“Do I need to move you elsewhere, or do you think you can manage to keep your mouth shut for the next forty minutes?”
“I’ll try my best.” Francesca smirked, leaning back in her chair like she was sitting at a restaurant with her friends. The logo of her jacket caught Eva’s attention—Gucci—and Eva tried not to generalize but her most difficult, entitled students were usually the ones with the richest parents.
“If you can’t manage it, you can spend an hour with me after school practicing.” Eva rose to her feet to stand beside the board, her PowerPoint presentation for the introductory lesson already on the screen. “Now, let’s get started, shall we? Who can give me the definition of a cell?”
Eva kept a close eye on Francesca throughout the rest of the class, expecting some pushback, but to her surprise, none came. Her dressing-down seemed to have scared her classmates, too, and Eva didn’t issue a single detention for the remainder of the period.
When the bell rang, Eva followed her students out into the hall. Lunch duty wasn’t something she particularly enjoyed, but it was a necessary part of the job. Eva garnered a few curious looks over the state of her shirt, and she folded her arms across her chest to hide the worst of the brown mark, a glare enough to silence any snickers sent her way.
Several other members of staff stood huddled together in groups, but Eva skirted around them. She didn’t make a habit of engaging in idle chit-chat with her colleagues, and was purposefully standoffish, careful to cultivate an attitude of do-not-approach to students and staff alike.
Eva was happiest on her own—had never seen the point in forming relationships with others when they always inevitably ended, leaving her lost and disappointed and wondering why she’d ever bothered in the first place—and made sure everyone else knew it.
She was on her third loop when another teacher joined the fray. Eva recognized the blouse of her department’s newest hire and rolled her eyes, because of course she shared a duty with Lily.
Just her luck.
Lily looked lost and out of place, hovering inside the doorway. Nerves showed in the way she wrung her hands as her eyes darted around the room. Young and fresh-faced, she didn’t look like she’d be the sternest, and the way she’d quailed under Eva’s glare earlier didn’t bode well for her.
When her eyes met Eva’s, a flicker of recognition passed across Lily’s face, but surely after their previous meeting she wouldn’t be stupid enough to approach.
Would she?
Eva watched and waited, adopting an air far from welcoming.
It didn’t have the effect she was hoping for, because much to her horror, Lily approached with a spring in her step and a hesitant smile on her face.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot before,” Lily said, coming to a stop by Eva’s shoulder. “I—”
“I don’t think we did, actually.” Eva chose to examine her nails rather than meet the other woman’s gaze. It was a behavior more reminiscent of her students than of a thirty-five-year-old, and sure, Eva could entertain her, but Eva didn’t need a friend—especially one who reminded her of her past—and if she humored Lily on her first day, she’d talk Eva’s ear off in the weeks to come.
“Oh.”
Eva glanced up. Lily looked crestfallen, but Eva refused to let it bother her. “If that was all…?” Eva raised an eyebrow and watched Lily’s throat work as she swallowed.
“I’m sorry again about your blouse. Like I said before—I’ll pay for the cost of dry-cleaning.”
“I think you’ve done enough already, don’t you?” A scrub with vinegar and a few rounds in the washing machine and Eva was confident it’d look as good as new. And it meant she wouldn’t have to talk to Lily again.
“O-okay, then. See you around, I guess.” Lily walked away, and Eva tried to ignore the defeated slump of her shoulders as she approached a different group of teachers.
She’d bounce back. Eva had met her type before: bright with enthusiasm and eager to please, but Eva didn’t have the time nor energy to deal with it.
Not with what awaited her at home. Any nurturing or patient instinct—of which, admittedly, she already had little—was reserved for her mother, and the role of carer Eva had stepped into when she’d moved to High Grove from Washington D.C. two years ago.
She worked to pay the bills for them both, and that was all.
If the new hire thought she was going to change that, well.
She was mistaken.
* * *
Downtrodden after her attempt to make amends with Eva, Lily tried to shake off the memory as she slipped into the teacher’s lounge, her stomach rumbling.
Inside, Mei and Andrew sat at the table, both smiling at Lily as she approached the refrigerator.
“How’s your first day going?” Andrew said, once Lily had grabbed her pasta salad and joined them. “The kids behaving themselves?”
