Page 52 of The Teacher

“You have been good getting them together,” I reply.

“Yeah.”

“And you do know your Shakespeare.”

“Well, I was in the same class as you, so of course you forced me to practically memorize Romeo and Juliet. So, what do you say?”

I eye him suspiciously. He’s playing a game here; I know he’s only doing this just to spend more time with me. He wants me to accept. He doesn’t care that I rejected his kiss yesterday, he wants me so much he’s prepared to spend time teaching kids about Shakespeare.

And, secretly, deep down, I want him.

Screw it.

“It’s a deal,” I say.

Skipper takes my hand. His warm touch sends lighting through my body. I hide my little gasp of pleasure from him as he pulls me back inside the classroom. James and Tom are sitting at their desks, watching us carefully.

“Right,” Skipper says. “Listen up boys.”

“You want to tell them?” I ask him.

“Yes please,” he says. The two boys perk up as he speaks. “Miss Finn and I have come to an agreement. Every Monday you two are to stay behind for private lessons with us two. We’re gonna teach you Shakespeare. Together. How does that sound?”

17

SKIPPER

“How about another kiss?” I ask Sandy as I close the classroom door.

“No, Skipper.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure, you weirdo.”

It’s another Monday, another day after school teaching James and Tom about Romeo and Juliet. As I ask Sandy for another kiss, the boys have just left, leaving the teacher and me alone in her classroom together.

And the tension in the air between us is striking.

I can feel it, and I know she can too.

We just have to act upon it.

It’s been four weeks since Sandy barged in on me secretly teaching the two teenage tearaways about the basics of Shakespeare in her classroom, and everything’s just gone swimmingly from then. Every Monday after school, just as we told them to do, the two teenage boys have stayed behind for us to spend an hour seriously teaching them one-on-one. Catching them up on what the rest of the class has done. Sandy, although pretty cold to the tutoring idea at the beginning, has really started to warm up to it. We’ve reached the point now when she’s actually laughing along and finally being loose with the play. I think our different teaching styles somehow complement each other. She’s more details-orientated and academic, whilst I’m a bit more fun and relaxed with the boys, able to talk to them man-on-man. I’m never afraid to just use a big metaphor to describe something that I know would otherwise be boring to a teenage boy.

We make a good team.

And, as I can see from her face when she thinks I’m not looking, I know Sandy thinks so too.

Each week the boys get better and better at English. They understand more and more about the play and, at this rate, they’re practically gonna be Shakespeare experts.

And it’s all down to Sandy and me.

Yeah, Sandy and I make a great team.

Which has led us to this week. We’ve given the boys a pretty insurmountable task for them to complete. We want them to memorize, and then perform out loud in front of us, the famous Romeo balcony speech.

But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.