Maggie: First Day Teaching DGSS

[Mairead Harker]

16 April 2020

Since winning her place as Baroness of Dragon's Gate, Maggie spent mornings in training sessions. It was not so long ago that she was a three year old brandishing a wooden sword in games with several of her cousins. Each of them, as well as her older relatives, had a weapon they prefered. Maggie's had come to be an oak staff. Being more petite than most of her opponents, the staff had given her a bit of reach. Much like a tightrope walker, she had learned to use the weapon to help her balance.

Hubert Fontaine stood back with her as they watched the newest 5-10 year old group.

"What do you think, Mr. Fontaine? They look like a lively bunch." Maggie smiled thoughtfully as she addressed the school's long time director.

"I am curious to hear your thoughts first, Baroness." Hubert smiled back. While he had watched Maggie's dueling performances over the years, he hadn't actually had a chance to talk to her.

"Unless it violates a protocol, you're welcome to call me Maggie." She was quiet for a bit as she looked over the dozen students. "Well..." Her apprehension faded as she came to terms with the fact that she was now one of the teachers that would shape the future of this group of children. She kept her voice quiet. "Of the twelve on the floor, we have four that really want to be here." Discreetly, Maggie looked between the students and the roll call list. She pointed out the names, two were a brother/sister pairing. She gestured to more names. "Two are serious about learning, but need to build confidence." A little smile appeared as Maggie took a couple of minutes to assess the other six.

"I will not!" came the voice of a girl from across the room as she exchanged blows with her taller opponent.

"You will!" the growling voice of a boy, about one year her senior, commanded. He was the eldest in this class.

Hubert was headed over to break up the pair. Maggie shook her head and murmured, "Let's give them just a moment."

The other students had turned their attention toward the fracas. Another girl, one that Maggie pointed out as a serious student was putting her two coppers in. "You can't talk to her that way! She's my maid's daughter!"

The boy growled again. "That's why I can! She's beneath me!"

"Mr. Fontaine, I've got this." Maggie's lips flatlined at the boy's remark. When crossing to the sparring rings with staff in hand, she glanced in a mirror. Maggie had seen Rachael Blackthorne make a similar expression over the years and now understood part of what it meant. "Enough!" Maggie shouted.

"She's beneath me, I'm Lord..." At Maggie's command, he sneered. "You, too, are beneath me."

"Joanna, step out of the ring." She gestured for the nine year old to move out of the way. Joanna didn't need to be told twice. The others gathered to see how their young teacher was going to handle what could become the class's bully. "Let's see what you've got, Lord Brandermeir." In her head, Maggie was sizing up this ten year old. He was broadly built and tall for his age. They were echoes of the man he might become, but his attitude needed to be checked.

The lad smirked and swung the practice sword for Maggie's shoulder. She used her staff to balance, dropped down and swept him off his feet with a quick motion of the long weapon. Young Brandermeir howled with indignance as he hit the floor. Maggie offered him a hand up. He was her student, not her enemy. He refused the help and rolled to stand. Maggie nodded her approval as he got back up. The boy was arrogant, but not stupid. "First lesson, class, how to get back up when you fall."

Chittering broke out among the other students. A small redhead, Abby Fenner, murmured to the dark haired boy near her, "He's gonna be sore if this keeps up."

Charles, age 7, nodded his agreement to Abby. "You been a student here before?"

Tucking a lock of stray hair behind a gently pointed ear, Abby shook her head. "No, the Baroness is my sister's daughter."

Charles seemed impressed by that. "Ooooh!"

Brandermeir heard Abby and commanded, "Call your sister's child to heel then!"

Abby laughed. "Here, she's my teacher and if you think I want bad marks on my report card, fergetaboutit! Besides, I'm betting your nasty mean butt is gonna get the whoopin' it deserves!"

Maggie stifled a laugh behind her hand and cleared her throat. "Abby, that will do." A few of the other children suddenly got wide eyed as Abby's comment sank in. Grades! Bad grades meant explaining them to parents and others.

"My father is ..."

Maggie cut the boy off with a staff poke to his belly. "Not here," Maggie said, "and if you run your mouth like that when someone means you harm, it might not be just the wind that gets knocked out of you."

He huffed at her. "But no one will harm me, I am guarded all the time."

Hubert looked to find two men sitting just outside the classroom. They had accompanied the boy. "Shall I call them in for you, young man?"

The boy turned bright red. "No."

"Next lesson, class, you are not your parents nor anyone but you. When you come into this classroom, you are a student and on equal footing with everyone else. You are here to learn not cause a disturbance. Mr. Fontaine and I are your teachers. If anyone has a problem with that, you may sit class out today and not return. Some of you have already had lessons, some of you learn more quickly, some will need time to catch up. Some of you might not be so sure you want to be here. Your families signed you up. I don't want to have to tell them that I can't teach any of you because you don't behave well."

As Maggie was talking, Brandermeir used his wooden sword as a paddle on her backside. "I am avenged!"

The Baby Baroness didn't get angry at the sneaky attack. She smiled wryly as she realized something she said had sunk in. Maggie made a quick sweep of the walls, some with mirrors, with her eyes. She flipped the staff under her arm and poked backward. Unprepared for that response, the boy was hit and toppled. Letting the staff fall, Maggie spun quickly to prevent the child from falling. People were entering the outer room to gather their children when lessons ended.

"For those with parents and others arriving to take you home, you may join them now. Except you." She singled out her opponent. The students filed out. Maggie pondered what they would say about the day's lessons. She waited for the others to leave before talking to Brandermeir. "The lessons I want you to think about for next time are these. No matter who your family is, you need to find your own pathway. Because your father is a high lord doesn't mean you are. While you might be in line to fill his shoes, you need to learn to do that in your way and time."

"You come from a well connected family, surely, that's been in your favor." His manner of speaking showed that he had been given the beginnings of lessons in protocol.

Maggie chose her words carefully. "In some respects, yes. In others, no. When you follow in someone else's footsteps, people expect certain things from you. My grandmother has made sure each of her children had a good education; gave them the tools to better themselves. It's rather ungrateful to misuse that kind of gift." She upnodded toward the window into the waiting area. "Those guards are not always going to be there to watch over you. You need to learn to protect yourself. Set a good example, be a leader they will want to follow, not one they will want to leave behind." Maggie didn't expand on that idea.

"Anything else ... Baroness?" He used the title begrudgingly, but he used it.

She set the practice staff back on the rack as she nodded. "Yes." Mairead was quiet for a moment before saying, "One must always win their own spurs, Brandermeir. No one can do it for you." She held her index finger in a hold on position. "If we meet outside this classroom and you insist on formality, you may call me Lady Harker because Lady Knight Marshal of Navarra is lengthy. If you don't, however, you can call me Maggie like just about everyone else does."

The lad whistled. The teenager wasn't that much older than he was. "Sounds impressive!"

"I suppose, but losing or almost losing some you love to gain an impressive title is a weighty endeavour." She knew more than she wanted to about that. Despite her student seeming to want more questions answered, Maggie politely cut him off, "You're free to go. Your guards are waiting."

Afterward, Maggie and Hubert had a brief chat. While the elder said she needed more experience handling some conflicts, she had handled things rather well. Maggie told Hubert, "I need to make him understand how that inheritance thing actually works. Someone dies for someone else to get it. Like many other things, there is a price for it."

In the waiting area, Nicole Brock crouched to greet her little sister, "What'd you learn today, Abby?"

"Not to annoy the teacher." Abby nodded as sagely as her eight years allowed.

Nicole laughed. "Let's go pick up Maddie and get some lunch!"

As they walked, Abby asked. "Nikki, who is Anubis Karos?"

Nicole paused a moment before helping Abby into the back seat of the four door pickup. "Where did you hear that name?"

"I heard Mama say she needed to ask him for help." Abby buckled her seatbelt.

"He's ... a friend of the family." It was the best answer she knew to give the eight year old. "If Mom is planning to ask for his help, she's planning to do something very important." Nicole knew her mother didn't ask favors of the Egyptian without a great deal of consideration.

"I guess we will know soon. Maggie's meeting her for lunch and they are springing her from the hospital today!" Abby sounded delighted at the prospect of having her mother home again.