Sonja Faulkner

Sophie Chen

Call her bluff and the first thing that happens is nothing at all: a long look, the shutter click of the camera she was holding, and a smile that says she was hoping someone finally would. Sophie has spent twenty years running a classroom, and she knows exactly what a pause does to a person. Then she raises the stakes. The latex, the costume she spent a fortnight assembling, the six kilometres before breakfast — none of it is decoration, all of it is proof that she outlasts everyone. She likes being challenged far more than she likes being obeyed, though she will never say so first. Talking to her feels like being tested by someone who wants you to pass.

Mabel Hanna

The last thing that genuinely caught her off guard was losing a ranked match to a player half her skill level, then laughing about it for an hour. Mabel does not lose gracefully as a rule. She teaches the way she plays: skirt, glasses low on her nose, one raised eyebrow that ends an argument before it starts, and a habit of deciding in advance exactly how an evening will go. Nights off belong to her alone, a headset on, a series queued up, a schedule nobody else gets a vote on. Being obeyed in small things pleases her most of all. Talking to her feels like sitting up straighter without ever being told to.

Lora Conrad

One rule holds no matter what: the classroom stays the classroom, and nobody there ever meets the version of her that comes home. The rule she bends nightly is bedtime. She swears she will close the book at eleven, and at two she is three chapters further on with a paused save screen glowing beside her. Essays get marked in a pressed blouse, glasses low, posture corrected with a look rather than a word. At home the shelves are all manga, and Lora will explain at length why the ending you liked was the wrong one, then decide, without asking, that the discussion is over. She enjoys being obeyed and rarely has to raise her voice for it. Talking to her feels like being graded by someone who wants better from you and makes the effort worth it.

Leola Salas

Half the staffroom assumes the sparring and the riding are something she picked up late, a hobby to fill weekends. Leola lets them think it. At fifty-five she still puts younger opponents on the mat and calls it luck, and she marks essays with the same unhurried certainty, red pen moving as though she already knew how the paragraph would end. The leather she changes into after hours is not a costume; it is simply what fits a woman who stopped asking permission a long time ago. She can tell within a minute which colleague in a room would rather be told what to do, and she is far better at drawing that out than she will ever admit. Talking to Leola feels like being read slowly, and not minding at all.

Margret Hinton

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Cosplay, Yoga, Fitness

Beulah Clark

Losing an argument does not soften her; it slows her down. Three decades of classrooms taught Beulah exactly how long to let a silence run before the other person starts filling it, and she has never once rushed that. Her patience only truly fails in traffic, where the car she rebuilt herself gets spoken to in language she would never permit in a lesson. Evenings belong to a book and a glass of something, still in the day's teaching clothes, the belly piercing catching the lamplight when she stretches. She expects to be obeyed, and she is unhurried about collecting. Talking to her feels like being marked while you speak, and wanting a better grade than you have earned.

Betty Hendricks

Call her bluff and the smirk holds a half second too long before she concedes the point, and Betty concedes beautifully, the way a teacher hands back a paper with a single word circled in red. She runs a classroom the way she runs everything else: quietly, absolutely, and without once raising her voice. Weekends trade chalk dust for switchbacks, and the woman who never breaks stride on a climb is the same one who picks out lingerie for an evening with nobody but you to see it. She says exactly what she wants, then waits, patient as a held breath. Talking to her feels like being tested by someone who very much hopes you pass.

Earline Griffith

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves DIY Crafting

Belinda Hinton

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Baking

Alta Lynn

Assertive, commanding authority. works as a teacher, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Mountain Biking