Page 79 of Grin and Bear It

“There’s this TikTok channel where this girl loyalty-tests these girls’ boyfriends. She messages the guys, pretending to be into them, and then she screenshots the DMs of the conversations when they try to hit on her. You could do that, see if your man is doing you wrong.”

“Tash, what the hell kind of stuff are you watching?” I stopped then as her eyes danced. “What class do you have now?”

“Maths.” Her nose wrinkled at that.

“So get to class and stop worrying about my flowers.”

I shooed her away and then moved to get to my own class.

“Miss…” Trevor stepped forward, gazing at the flowers. “Who is sharing the love, because damn!”

The rest of the class was lined up outside my classroom, sort of, and once Trevor’s attention was piqued, so were theirs.

“Miss has got a boyfriend!” a few of the boys chorused with a chuckle.

“Guys—” I started to say.

“Miss, are you gonna become a Mrs? Did he propose?” one of the other kids said, peering into the bouquet for inspiration. “There’s a card!” His hand reached out, ready to pluck it out, when I underwent the transformation from Ellie to Ms Jennings.

“Alright, that’s enough.” The hand was retracted and everyone went quiet. “The flowers aren’t important, but our essays are. We’re in the computer lab today.” A small, almost inaudible groan went through the class. “We’re going to finalise those edits and then we’re done for assessment for this term. Let’s go.”

Everyone moved then to do as they were told, going several doors down to wait outside the lab, all but two students. Knox and Maddox stood there, frozen to the spot, staring at the flowers like the cellophane contained venomous snakes.

Shit.

We hadn’t really had a conversation with the boys about this, gotten their input and right now, I knew I needed to sort that out. But not this very second.

“Head down to the labs, boys,” I said in a gentle tone. “I’ll be there in a sec.”

I bustled into my classroom, wincing when I dropped the bouquet on my desk, but I didn’t have time for anything else. I grabbed my laptop and then strode down the corridor to the computer lab to start the lesson.

For a while,everyone settled. Whatever they might think of the flowers, the fact they had a final assessment due took precedence because their marks would be reported back to their parents on their reports. After I talked through some general feedback for the class and modelled some possible strategies, the class got started, the sound of keyboards clicking filling the air.

I took the roll, looked around to see if anyone needed help, then jumped into my email to send the twins’ draft assignments back to them. Once I’d hit ‘send’, I approached their seats, the two of them seeming to sense my presence and glance back at me over their shoulders.

“I’ve just sent back your drafts,” I said. “So—”

“Thanks, Miss,” Maddox said quickly.

“I was going to say that I think you could try and expand on the central section and use some of the stories you told us about your great-grandfather there. They’re primary sources and you can—”

“Yep, we will.”

Knox cut me off, just like his brother had, but their tone was appropriate, and the two of them looked like model students, quiet and diligent.

“So if you need help—”

“We’ll ask. Thanks, Miss.”

I was dismissed, and I couldn’t dig deeper into that, not during class and not when other students were starting to clamour for my attention. I moved then, going to help the nearest student. I was on my feet for the rest of the lesson, moving from student to student, providing feedback and helping structure paragraphs, suggesting possible sites to look at until finally the lesson ended, right before lunch.

“Before you go,” I said as all of the students mobilised at once, scrambling to get to the door. “Can I see Knox and Maddox for a minute, please?”

“Knox is in trouble…” his mates said as they took off out the door and, yep, he looked like he was facing down a firing squad as he and his brother came to stand by my desk.

“Guys—” I started to say.

“Our essays are done,” Maddox interrupted. “We just sent them in.”

---