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It was written all over his face that he smelt gossip and now he’d caught a whiff, Sophie knew he wasn’t likely to back down until he’d heard the whole story.
‘He just lost it. He said the fight was the school’s fault because we don’t deal with things and spent most of the time worrying about Lily and her punishment rather than his own daughter. It was horrific.’ Sophie cringed at the memory and reminded herself that it wasn’t her fault Liam had acted that way.
‘Sorry,’ Tom said. ‘That sounds rubbish.’
‘It could be worse,’ Kate piped up from where she had listened quietly until now. ‘You could have gone on a date with him before you realised he was the father of one of your Year Six children.’
Sophie shot Kate a look, and she sat back, glee all over her face, waiting to watch the next part of the conversation unfold.
‘What the actual …’
‘All right, all right,’ Sophie said as she watched Tom’s eyes widen with joy at this new information. ‘It’s nothing, really.’
‘What happened?’ He sat back to get comfortable for the story.
‘We just went on a date last week, that’s all. I obviously didn’t know who he was at that point. Cassie’s grandma always picks her up, so I didn’t make any kind of connection. It just wasn’t a great experience. We didn’t really have anything in common.’
‘And … what did he bring you as a gift?’ Kate prompted.
Sophie narrowed her eyes at her.
‘Yes, what did he bring you?’ Tom asked, his eyes shining. He was one step away from applauding the gossip in excitement.
‘He brought me a bouquet of twenty red helium balloons.’ Sophie sighed.
‘But you hate balloons,’ Tom said, and grimaced.
Sophie nodded.
‘Yeah, what is it about that? Are you actually scared of them or do you just not like them?’ Kate asked.
‘Ooh yes! Or did you have an awful childhood experience that made you hate them?’ Tom said.
‘I don’t really want to talk about it.’ Sophie crossed the staffroom to put her empty mug in the sink. She stood for a moment, resting her hand on the countertop. An overwhelming sense of emotion caught her off guard and she waited to make sure there weren’t going to be any tears.
‘Go on, you can tell us,’ Tom said. ‘It’ll be like therapy.’ They both laughed.
Silence.
Kate said, ‘Sophie?’ Her voice had changed to show concern, but it was too late.
‘I said I don’t want to talk about it.’
Sophie waded through the day in a funk. She couldn’t shake the heaviness that had settled in her stomach as she replayed the stupid conversation she’d had with Kate and Tom in the staffroom. Just when she thought she was safe, another wave of embarrassment at her reaction to their jokes twisted her insides.
On top of that, she was worrying about Cassie. She watched her during the lesson as the class glued cotton wool onto their snowmen Christmas cards. The children around her giggled and chatted, but Cassie sat quietly and got on with her work. Occasionally her little tongue would poke out while she attempted to concentrate on a particularly tricky bit of her creation, but otherwise, her face remained emotionless.
‘Cassie,’ Sophie said, as the children skipped out of the room at the end of the day.
Cassie turned back.
‘Have you got a moment?’
Without a reaction, Cassie walked back into the classroom and stood to the side of Sophie’s desk.
‘Do you want to sit down?’ Sophie asked, offering her a plastic chair.
Cassie sighed and sat down at the table nearest to Sophie. She thought she caught Cassie rolling her eyes, but decided to ignore it.
