there's a limit to your love | closed

Madelyn tucked her stray hair behind her ear before she looked around her classroom again. Classes started up the following day and she wanted to make sure everything was perfect for the first day of classes. This wasn't her first year teaching, and she knew that most of the kids, given they were teenagers, weren't really going to care about what her classroom looked like. But that didn't stop her from wanting everything to be perfect. After all this was her job and she wanted to do everything she could to make sure it was an enjoyable experience for everyone. She liked to kind of go above and beyond to make things look nice, plus Madelyn believed in being the best teacher she could be. And to her that meant making sure her students were comfortable in her classroom, and around her. She needed to make sure they all knew that they didn't have to be afraid to talk to her about anything. After all, school should be a safe place not somewhere they were afraid of.

---

Thor had just finished with the last of his classroom decorating for the first day, and now he just needed to run and print off everything he'd need. Which was kind of a long list of things, there were school supply lists, his syllabus which he knew since he was teaching 1st graders they wouldn't actually read it. So most of the things he needed to print off were more for the parents than for the students. But he still needed to make sure that he printed everything off so he could give them to the students so they could give them to their parents. Honestly, he was a little nervous about the first day, mostly because it not only was the kids first day but it was his as well. He hadn't been a teacher for long and this was his first real gig with his own classroom and lesson plans so he was a little nervous. But they were 1st graders, so surely they couldn't be that bad, and if they were well he was sure they wouldn't be worst than the class he's subbed for before he'd gotten this job.

Jason held onto her son's hand as they entered the school building, nervousness building inside her as she looked around. She knew Sam was anxious about beginning school in a new place, but as a mom, Jase couldn't help but share everything that he was feeling. It was hard picking up their entire life and moving to a city more than five hours from their old home, but Jason knew it had to be done. Sam's father wasn't a positive influence on the both of them, so the only thing she could do was relocate to give Sammy the opportunity to actually feel like a normal kid again. As the two of them approached the front desk, one of the ladies offered her a map of the school and was kind enough to look up his teacher's class for them. Jason thanked her as she tried to follow the map, laughing a little as Sammy attempted to jump up and look at it as well.

"Chill out, Goober," she chided lightly, offering him the paper after she knew what hall they had to go down and which room to actually go into, "Your teacher's name is Mr. Odinson and he's new like you, too." Jason told him, hoping that would at least make him feel a little better.

"D'ya think he's gonna be scared, too?" Sam asked, looking up at Jase with wide as, map long forgotten as he awaited his mother's response.

"Probably," Jase replied honestly as they walked down the appropriate hall, "Everyone gets scared, Sammy."

---

Steve finished wiping down the last art table with a soft sigh. So far, he had spent hours cleaning up the art room so that it was perfect for tomorrow. This year, he had decided to take on the advanced level art kids and he was ecstatic to be able to work with a group of kids that were capable of going above and beyond normal standards. A lot of the names of his class sheet revealed students that he taught years ago that took up a major interest in art and had returned their senior year to finish out on the artistic road. It made him incredibly happy to know that they stuck with it, even if they felt like he singled them out or critiqued their work in a way they didn't appreciate. Steve was really just trying to help - he loved art and everything about it - and he only wanted his students to grow.

He tossed the cleaning wipe into the trashcan and wiped his hands on the older pair of jeans he was wearing, pretty satisfied with how everything was looking. The last thing he had to do was rinse out all of the paintbrushes and let them dry overnight. He already went through and organized the paint closet, the smock closet, and a separate area he liked to call 'Davy Jones' Locker.' It was just a single disconnected locker that he kept full of random things that students could use for pieces like yarn, glitter, and withering flowers. He tended to change it out every couple of weeks to keep things fresh for everyone, and it was fun finding new things to add into it. The kids loved it, and Steve loved keeping their creativity going.

[ again I'm so sorry I didn't reply sooner! I've just been so busy this past week ]

Thor had stepped out of his classroom for just a few moments to print off everything he'd need for the first day of school. This was after all his going to be his first day as an actual teacher of his own class, and well he wanted to make sure it went as well as it could. There wasn't really much room for messing up in his mind. They were just kids, and surely he could handle a classroom full of small children. Though sometimes those could be the worst kind to deal with he had faith that they wouldn't be that bad. Really he felt like it was the parents of those kids he should be worried about rather than the kids themselves. Parents had the tendency to overreact sometimes, which usually they didn't even realize they were overreacting some didn't even think they were. And maybe sometimes they weren't. But there were times when the parents overreacted about things and caused a much bigger ordeal than the child. Thor hoped though that nothing like that would happen this year, though. And that everything would go smoothly through the year.

---

If there was one thing Madelyn hoped to really accomplish this year it would be to inspire her students with their work. And she knew that she taught History, a class a lot of people found boring and useless but this year she had a few new things in mind. She wanted the students to be involved and not bored. She wanted to educate them on just how important history was. And on the fact that while most of them didn't think they had a voice, especially at the age of 17 and 18, but they did. She wanted the students to know about important things that happened in the past that had helped shape the world into the one they were all living in today. So she'd set up a few field trips through the year, she'd even been able to get a week where she'd be able to work with their art teacher on group projects. She was going to use that week to show them that every class had a history worth learning about, even the ones that were creative and fun. This year really was going to be different for her. Of, course she always put a lot of effort into teaching, and she always tried to get the students involved. This year though she'd put a lot more thought into everything. And she'd spent the whole summer planning everything out and making sure everything would be ready and actually work out.

[it's all good!]

Jason and Sam finally found Mr. Odinson's classroom, yet the man was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't sure whether to just sit down inside of the classroom or wait for him outside of it to properly greet him. Before she could even decide, Sammy walked inside and took a seat at one of the small desks, looking around the room to take everything in. Jase just watched him, leaning against the door frame as he splayed the map out and looked at it in more detail, legs swinging as he traced patterns on it with his finger. Jason knew he'd be fine his first day - Sam was already a pretty outgoing kid. All she wanted was for him to feel like he knew his teacher a little bit so he wasn't completely new to the school. Even if it was his teacher, Sam would have at least one friend. Jase walked inside the classroom and pulled one of the small chairs out and sat down next to him, looking to see what he was tracing.

---

Steve finally took a seat at his desk and logged onto the computer to see what emails were circulating already. Most of them would most likely be information on the first staff meetings, the date of progress report printing, and a bunch of other boring stuff. When he was finally able to pull it up, he was surprised to see an email about working on art projects with a history teacher named Madelyn Burns. He'd never heard of her, so she must be a new teacher. None of the other history teachers even wanted to work on stuff with him. A lot of the teachers disregarded his teaching as nothing more than hyped up arts and crafts, so he was glad there was a teacher that was actually interested in working with him and his students. His advanced art classes would all be small, anyways, maybe fifteen kids in each period at the most. He typed out an email to her and sent it with a little smile on his face the entire time.

Hi Ms. Burns,

Glad to see you've taken up an interest in me and my ragtag team of art kids! It's awesome to know that there are still teachers interested in working with the arts program, even if we aren't like traditional teachers. Let me know what type of project you'd be interested in doing with them and we can work all the details out. If you're free now, you can find me in room H121. Follow the trail of glitter leading to the art hallway, you can't miss it!

From,

Steve Rogers

Thor finished up printing everything he needed before making his way back to his classroom, where he could finish up any other last minute things that needed to be taken care of before the big first day. And he hadn't been expecting anyone, so he was slightly taken back when he got back and found a what he assumed was a mother and her child. Of course, he wasn't the kind of guy to turn someone away, especially not a student and his mother. "Have you been here long?" He asked when he was finally all the way into the classroom and not just standing at the door. "Because I'm so sorry if you have been, I was just printing some things off for the big first day and wasn't expecting anyone otherwise I would've been here sooner," he told them feeling nervous again all of sudden. He hated feeling nervous, he felt like he had a tendency to ramble sometimes when he was nervous. And he'd been sure that all the nerves about the first day and all were gone. Though he could've possibly been nervous because this was the first of many parents he was sure and well she was a very pretty lady. "I'm Thor Odinson by the way," he said finally walking over to the child and his mother and sticking his hand out.

---

Madelyn couldn't have been more excited when she opened her emails and read the one she's just received from Steve. It was quite nice of him actually to email her and let him know that they could work something out. Most of the time it could be a hassle to figure anything out when it came to collaborating with another teacher which was probably why it was such an uncommon thing. And she didn't even want to get into how awful it was when the other teacher wasn't an organized as she was, or when they couldn't agree on anything. She was determined however to make sure that finding a way to collaborate with the art teacher and make things work. And it was even better that he happened to also be at the school for the time being so she could meet him now. So after grabbing her coffee her made her way out of her own classroom and headed towards the art hall where she found room H121. She tapped on the door a few times before poking her head in and smiling as she looked around the room in amazement.