Not exactly nostalgia (Lukas M)

[Josie Raines]

The music thumping through Josie's headphones was turned up high enough to mask the sound of the garbage can trundling over tile floor as she wheeled it along from room to room. An assortment of tools were hooked to and slung over its plastic rim - sprays, a broom, a chisel for prying dried gum off the undersides of desks. Classes had let out and the halls were mostly empty of students, but she prefered the headphones to blaring her music on a portable radio. It offered a sense of privacy, almost, distancing her from the rest of the world while also giving her something to focus on besides her own thoughts.

So far since Josie's return to Pilot Ridge and to Hammel, moments of pleasant reflection had been few and far between. Most of the memories that rose to the surface of her mind as she worked had been of failed assignments or arguments with other kids. Not that life at Hammel had been miserable, at least not any more than it had been before. But it could have been better, if she'd let it.

When she rolled up to the closed door to the history classroom, Josie's head was bobbing along to a relatively mellow beat contentedly. Today had been a good day, at least by the standard she was using these days. Someone else had bathroom duty, there was a six-pack of craft stout that she'd decided to splurge on waiting in her fridge at home, and she'd only had to scrub one sharpied penis off a desk so far. With one gloved hand, Josie grabbed her broom; with the other, she reached out and swung the door open. Back to work.

[Lukas Miles]

He was supposed to be going home early tonight, not stuck in the classroom to clean up yet another mess caused by his students. This time he'd assigned a simple project to create a time line poster. Apparently such an assignment required more maturity than his last hour class possessed. So now Lukas was stuck staring at his catastrophe of a classroom. Books were out of order, put back haphazardly, or in some cases they were just left wide open on the desk. That actually wasn't all that uncommon, though.

What really took the cake were the puddles of glue and bits of paper just about everywhere; on the floor, on the desks, in the puddles of glue. In one spot it looked like one of the kids had rolled the bits around in glue and then attempted to build a house from the remains. Lukas let out a soft sigh at the mess of his room, glancing briefly at his desk before rolling up the sleeves of his pressed shirt with a gentle sort of care.

After that he walked over to the corner where he had stored a broom. This might sound odd if one weren’t aware of the fact Lukas took pride in maintaining his classroom, meaning he would often be the one to clean it in between classes. Just as he was starting to sweep up the classroom the door to his classroom opened, causing the male to look up. It took a few minutes of looking at the woman walking in before he nodded his head slightly.

”I apologize for the mess… But with two of us it shouldn’t take long to clean.” He nodded once more, turning back to sweeping.

[Josie Raines]

Oh, someone's still here... Josie removed her headphones when she recognized the teacher sweeping up. Mr. Miles had been working at Hammel since before Josie was a student there, and she'd had his history class her first year. From what she recalled, much of her time had been spent sitting in the back, hoping he wouldn't notice that she was listening to music rather than the lesson. Her efforts were often unsuccessful.

"Sounds good to me." Josie grabbed her own broom and set to work on the opposite side of the room. She was glad Mr. Miles was helping, because the place was a wreck. Nothing that would be especially difficult on its own, she assessed from a quick once-over of the room; there was just a lot. Fortunately high school students were rarely trusted with any glue stronger than Elmer's, and that stuff peeled away easier than gum once it had a chance to dry.

Although she didn't put her headphones back in, Josie worked in silence at first. She didn't especially want to catch up with the teacher, because what was there to say? Hey, check it out, I'm not a bad student anymore, now I'm just a cleaning lady, anyway how's life?

As she went to throw away the first dustpan's worth of scrap, Josie caught a glimpse of lines and dates on a sheet of paper that might have been a decent assignment if it hadn't been ripped in half.

"Oh hey, the timeline project?" she asked before she could stop herself. It must have been a regular part of Mr. Miles' curriculum, because she could recall avoiding work on a similar assignment. "I remember that one. Pretty sure we didn't make this much of a mess when I did it, though."

[Lukas Miles]

He recognized the woman walking into his classroom, but felt no need to bring in it up to initiate a conversation. She had been a student of his a few years back and could distinctly remember the young sitting in the back of the room. Always trying her hardest to keep her music device hidden so he wouldn't notice that she wasn't paying attention. Of course, Lukas played along for the first few days just to let her feel comfortable before he started making it his mission to call on her every class.

Silence settled over the two of them, a rather comfortable silence if Lukas were asked. He felt no need to break the silence as he swept the loose papers into a pile and allowed Josie to take it from there. This was, after all, technically her job to do even if he was being kind enough to assist. Granted, it was also his classroom so the duty of cleanliness also fell to him in some ways. Which was the real reason why he was assisting her cleaning, not the kindness in his heart. Because Lukas was strict about keeping his kindness out of business as much as he could. He tried to keep an open ear, though, and wasn't known for being unreasonable with his classrooms. Just very strict in how things operated.

The teacher looked up at the woman's words, smiling slightly at her memory. "Aye, the timeline project." He would have chuckled some at her next words, but there was nothing particularly funny so he didn't chuckle- for that might seem crazy. Instead he merely smiled again and offered her a small nod. "It seems as we get older the children lose their maturity. But this was a class of freshman... Too excited about the end of the year to participate in the usual manner." With that said he went back to sweeping. Only to pause again a few minutes later and glance at her curiously, rooting around his brain for a name to the woman before he spoke.

"So how has your life treated you, Josie?"

[Josie Raines]

That was true enough, what the man said about children and maturity. Josie hadn't been an adult nearly as long as he had, but even to her the difference was noticeable. Realistically, she and her peers probably weren't much better, but the impression was still there.

Josie was content to continue work in silence until he addressed her again. So he did remember who she was... Well, no surprise there, she did already mention being a former student. And being an employee of the school one attended didn't really allow for a secret identity.

"...No complaints," she answered after a moment, careful to keep her voice casual while she dumped another load of scraps. "Steady job, got my health, could be worse, y'know?"

Technically true, but most days Josie couldn't stop thinking about how things could be better - had been better, before it felt like her entire life had been uprooted those months before. She knew it had to get easier eventually, but that seemed a long ways away. But that was none of Mr. Miles' business, and anyway he probably didn't care. Just being polite.

"And yourself?"

[Lukas Miles]

Lukas was born middle aged. Granted he still went out and made stupid choices, but he was far less likely to do it than the younger generations. Part of that stemmed from the fact he grew up in a family, that while nice, didn't allow for immaturity. The other part was just how Lukas was personality wise.

He looked up from his task as she answered, his lips pulled into a curious sort of smile. There. A break in the distant man. However he quickly let the smile fade as he went back to sweeping up the last of the scraps from his side of the room. A comment was on the tip of his tongue, begging to be released into the conversation. But since they were only colleagues, Lukas didn't want to pry into her brain. If it were freely offered it would be one thing. To comment on the unspoken was a completely different thing.

"I'm doing quite well.. As is the family. We're going to be picking up another foster next week. Samuel Knight, a recently discovered meta." He explained, glancing up as he walked to put the broom up. "The paperwork for Thomas is still stalled but we're hoping it will all be finished before the years end." He paused and looked at her with a soft smile. "Do you have something to help us scrape off the gum?"

[Josie Raines]

Josie kept her head low as she finished sweeping the last corner and listened to the teacher speak. That's right - come to think of it, he'd been fostering kids back when she was in his class. As little as she'd paid attention, he'd still mentioned it once or twice that she could recall.

"That's good, that's really nice," Josie responded noncommittally. And it was, although she wasn't about to gush, not when she was trying to ignore the tightening in her stomach. Realistically, she knew that most fathers were decent people, and that the work Mr. Miles was doing with the kids he took in was important. Truth be told, she couldn't help feeling a little resentful. Still, it had been long enough since her own father had vanished that she was in a place where she no longer felt a desire to lash out at others for not having that particular hole in their lives. She had enough to worry about without returning to that buried habit.

"Yeah, but I can take care of it if you have papers to grade or whatever." Josie strode back to her equipment to swap the broom for her chisel. Just sweeping had already made a significant difference on the state of the room; without papers scattered everywhere, it was beginning to look normal. "Any spots I need to be warned about?"

[Lukas Miles]

The Miles family had been taking in fosters ever since Miles was six, so it would be next to impossible for him to completely separate that aspect of his life from his job. Eventually fosters would start attending school or they'd find themselves in his classroom. Still he tried not to talk about it where other students could overhear -if only to try a preserve some privacy for the kids he took in. If the fosters themselves wanted to share it people it was one thing, to willingly offer the information to people not needing to know was a completely different story.

"Thank you." With that out of the way they faded back into the comfortable silence. Lukas walked over to the selves of books to start correcting the alignment of his books to fill the void until the woman chose to speak again. It didn't phase him that she was taking her time in answering his question, though he couldn't deny the fact he was eager to get home to see his family. But he had his priorities, and since there were no current fosters in the house, he didn't feel that going home warranted immediate action. His kids would survive if he stayed an extra hour or so after work.

He stood up slowly as she returned her broom and dust pan to their proper places, carefully dusting off his pants of anything they might have picked up. "Nothing specific comes to mind in the way of danger spots." Lukas paused some before walking over to his desk, humming softly. "I do think I'll take you up on that offer. It would save me some time having to grade at home." With that he sat down, nodding briefly to her, before grabbing a red pen and a stack of assignments.