Page 6 of Don't Fall in Love (and how to break the rules)

The boy was quickly furnished with two pieces of toast heavily endowed with both margarine and ‘Notella’ – an imitation of the original which cost a fraction of the real thing. His eyes grew large when he saw them, and Nisha put a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he began to tuck in.

Once Francis was settled, Nisha walked over to the hatch. “Thanks,” she said. She smiled at Chrissie and then proffered her hand across the counter towards Dan. “I’m Nisha, by the way. Sorry I didn’t get to properly introduce myself yesterday, it wasall a bit hectic, but I’m pleased to meet you now, and thanks for the chocolate spread. I’m willing to take the inevitable sugar crash he’ll have later if we can just stop him crying for a bit, poor thing.”

Dan leaned over and shook her hand, grinning at her. “My pleasure. Great to have you aboard.”

Francis began to relax, saying a few words here and there with Nisha’s encouragement. Chrissie watched, impressed with her ability to nurture the frightened child. The boy was encouraged to finish off his toast quickly, before the other children arrived and all wanted chocolate toast. Dan had limited resources, so the spread was kept on the down-low, for extreme cases only.

Before long they were inundated with children scoffing their toast with gusto. Time was ticking, and there was lots to be done, so Chrissie began to clear up. She knew she had to be in the Year Four classroom shortly.

“So, how many small countries do you think we could feed with the leftover crusts?” asked Nisha, who had stayed to help, having introduced Francis to some other children.

“I’m thinking Luxemburg,” said Chrissie, giggling. Hungry or not, crusts remained a sticking point for many children.

“You’re good with the kids,” Nisha observed, smiling at Chrissie. “I never thought of you doing this sort of thing. Have you been doing it long?”

Chrissie paused, a pile of plates in her hands. “No, only a year or so. It was a bit of a change of direction, really.”

“Interesting,” said Nisha. “You can tell me more about that later.” She raised an eyebrow and turned to sweep more crusts into the rubbish bag Chrissie was holding. Chrissie frowned. She wasn’t sure she wanted to tell Nisha any more than that.

Chrissie joined Dan as they tidied up the kitchen. “She seems alright,” said Dan, nodding his head towards Nisha. “You cannever tell with last minute hires. One always needs to ask – why were they available at such short notice?”

“Er, yeah, I guess. She’s fine, I think,” said Chrissie, who was still trying to work out how she felt about Nisha’s sudden reinsertion into her life.

“You ok?” asked Dan, picking up on Chrissie’s ambivalence.

“Yeah, sorry, first day, lots to think about,” she replied.

“Take it easy.”

Chapter Five

“Good morning, class 4R,” said Nisha. “Let’s get ourselves sat down nicely in our places.” Chrissie was handing out name stickers and helping the children find their seats. “Dottie, I can see toast crumbs all down your front, can you brush yourself down, please?”

Dottie was a name she was confident Nisha would be saying a lot in class, and possibly with a hint of frustration in her voice. Chrissie smiled. Dottie was a bright spark in the class, in all ways, and prone to a bit of chatter and chaos.

“Thank you,” said Nisha, as the noise settled. “I want to introduce myself to you, because you all know each other and the school – in most cases,” she looked warmly over at Francis, who still looked a little terrified. “My name is Ms Rajan and I’m brand new,” she said, “so I will be learning from you.” She paused. “But,” she paused again, this time for emphasis, and adopted a very serious expression, “we are class 4R, and we are awesome.”

Chrissie could hear children giggling. Nisha continued. “So,” another dramatic pause, silencing the children, “in themornings, when you come in, I want you to remember that. Can you remember that?”

There was a low murmur across the room.

Nisha raised her voice. “I can’t hear you. Can you remember that?”

“Yes,” said a few voices.

“Hmmm,” said Nisha, “Miss Anderson, I think we can do better than that, don’t you?”

Chrissie nodded, “Oh yes, Miss, I think so.”

“Good,” said Nisha, looking at the wide-eyed children before her. “Repeat after me: We are class 4R, and we are awesome!” The children hesitated. “Come on!”

“We are class 4R and we are awesome,” said the children quietly.

“You don’t sound awesome,” observed Nisha, frowning. “Try again, and this time try and put a bit of oomph into it. I want Mr Harvey to have to pop his head in to find out why we’re all being so noisy and awesome.”

The children giggled, and this time they bellowed the words, looking at each other with smiles on their faces.

“Much better, thank you,” said Nisha, turning her gaze to Chrissie. “Miss Anderson, I wonder if you could help us get started on our literacy this morning.”

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