Aside from one or two kids who decided to test her limits, she’d had few problems. When the bell rang at the end of Friday last period, Lily watched her students scramble for the exits before leaving her room, planning to grab a coffee to take with her to the mandatory department meeting starting in five minutes.
When she pushed open the door of the teacher’s lounge to be faced with Eva’s back, Lily nearly reversed out the room. Aside from brief glimpses of her in the hall, Lily hadn’t seen Eva since their lunch duty on Monday. She didn’t know if that was normal, or if Eva was avoiding Lily in particular, but considering her aversion for human interaction, Lily wouldn’t be surprised if it was the former.
Eva didn’t notice her until she’d finished stirring her coffee, turning around with her mug between her palms. Lily could usually tell a lot about a person from the mug they chose, but Eva’s—plain black—didn’t tell her much at all.
Lily supposed, considering her blank expression and the coolness of her gaze, that made a lot of sense.
Lily didn’t realize she was staring, or blocking the exit, until Eva paused in front of her, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “Do you make it a habit to stand in doorways? Do you want to splash this coffee on me, too?”
“Oh. Sorry.” Lily shuffled out of the way, and Eva stormed past her without another word. “Always a pleasure,” Lily said once the door had shut behind her. She hurried to pour her own coffee, not wanting to be late for her first proper meeting.
Alisha wasn’t there when Lily shouldered open the door of her room, notebook tucked under one arm and mug held in her other hand. Andrew, Brandon and Mei sat together on one end of the front row, and Eva sat alone at the other, laptop open as she typed furiously.
Mei smiled warmly, and Lily slipped into the seat beside her.
“Hey, newbie. You made it to the end of the week—congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“Hate it here yet?”
“I’ve had a good week.”
“Give it time.”
“What have I told you about scaring her off?” Alisha said, overhearing their conversation as she entered the room. Lily was surprised when she dropped into the center seat of the row, instead of sitting behind her desk. “I promise it’ll be a quick one today.”
Lily grabbed her pen, ready to take notes.
“First and foremost, I’ve been told to remind you all about the training opportunities the school runs. They’re on the staff portal and can be accessed any time. Also, you all need to familiarize yourself with the special education needs profiles of every student you teach, so you know the best way to support them. If you think something needs to be added, please bring it to my attention. Same if you have any other concerns about a student. In addition, we’ve had a number of students express the desire to use gender-diverse pronouns. This is a gentle reminder to take care when addressing your classes, and to check if anyone you teach would prefer to be addressed with the gender-diverse pronouns of their choice. There’s a list of students on the staff portal.”
No one else seemed to be writing anything, but Lily didn’t let it deter her. She’d rather be prepared.
“We need to work out a schedule for the STEM and science clubs starting in two weeks’ time. STEM won’t be each week, but science will be every Wednesday. Does anyone want to volunteer for the first session?”
“I will.”
If anyone else was surprised by Eva’s offer, they didn’t show it. Maybe she wanted to get it out of the way.
“Okay.” Alisha made a note on a piece of paper.
“I’ll do the one after,” Mei said. “I thought of some fun things for them to do over the summer.”
“I can do a week.” It wasn’t something Lily had done before, but she wanted to throw herself into her role at this school with both feet. “Would I be able to run my ideas by you first, though?”
“Of course you can.” Alisha’s smile was reassuring.
“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Mei said, chewing on the end of her pen. “Your predecessor made the poor kids copy out of a textbook on chemistry weeks.”
“I can think of something more fun than that.”
“Not too fun,” Alisha said. “I don’t want them doing anything dangerous. Or messy.”
“You made a giant mess one time,” Mei muttered under her breath, and Lily decided she was going to get the story about that later.
Alisha swiftly got them back on track, filling in the rest of the schedule with everyone else’s names. “That’s all the official business we needed to get through. Is there anything else anyone wanted to add? Any issues, behavioral or otherwise?” She paused. No one answered. “Okay, well if anything comes up you know where to find me. I think we’ll leave it there—I told you it would be a short meeting.”
They gathered their things, and Lily wasn’t surprised when Eva was the first to leave.
