fandom_lounge | Teachers' Lounge, Wednesday

Teachers' Lounge, Wednesday

It had occurred to Karolina that she didn't actually know too many of her fellow staff members. In fact, looking at the list of classes going on this semester, she only really knew Mr. Sta-- Tony, and she'd met Fandom's version of Mr. Rogers, and of course Deadpool, and there were a couple of names that seemed familiar from when she'd been a student here, but... That was really about it.

So today, instead of burying herself in her office, she'd brought her laptop with her into the teachers' lounge - with no small amount of completely irrational trepidation, because even though she'd been here as a counselor for a long time now, it still seemed a little wrong for her to be in a space meant for teachers. Guess old student instincts died hard, huh?

Also she was pretty sure she was the youngest person on the staff. That might have played into it somehow. But she'd brought some vegan cupcakes with ranbow sprinkles on top with her and set the box invitingly open on a table so hey, maybe she'd be accepted into the club.

[ooc: Open lounge!]

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And here was Brooke, arriving with a clinking bag that she set down on a table. "Hi, fellow authority figure."

She assumed.

Karolina had such a hard time thinking of herself as an authority figure, but for the purposes of this moment, definitely.

"Hi!" she said, looking up. "Um, I'm Karolina, I'm the guidance counselor."

... Okay, so maybe she had to rattle that off immediately just to try and shake that irrational 'I shouldn't be here' vibe from her head.

"Brooke, teacher," she replied, pulling a bottle from the bag. "Booze?"

"... At school?"

To her credit, her expression made her look more confused than a prude.

"Have you ever tried to teach teenagers?" Brooke asked, thinking that should explain it.

"No, not so far, anyway, because I'm a counselor and not a teacher."

Beat.

"Wait, is that supposed to mean that it's so horrible that you have to drink to get through it?"

"Well, my students are all smarter than me and then they ask questions, soon my case, this helps," Brooke admitted. "I actually found some of this the first time I came in here, I'm just replacing what we went through. And maybe adding more, because I'm a helper."

At least the first part quelled Karolina's brief earlier urge to ask why Brooke was even teaching if it drew her to drink. Fandom kids being too smart was an acceptable answer, apparently.

"Well, that's nice of you," she said, a little earnest while still managing to be... somewhat confused by the idea of alcohol in the teachers' lounge. "I just brought cupcakes."

"Also awesome," Brooke decided, hiding one of the bottles in the cabinet after she'd found that one the first week. "Any occasion?"

Karolina shook her head. "Not really?" she said, shrugging, with a small smile. "I just though that bribes go well with trying to get to know people."

"I respect that," Brooke smiled. "Okay, so what's new?"

See, the bribe worked!

For a brief flicker, Karolina's smile was almost grateful. Guess who was randomly nervous about making actual grown-up friends!

"Not much," she said. "Well, no, a lot. It's a whole new school year, here and for me and my community college across the causeway."

"Ooh?" Brooke asked, putting the last bottle away to come and sit down. "What are you studying?"

"Social work," Karolina replied, gesturing at the cupcakes with one hand because yes, she should take one. "I want to keep working with kids, you know, kids who might not have things so easy."

Kids like she'd been.

(Kids like she was still was, sometimes.)

"That's kinda why I'm here, too."

"It's a good place for that," Brooke said, being a good girl and taking a cupcake. "That's really cool if you."

"Thanks," Karolina said, her smile genuine, if a little lopsided. "Also, it's just nice being back on this coast. I'm from LA, originally."

Well... Yes, and no.

"What brought you out here?" Brooke asked.

"Uh, child services. And Captain America."

It was long enough ago by now that she could chuckle a little sheepishly at that.

"I mean, I was a student here first. Things were -- a lot had happened back home in Los Angeles, and they thought it would be best for me if I was somewhere way away for a while."

"I did the student-to-faculty thing, too. It's a pretty great place to get way away," she agreed. "I don't have a Captain America part to my story, though."

Which was a crime.

"Oh, trust me, it wasn't really fun to have him as part of mine, either." The whole thing was a mess, and the Cap in her world was a lot more stern than the one they had here. "But, wait, you used to be a student too? When did you graduate?"

"2009. Well, here. There's some weird time stuff going on," she answered.

The fun of your canon taking multiple years to get you through junior and senior year, also time jumps.

"Oh, so way before my time, then," Karolina said, nodding. "Though I kinda guessed, because I figured I would've remembered you if we'd been here at the same time."

Mostly because Brooke was pretty and Karolina was shallow.

"You definitely would have." She'd gotten around and had been involved in a fair amount of drama, she was hard to miss. "When were you here?"

"I graduated in... 2014?"

It was a question only because there'd been some time weirdness involved on her part too, at points.

Also four years was a long time.

"So a couple of years later than you."

"Does that make it easier with the students?" Brooke wondered. "If you graduated not that long before now?"

She asked, because relating to her class was weird for her.

"Kind of, I guess?" she said, shrugging a little. "I lose out on the, like, being a strong and wise authority figure thing that I might have if I was older and more experienced --"

Why yes, that was a thing she thought about a lot. In part because of her studies.

"-- but it's probably good that I can still remember pretty clearly what it was like to be a student here. And everything else that was going on for me back then, and how it felt."

"Which is probably better for a guidance counselor anyway," Brooke decided.

"Well, I hope so."

Because it was what she had to offer.

She reached for a cupcake. "It's kind of hard to try and get anyone to come see me, though."

"Maybe set up appointments?" Brooke suggested. "Just to check in, and then they see it's not scary or whatever."

"I tried something like that at one point, but then I got slammed with the old counselor's paperwork backlog." She kept finding paper airplanes in her office. She wasn't sure Sarah had actually done any work in there. "I should probably get back to working on that, huh?"

"Probably. ...How old is that paperwork?" Just curious.

Karolina tilted her head. "I think it's mostly from about the last five years or so. Why?"

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Teachers' Lounge, Wednesday

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