‘Caught, officer. That was it exactly. I’m a bad girl.’ Without thinking she put her wrists up in front of her, as she would have had she been messing about with one of her old friends in London. ‘Oh no, I’m not, oh, um… I don’t know why I said that, oh, for goodness’ sake!’ Sylvie flustered that she had said something so flirtatious. Thank God she had stopped before suggesting he discipline her! Although that would be quite nice.
‘Do you want me to bring Sam back with us whilst you talk to Rosy? If you’re only a minute you can run and catch us up, and if you’re longer you don’t have to fret about him waiting.’
Sylvie shot him a grateful smile for glossing over her faux pas so gracefully.
‘Do you know what, that would be really helpful.’
‘OK, Sam, you’re coming back with us, is that OK?’
Sam gave him a massive thumbs-up.
‘And…’ Alex continued to speak but leant in close to Sylvie as he did so. She tried to concentrate on his words, and standing up straight, but both were very hard as his breath flitted across her ear, ‘…when you come and get him you can help me formulate a last-minute exit plan to escape Marion’s clutches. I’ve been really stupid, Sylvie, and I don’t know how to get out of it.’
‘Marion’s clutches? Something stupid? Oh, I am so intrigued. You’d better get that kettle on and I’ll be at yours as soon as I can. Although I can’t promise to help. Laugh though, I can promise to laugh.’
‘Cheers for that.’ He smiled again, still quite close, and she had to use all her self-control not to grab for a wall to lean on. There was something quite special about that man’s smile. Something quite sinful.
Alex was seemingly unaware of his sinfulness, or in any need of a handy wall to support him, as he spoke. ‘No rush, Sam will be fine.’
She stopped. The four of them had reached the head teacher’s door, situated as it was by the entrance to the school.
‘Right, I’d best go in. Thanks for this, Alex, see you in a bit, and you…’ she grabbed Sam before he wandered off and planted a big kiss on his head, ‘I’ll see you…’
‘Aw, Mum! Mum! Urrghhh! You said you wouldn’t do that any more. C’mon, Ellie, let’s go see if that lollipop lady has any lollies today.’
Sylvie grinned at Alex and the two children sped out of the school door with determination writ large across their faces. Alex gave her an uh-oh-there-could-be-blood smile and followed after them.
Sam was so literal that he got very cross when things weren’t as he assumed they should be. She’d have to try and explain this again. Parenting manuals never warned you about the constant, and it was constant, explaining that you had to do. Made worse by television representations of families, usually dressed in beige and white (as if), with smiling parents explaining concepts to clean and grateful-looking children who nod, happy in their new-found understanding. It wasn’t like that for Sylvie. Last time she had tried to explain that the lollipop lady was there to help people cross the road safely rather than dish out sweetsSam had looked at her as if she had tried to serve him some of the farm kittens for dinner.
Miss Winter’s door was slightly ajar so Sylvie knocked and flicked a smile to the school secretary, glasses atop her head and a frantic expression on her face, who seemed to be chaotically moving piles of paper back and forth on her desk.
‘Come in,’ called Rosy and Sylvie felt the same trepidation she used to feel whenever she had been summoned to see the artistic director. However, Rosy was lovely and approachable and had been nothing but nice to her. The artistic director was an evil old crone who very probably did eat farm kittens for dinner. Or at the very least hit them with the metal-tipped cane she was always tapping in anger on the floor.
‘Hi, you asked me to pop by once I had got Sam.’
‘Yes, brilliant, thank you. Where is he? He can come in, or have you left him outside with Sheila?’
‘Oh no, he’s um… Alex McKenzie has taken him for me. Is Sheila OK? She looks as if she may have lost something.’
‘Ah, quite probably. Excuse me for a second.’ Rosy smiled at Sylvie before bellowing, ‘They’re on your head, Sheila, your head.’ Her tone reverted to normal. ‘Sorry about that. I wanted to have a chat with you. You have such a natural skill with the children and I wondered if you’d be able to help me out. Last time we spoke you said you were hoping to find some work more locally, maybe do some dance classes in Penmenna.’
‘Yes.’ Sylvie’s answer was tentative as she looked at Rosy a little suspiciously. She wanted to help the school out and really enjoyed coming in to do reading with the little ones, and this afternoon had been lots of fun, but she couldn’t keep giving her time for free. Now she had sorted her mum’s things out she needed to crack on and find more paid work. Plus she wasn’t very good at saying no, so she was worried about the direction this was heading in. ‘I still am looking for work, and when Iasked I found out that the village hall is fully timetabled out – it only has some late-night slots which wouldn’t work for ballet for the children. So I’m still looking.’
‘Excellent. Well, obviously not excellent about the village hall, I imagine that’s very disappointing, but I meant excellent for us. Hopefully. I have a suggestion then. I need someone to help with PE provision in the school. Mrs Adams has drawn up a new, very active PE curriculum but unfortunately can’t implement it herself at the moment. It would only be a few hours a week, but all our TA’s are full-time and there just isn’t any wiggle room in freeing them up from their current responsibilities, plus I’d rather have consistency in delivery. As it’s only a temporary position rather than a full-time permanent one I have flexibility about who I offer it to, and after watching the way you worked with the children this afternoon, I’d like to offer it to you. Would you be interested? I don’t need an answer right now, but it would be great if you could let me know sooner rather than later. What do you think?’
Sylvie thought she couldn’t believe her ears. This was amazing – jobs didn’t fall into laps like this, not even temporary ones. Especially ones that occurred during the school day with no need for childcare. Wow. And any money at all would be useful at this point. She still needed to save a deposit for a house to rent but this was going to make her life an awful lot easier. She could feel the grin spread across her face but realized as Rosy continued to look at her that the head teacher might require an actual verbal answer.
‘Oh yes. Yes, please. I don’t need time to think, that would be fab. I’d love to.’
‘In that case, congratulations and welcome to the staff team at Penmenna. If you’re sure you don’t need longer to think about it we can sort out all the formalities now and get things moving. I can give you a copy of Amanda’s PE plans that coverall the classes and you can familiarize yourself with it all before you start. Also, just thinking aloud, but if the village hall is unavailable why don’t I ask the governors about renting you the school hall for a few hours on a Saturday? They’ll have to clear it, but it is supposed to be used as a community space, and I can’t see why anyone would have any objections. There would be lots of benefits for you, being able to do ballet from here. Should I go ahead and ask?’
Sylvie couldn’t believe it. How had one five-minute meeting after school suddenly handed her all this opportunity on a plate?
‘Really?’ She felt like a fool as she heard the words slip from her lips, but this was all so much. She could get the ballet school up and running, and Rosy was right –the school hall would be perfect, easy to find and somewhere local children were very familiar with. Plus it would have the unspoken implication that the school supported the classes.
‘Ha, really. Don’t look so surprised. I was impressed when I studied with you in evening classes a couple of years ago and as I say you have a really natural way with the pupils. You’ve already had your DRB check so we know you’re cleared to work with the children. I’m not the only one to notice you either. Trust me – staff gossip about the parents as much as parents gossip about the staff, and others have commented on how good you are in the classroom. This is a no-brainer for me, and you’re actually doing me a favour stepping into the breach. So I’m guessing that “really” is a yes. And as luck would have it we have a governor’s meeting scheduled for next week. So I’ll wait until then to raise the hire of the school hall but I can’t foresee any problems. If that’s OK?’
‘Miss Winter, I don’t know what to say. This is amazing.’
