“I’d like you to remember that 302 was a zoo just a few weeks ago. And think about what happened with them when Georgia was just absent,” Lina smirks.
I sigh. “Her kids are engaged. They’re learn—” I cut myself off here. “Theyseemto be learning, but not in any way that I’ve seen previously. Not in a neat, organized, easily rated way.”
Lina frowns at me. “So her students are engaged and learning, but not in a way that you’re comfortable with.”
“I mean, I’m notuncomfortable. It’s just?—”
She makes a noise in her throat. “You just said it, Oliver. They’re learning. Now, for my advice. Lay off of her.Trusther. She is a good teacher. Her ideas may be unconventional, but she is good at her job. She might not fit into your little mold, but she has great ideas.”
Cringing, I remember the conversation I had with Ms. Baker, with Georgia, just a few days ago, when she told me the same thing, almost verbatim.
“Listen to her. Stop with the back and forth.” Lina shakes her head. “It feels crazy that I’m giving you this advice, because you’ve already done this with every staff member here for the last five years. You’ve trusted them. You’ve listened to them. You’ve coached them appropriately. So I guess my ultimate piece of advice is to treat Georgia like you have treated everyone else here.”
Impossible.
“We’ll see,” I tell Lina. “I hear you. Thank you.”
When Lina leaves my office, I find myself alone with my thoughts. What is it with this woman? Why does she push my buttons? Is it truly because she doesn’t fit into a neat little mold? One that will be acceptable to Superintendent Daniels? She’s confident in her teaching, but she’s a mess. I truly do not understand how she can function, how she has had so much success in her classroom.
My cell phone rings on my desk. I pick it up, not bothering to look at the caller ID.
“What?” I bark.
There is a beat of silence on the other end of the line. “Try that again, Ollie,” my older sister says, in her Teacher Voice, the voice that’s always floating around in my head, telling me tojust fucking chill.
I slump, dejected, back into my chair. Today is apparently the day all the women in my life decide to try me. “Sorry. Hi, Tala.”
I can hear my sister’s frown over the phone. “Ano ba yan? What’s your deal?”
“I…” I sigh. “So many things.”
“Pick one,” my sister says, never one to mince words.
“I’ve been having a shit time with one of my teachers.”
“Which one?”
“She’s new. Georgia Baker. She’s… something else.”
“What’s her deal?” Tala asks.
“She’s good, but she’s… intense. Not worth the headache, I believe,” I start. “I didn’t want to hire her in the first place, but the supe forced me to because of all the parents complaining that their kids didn’t have a permanent teacher. She’s chaotic. Disorganized, rude. We were in a meeting just now, and she ripped me apart.”
“Did you deserve it?”
I laugh without humor. “I’m her boss. It doesn’t matter if I deserved it or not. You can’t speak to your superior that way. I was actually just thinking about firing her over it, but I can’t.”
“What happened?”
“Admittedly, I’ve been kind of a jerk to her over the last few weeks. She’s been driving me insane. But she really flipped on me today.”
“What’d she say?”
I wince. “She told me to pull the stick out of my ass. Gently.”
I hold the phone away from my ear as Tala screeches with laughter. “I love her already.” She pauses for a moment. “So after weeks of treating her like shit, you expect her to just melt into a puddle at your feet? Who do you think you are?” my sister asks me.
Christ. “Her… boss, Tala,”
