Page 47 of The Teacher

I made myself a hot bath and melted into it, closing my eyes and dreaming of Skipper and his naked body.

And then I spent a night tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep. Unable to decide whether that kiss had been the biggest mistake, or the best moment, of my life.

And now a new day. A new school day.

I’m unrested. Wound up. My head’s scrambled.

Because of him.

And I’ve just received an email from Mr. Brown summoning me to his office immediately after school.

Shit. Not good.

And, to top it all off, my English class was a mess. Again. It didn’t help that my mind was in twenty different places at once. I couldn’t control the students.

Tom and James were at it again. Fighting. Yelling at each other. Those two boys were like little demons. They hated my class more than they hated each other, which was saying a lot. It was like they were out to get me. It only worked when I sent Tom outside to sit alone in the school hallway and kept James inside away from each other. I had to spend the entire class using all my energy keeping them apart and not on actually teaching Romeo and Juliet to the rest of my students.

Am I failing as a teacher?

Was Miss Tweed right?

Am I just a poor excuse of an educator?

I really worry about my students’ exams. They are all going to fail English and it is going to be all my fault. I’ll get sacked, and that’ll be my teaching career over. The one thing that gives me joy, gone.

I’ll be left with nothing, all alone in my empty house.

No career. No goals. No life.

After my class of the day, I head across the school to the principal’s office. I don’t feel up to this meeting, whatever it is. I just need to sleep. And, most of all, I need to get Skipper Deep out of my mind.

I knock on the principal’s door and I hear Mr. Brown’s voice calling me to open.

Inside the office is Mr. Brown sitting behind his desk and, standing next to him, is Miss Tweed.

Shit, shit, shit.

This really can’t be good.

Miss Tweed glares at me as I step into the office, a smug smirk on her face.

Yeah, whatever this is, it can’t be good.

“Uh, hello Mr. Brown,” I say. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, Miss Finn. Please, sit down.”

I do so at his desk. Miss Tweed stands over me, still smiling.

“What’s this about?” I ask.

Mr. Brown leans back in his chair. “How’s everything going, Miss Finn?”

“Good. Everything’s good. The students are starting to get stuck into Shakespeare, we’re making good progress.”

“Excellent, and what do you think of the exams? Do you think they’ll go well?”

“I hope so, with enough hours and enough study time I think I can get the students up to speed and confident about the exams.”