Closed Exasperating Teenagers

[Josephine Arora]

Sometimes Josephine questioned her wish to work at a school, of all places. She liked her job, loved being a nurse, but dealing with hormonal teenagers all day wasn't her favorite part of it. They could be frustrating and while Josephine sometimes saw herself in them, that didn't exactly help in their favor. She sometimes thought it was easier to deal with toddlers. At least, until Amanita did something like paint the walls with spaghetti sauce instead of eating it. Josephine was finished for the day at the hospital wing and headed to the Professor's common room, sitting down with a sigh at the table Maris was sitting at. "Sometimes, I wonder if teenagers are getting dumber of if I'm just getting old." She said by way of greeting.

 

[Maris Wormwood]

There was a small but lucrative window right before dinner where Maris found she had the most peace, as long as she didn't mind getting to the Great Hall late. Classes were done for the day and most of the after school mischief had already wound down in favour of getting ready for dinner, a meal most students thankfully were less likely to skip in favour of doing something else she'd have to inevitably clean up after. It was also the perfect time to commiserate with her coworkers she thought wryly, raising a glass of wine it was arguably too early to be drinking towards Josephine as she joined her in the staff room.

"They certainly do find new and exotic ways of causing trouble," she said with a sigh, conjuring another empty wine glass and sliding it towards Josephine with an unspoken invitation to join her. "Someone shoved frog-spawn soap down second floor bathroom sink this morning. I'm only glad I found it before too many frogs got into the pipes," She said with a sigh. She was sure if she listened closely she could still her ribbeting in the walls. "I suspect Fergusson but I have no proof," she added, taking a sip of her wine with an exasperated huff.

 

[Josephine Arora]

Josephine hadn't realized how much she needed a glass of wine until Maris handed her one. She thanked her quietly as she sat back in her chair, sighing softly. The story Maris told her had her shaking her head in dismay. "It's like they don't think." She said, sighing. "Today I had a Louis Alcott in the Hospital Wing who had been trying out some random spell he'd heard from a friend of a friend would get rid of a pimple. It didn't work, and thank Merlin it did nothing at all, but he could have easily hexed off half his face." She said, sighing. "I could see him tuning me out as I told him about the dangers of using random spells on one's face. He had the nerve to ask me for something to get rid of the pimple afterwards." She said, pouring herself a glass of wine.

 

[Maris Wormwood]

Maris allowed a rare, quick smile as she watched Josephine relax back into her seat with her wine, glad to have someone else who got it to join her. The professors were all well and good most of the time, best intentions and all that, but half of them were just as bad as the students (not to mention a lot of them were barely out of school themselves these days) and there was nothing quite like sharing her exasperation with one of the other school staff.

“Alcott, ah that one,” she said, clicking her tongue as Josephine relayed her own story, shaking her head in dismay. “He’s the one that just got a prefect badge? Great example for the other Gryffindors, Merlin help us,” she said with a sigh, taking a sip and shaking her head. “You should see some of the messes I find when the kids try to come up with some of their own homebrew potions. I’ve had to scare more than a few first years out of that bathroom on the 5th floor because they thought they’d try their hand at a few potions they’d read about. Not enough scrubbing spells in the world to clean up some of those messes,” she groused. “We’re probably both lucky no one’s blown anything up this year yet."