“Great,” I said, not hiding my sarcasm. “Can’t wait.” And with that, I went back into my room and scanned the hallway to see whereshewas. There was no way having her reassigned to unload boxes deterred her plans, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
Good.
“See you then,Gilly.”
The way he said my name made me snap my gaze in his direction. His answering smirk confused the hell out of me. He had to be playing at something. Maybe it was because my not-a-dime outfits were better than he thought or the fact he knew storms terrified me and he wanted to exploit my weakness. Either way, I had two hours to figure out what he wanted to talk about.
Chapter Seven
Wednesday morningusually meant a stupidhumpday joke from a colleague and shifting point in my lessons where I would make changes to meet the students where they were at. Instead, I woke up an hour early to get ready for my SPIRIT day.
The email announcement last night had changedeverything. I wanted to beat Christopher just to throw it in his face and watch him cry, but now, the winners from each grade level went to a showdown and got to pick the professional development training at the end of the month. This was huge. Bigger than huge.
Christophercouldn’twin because I refused to sit through a training onhow to teach without a personalityorwhy white walls are best for inspiration.No. I couldn’t.
That was why I was light-headed from blowing up fifty balloons and taping and tying them on to strings and yardsticks. Nothing was purchased, so I was still following all his dumb rules, and I knew I was going to kick his ass.
Christopher could waltz in here with his rigid lack of fun, but he didn’t know the staff like I did. He didn’t know that Miranda’s mom used to live with her until she relocated to Florida to live with her other daughter. He wouldn’t know that she had a walker with tennis balls at the end unless he was Snapchat friends with her—which I was—so that was how I scored a walker to complete my outfit from the movieUp, going as Mr. Fredricksen. She let me borrow it without even bribing her with chocolate.
My brain felt fuzzy as I blew in the last balloon as Larissa walked in and grinned so wide, I swore I saw every single individual tooth in her mouth. “Holy cow, Gilly.”
“Can you…help me get it ready?” I’d borrowed an old dollhouse from the preschool attached to our building and taped all the balloons so it looked like the house fromUp. My classroom had tons of paint, and I used every color I had. “Think this is creative enough?”
“Um, yes. You went far out.” She clapped, looking adorable in her Mrs. Incredible outfit, which would’ve cost forty dollars at the party store. “I’m impressed. For real. You’ll make the rest of us look bad, but it’s worth it. You see APD’s email about the training?”
I nodded too hard and winced. “I’m not lettinghim”—I jutted my thumb over my shoulder to point at Christopher’s wall—“win. I’d rather eat a tube of glitter glue.”
“I don’t know…the kids love him.”
“Don’t remind me.” I huffed and adjusted the big clunky belt to make my too-large corduroy pants—curtesy of Larissa’s brother—stay up. “Okay, fake glasses. You brought them with you?”
“Sure did.” She handed them over and snapped a photo. “Amazing.”
“Keep the compliments coming. I need the confidence.” I sighed as she frowned at her phone. “What is it?”
“Helen wants to meet to work on our lessons for the week. This observation thing the first full week back is killing me. Are we all doing this crap? Why can’t they let us do this later?”
“It’s just for the new teachers to the school and second-year teachers.” I agreed that the timing wasn’t ideal, but I understood the need to help model how to do anchor charts for classroom rules and policies. “Not all of them know how to adjust lessons into anchors.”
“Fine. You’re right.” She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Can’t wait to hear the gossip about your outfit today. You’ll be the talk of the staff, for sure.”
I winked as she left and lost myself in the lesson that Christopher was going to observe. It was only for thirty minutes since APD would cover his class so he could sit in mine, but it felt bigger than just a lesson. Like my student teaching experience but amplified. Which annoyed me.
I didn’t care what he thought.
Okay, sure.
I had an hour to prepare and check my emails, so there wasn’t time to worry or overthink about the fact he would be in my room, watching me, with my students. I wasn’t going to waste it worrying about some guy.
Christopher was still not in my room as I stood outside my door and greeted all the students. His door was open, but Dave was in there, like it was planned, and my stomach tightened with nerves. Would he show up late to try to fluster me? Was this a trick to mess with my mind?
Either way, it was working. My poor nail was barely there from my constant nibbling, and just as I accepted he would ruin whatever I would do, his tall frame appeared at the end of the hall. He wore a dark jacket with a striped scarf and—oh my gosh, is that a bald head piece?
Were those…pillows in his jacket to make him look exactly like Gru fromDespicable Me?
Oh, hell no.
He was mid-laugh with another male teacher when his gaze landed on me, and the appreciative glance he did up and down my body made my skin break out in goose bumps.What the?I was dressed like an old man. There was no way for him to look at me with interest in those eyes.
