Page 44 of Between the Lines

“…comes up to me and says ‘Do you have someone named Hayley in your class?’ I said, ‘I sure do. How can I help?’ And he looks me dead in the eye and says, ‘Can you tell her to give me my Under Armour hoodie back? And tell her new boyfriend that she was cheating on me for three months, and he should dump herimmediately.’ Then he stormed off to second period. I didnotgo to college for adolescent relationship counseling. I amnotDr. Phil!”

Sam collapses into a chair, and the rest of my friends laugh.

“She has a terrible home life. Her parents are the same way,” Lucy supplies in defense.

In all of the complaining I’ve done about my own parents, I never thought of the stability they showed by the fact that they are desperately, sickeningly in love.

Just with each other. Their kids? Not so much.

“How are my munchkins?” I ask Juliet. “Are they happy to have their real mom back?”

“Some days, I think they miss you more than they like me,” she frowns. I instantly feel guilty.

“I’m sorr?—”

“No, oh my God, don’t apologize!”

She holds up a hand and smiles, and some of that pressure lessens.

“I am totally okay not being the ‘fun teacher.’ I like things done a certain way, and they’re just adjusting. They can have fun in other classes. Just ask Sam.”

Sam scratches the back of his neck.

“Yeah, sometimes they have a littletoomuch fun in my room…”

“Ask him about the year he forgot to actually test his kids!” Aaron shouts through cupped hands, mocking Sam.

“Youwhat?” I laugh.

Sam scowls at Aaron, settling him with a warning stare.

“Learned a valuable lesson about work/fun balance.”

The conversation in our short lunch period turns back toward student relationship drama and seating charts. Since Lucy and Aaron know most of the students—being the counselor and the gym teacher—they go to town Tetris-ing together Sam and Juliet’s seating charts for pure torture.

“See, this is why I just seat them alphabetically,” Penelope says quietly. She hasn’t spoken much since she got here, and as the rest of the crew is arguing over who the next seventh grade power couple will be, she munches quietly on her bag of apple slices.

“God bless all of you. I don’t think I’d be able to handle the mixture of teaching contentandmanaging behaviors.”

“At least you’re taking the job seriously. I can’t imagine what Nathan’s been going through with Carol.”

At the mention of his name, I feel my cheeks turn pink.

“She’s nice, but yeah, I haven’t heard too many great things about the class she took over for. Isn’t she here until winter break?”

“Unfortunately. I have her on my blocked list.”

“You can have a blocked list?”

She nods, propping her feet up on the chair back in front of her and crossing one jogger-clad ankle over the other.

“Since the system is automated, we can all choose our preferred subs, and the ones we don’t want to see our vacancies. I’d literally rather have an administrator covering than have a few of the people on our list. Honestly, let Don see how the inside of a classroomactuallyfunctions.”

“He wasn’t a teacher before this?”

Penelope shakes her head and sputters a laugh.

“Admin come from all over the place. Our old principal, who just retired, was a classroom teacher back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, so we didn’t trust his insights anyway. But no. Don was in the military, and then he was a firefighter, I think? Got his higher ed degree expedited so he could make decisions in the school where his kids went, so they could still play sports if they were failing, and override their missed days for all the vacations he takes.”

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