s liking and eventually managed to get Nicky checked out and with a cast on his arm. He was fine, really, A fractured growth plate was all. It wouldn’t take long to heal.
And then she got the email from whoever was working at the desk that day.
Dear Ms. Harkness,
during recess today a conflict between your son, Nicky, and his classmate, Gabriel, has occurred. This ended with Nicky injuring his arm and biting Gabriel. We regret to inform you that your son is going to be suspended for the next three days due to this incident.
Just what Agatha Harkness needed in her life.