Chapter Text
If the first part of the day hadn't been excruciating enough, the last period with Mr Sheepman was bound to make the prior hours light work and most probably put Joan to sleep- which is something she most definitely wanted to avoid after her most recent falter within her grades.
The heavy atmosphere within the room had already brought a twitch to her brow; the students had only been back at the highschool for a few weeks, and the last dregs of the summer heat was still lingering. It left the pupils with an uncomfortable sticky feeling, damp marks being formed wherever they had happened to sit or place a hand down, and the smell of BO that couldn't be covered up by any amount of cheap deodorant or body spray.
In order to try to cool the hot beads of sweat forming on her forehead, Joan picked up her scrawled-on notepad and began fanning herself, the slight breeze coming from it making her feel almost instantly more comfortable before the slight boy next to her caught on to what she was doing.
"Me next, me next! Come on Joan you like gotta fan me too- I'm sweating like a hooker by the fireplace!" Gandhi all but pleaded, bouncing in the rickety plastic chair he was sitting on.
"Literally what is stopping you from fanning yourself? If you cared even just a minute amount about taking notes in class, maybe you could do the same." Joan shot back snarkily, the heat and everything else making her more irritable than usual.
"Come on Joan, why would I do that when let's face it, when in life do you ever need the qualifications you get in school?"
The red-headed girl turned to face gandhi with a complete deadpan expression before turning back to face the front of the room, not even wanting to dignify his question with an answer.
"Ohh, there go my comical pals again. You two really are the funniest pair." The boy sat behind Joan quipped, his voice sending a pleasant quiver down to the girl's stomach. She craned her neck around, taking in his short and messy hair, the sideburns that drove her mad. She had a not-so-hidden crush on her best friend- the clone of the original Abraham Lincoln- for as long as she could remember, but it was as though he couldn't see it, which seemed to increase Joan's view of him being innocent and totally oblivious, making him an even bigger bumbling dork to her.
"Ha, yeah, that's great Abe. Anyway, I was thinking, over the weekend I might have a little house get together, would you wanna-"
Joan had half spoken before the door to the classroom swung open, interrupting not just herself apparently as she heard the hesitant and quite frankly gross sounds of lips slap together one last time before pulling away from each other in what could only be described as the same popping noise your mouth makes after pulling a saliva drenched ice pop from it.
Mr Sheepman hobbled through the doorway and headed behind his desk, hopping up onto the toddler stool behind it to add some extra height so he could be seen behind the thick wood.
"Ahh'lright settle down class" The teacher bleated, placing his hoof-like hands down on the desk. "As you know, for your history sessions, we started a new topic recently, and now you must compile a paper researching the historical figures you were cloned from."
At this, some huffs were expelled amongst the students in the room. When you're a teenager and struggling to find your own way, it's hard enough when you aren't being compared to incredibly successful historically known figures who you're supposed to live up to.
Completely ignoring this dismay, Mr Sheepman continued, "Might I add, this is a group project as we also want to test your team building skills. Now, groups have already been assigned, so don't start trying to buddy up."
If the huffs from before were noticeable, they had now escalated into loud groans and "damn"s being thrown around the room.
As the grouped names were read out, Joan slumped in her chair, leaning her elbow on her desk and resting her chin on her palm. She listened attentively, hearing mutters as unlucky trios were put together, then lightly jumping at the sound of Abe's whine behind her, claiming it was unfair that he wasn't paired with Gandhi or Joan. As much as she liked to hear Abe's voice, she tuned this out as her name was read, along with Gandhi's and… JFK. Great.
Just as the redhead peaked across the room towards the clone of Kennedy, he let out a noise of disgust, causing all of his friends to laugh.
"So er uh, not only am I put with that talking pipsqueak, I also gotta deal with the delusional ramblings of that er goth broad? Talk about a kicker."
Joan felt herself take a sharp inhale and a small twitch in her brow, deciding to focus on the obnoxious teen as he turned around to a closer friend of his- Julius Caesar- as he began to speak in an unpleasant stage whisper, loud enough for most to still hear.
"I guess it could be worse. I er mean, at least there is a betty in my group. When I get bored I'll be able to have some fun! She may be one of the lowest ranking girls on my list, but at least it er uh crosses one off!" He exclaimed, his tone getting louder and higher at the end of his sentence.
At this, Joan smacked her hands down on her table, causing it to wobble. If there was one thing she hated, it was men who thought they were so irresistible they could bed any chick they wanted. She had no idea how people could get so egotistical, and she always liked to try to bring them down a few pegs when she came across them.
As she opened her mouth to shout some obscenity across the room, Gandhi reached his foot out and kicked Joan's chair leg.
"What!?" She spat, greeted by the look of her friend with a pouted lip and waggling his finger.
"It is not worth it Moanie Joanie. Ignore him yo, if you stress about everything that geez says your hair will start to go gray." He explained in a relaxed tone, being met with harsh eyes.
Once Mr Sheepman had successfully ignored how boisterous the classroom had gotten and managed to get through the criteria that had to be covered, he excused the pupils early. This was as he said to give them more time in groups to start the work, however most assumed he wanted to get out the sweltering classroom as much as the rest, with being covered in a thick wool coat and all.
As people began to slowly filter out the classroom, with a force that was filled with anger, Joan grabbed her notebook and pen from her desk and held them in a tight-fisted grip, feeling like she needed to so she wouldn't try choke someone out.
Abe reached out with his noodle-like arm and placed it sympathetically on Joan's shoulder, causing her to turn around and look at him.
"Hey, it's not the worst! You have Gandhi. I'm stuck with people I barely know, you should find yourself lucky." He mumbled, something that was supposed to be supportive soon turning to take a salty edge.
"You're kidding aren't you?" Joan gasped, narrowing her eyes. "I have Gandhi, who I know won't contribute to any of the work -no offence-" She turned, gesturing to the short boy at her side, before looking back at Abe, "and that pompous, self absorbed dick JFK!"
At that, Abe shifted his gaze slightly so instead of looking at Joan eye-to-eye, it raised above her head, like he was looking past her at something. And then she realised why, hearing that grating voice.
"Self absorbed dick, hah? Well, how would you er uh like to absorb this-"
Joan span and her palm collided with JFK's cheek before he could even finish his sentence, leaving a hot and red mark adorning his face.
"Back off Kennedy. I don't want you to speak to me, and I certainly don't want to see you. Don't worry about the assignment, I'll do your part if it means I don't have to be around you."
JFK opened his mouth to speak, but before he could make any sort of comeback, Joan hurried out the classroom while clutching the notebook to her chest, leaving her two friends in the classroom with Kennedy. She didn't want to think about what would have come out of his mouth, or what followed after she left and what was shared between the three left in the room.
As Joan left the campus, the further she got from the godforsaken highschool, the more her eyes welled up with tears, threatening to spill. By the time the redheaded girl was back at her house, her chest felt tight and she struggled to keep her breath from the brisk walk. Joan passed by Toots, her foster grandfather, and gave him a short greeting before rushing up the stairs and crashing into her room, curling up on her bed, only just sparing the effort to pull off her dusty boots.
All that she could hear was the teasing laughter from JFK's cohort earlier, and the noise he made like she was some gross bug he would step on if he saw it in his path. How was she supposed to spend any time with him, never mind enough to work on a project with him. Kennedy was part of the popular high-all-mighty-class within school, and he would be seen as a loser for even partaking in graded work with Joan, and she would rather die than have to spend time with him, so at least the feelings were mutual but she wasn't cruel enough to voice them.
A beep sounded from the flip phone shoved in her pocket and she pulled it out just to read the sender name. The message was addressed from Abe, but Joan felt too exhausted to even open it. Instead of responding, she chucked the phone to one side and quickly got changed into some night clothes. Wrapping her arms around the old pillow on her bed, she pushed her face into it before falling into a fitful sleep.