Modern AU in which all the adults are teachers, and the younger characters are students.

This isn't related to the High School AU I'm also working on, it's completely different.

Disclaimer: I don't have any personal experience with chronic pain. I did research and tried not to get stuff wrong, but if I did I can change it or take it out. Same thing goes with Rogelio and Entrapta. I did research, but if there's inaccuracies I'll fix them, just tell me.

I'm also going to apologize for the story completely running away from any resemblance of canon events.

Hector had missed the new science teacher's first day because he was 'visiting his brother'. He had a brother, but hadn't contacted him in over a decade. He wouldn't let any of his students know that. None of them knew that he had actually spent the day at home, in bed, with his cat, left disoriented and immobile from a terrible migraine and joint pain, and none of them ever would.

Anyways, new science teacher. He still hadn't met her, whoever she was, despite her occupying the classroom right next door. It really shouldn't have been such a big deal. Teachers came and went all the time. Principal Angella was having a hard time keeping science teachers. But something had happened yesterday that made the entire student body excited. And kids kept whispering in the back of the classroom.

"Is that talking I hear?" Hordak turned to face to class.

"No sir," Catra Driluth said.

"Yes she was," Glimmer Moon muttered, from her seat in the middle row, glancing backwards to give the other girl a dirty look.

"Um, this slide is just super!" Bow Raine chipped in, trying to distract Hector. "Can you please tell us more about allegories, Mr. Hordak? I'm really learning a lot!"

Hector grunted, fixing all of the kids with a glare that made them sink lower in their chairs. Then he turned, adjusted his glasses, and continued the lesson.

But before he could get one word out of his mouth, the door that connected to the science room burst open. A woman who couldn't be over five foot four burst in. She had two long purple braids that nearly reached her knees, and a lab coat on that nearly touched the floor. The various pockets held loads of small objects and weighed it down.

"Hello, sorry, we've got a situation..." she rummaged through the nearest cabinets, in search of something. Hector just stood there, dumbfounded, as the students tried to peek through the door to catch a glimpse of the chaos in the next room over.

"What are you-" Hector regained his voice just to be interrupted.

"I'm gonna borrow these," the woman grabbed a roll of paper towels off a shelf. "Thanks, I owe you one!" She disappeared back through the door. Hector crossed the room to see what was going on. When he did, he took off his glasses to rub his eyes. What in the name of...

There was pink foam everywhere. Even on the ceiling. And two boys who Hector had in his second hour class, Kyle and Rogelio, were standing there covered in it, looking sheepish.

"We- we're really sorry, Ms. Dryl-" Kyle started to stammer, his eyes filling with tears. The boy had always been somewhat of a crybaby, Hector sighed internally. His friend (Partner? Boyfriend?) Rogelio nodded in agreement. The taller boy was mostly nonverbal.

"What for?" The woman- Ms. Dryl- handed both boys huge wads of paper towel, and dragged over a stool with books stacked on it. "I just hope you recorded what you put in there. This is a valuable discovery!"

The entire class looked surprised. Ms. Dryl nonchalantly climbed on top of the books on the stool. Hector's eye twitched. That was not safe.

"But we made a huge mess," Kyle said, wiping pink foam off his shirt and safety goggles.

"Of course you did. I didn't tell you what any of the substances did, how were you supposed to know? By doing, of course! You're the first explosion of the day. Ten points of extra credit each."

"Are you sure," Hector interjected, "That you should be condoning this behavior?"

"They're experimenting."

"With unknown substances."

"They'll learn all about them later. I find it more fun to dive in headfirst. In most high school labs, you already know what everything is going to do. You follow rigid steps, and you don't get the thrill. We're going to have some actual fun in this class!" Ms. Dryl climbed down from the stool, and handed the boys more paper towels. Kyle was smiling now. Rogelio grabbed his tablet from under the table. He typed something out and hit play. That was the best. This class is my favorite.

While the boys started cleaning up the table, their friend Lonnie chipping in to help, the rest of the class turned back to their experiments. Ms. Dryl made her way over to Hector and stuck out a gloved hand. "You must be Hector. I'm Entrapta."

Hector awkwardly received the handshake. "It's... nice to meet you, Ms. Dryl."

"Just Entrapta is fine." She took off the safety goggles and withdrew a pair of round rimmed glasses from one of her many pockets. "Ah! Now you're clearer- cool hair."

Hector self consciously ran a hand through his dark blue hair. He couldn't remember ever getting a compliment on it since... well, since college. "Thanks...?"

She stared up at him for a few more seconds, taking in the lighter splotches across his dark skin, and his strangely colored eyes. One was such a light brown it was almost orange, and the other was hazel, nearly green. "You seem nice. Well, I'll let you get back to your class. See you later!"

With that, she shut the door.

Ms. Dryl knew no boundaries, and it was causing Hector headaches. She would pop in on any day of the week, any hour, and rummage through the cabinets for lined paper to 'borrow'. "I owe you one, you're the best!" she would shout before slamming the door. She had to shout over the din coming from her classroom.

The worst part was, the kids loved her class. It was apparently more exciting than any other science class they'd ever been in. They were always learning weird things, explosions earned extra credit, and there were barely any tests assigned. Not even for the end of the first quarter.

Hector thought for sure Principal Angella would point out something wrong in the way Ms. Dryl ran things when she observed the class for an hour. Alas, she approved of every method. (The extra credit for explosions, oddly, was not brought up). Angella did however point out that Hector needed to engage the students more instead of just lecture and assign work.

That being said, today had been an awful day. It had been awful since he'd woken up to his cat sleeping on his face and more pain than usual. Just fifteen more minutes of grading papers and he could go home though. He tried to stretch his aching legs under his desk and leaned back in his chair. The flickering of the fluorescent lights weren't making this oncoming migraine any better. He covered his eyes and sighed.

"Hector?" The door swung open. It was Ms. Dryl.

"What?" he said. When he uncovered his eyes, he saw that she looked a little sheepish for once, and wondered if maybe that had come out more snappy than he'd meant for it to be.

"Well, I... I brought you some more lined paper. I finally got some for my classroom, so I won't have to borrow yours anymore." She opened the cabinet and placed a sheaf of papers inside.

Hector was surprised, but not unpleasantly so. "Thank you, Ms. Dryl. You didn't need to do that."

"Just Entrapta is fine," she smiled, and shut the door.