Chapter Text
“One, two, three, eyes on me! ” You called out to your students who looked in your direction, bouncing in their seats.
“One, two, eyes on you!” They responded back, happy chatter falling into silence. Only two weeks into the school year but you already had a good feeling about your classroom full of sweet rambunctious kids eager to learn.
It wasn’t a mistake to move to Hawkins, you’d be safe here, and you deserved a happy new life doing the one thing you’ve always wanted to do.
Didn’t you?
“We’re being such good listeners today! We’ve got about thirty minutes before lunch so let’s work on our spelling. Would anyone like to help me pass out our workbooks?”
A tiny hand shoots up before everyone else as Rosie Munson all but rockets out of her seat at the prospect of passing out the torn workbooks.
“ Thank you for volunteering Rosie, come on down.”
A flash of pigtails, a band tee, and a tutu over jeans nearly barrel into you as the kindergartener skids to stop in front of you.
“You can give them all to me, I’m strong enough!” She proclaimed, taking the stack bigger than her into her arms and rushing away before you could take some.
“It’s okay if you don’t remember but yesterday we were working on the letter B so we’re gonna keep going-
An odd sensation crept up the back of your spine, causing you to break the chalk with a loud snap, but you try to recover from the weirdness so as to not scare a room of five year olds.
But something didn’t feel right.
“So we’re try B from the very top and-
“Miss, Rosie won’t give me my workbook!”
“ Rosie, do you need help?” You ask over your shoulder, fetching a new piece of chalk but turn around immediately when you get no response.
Rosie stood frozen in place in the middle of the aisle, staring out the window.
“ Rosie, are you alright sweetie? ”
She said nothing, lifting her hand to point out the window.
You follow her gaze to see what appears to be a dark cloud over the sunny september sky.
A large, fast moving cloud.
Birds.
A big wet thump on the windowpane makes you all gasp and you barely have enough time to grab Rosie out of harm’s way before every single window shattered.
“Everyone get down! Get down now!” You yelled over your students' screams, shielding as many of them as you can while the others hid under their desks. You can hear it happening all over the building, the flapping of wings and screaming before it all stops. The cries die down to whimpers as you take in the scene of your terrified students surrounded by what had to be hundreds of dead birds.
The aftermath is a blur of consoling students, early dismissals, a cavalcade of ambulances, buses, and concerned parents wrapping their children in their arms. Your kids gather around you, waiting for their bus or parents to retrieve them until it’s just you and Rosie, no longer scared and happily chattering at your side while you both wait for her parents to pick her up.
The looks from some of the older teachers as they walk past make your blood boil. You had heard their chattering on the first day of school, the way they whispered something about being grateful that they didn’t have the freak’s kid in their class. You didn’t know what they meant and you didn’t care.
The sound of a car racing into the lot with heavy metal blasting and Rosie’s excited giggles stir you out of your reverie.
“ Daddy! That’s my daddy Miss!” Rosie hopped down from her chair next to you as you got a look at the emerging figure from the car.
Rosie shared the same brown curls and doe eyes with her father, though his curls fell to his ears. Heavily tatted arms scooped up his daughter, looking at the pink band aids covering her hands and arms in confusion and concern.
“Did you get in a fight with a woodchipper munchkin?”
“We had a freak incident with some birds today, hence the early dismissal. I had the nurse and paramedics check her over and they said she’s going to be fine, nobody was seriously hurt.” You said, stepping forward, hand outstretched. “ It’s nice to meet you Mr. Munson, I’m Rosie’s teacher.” You said with a smile.
He looked at you in a way that made your heart race which you’re not quite sure if you like it or not.
“ Eddie works, Mr. Munson was my crappy old man. It’s nice to meet you and I’m sorry I’m late, my boss wouldn’t let me off early despite it being an emergency. Thank you for looking after my girl, she speaks highly of you.” He said, tickling his daughter before placing her in a car seat.
“ Rosie is a pleasure to have in class and I look forward to her progress this year, hopefully with fewer bird break-ins.” You said rather lamely but Eddie smiles anyway before his eyes go further down.
“ You’re bleeding.”
“ I’m what-oh.”
You look down to see a thin scratch near your collarbone, a small line of blood oozing down your neck. Eddie closes the gap between you two, fishing a bandanna from his pocket and before you can protest, presses it to your cut, cool calloused fingertips against your hot skin.
You should probably be doing anything but this in the middle of the school parking lot but oddly enough, you don’t want this complete stranger anywhere else but close to you right now.
“ See Daddy, I told you she was pretty.”
“Rosie!”