I saw her clunky shoes first; they were charcoal, like her socks. Her feet swung as she sat on the stool, not quite tall enough to reach the floor. Her plaid skirt rested just above her fair knees and and the white button up she wore was tucked in at the waist. To complete her ensemble, her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail and a gold necklace hung at her chest. She looked mature and well put together, despite the schoolgirl get up.
I didn't even recognize her at first. She had grown so much since I taught her sophomore year. I was surprised to even see her enrolled in my class; she never really was a good writer, so I'm not sure how she got into my Advanced European Literature course. She also happened to be my daughter's childhood friend. For all I know they could still be close, but my daughter now lives at my ex's, and has for a while, so I'd have no way of knowing.
The last of the students hurried inside, signalling the beginning of class. I introduced myself, even though I had previously taught most of them before.
"Good afternoon, class. I'm Mr. Beesly, as many of you may already know. Welcome to AP European Lit. Now that it's senior year, we will be doing a lot more writing and a lot more reading." I looked around the room; half the students wore an expression of disdain, whereas others looked prepared and almost excited.
"So, for today's activity, I would like you to take five to ten minutes to write a summary of the book you read over summer. Okay?" I said, clapping and rubbing my hands together.
I waited till everyone got out a pen and piece of paper, "Start...now."
***
I got home and kicked off my shoes. Walking into my bedroom I continued to remove articles of clothing and finally managed to plop into bed and switch on the TV.
Suddenly my phone rang. It was my ex, Lindsey.
"Hello?"
"Can you take Connor this weekend? I'm planning to take Aubrey to a concert in Las Vegas for her 18th, and he's too young to come."
"Well, nice to hear from you too! Thanks for asking me before hand about taking our daughter out of the state."
"Dean. Will you please just not be so dramatic. I'm the one who has the kids all the time anyway. Can you just handle our son for one weekend without complaining?"
"I wasn't complaining about taking my son, I just wish I was in the loop. But, yeah. I'll have to hire a sitter Friday and Saturday night though, because I have meetings in Longport that I can't cancel."
"Okay, that's fine. I'll call his sitter and set it up. I'm dropping him off at 4:30 Friday, be there. Goodnight."
***
Friday rolled around and it was a pretty average day. I taught all my classes, except for AP European Lit. Instead, an assembly took place, which was good for me because I got to leave early.
Lindsey dropped Connor off around 4:40.
"Daddy!" He said running toward me. He jumped into my arms and I held him tight, giving him a classic bear hug.
"Hey, buddy. How was school today?"
"Oh, it was good. We got a new class pet. It's a guinea pig named Rattles and he likes to..." I heard him trail off as he walked inside. I watched Lindsey wave goodbye and drive away.