Cora x Lydia - 'I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In' for the song + ship meme? :)
here’s a human & teacher au! approximately 700 words, with minor Sterek (more of a mention than anything). on ao3 here!
If Cora had known that one of the biggest components of being a teacher was sitting through hour after hour of mind and ass numbing meetings, she never would have applied to teacher’s college.
The first meeting of the school year hasn’t even commenced yet, and she’s already bored. The staff room is packed with teachers and administrative stuff, all mingling in their small cliques, drinking coffee that has the consistency and taste of a bucket of used oil and reminiscing about their summer breaks. It’s all the same stuff, no matter where Cora turns her ear; vacations to somewhere tropical, sunbathing, trips to Disneyland and amusement parks to occupy the kids. It’s the same kind of tedium that she’s heard for the last five years, and it’s so monotonous that she thinks she could easily put her head down on the table and start sleeping, using all the blather as white noise.
Before she can do exactly that, her brother-in-law collapses into the chair next to her and shoves a huge black coffee from the cafe down the road into her palm.
“You read my mind,” she says, immediately taking a sip and burning her tongue in the process.
“You’re just identical to Derek in the morning,” Stiles replies from behind his own drink, which is some kind of concoction with two different kinds of whip and a tower of whipped cream. “I miss anything?”
“Absolute fuck all,” Cora mutters, slumping down in her chair and sticking her legs under the long table that dominates the room. She doubts that the meeting will be pertinent to her; the athletics and physical education department has the highest budget in the school, and she doubts that’s likely to change anytime soon. It’s more than likely just going to be a rehash of the same bureaucratic nonsense they have to go through every year, with only a few snarky, muttered comments from Stiles to keep her from falling asleep.
She wonders if she’ll be able to get away with playing games on her phone, if she keeps it on silent and angles herself just so.
Thankfully, since it’s five minutes to eight, and Principal Morrell is a stickler for starting on time, Cora doesn’t have to wait much longer. Conversations begin to die down, staff members take their places around the table, and at the exact stroke of eight, Marin walks into the room, arms filled with paperwork and handouts.
Surprisingly, she’s not alone.
The quiet clicking of another pair of heels on the tiled floor announces that they have a guest, and Cora glances up from her phone, expecting to be met with a young teacher in training doing their student placement.
Instead, she’s met with what (or, rather, who) she did on her summer break.
Completely unbidden, images flash through her mind as she stares dumbfounded at the figure standing in the doorway; ringlets of strawberry blonde hair splayed across mussed up sheets, ruby red lips parted in a gasp, stiletto heels resting on the carpet of Cora’s bedroom floor.
Lydia’s outfit is fairly conservative today, comprised of a long sleeved, blush pink blouse tucked into a steel gray pencil skirt, but her lips are painted ruby red, and Cora knows from the sound of her footsteps as she joins Marin at the front that she’s wearing stilettos.
“Fuck,” she groans, louder than she means to, as she starts thinking of possible ways to exit the room without being noticed. Stiles swivels in his chair to face her, and his eyes dart from her to the front of the room and back again.
“What’s wrong with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or some shit.”
“I wish.” Cora risks one last look at the front of the room. It’s a mistake; her eyes lock with Lydia’s, sparkling hazel under her long eyelashes. There’s no chance that Cora hasn’t been recognized; immediately, the corner of Lydia’s mouth furls into a smirk that makes more not safe for work images pop into Cora’s brain. That smile just as quickly changes into something beaming as Marin finishes Lydia’s introduction, an introduction Cora hasn’t heard a single word of.
She slumps down in her chair and buries her face in the rim of her coffee cup with another groan.
The meeting certainly isn’t going to be as boring as she expected, but she’s so fucked.
