Page 28 of Every Beat of My Heart

I raised a brow.

“Why would you want to substitute teach?” the kid in front of me asked.

I glanced at the seating chart this teacher kept at the front desk. Fagan.

I smiled and said the thing they’d least expect any teacher to say in middle school. “Because I love hanging out with kids your age.”

The room fell quiet because these kids probably never heard a parent or teacher say that. There was a reason why middle schools were short on substitute teachers. No one wanted to deal with disrespectful kids that were the size of adults. But I wasn’t afraid. In fact, my body hummed with the challenge of getting these kids to respect and maybe even like me.

I’d be the cool teacher by the end of the day if it killed me. And if nothing else, they’d respect me. Because I didn’t put up with shit, and I wanted them to learn.

The announcements started just then, and everyone stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. When the pledge was over, I took a seat, sneaking a peek at my phone while the media teacher droned on about the club schedule.

I smiled when I saw the text from Claire.

Good luck today.

Thanks for the well wishes, but I’ve got this.

I bet you do. You’ll have those kids eating out of your hands by the end of the day.

That’s the plan. Please tell Owen good luck at tryouts.

I wanted to keep the message chain going, but we both needed to get to work.

I will.

Then I tucked my phone in the top drawer of the desk and handed out the slips for kids who were being pulled to other classrooms.

When those kids grabbed their things and left, I stood in front of the room to set the ground rules. “You can work on homework. You can read. You can even play games on your laptops, but you cannot do any of that in pairs or groups.”

I didn’t care what they did as long as they kept to themselves. That seemed to have made them happy because the next forty-five minutes were relatively quiet. I only had to remind them a few times not to talk.

I knew other teachers allowed kids in their classroom to hang out together, but that could get out of control quickly. And I wasn’t about to let chaos reign. I’d heard a horror story of one substitute teacher who allowed kids to pull out their phones and go through the teacher’s desk. Not on my watch.

When it was time to move to their first class of the day, I let out a breath. One period down, six more to go.

* * *

After school, I went for a run on the track and lifted weights in the gym to kill time before tryouts. This school shared facilities with the high school, so the work out room was decent. Then I showered quickly and headed to the middle school’s practice field.

I’d already talked to the athletic director, Mr. Elias, to ensure I had the equipment and uniforms we’d need to have a successful season. In general, the football teams seemed to be well funded, and the middle school benefited from that.

I grabbed a clipboard and the list of kids who’d registered for tryouts.

I was only on the field for a few minutes before the first kid showed up, along with his dad who was dressed in a suit.

“What’s your name?” I asked the kid.

He glanced at his dad before answering, “Bryce Keaton.”

I found his name on the list and checked it off. “Have you played before?”

“Every year since kindergarten,” the dad said proudly.

“Why don’t you put your things on the bench,” I said to Bryce, sensing the dad wanted to be involved in decision-making on the team. Then to his dad, I said, “If you plan to stick around, you can sit on the bleachers.”

“I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Brian Keaton.”

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