I paused at the sound of Elena’s voice, remembering she also had fifth period free. Curiosity pulled at me, inching me forward. I peered through the narrow window to the side of the door, finding her leaning against the edge of her desk, arms crossed.
Jefferson paced next to her, his face pinched and pale. “This is not acceptable. You get a warning this time.”
My heart pounding, I stepped to the side, keeping a sliver of a view through the glass.
“A warning for what? Caring about my students?”
The man’s eyes bulged. “You cannot spend one-on-one time with students outside of school hours without documenting it. You must get permission! I have to fill out a form in advance.”
Elena raised her palms in the air. “Fine. I’ll notify you before speaking to any of my students outside of class.”
“You can speak to them, of course. Just no undocumented one-on-one meetings after school hours. That’s not allowed.”
Elena’s chest expanded, her eyes closing. “I get it.”
Jefferson scratched his temple through his gray, Brillo-pad hair. “Three warnings and we’ll have to create an Improvement Plan. I know we’d all prefer that it didn’t come to that.”
Elena uncrossed her arms and laced her fingers together. “Well, then, I guess this is a good time to mention that I’m sponsoring an after-school poetry club. We’re going to meet on Tuesdays in this classroom.”
“You need to fill out a Club Request Form and turn it into Principal Albright.” Jefferson rummaged through his manbag and removed a file. He flipped through several pages and handed Elena a light green sheet of paper. “Here’s the form. He’ll let you know if it gets approved.” Jefferson turned toward the door, almost spotting me. I darted away, but not before I saw Elena roll her eyes. When I returned from the bathroom, her room was empty.
My sixth and seventh hours passed in slow motion. Maybe because my own department chair had never written me up for anything, the conversation I’d overheard between Elena and Jefferson upset my equilibrium. Then again, maybe a stern warning was all Elena needed to survive her steep learning curve.
Just as the day’s final bell rang, a text beeped through from Craig: Got a call to replace some siding. Won’t be home until 6:30.
As much as I wanted to get out of this place, lugging five stacks of last week’s pop quizzes home wasn’t high on my list. It was easier to stick around and grade them here. But the sunlight outside my windows beckoned to my vitamin D-deprived body. The warm weather wouldn’t last much longer. I laced on my tennis shoes, deciding to take a walk first.
I followed a wide loop around the school grounds, eyeing Nick’s soccer team warming up on the field as I passed. Elena perched near the sidelines with her stylish sunglasses shielding her eyes and her floral sundress billowing in the wind. I continued huffing it for several minutes, walking around the far side of the tennis courts where a few of my students rallied back and forth. On my second loop, the soccer game had started, a crowd gathering in the stands along each sideline. I kept moving, passing the tennis courts again, and smiling at a woman who walked two aging golden retrievers along the trail at an alarmingly slow pace.
Another person hovered off the path, catching my gaze. Phoebe slouched behind the metal fence of the court where McKenzie was serving. She wasn’t dressed in tennis clothes, but she was focused on the match. As McKenzie tossed the ball in the air, Phoebe coughed. McKenzie stopped mid-swing and glared over her shoulder. She repositioned herself and tossed the ball above her head a second time. Phoebe coughed.
McKenzie threw her head back in exasperation, the sun reflecting off her shiny ponytail. “Can you not stand there, please?”
“Oh, sorry. Does it bother you?” Phoebe asked, sarcasm cutting through her voice.
I loitered at an even more sluggish pace than the woman with the golden retrievers, a warning bubbling through my veins. Phoebe wore a satisfied expression like she’d won a game of checkers. The unsmiling tennis coach strode toward them from a nearby court to handle the situation. I forced myself to keep walking as I wondered about Phoebe’s role on the team. When I passed the courts on my next loop, McKenzie’s match was in progress, but Phoebe was gone.
I completed my walk thirty minutes later, returning to the ungraded papers inside my classroom. It was already 5:45 p.m. by the time I stacked the last pop quiz on top of the pile. Admiring my organized classroom and sparkling lab equipment, I heaved myself up from my chair and massaged the kink in my back. The halls had mostly cleared out, only a few stragglers remaining from after-school activities. Exiting the side door, I followed the longer route to my car, hoping Nick would still be hanging around so I could find out how the game went. The student parking lot sat mostly empty as I paced along the sidewalk in the direction of the soccer field. A cluster of girls squealing in high-pitched voices and carrying tennis rackets crossed in front of me. They scattered toward a few of the remaining cars.
I turned the bend, treading around a patch of woods and peering down toward the field. Two stray soccer balls lay in the middle of the grass, but the players and spectators had cleared out. I shrugged, continuing toward my car when something moved behind the nearest goal. I paused and stretched my neck, recognizing the skirt of Elena’s floral sundress fluttering in the wind. The goalpost obscured part of her body, but not enough. Through the netting, I could see Nick wrapping his muscled arms around Elena. She leaned toward him, the two of them making out like seniors on prom night.
My pulse raced as I glanced in every direction, checking to see if Jefferson or any students or parents had witnessed this inappropriate public display of affection. The sidewalks were empty. It was only me.
“The soccer net is see-through!” I wanted to yell but didn’t. There was no point embarrassing anyone, including myself. I jogged toward the parking lot instead. I’d talk to them tomorrow, as a friend. I’d remind them how, at a school like Ravenswood, appearances mattered. Albright was a rule follower. No one could blame them for pursuing a romance, but they needed to be more discreet. There were only a handful of teachers I enjoyed spending time with, who I counted as actual friends. I couldn’t stand the thought of either one of them losing their job.
I rushed toward my car, adrenaline shooting through me as if I’d witnessed some sort of crime. My reaction was ridiculous, and I forced myself to inhale a deep breath and chill out. It was only a kiss. This would end up being an entertaining story to tell Craig when I got home, but nothing more.
I stepped from the grass onto the cement, noticing a lone car parked near the edge of the lot, a silver Camry glinting in the early-evening light. My feet scurried past the empty car, but a flitting shadow pulled my attention toward the front window. I spun around, the outline of shaggy black hair sending my heart rate racing again. The light shifted and a familiar profile became visible behind the glass. Rowan slunk down behind the steering wheel, peering out in the direction of the soccer field. He was watching Elena and Nick from his car. He’d seen the whole thing.
Six
Amy
Amy punched the four-digit code into the locker and pulled open the door. Perspiration dripped from her forehead into her eye and she wiped it away with the skimpy gym towel. She’d completed her weight-lifting routine followed by forty minutes on the elliptical machine. Small victories.