Shit.
“Where’s the bat!” Lenny slur-yells from behind me.
I slam the door shut directly in his face without a word.
9
THE TEA
BECKY
School starts at a crawl. First, we have teacher flex days. We get to choose which three of the five days available to us we want to work. These I like to callTeacher Sweatsdays. We can get away with most reasonable attire, so I wear sweats.
Next comes Teacher Work days. These are the required days for teachers to come in for classroom prep, lesson prep, and most importantly, PD, or Professional Development.
Finally, the kids arrive. We go from a crawl, to a walk, to a flat out sprint. Luckily, we are in theTeacher Sweatsdays because I am still somehow hungover, and word has already spread that Carter was seen at the music event with someone else, and that his car has been seen outside of his parent’s house for the last week. All of this knowledge and more useless gossip comes from getting coffee in the teacher’s lounge.
I’m glad I get to deal with more of an information trickle effect than the deluge that happens when school is mid-session.
I’m in my room editing my to-do list—also known as avoiding other work—when my principal knocks on the already-open door.
“Knock, knock. You busy?”
Duh.“Hey, Ronnie, what’s up?”
Our principal is named Veronica, but she told the teachers to call her Ronnie when the kids aren’t around because the name Veronica makes her feel like she’s about toget a whoopin.
She’s awesome.
“Hey, is it cool if I come in for a minute to chat?” She’s already making her way into one of the student seats in front of me.
“Yeah, sure.”Shoot shoot dang crap, what did I do wrong?
Anyone who says theydon’tget nervous when the principal says they want to talk to them is lying. They’re liars. I’ve been teaching eight years, my third with Ronnie, and I still get theoh-my-God-what-ifs.
Oh my God, what if I’m getting moved to a different class?
Oh my God, what if I’m being moved schools?
Or of course, the worst: Oh my God, what if I’m about to have a surprise parent teacher conference and the principal is going to sit in?
Okay, the worst is being fired, but still.
Ronnie settles in and gives me a look that I cannot decipher.But I don’t like it.
“Yes, ma’am?”You’re staring.
She’s twisting her hands in her lap, tapping her fingers, her foot, fidgeting. “Oh goodness, ok. Well I’ve heard some rumors?—”
I interrupt. I do not want to havethisconversation. “I’m sorry, excuse me.” My desire to not dwell on my personal life supersedes my need to please. “Um, do we have to talk about those?”
“Oh, of course not, it’s only that—Well—” She takes a deep breath and lays both her hands on her lap and squares her shoulders. “We have a new employee.”
“Okay?”Maybe they’re different rumors.
Another deep breath. “Her name is…Ms. Harrison.”A pause. “She’s Jill’s niece.”
I suppress a shudder.I hope the attitude doesn’t run in the family.
