Page 13 of The Teacher

Tom gulps in fear, and he should. He’s in big trouble now.

So much for my first day teaching my favorite piece of literature.

5

SANDY

The school nurse is like an angel. I’ve rushed James over to her station by the main office building of the school, fearing the worst. I told him to lift his head back as we practically run across the campus to the nurse’s station, his nose dripping blood like a gushing tap. The fight didn’t go well for him. I guide James by gripping his shoulders like a car steering wheel, navigating the hallways of the school like I’m driving a vehicle.

But once the nurse gets ahold of him, she produces some cotton wool and some bandages and within minutes she’s stopped the bleeding and has completely patched James up. She really is an angel, she’s miraculously fixed James up in no time, despite my terror.

“Is it still hurting?” I ask the boy. He nods.

“Yeah, but not as much as before.”

“That’s good.” His face is still purple. The fight had been so vicious. So violent. Tom has really done some damage, but at least it just looks superficial. Mostly bruises. And at least his nose has stopped bleeding.

We sit in the nurse’s station, amongst various posters for allergies and CPR routines. The nurse has gone to collect some more bandages and to gather some paperwork to do with the incident. James sits on the bed and I’ve pulled up a chair.

I lean back into my seat and sigh.

That was close, any longer and the fight would’ve turned serious. All I wanted to do today was teach some Shakespeare, not get involved in an amateur boxing match between my students.

The door knocks and I turn to face it. It opens. I expect it to be the nurse but it’s Miss Tweed standing at the door. She peeks in like a bird of prey, her big nose like a beak.

“How is he?” she asks in a deadpan tone.

I shrug. “He’s going to be okay.”

“Good,” Miss Tweed replies. Her beady dark green eyes glare at me. “May I talk to you outside, Miss Finn?”

“Sure.”

I smile at James and stand up.

Miss Tweed stands waiting for me outside in the hallway, her hands clasp together in front of her cardigan. She waits until I close the door to the nurse’s station before she speaks, but I get there first.

“Before you tell me anything,” I say. “Thank you for helping me back there. That fight was bad, and I was trying to control it. If it wasn’t for you then I guess there would’ve been a lot more damage than two boys’ wounded egos.”

Miss Tweed pauses and smiles at me with her patronizing look. She waits until I finish before she launches into full-on attack mode. “You, Sandy, handled that whole situation wrongly if I must say so myself.”

It’s venomous. It’s like she’s spitting at me with her words. Miss Tweed and I have never got on well, despite my best intentions. I’ve tried being kind to her in the staffroom, always asking her how her day was, trying to chat to her. But it’s like Miss Tweed’s had it out for me since day one. She’s been working here for five years, a few longer than I have, and has fully integrated herself as the matriarch of the school. Even the school principal, Mr. Brown, has seemingly seceded all power to her. It’s like she’s made herself de facto dictator of the school, the person everyone fears most all the way from the principal down to the youngest student. I still try to be kind and courteous and respectful towards her, but it’s definitely not reciprocated.

I feel like Miss Tweed hates me.

She’s certainly making it clear in the hallway outside the nurse’s station.

“It was getting a little bit out of hand, yeah.”

“A little bit out of hand?” Miss Tweed’s eyes widen in mock disbelief. “That’s a very subtle way of putting in. A little bit out of hand? That boy in that room there was nearly knocked out cold by another one of your students.”

“Thank God it was stopped, then.”

“Stopped by me,” Miss Tweed says, shaking her head profusely. She hasn’t broken eye contact with me once. She barely blinks. She is a terrifying woman. “I mean, really. It was your classroom, Sandy. Your rules. I didn’t know you led such an unruly mob.”

“Hang on,” I reply. I’m not letting her get away with lecturing me so easily. “I don’t run a free-for-all class. I was teaching them Shakespeare. Two boys got into a wild fight, that’s all. I thank you for stepping in and helping me, but these kinds of fights never usually happen under my watch. What happened today was a freak rarity.”

“I should hope so. For your sake.”