My Trick-or-Treat free-day entry for @finstocksfuckeduplongweekend!
In which Coach reveals what’s happening one room over in every ABO fic ever XD.
Rating: M
Bobby understands the high school urge that students have to break literally every rule they ever see. He gets it. He was in high school once, and it’s hardwired into kids at that age to be rebellious. Also, a lot of high school rules are really stupid, so there’s that. He might even be guilty of encouraging his kids to break a few rules, but really, honestly, only the stupid ones. Like that time all the boys on the lacrosse team wore bras during practice in retaliation for a shitty new dress code restriction on female athletes. And hey, he paid the price for that. He had to deal with these idiots playing with underwear for four solid weeks. Snapping each other’s bras in the locker room and stuffing the cups with any fruits they could get their hands on.
The point is, he uses that kind of power of suggestion very, very sparingly because some rules are important. Some of them are 100% there for a very good reason. Such as the rules on suppressants and why the Omegas have to be on them. No doctor’s notes, no opting out, no offering to homeschool during their… delicate times. Suppressants with an up-to-date regimen at all times. And this is why.
His third period class is sitting in the boys’ locker room, staring at him with absolutely haunted eyes. They’ve crowded onto a single bench as far away from the door as they can get, huddled together like soldiers on their first night in the trenches. High-pitched whines come from just beyond the wall, followed by a throaty growl.
Okay, Robert. Time to be the authority figure, he tells himself. Time to be the guiding light in this time of uncertainty and… horror. When in doubt or slightly traumatized, turn it into a teaching moment.
“Okay. I know that was a little… unsettling,” he says, coming to stand in the middle of the locker room. “So. How many of you have never witnessed a spontaneous heat before?”
Almost every single hand goes up. Great.
“Well. You can’t say that anymore, so that’ll help next time it happens. The first time is the worst.”
“Is that… gonna happen more?” McCall asks, practically hidden behind Lahey. He flinches slightly when the whine from the pool turns into a keen. Great acoustics, the pool. Absolutely the worst place for this to happen, so… that’s about on par with Bobby’s luck.
“Oh yeah, it’ll happen more,” Bobby says, with a casual tone that hopefully implies that it’s not a big deal. Half of the kids hunch their shoulders and manage to look even more distressed so that probably didn’t work. “See, outside of high school, no one’s gonna be making sure any of you Omegas are on suppressants. Or keeping track of your cycles. Or making sure your medications don’t interfere with them and render them completely useless. So a couple of missed doses and BAM!” He smacks his fist into his open palm. In the pool, something slams into the door as if reinforcing his point. Probably Stilinski’s back. The huddle of scared kids gets tighter. “Next thing you know, you’re bent over the frozen pizza freezer in the supermarket and delaying everyone else’s day. You know what happens then? They have to shut the whole place down, let the happy couple finish, and then deep clean the damn place. And sales of frozen pizza still plummet for at least a month.”
Kira’s bottom lip is trembling. Jackson’s knuckles are turning white from his grip on Danny’s arm. Clearly, this is not having the comforting effect Bobby was hoping for.
“Okay, let me start again—”
“HARDER!” Stilinski’ voice echoes off of every goddamn wall in the vast, empty pool room. Everyone flinches. Bobby is pretty sure he does too.
“Okay, let’s take this outside, huh?” Bobby unlocks the back door that leads out to the field by the parking lot and shoves it open. The kids get up and run for the door, squeezing past each other in the way they’ve been taught not to during fire drills. This is way more urgent than a fire, Bobby figures as he follows them.
There’s a low-slung black Camaro in the parking lot, just sitting at an angle in the middle of it, engine still running, driver’s side door still ajar. Teaching moment number 2.
“Now, all you Alphas.” Bobby points to the car. “This is why you need to keep your shit under control and check in with the Omegas in your life. Because if you do this shit in the parking lot at the grocery store, someone is probably gonna steal your car.” He points to Danny because he has the rare mix of responsibility and grace under pressure (and goalie reflexes). “Danny. Go shut the car off and bring me Hale’s keys so he has to come talk to me before he can leave.”
He looks at the rest of the class, still huddled together but now separated into their appropriate cliques. Some of the horror is starting to ebb now that they aren’t actively having to hear what’s going on, and the memory of a goddamn co-ed in a leather jacket tackling one of their classmates isn’t quite so fresh. Hopefully Hale and Stilinski finish in time for everyone to get changed or he’s gonna be sending kids to their fourth period class in bathing suits and towels. For now, he’s only going to worry about who he can send back into the locker room to grab the sunscreen. Probably Isaac. That kid is pretty hard to rattle.
The school doesn’t release information to the teachers on the students’ designations since they have a strict suppressant policy. Bobby can still tell some of the Alphas and Omegas when they fall into the extremes, but that’s not often. More often, he knows because kids shout at each other in locker rooms and feel the need to share everything. But today he’d swear blind that he could probably name every single Beta in the class just by who’s beginning to look relieved that they don’t deal with this nonsense.
And he’s not gonna ruin that for them. Let them be happy and relieved for now. It won’t be long before they learn that it’s going to be their job to keep the world running when the Alphas and Omegas are doing this shit at their grocery stores, their favorite coffee shops, and their jobs. And that when this shit happens, if they have the kind of job that asks way too much of them, then afterwards it’s gonna be their job to talk to said Omega, said Alpha, and all applicable parents.
