Gold Diggers Like Marie Antoinette

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The staffroom is chatty and busy as it usually is during school hours. It's a very spacious room that accommodates the office desks for each of the teachers, the sofas that are positioned at the centre of the room, and cabinets holding all of the school's important documents. There's even a kitchen for when we want to make some tea and coffee or grab some snacks.

Some teachers are moving up and about the room. Some teachers are either standing at the corners, at their desks or seated on the sofas provided, conversing among themselves. Some are already occupying themselves with work on their laptops.

"My gods! I feel like I'm back at work." Feenyx comments, looking around the room upon our entry. "I thought y'all do your business in the classrooms."

"Essentially yes, but we prefer it here," I answer as we beeline towards my desk. "We usually come here if we want to do something productive."

"Or just get away from the students. You know how loud and rowdy them teenagers get in the corridors and hallways - hey, Sid." Vinny greets the raven-haired young man seated at the desk next to mine.

He looks up and welcomes us with a warm smile. "Sup, man." He answers before his eyes land on Feenyx. "Yo! You're the newbie. I'm Sidney by the way, but people just call me Sid."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Feenyx, but you already know that." She replies.

"Obviously. We literally saw you like a few minutes ago. You know - when you were standing next to Principal Simmons in the conference room when he - "

"Honey, there's no need to elaborate as everyone forgot about it." She cuts him. "Dang, you're really awkward."

Sid lets out an awkward laugh. "I get that a lot. I tend to ramble and vomit words out of my mouth but I'm mostly pleasant to have around according to these two." He nods his head towards me and Vinny.

"He's like the most introverted extrovert," Vinny adds with a smile.

"An introverted extrovert you say? I like that." She comments with a smile.

"I'm glad that you do," Sid replies.

"If y'all are done chit-chatting, here's a copy of my timetable." I pull out a printed sheet with timeslots for all of my classes and hand it to Feenyx.

"You teach Ancient Greek History?" she asks, scanning through the document.

"I studied it back when I was in university," I answer, leaning against my desk.

"Are you familiar with Ancient Greek History?" Sid asks.

"Intimately." She answers. "I'm actually from Greece, so I basically grew up learning about it."

That's because your very existence is tied to Ancient Greek History. I think, internally rolling my eyes.

"Incoming. She-who-shall-not-be-named is coming in at n." Vinny alerts us.

My eyes move to the direction Vinny is referring to and there I see Toni taking long strides towards our direction. My heart aches as though a knife has been plunged through it and is being twisted over and over again but I still feel the butterflies fluttering in my stomach upon seeing her.

"Hey, guys." She greets her with a warm smile complimenting her gentle yet ethereal features. Her eyes meet mine and her smile turns into a sad one. "Hey."

"Hey," I answer back in a monotone.

"And what do we owe the pleasure of seeing you in this neck of the woods," Vinny asks, the sarcasm very evident in his tone.

"I just wanted to welcome our new friend, Vincent." She answers.

"Nah, nah, nah. She's our friend." Vinny says, putting an arm around Feenyx's shoulder. "We claimed her before you and your clique of pretentious off-brand barbie dolls did."

I let out a sigh before giving Toni a look, apologising for Vinny's remark.

"I'm Marie Antoinette Lewis by the way." She turns to Feenyx. "It's lovely meeting you."

"You're named after the former Queen of France?" Feenyx raises an eyebrow.

Toni chuckles. "Yeah, but I prefer people calling me Toni instead. Marie Antoinette just seems like a mouth, know what I mean?"

"Can't say I blame you. Aside from that, I don't find the idea of being called by the name of the gold digger responsible for the French Revolution appealing."

When I tell the air around us turned so brittle quickly the moment Toni's smile assumes the motions of a deflating balloon upon hearing Feenyx's comment.

Sid grimaces his face into a worried look.

Vinny turns to the side, pressing his fist against his lips trying to stifle his giggles.

Feenyx seems to know that her comment is slightly insensitive, but she doesn't seem to care.

Toni recovers from her shock, letting out a ragged laugh and pushes her ombre blonde hair behind her ear. "Well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm not a gold digger. Never have been."

"Are you sure though?" Vinny asks. "I mean, your fiancé is packed with money so - "

"Shut up!" I hiss, nudging his ribs with a glare.

"Hol' up. This is the lady you claim you dated that dumped you for the incompetent but rich boyfriend?" Feenyx turns to me, pointing a finger at Toni with eyes wide open.

I close my eyes, sucking in a sharp b through my nostrils when I feel Toni's sharp eyes piercing through my skull.

God give me strength.

"It's not like that, but yes." I reluctantly answer in a low voice.

"I've heard so much about you! All good things, don't worry - "

"Would you look at that! Feenyx, we need to head out for our class. Like right now." I grit my teeth for firm emphasis on the last part as I gently push Feenyx towards the direction of the exit.

Once we're in the hallway, I glare at her. "What the fuck was that?"

"What the fuck was what?" she blinks confused.

"LITERALLY EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THERE!"

"Okay, first off. No need to be raising your damn voice at me." She narrows her eyes at me. "Second, I'm just doing my job and trying to see if she actually lives up to what you said about her and I'm sorry to say she did not pass the vibe check."

"What vibe check?! You called her a gold digger!"

"Ey, ey, ey! I said that she's named after a gold digger - not that she actually is one - unless she really is one."

"I don't care. You were being an insensitive bitch when all she was trying to be nice to you. You hurt her feelings."

"That sounds like a 'her problem' -, not mine."

"That attitude is going to get you into a lot of trouble, you know?"

She throws her head back, letting out a raucous 'HA!' sound. "Bold of you to assume that I care, pretty boy. I've been worse trouble in all my years living on Olympus and I still managed to get past it like the bad bitch I am." She boasts. "If people want beef and the smoke, I will happily deliver and dish it out medium raw. These hands are rated E for Everyone."

I pinch the bridge of my nose already getting hit by a monsoon of exasperation. "Look, if you're going to help me, can you at least play nice with Toni? You don't have to be friends with her. All I'm asking for is for you to be civil."

"Fine." She sighs dramatically. "I'll try to be civil with Tasha. But I make no promises of not humbling a bitch when she tries to test the wrath of the gods with me, and I will not apologise for it."

I sigh, slumping my shoulders. It's better than nothing, I guess.

♡

There is a lot of noise and commotion going on in the classroom upon our arrival. Some students are seated on top of their desks chatting amongst themselves. Some students are drumming their fists and pens against the desks. Others are either on their gadgets, reading or dozing - a typical thing I've grown accustomed to as a teacher.

I let out a loud whistle, gaining their attention. "Everybody settled. Class is about to start - and please take your feet off the desk, Arnold. This is a classroom, not your throne." I throw a stern look at the student in question.

He rolls his eyes but complies with the instruction, nonetheless. The students soon settled down and the classroom falls into silence. "Alright! Class, this is Miss De Rossi. She will be co-teaching this subject with me." I introduce Feenyx to the class. "Miss De Rossi, these are our students. Well, the first group out of three anyway."

"How many are they in total?" She whispers.

"About one hundred and fifty of them," I whisper back.

"Holy sweet tap-dancing Poseidon on a tree. You teach that many? I can barely handle managing ten people in Eros's absence. I have a whole new respect for you."

"Wow! She's so hot." One of the students' comments.

"Oh, why thank you. I gotta say, it's quite exhausting to be this beautiful." She flips her hair.

I clear my throat, giving her a pointed look that's warning her not to encourage my student's behaviour.

"What? If the boy likes what he sees, he likes what he sees." She points out.

"Yes, but there should be a line drawn and he crossed it." I reason.

"Kids his age simp for women like Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé and Ariana Grande and they're twice their age."

My eye twitches. Patience, Urie. It's her first time interacting with humans.

"Please take a seat, Miss De Rossi," I say as professionally as I can.

"Oooh! Acting professional now, are we?" she purrs with a smirk.

I send her a stern look, silently communicating with her to stop. She sniggers and takes a seat at the teacher's desk. "Take it away, boss."

I roll my eyes and turn to my students. "I'm sure you all received you all received your answer scripts for last week's pop quiz," I say, my eyes gazing around the room. "And I was disappointed that many of you scored below 50%. You know what that means."

I'm greeted by groans, whines, complaining - any sound that expresses their displeasure.

"Look, guys, I don't exactly enjoy going through the questions and discussing the answers every time we do correction," I say. "but it's good practice and revision for your finals. First question; who was Prometheus in Greek Mythology?"

I'm greeted by silence and a blank stare. The kind of stares that tell you that they don't want to do anything or participate and just want the hour and forty-five minutes to just go by quickly. The kind of stares that make me question why I even chose to be a high school teacher in the first place.

"Come on, guys. Don't be shy." I encourage them.

I spot a student reluctantly raising her hand. "Yes, Monica," I say, relieved.

"The God of Fire?" she answers timidly.

"Yes! That is correct! Good job." I smile at her.

"Wait, I thought it was Hephaestus." One of the students replies confused.

"You are also correct, but the reason why Prometheus is considered the God of Fire is because he was the one who stole the fire from Hephaestus' forge to provide to the mortals. I explain.

"Actually," Feenyx chimes in "what had really happened was Prometheus asked Zeus if he could give the mortals fire. But Zeus being the entitled bitch boy that he is was like "Hell nah. These mortals are peasants and should stay peasants"."

"That's not what was written in Hesiod's Theogony." I knit my eyebrows.

"It's not like Hesiod gave an accurate account of the events dating back to the creation of the universe. His works are opinions at best - not facts." Feenyx argues. "Besides, there is more than one version of the myth of Prometheus, and I happen to know a version that hasn't been heard of."

I raise an eyebrow, poking my tongue against my cheek. "Alright. Let's hear it."

And that's what she did. Feenyx spent the rest of the period explaining how Prometheus' story was just a ploy to get back at Zeus for not giving him enough resources when he was tasked to create mankind.

I have never seen my students more invested and attentive in my lessons. They were asking questions and participating and I'm not going to lie, I don't know if I should be impressed or concerned that she might end up taking my job.

The bell rings, indicating that class is over and it's time to change over.

"Well, I guess that's the end of today's class," I say, looking at the time. "But be sure to do your corrections. I want them done by tomorrow."

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