The principal nodded. “Of course.”
“Bring the parents back in ten minutes.”
The principal nodded.
It was in that moment that Annika made eye contact with Mitch’s mother. She wished she hadn’t. The look of disappointment and disgust on the woman’s face was enough to have Annika curling up into a ball on the floor herself. Instead, she felt the old hospital band in her pocket, plastered a smile on her face, found her happiest singsong voice and turned to her class.
“Okay, who’s ready to run under the parachute?”
In a clattering of shoes and grumbled mutterings, the parents left with the principal as she regained control over her classroom.
By the time the principal returned with the parents, the children were so engaged in their work they hardly noticed the reentry of their parents. Annika immersed herself in teaching the children and was barely aware of the parental presence herself.
Thankfully, today was a half day, and when the morning finally ended, the children went home with their parents. It took Annika close to an hour to straighten up her classroom, after which she worked on mid-year assessments.
It was late afternoon before she remembered that her father had been at the school. She called him.
He answered on the first ring.
“Papa? I heard you were at the school today. Is everything okay?”
“Yes, I came to see what you did.” His voice was clipped.
“Uh-huh.” She wasn’t going to ask. She didn’t need to.
“I heard the parents complaining about you. About how you lost control of the classroom.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
He sighed, his frustration and irritation with her clear. “Maybe if you listened to us, did what we said, you wouldn’t keep finding yourself in situations you can’t handle.”
Her heart sank, but her anger raged. She was tired of trying to make people happy. “I did handle it, Papa,” she snapped. “You just didn’t hang around long enough to see that.”
Her hands shook as she disconnected the call.
What was the point of trying to please people who would never see it? It didn’t matter how good she was—they wouldalwaysthink teaching was beneath her. She thought of Daniel. Wait until they found out she was with Daniel, and not Sajan. She didn’t care if they approved. There was no point in trying to make them happy. Even if they were her parents.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DANIEL
HEKNEWASsoon as she walked into the bar that something was wrong. The quiet, calm feeling he would get when he saw her floated away as he noted the stiffness in her body, the set of her lips. Her face lit up for a brief moment before it slowly clouded over, and damn if he wouldn’t do whatever it took to fix whatever had put that sadness in her eyes. The fatigue he felt after an overtime, overnight shift melted away in an instant, as his focus became only her.
She walked to the back to put away her stuff as she always did. Daniel followed.
“Hey. How did it go?” Her back was to him, and when she turned to look at him, her face crumpled. He pulled her into his arms, and she buried her face into his chest.
“It was awful. The kids fought, the parents fought. The principal came. It was awful.”
“At Parents’ Visitation? The parents fought?” Comical images filled his head, but Daniel suppressed his chuckle as Annika was clearly distressed, and comical though it may be, parents fighting was never good. Daniel kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. “I’m sure you regained control, and all ended well.”
She shook her head without looking up. “Nope. The principal had to come take the parents while I took care of the kids.”
“Well, you handled the kids.”
She pulled back and looked up at him. “My dad was there.” Tears fell from her eyes. This was the real problem. Daniel’s heart dropped into his stomach.
“What do you mean he was there? How could he get to the classroom?” Daniel may not have gone back to the school, but he had attended every board meeting until certain policies were put in place. The main one being that no one,no one, went near the classrooms without an escort.
