Here We Go Again Chapter 1. Brendon Park x original female character.
Storyline: A fresh start in life is always wonderful. Mae V Maybriar is starting a new adventure in her life with her son Victor. A new job at Graville Academy in Squirrel Hill Pittsburgh as a 3rd grade teacher. She would’ve never guessed that starting this job would end up turning her world upside down. In a good way? In a bad way? Guess you’ll have to find out.
Firstly like all my fics this is +18 plus. Always has been always will be. So if you're under 18 leave the room.
Second I want to say thank you to @writingwithcolor and all the amazing work they’ve done! It has saved my bacon, taught me a lot, and was very well organized. 10/10!! Which leads me to my second point. If I have messed up a character description or have done something stupid by complete accident. Please let me know ASAP. I also have no medical expertise but like all fan fic writers we will give ourselves full on degrees for our work. But also if I mess something up in the medical department please let me know as well.
Thirdly shoutout to @baklavasudarajako for taking the time to make this lovely commission for the fic! Look at this delicious couple yummy!
And finally if you prefer to read on Ao3 click here! Please enjoy and let me know what you think!
September 15th, 2025.
Normally Mae isn’t one to abandon her duties by any means. She always completes her work and tries to never leave anyone hanging. However, if a job you applied for in the summer at a private school that offers almost double what you’re currently making, non-religious, and smaller class sizes.
It's very hard not to reject…
Luckily it was early enough in the year that the students wouldn’t be too completely affected by a new teacher coming in. Depending on the time of year, a new teacher or a long term sub can sometimes make the students not care. This usually takes place in the Spring and by that point the entire building is done and ready for summer vacation.
Mae pulled into the parking lot of Granville Academy in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh as this was only her third time coming to this building. It was about two floors with original brick work, and a brand-new building in the back that's connected with a skywalk.
“Mom! Mom! They’ve got swings!” Her son Victor was about to jump out of the backseat to go look at the new playground.
Victor is the walking definition of a social butterfly. While a good number of kids are scared about starting a new school and anxious about making friends. Give Victor ten minutes in his 5th grade classroom and he’s made friends with everyone and invited to all the birthday parties.
Turning off the car and popping the trunk open in her Toyota corolla cross, Victor was already bouncing out and wanting to get a closer look at the playground. Their previous school didn’t even have much of a playground. There was a small playground with two slides and about two swings on a good day. But this one was giant. Were talking like six slides, monkey bars, swings, seesaws, and spinners. Mae absolutely loved swings and may have broken an ankle or two when she was kid trying to leap off as far as she could.
“Whoa Victor! You’ll get recess later today. Can you give me a hand please.” Mae called to him as he groaned and hurried back over to the car. Mae basically packed up her old classroom then left it in the car.
Which turned out to be a lot more than she anticipated. While she had a box dedicated to pencils, crayons, and school supplies. Mae had a bit more than most teachers due to her little soft spot for science.
Okay, it wasn’t just a soft spot. It was one of her favorite things in the world and her favorite subject to teach. She even took extra science classes in college (even though it would mean more student loan debt) just to get as much she could learn to pass on to her students. Make science fun because it can be so much fun. And her second favorite subject to teach is math which can be a bit of a challenge considering how many kids don’t like math. She can’t blame them because it's tricky. Especially fractions.
And Mae always liked a challenge. And today would be another big challenge for her and Victor.
Before heading inside. Mae checked her appearance in the mirror. Her dark brown coily hair worked with her this morning as it wasn’t super frizzy but still was big and puffy. Just how she liked it. And her makeup was subtle because she ended up fading away by the end of the day.
One of the differences in working at a public school and private school is the attire that teachers must wear. As much as her earlier public school wanted the staff to wear business casual or even formal business. That wasn’t going to happen considering that most people couldn’t afford spending the extra money on business attire. So nice jeans, school T-shirts, and maybe a blouse here and there was as good as it was going to get.
But with this being a private school. They made it clear that they wanted their teachers to dress nicely. So, Mae pulled out a deep plum long sleeve turtleneck and a powder blue pencil skirt. Her heels matching the turtleneck and the belt were also deep plum.
“I think we're ready Victor.” She commented as Victor stood next to her.
“Now. What kind of day are we going to have?”
“A good day!” They high fived one another and began grabbing her supplies from the trunk.
Victor took her black rolling cart that was overflowing with pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, highlighters, and chalkboard markers. While they are pricey, she knows students tend to write on their desks when they get bored and it’s easy to clean them. The rest of the boxes included games, her own books she’s bought, math supplies, and had two dedicated boxes for her science supplies.
Once they managed to grab everything in one go, they sped walked to the building. Mae pressed her door fob on the small black panel and the door opened to the main office. The last time she entered this building was in July and spent all morning trying to remember the school secretaries. And they were very common names but for some reason she could not remember them.
“Good mornin’ sweetie. What can I do for you?” One of the secretaries was sitting behind the desk as Mae walked towards her.
“I’m the new third grade teacher. Mae Maybriar.”
“Oh, you made it just on time. Give me a second.” The secretary smiled as she walked to the long hallway. From what Mae remembered, that was where the principal, vice principal, and the rest of the office staff had their offices.
“They’ll be right out. I’m Vickie Radde. And who is this young man?” Vicki smiled down at Victor who approached Vicki.
“I’m Victor! I’m ten years old… in fifth grade… and my favorite candy is kit kats.” Mae playfully rolled her eyes as Vicki nodded. He’s been scheming on getting his hand on kits kats from every new teacher he could.
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Victor. If your mom lets me, I got a kit kat for you.” Vicki offered as Mae looked down at Victor.
“This is the only one you’re getting all day.” Mae told Victor as he nodded, but she knew he would still try.
“Ms. Maybriar I cannot thank you enough for accepting the job and coming in this quickly.” The Principal, Darrell Morin was speed walking towards her as she put down the boxes on a chair. He was tall, very athletically inclined, very well-kept corkscrew curls that were raven black, and dark brown skin.
“It’s not a problem. Just point me in the right direction and I’ll get started.” Mae smiled as Principal Morin looked down at Victor.
“And I’m assuming this is the great Victor?” Principal Morin got down to Victor's level as Victor smirked.
“Yes sir. I’m ten years old, in the fifth grade, and my favorite candy is kit kats.”
“Very nice to meet you, Victor. I’m Principal Morin. You’ll meet the Vice Principal later on today when she does her rounds of the classrooms. Welcome to Granville Academy." Principal Morin held out his hand as Victor reached it and they shook hands.
“Well Mrs. Maybriar. I can take you to your room and have you meet your fellow teacher as well. If Victor wants he can join the rest of the kids in thecafeteria. Some parents need to drop off their kid earlier than usual so we serve some breakfas if neededt” He offered as he grabbed the box she put down on the chair.
“Not yet. I wanna see moms classroom first.” Victor responded as they began following Principal Morin.
Principal Morin gave her the broad strokes as they walked down the hallway towards her new classroom. Giving the school's mission statement, and how wonderful the students are, yada yada yada. And of course, the fun one, the staff here and Granville Academy are a family and will always find a way to help a student no matter the struggle.
The usual first day conversations.
“And this is now your room. We didn’t want to take any of the decorations down until you got in. In case you wanted to keep anything since the former third grade teacher will not be coming back.”
“Oh, thank you. I will definitely take a look and see what I’m working with here.”
“Of course. Hey Victor, do you know where you’re going today?” Principal Morin asked as Victor reached into his backpack side pocket.
“Ms. Jamie Mann… room 204.”
“Good man. Well were about to let everyone in so I’ll be back to introduce you to the class..” Principal Morin said his goodbyes as Mae switched on the lights to see the room was…
Well…
The definition of a millennial teacher as Mae had ever seen one.
Sure, Mae was about to turn 30 and was technically a millennial. But she wasn’t the depressing gray kind of millennial. While you can’t paint over the asylum white walls of the classroom. There were no string lights, lamps, or anything covering the harsh LED lights. Which Mae always covered up in her classroom because those LED lights were HARSH.
Truth be told… everything was gray and black… it was just depressing.
“Mom, this room sucks.” Victor commented as he stopped wheeling the utility cart and looked around
“We don’t use that language Victor………. But it kind of does…” Mae stood in the center of the room and just couldn’t help but have a very disgusted face.
Now the general rule in classrooms these days is that yes have a colorful classroom. But you don’t have to go overboard with decorations because it can cause distractions for the students. Understandably because what kid doesn’t want to look at the bright poster for a few seconds. But having no color just felt wrong.
Mae turned to see where her desk was, which she was fine with. It was in the corner of the room, next to the window, and it was a pretty good size. Filing cabinets, storage, and whatever supplies the earlier teacher was using. And then there was a big table with four small chairs and an opening for Mae to slide into. Very helpful for small group work.
She then focused on all the posters and signs, and it made her eyes widen. They were all the hobby lobby signs that say “keep life simple”, “hello”, and one that says “life happens, coffee helps”. There was one wall dedicated to student art and that was it. Which Mae didn’t like at all, and imagined the earlier teacher preferred a certain aesthetic when teaching. Not a bad thing by any means, it's just… a bit… Sad?
“Well Victor. I think I got my work cut out.”
“Want me to find a trash can?”
“No no. This is her stuff and we respect other people’s property. I’m going to box it up and give it to the principal so he can give it to her.”
Mae looked at the room once again and got a layout of the land. Three groups of four desks were facing the center of the room, outlining the rug in the middle. Mae moved the table with the four chairs to the edge of the rug against the board. Luckily there was a space in the middle between the two white boards so she wouldn’t be blocking anything.
“Why do people decorate their classrooms like this?” Victor asked as he reached into the box and pulled out some of her dinosaur displays.
“Well, some people just have a certain taste. Some people like bright colors, some people prefer gray.” Mae gave him a simple answer as he went back to the toy dinosaurs. Victor turned his head as he motioned Mae to look at the door. There was a staff member standing in the doorway. He was rocking the usual office attire of blue dress pants and a white button up.
“You must be my new partner in crime. Matt Call.”
“Mae Maybriar.” She smiled as they shook hands.
“Like the layout?” Matt asked as Mae could only politely nod.
“Don’t lie, it's awful.”
“It's a choice that’s for sure. I was planning on packing all her stuff up and giving it to the principal so she could collect it.” Mae told Matt but all he could do was chuckle.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t worry about her stuff. She’s been banned from the property because she…” He made a motion of a bottle as Mae only nodded.
“Ah. Well, I guess it's a donation then for… whoever.”
The bell went off as the three of them walked out of the classroo Mae motioned for Victor as they walked out into the hallway. She fixed his collar and kneeled down in front of him and fixed the collar of his shirt.
“Do you want me to walk you to your classroom?”
“No thanks. I see the stairs right there so I think I can manage.” Victor told her as she smiled big.
“I’m very proud of you, Victor. And know that I love you and have a good first day!” Mae surprised him with a hug, squeezing him as tight as she could. He was starting to wiggle a tiny bit.
“Mooooooooooom stop. You’re embarrassing me.” He groaned as she squeezed him tighter.
“I know. Now get goin’.” She motioned as he waved bye and was already darting up the stairs.
“Would you like me to introduce you to your class, or you got this?” Matt asked as Mae waved him off.
“No, I got this. If I need anything I’ll scream.” Mae smiled as you could hear the horde of students all the way from the end of the hall. They came around the corner as it looked like a mixture of kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade were making their way down. Mae stood next to her door, offering smiles and good mornings as everyone passed by. A few students stopped, stared, and then went into the classroom. One little boy stopped in front of her and smiled.
“Are you our new teacher?” He asked as Mae nodded.
“I am. I’m Ms. Mae Maybriar. What's your name?”
“Ramtin Al Hashimi.” He responded as Mae smiled.
“Well, it's very nice to meet you, Ramtin. In a couple minutes I’ll come in and we’ll get our day started.” She smiled as Ramtin also smiled and hurried into the classroom.
The last of the students trickled in as Mae looked over at Matt. He gave her two thumbs up and she gave him a salute. Mae took in a few deep breaths, shook her hands, put on a big smile then walked into the classroom. Before she entered the room, Principal Morin came down the hall and stood in front of the doorway.
“Okay I’m here. Sorry I like to be at the front door when the students leave for class.
“Good morning everyone.” He greeted as the kids stood up and gave him a good morning as well. Mae followed in behind them as she smiled and waved to the kids.
“Very good ‘good morning’ everyone. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that your teacher Mrs. Rose has decided to move on to different pastures. The good news is that we have someone who is eager to meet you! Please give a big good morning to Ms. Mae Maybriar!” He introduced as he moved to see could stand in the front of the class. The kids in unison said as Mae smiled. They seemed awake, alert, and also curious.
“Well a good morning indeed. I am your new teacher Ms. Mae Maybriar. You may call me Ms. Mae... Ms. Maybriar... Ms. Briar. Whatever you’re comfortable with.” She smiled as a male student shot up his hand.
“My mom said that Ms. Rose is in the jailhouse because she’s a guzzler.” The kid said, causing Mae to suck in her cheeks because it was really hard to not chuckle. This is the age group of no filter and extremely curious.
“Well Ms. Maybriar doesn’t know anything about that but you guys are in great hands and I’m gonna get back to it. Call me if you need anything. Have a good day kids!” The Principal left the classroom as Mae walked over to the box.
“Well I know it's weird having a new teacher when the school year has already started. But I thought a fun way to start the day was for us to get to know one another before we get started on work.” Mae smiled as she walked over to the box and grabbed a foam football.
“Now I call this the name game. See this ball? When I toss you the ball I’m going to ask you three questions. Your name, favorite subject, and then a random question. This will help us get to know one another. Now I’m not looking for any super athletes so please gently throw the ball. Who wants to go first?”
Almost all the kids raised their hand as Mae noticed the kid who made the comment about Mrs. Rose was waving his hand all over the place. Mae tossed him the ball and he caught it.
“So, what’s your name?”
“Amos McNight.”
“Favorite subject?”
“Recess!”
“Recess was always my favorite. I was the Queen of freeze tag. So, Amos. Answer me this. If you could choose between a burrito or cheeseburger, what would you eat?” She asked as Amos made a humming sound.
“I’d be a double cheeseburger!” He responded as he tossed the ball back to her.
“Okay, it's my turn. Ask your questions Amos.”
“What’s your name?”
“Ms. Maybriar.”
“Favorite subject?”
“Science.”
“And…” Amos paused for a moment. “And if you could be any dinosaur, what would you be?”
“Ooohh my favorite dinosaur. I’d have to be a Patagotitan. They’re one of the biggest dinosaurs that once roamed our great earth millions of years ago. Which we will get to later in our school year.”
Mae looked around the students to see that one of them wasn’t engaging in the group. The little girl was doodling on her name card and looked completely uninterested. So, Mae casually worked her way down as the rest of the students were eager and waiting for Mae to throw the foam ball. She stopped in front of the desk as the child looked up.
“Good morning.” Mae squatted down as the child gave her a quick smile then went back to her own little world. Mae placed the foam ball on her desk as the child took it.
“What’s your name?” Mae asked as the child squeezed the ball.
“Bonnie... Park.” Bonnie said as she sat up a little more.
“Very nice to meet you, Bonnie. Do you have a favorite subject?” Mae smiled as Bonnie squeezed the ball again.
“Music… I really like music class.”
“Fun. I wish I was good at music. I sound like a wild cat whenever I sing.” Mae waited a few minutes as the child chuckled.
“So, Bonnie. If you like music, then do you have a favorite instrument?” Another few seconds passed as Bonnie gave her back the ball.
“That’s okay. Some days I don’t feel like talking either. Well, it was very nice to meet you, Bonnie.” Mae smiled, then grabbed the ball and tossed it to the next student.
