#growing beyond

Chapter Fifteen of my Reylo Teachers AU.

Read Chapter One here.

Summary: Rey Smith has landed her dream job, teaching Physics at Alderaan Grammar School but she has not been there a day when she realises that there’s something rotten in the Alderaan education system and that something is centred around their rival school, Starkiller Academy and its enigmatic headmaster, Kylo Ren, puppet principal for the shady First Order multi-academy trust.

Expect mistaken identities, snarky email correspondence, hockey matches, school dances, marking in coffee shops and far more information about the English education system than you ever wanted to know.

“So. Who are you and what have you done with the Kylo Ren we all know and don’t particularly like?”

3000 words of Ben Solo being a good boy, holiday special edition.

Chapter Fourteen of my Reylo Teachers AU.

Read Chapter One here.

Summary: Rey Smith has landed her dream job, teaching Physics at Alderaan Grammar School but she has not been there a day when she realises that there’s something rotten in the Alderaan education system and that something is centred around their rival school, Starkiller Academy and its enigmatic headmaster, Kylo Ren, puppet principal for the shady First Order multi-academy trust.

Expect mistaken identities, snarky email correspondence, hockey matches, school dances, marking in coffee shops and far more information about the English education system than you ever wanted to know.

Rey I need to do Christmas shopping. Thought I’d let you know so it wouldn’t be weird if we bumped into each other in town

Kylo Why would it be weird? I can’t tell if you want to meet me or not. What do you want me to say?

Rey IDK do what you like. I guess I wouldn’t mind some company but don’t put urself out. I’m just buying presents. I’m not going to hang around or anything.

Kylo I’ll see you in the market then.

Kylo I’m glad you texted.

Well, I do need to ease into writing Growing Beyond again so... And I am providing zero context for this. :P

~

“It’s a safe-guarding hazard.”

Rey looked up from where she was artfully arranging her plants on a shelf so that they were directly positioned in view of the webcam. Ben was leaning against the door frame, arms folded.

“How exactly is this a safe-guarding hazard? So the kids know I own a spider plant, two hyacinths, a peace lily and multiple cacti? Big deal! I think it’s better if they see my face, it builds up more of a connection between us.”

He shook his head. “It’s inviting them into your house. It’s not maintaining appropriate distance.”

Rey straightened up. “Oh? So doing lessons on my own in my own room is not appropriately distant from my class of students? Wow, Ben, what exactly do you think is going on in these online lessons?”

He shrugged awkwardly. “You might not be dressed...”

Rey snorted. “I’m not that unprofessional! It’s you who goes to meetings in your pyjamas.”

“I’m not meeting minors. It’s completely different.”

“Mmm, nothing inappropriate at all with Mrs. McMurphy from accounts seeing you shirtless...”

“Jealous, Smith?” 

He was looking far too smug. 

She rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer, adjusting the webcam a little so that when she sat down, all that could be seen behind her was a blank wall festooned with greenery.

“You wish, Solo. There! A calm yet stimulating learning environment.”

He leaned over her shoulder to assess what it looked like on the screen. “Hmm. It’s too neat. They’ll think you’re using a fake background.”

Rey stood up so quickly she bumped into him and sent him staggering back. “Jeez, Ben, how often do I have to tell you that you can’t do that on Teams? Just because you use Zoom-”

“Bloody hell...” he muttered. “Teams, Zoom, Skype... it’s all the same.”

“Okay, boomer!” Rey patted him on the arm as she swanned past him. “I’m going to get some fairy lights. I think it would really add something to the aesthetic.”

Ben watched her go with a mixture of pride and frustration. Rey’s interior decoration craze had come as a surprise to them both but he couldn’t say he objected and he didn’t even mind her preference for light, bright colours, natural fibres and lots of plants and flowers. He cast a final look around the neatly arranged desk with pens in painted jam jars and sunshine through the open window casting shadows across the right angles of books, smiled slightly, and followed her back downstairs in search of the finishing touches to Miss Smith’s home classroom.

~

What a treat of an ask! :)

Consolation Prize

This still remains the story I am most proud of writing and what I think to contain some of my best writing. I would love to make it original but so far I have felt stuck because of the very specific backstory it needs - like, that Mary is not a virgin and has the Pamuk scandal hanging over her, and that the estate is entailed away to a cousin. I feel like anything I did with it would be very obviously ripped off Downton and I haven’t found a way to work through that yet. But one thing I’d like to come back to is the idea of retelling myths in some form in apparently realistic fiction. Because ultimately CP is an Edwardian retelling of the story of Perseus/Andromeda or George v the dragon, whichever you want to go for. I love the melding of mythology and that kind of imagery and symbolism in something apparently non-fantastical. So perhaps working on a historical novel that contains that elements, even if it isn’t exactly CP? I don’t know. But I’m also afraid that I peaked with that story and nothing I write will ever be as good or as satisfying and I’ll never be able to capture that again.

University Challenge

I have half of the next chapter written and I do still mean to finish it and post it with a summary of what would have happened subsequently. I feel really guilty for abandoning it. I think I’ll never quite understand its popularity but I’m very grateful for it. I was back in St Andrews this week and I realised that I’ve never spent more than 1 night in the place at a time and I’ve only visited it three times but I feel like I know it so much better because I spent so much time there imaginatively. But really, this story still lives on in me because I can’t accept any other modern AU for the DA characters. UC is canon for me. And, for what it’s worth, all my modern AUs exist in the same universe...

Growing Beyond

The thing I have the most fun with here is incorporating the myth of SW into a modern AU, a bit like I did in CP. My favourite chapters so far have been the ones dealing with the production of Anastasia and its aftermath. I spent literally months planning the scene when Rey goes to the Winter Ball, listening to “Quartet at the Ballet” on repeat on my walk to and from school. The whole thing is designed to set up “reverse Anastasia” as a theme. So, indulge me and let me talk about Chapter Nine!

The first verse of the song Rey hears is Anastasia singing, but the lyrics reflect Ben who enters at the end of the verse -

“Can this be the evening?Can this be the place?Am I only dreamingLooking at her face?Everything I've wanted suddenly so clear!My past and my future so near!”

It is Ben, the lost prince, who is coming face to face both with the mother he is estranged from (the past) and the girl who has bewitched him (the future).

The second verse is sung by Dmitry but reflects Rey - 

“Next to me this frightened girlHolding tight as the dancers whirlKeep your nerve andSee this throughIt's what you've come to do.”

Rey is both the frightened girl but she is also the rock of righteousness who is able to bring Ben out the other side of his exile. She thinks she’s the lost princess but she’s not, she’s the one who rescues the prince(ss), a nobody who is the most important and bravest person in the world.

The third verse is obviously Leia’s just after Ben and Rey have been discussing her - 

“See that girlCould it be...Don't be ridiculous!I refuse to dreamI refuse to hopeI must stop believingI will ever find her…”

And the fourth verse - 

“She's near at handYet here I standMy heart and mind at war...The times must changeThe world must changeAnd love is notWhat revolution's for!”

- belongs to both of them and to the conflict of their situations within opposing ideologies but growing personal connection.

The rest of the lyrics I didn’t quote but they’re very appropriate:

“Someone holds her safe and warm Someone rescues her from the stormSimple things but one thing’s clear:It’s fate that brought us here”

Of course it’s fate! And both of them need rescuing from the storm...

“Find a way, Anastasia!”

Is this a direction to Rey who thinks she’s Anastasia or to Ben who actually is? Either way, it’s a call to arms to change!

Chapter Thirteen of my Reylo Teachers AU.

Read Chapter One here.

Summary: Rey Smith has landed her dream job, teaching Physics at Alderaan Grammar School but she has not been there a day when she realises that there’s something rotten in the Alderaan education system and that something is centred around their rival school, Starkiller Academy and its enigmatic headmaster, Kylo Ren, puppet principal for the shady First Order multi-academy trust.

Expect mistaken identities, snarky email correspondence, hockey matches, school dances, marking in coffee shops and far more information about the English education system than you ever wanted to know.

“She was in Kylo Ren’s apartment after 11pm and he was offering to make her peppermint tea. Rey was pretty sure this was not normal.”

This headcanon is unshakeable. In every AU I will ever write.

I mean, it’s blatantly the case in Growning Beyond but I’ve just given him the same coat and scarf in The Premiere so I guess this is just a Thing now.