Mila's Story Black

Dr. Joyce. He had taken the name years ago, when he had first settled on this planet. It had been a private joke of his, with the punchline only arriving whenever someone from his past recognized him. He met fewer and fewer of them nowadays; Saldamiir had only known him as Joyce, though who knew what Saldamiir knew. Larna had known his name, but didn't know the significance, which was highly ironic considering they came from same place, but not the same time. These thoughts drifted to him whenever he was alone, after the students had escaped from one of his lessons. Sometimes Larna would visit him in these after hours, and discuss temporal physics over minted tea. He turned to the window, and didn't see her elfin face. She wasn't coming today.

Disappointing.

And then he noticed something else, out the side of his eye. Someone in an ostentatious red jacket, with cold grey eyes, wandering into the courtyard. She (or he) wasn't a student--students rarely looked so full of purpose. She moved quickly, cutting across the grass and dodging the students who were leaving the school. And there was an aura of twisted time around her, like one from his planet, but changed. Was this one of Gallifrey's post-War experiments? He never liked hearing about those, much less seeing them.

He couldn't allow such things in his school. He had too

Knock knock.

Joyce was distracted by 2 students bundling into his classroom. One of them was Stella, a well-groomed, but sometimes overly ambitious 17-year old girl who had a tendency to do all the work, and sometimes other people's as well. The other was a brunette girl called Lassie, or at least that's what everyone else called her. Lassie didn't really like the school, the students, or even Joyce, but she liked the class, so Joyce didn't mind her. Also, there was a good chance that Penny and Joyce had actually saved Lassie's grandfather years ago, when stopping a shipwreck, so Joyce had a soft spot for Lassie.

Stella and Lassie never really talked or sat with each other. Not that they disliked each other, but they were just in different social circles, from what Joyce could tell. So why were they standing in front of him together? And why were both their shirts on backwards?

Stlla opened her mouth. "HELLO MR JOYCE IS TODAY SUFFICIENT?"

Joyce actually Jumped at how high she had screamed at him. Her eyes squinted at him (where were her glasses), as he had to settle himself.

"Stella, I told you that pranking people like that gets you weird looks," said Lassie, giggling. Joyce couldn't remember thee last time that Lassie had smiled in class, let along giggle. Was this an attempt at a joke?

"MM. Yes. I was just meming," said Stella, making a strange motion to the left with her arms. "Memin' on the haters."

"Yes. Aha," said Joyce, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. His instincts, honed from centuries of adventure, were starting to go off. "Well, is there anything I can do for you two?"

Stella was still making strange hand motions--Joyce recognized the peace sign--while Lassie said "We need help in arts and crafts. We're want to get our grades up. For good job opportunities."

"Yes. As Daniel Joyce, a professor at University of California in the 20th century, we feel that you would be good at helping us excel at the arts and the crafts," said Stella excitedly. After a moment, she added "Scholastically."

"Oh, well if it's scholastically..." he mutterred. "There's one problem. I'm not an arts and crafts teacher."

Stella and Lassie both looked at each other in shock. Or, "Stella" and "Lassie", as he thought of them now. He'd been alive for too long to not recognize impostors.

Lassie said "Yeah, but as a teacher, maybe you can get us to arts and craft--"

"Stop it. You're insulting my intelligence. I know you're not my students. The real truble starts if you don't tell me where my students are."

"Actually, the real trouble is gonna start now that we have to shoot you," said "Lassie", who pulled out a violet pistol, with glowing sparks coming from it. "GLORY TO THE SONTARAN ELECTRIC!"

Lassie pulled the trigger. Daniel saw a flash of light, and expected to die. His last thought was about what would Larna do now that he was gone.

But then, no shot of fire came. Instead, he heard the familiar whine of sonic equipment, and saw someone vault oer the desk door and block the gun's way. He couldn't believe his eyes. The person from outside the courtyard, was actually...

"Hello, I'm the Doctor," said his daughter from timeless shores. "And I've had a very bad day so far, so normally I'd tell you not to make it worse. Unfortunately, you already have."