Page 27 of The Teacher

Miss Tweed pats me on the shoulder. “So, don’t neglect him. He’s the most important donor we’ve ever come across. The richest I’ve seen. The school’s best potential investor.”

“Right.”

“And he is a very lovely man, I’ve just had the loveliest conversation with him. Oh, he’s very handsome. He even commented on my pearl necklace. How sweet of him. I think he really likes me.”

I take another sip of my wine. I’ve been in too many uncomfortable and downright awkward conversations tonight for my liking. I just want to go home. “Okay.”

“So, how about you work the room a bit harder, hm? An attractive little airhead like you shouldn’t let her only talents go to waste. Remember, the school is on the line here.”

Attractive little airhead?

What the fuck?

Miss Tweed pats me one more time on the shoulder and strolls back over to the ground of parents.

I can’t say anything to her. She’s more senior than me at the school. I can’t yell or shout or lecture her about referring to me as nothing but an attractive airhead. No one else overheard, no other witnesses. I’d be treated as hysterical. It’s her word against mine.

And she intimidates the hell out of me.

Miss Tweed’s out to get me, I know that now. She doesn’t just want me gone; she wants to humiliate me. Destroy me completely. I am at a loss for words after her casual insult. She’s a monster.

I take a nervous sip of my wine.

And Skipper is still talking to Becky.

Can this day get even worse?

Wow. She’s really trying her best with him.

I watch him as he evades her advances. He’s so confident, so smooth. He’s just so damn sure of himself. It’s so infuriating to observe but it secretly turns me on.

Goddamn it.

Skipper Deep still turns me on even eight years after I caught him cheating with my best friend at that house party. That night when I saw them in bed together destroyed my life. I hadn’t properly dated or fallen for a guy since then. I know now that Skipper Deep has had a hold over my heart these past eight years, I thought I’d got rid of his control, but seeing him again at the wedding and then tonight has caused all my old feelings for him to rush back. The man was just too goddamn charming. The way he looked at me when we were speaking earlier. That sparkle in his deep brown eyes. He wanted me, and he didn’t even care that I knew how much.

No way am I going to let my natural feelings for the man overpower me. No way am I going to let the fact that he’s going to be “investigating” my place of work draw me back to him. No way am I going to fall in love with Skipper Deep again, despite what my heart wants.

If only he didn’t look so deliciously handsome.

If only he never came back to New Water.

10

SANDY

“GOOD MORNING MISS FINN.”

The whole class speaks in unison, in that sing-song that all kids love to do. I stand in front of the students in my classroom and gesture for them to sit down at their desks. I smile and lean forward.

“Okay, we started at a rocky start last lesson, so how about we begin again today,” I say, eyeballing both James and Tom especially. I’ve separated the two naughty boys to opposite sides of the classroom where, hopefully, there won’t be a chance for any more fights to break out. If anything happens that’s in any way like the crazy fight the other day when they spilled out into the school hallway and punches were thrown, then I know I’ll have to kiss my career as a teacher goodbye. The paperwork I had to fill out in the aftermath was bigger than the Bible, and twice as hard to read, so let’s hope the two boys can sit quietly on opposite sides of the room peacefully. Let’s hope that there’s no more bleeding noses. “We have a big exam coming up, so I want you all to listen. We need to do well in these exams, right?”

No reaction from the class.

Great.

We’re back to square one, I see.

“So, Shakespeare. You may all think he’s a scary writer and that you don’t understand his plays, but once you do, your eyes will be open to a whole new world. Trust me. How about we start at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet?”