𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 • 𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴 [✔]

chapter forty.

Claudia was tired and it was already the afternoon. She got enough sleep, but she was still tired. She still had to attend a meeting at the school regarding the end of the year dance and final exams. She didn't understand why the principal couldn't just send out an email instead of her having to go out during one of her few days off and go stand in a room listening to her boss go on about how the kids were being disrespectful and how behind they were.

On her way to the school, Claudia tried calling Ben, but he never picked up. She assumed he had gone to set. As she parked her car in the teacher's parking lot, she could see Garrett getting out of his car.

"Hey!" Garrett greeted her. He had two cups of coffee in his hands.

"Hey," Claudia smiled at him. "i never did ask you how your brother's wedding went." She got out of her car and locked it.

"Well, he somehow ended up embarrassing me," he chuckled. He then gave a coffee cup to her. "Flat white. I still remember from four years ago."

Claudia grabbed the cup. "Thank you. You literally made my entire morning and afternoon."

They walked together inside the building. They greeted the staff at the front desk as they walked the hallways to the meeting room. Claudia definitely didn't want to spend her Saturday at school listening to her boss complain, but here she was.

"Hello, everyone! Gather around!" Principal Howard raised his voice so all the teachers had his attention. "Welcome. Sorry for doing this on a Saturday. I know you all would rather be at home with your families. I'll make this quick."

Several teachers nodded at him. The Vice Principal, a woman named Elaine Curtis, walked into the room and joined Prncipal Howard. "Another school year is coming to an end so that means we'll be more busy. That also means new people will be joining us and some will be, unfortunately, leaving so we wish you all good luck in your future." Mrs. Curtis said.

"Yes, so I'd like to introduce our new addition to the science department, Mr. Lewis and our new librarian, Mrs. Christine."

The meeting went on. Several older teachers were saying goodbye, which made Claudia sad since they were always so nice to her and always had interesting stories to tell. But the topic of the end of the year dance caught her attention.

"This time we will have assigned partners at the dance to chaperone. I'll email more details to you after this." Principal Howard said.

He passed around a clipboard that had the assigned partners for the dance. When the clipboard got to Claudia, she searched for her name. It was right next to Garrett's.

"I guess I'll see you at the dance." Garrett said to her.

"Yeah, see you."

After the meeting had ended, Garrett said his goodbye to Claudia. Soon, all the teachers were on their way out, but Claudia had to stop at her classroom for some notebooks she had left. By her classroom door stood the robotics teacher, Mr. Flynn.

"Hi, Claudia!" Mr. Flynn waved at her.

"Hi, Mr. Flynn, how are you?" She asked, taking out her keys from her purse and unlocking her door.

"I'm great. I was just wondering if you would give me permission to put some of these flyers over here. I noticed it was too close to your door so I wanted to ask you first." He explained.

He showed her the flyers he had in his hands. It was promoting the robotics club. Claudia took one. "Of course. I don't mind at all. I'll make sure to tell my kids about it too."

"That's great, thanks. I'll see you on Monday then." Mr. Flynn said.

"Yeah, have a great weekend." She said as she walked into her classroom. She went towards her desk and placed the paper to the side while she searched for her notebooks. When she found them, she stuffed them inside her purse.

While she did so, the paper she got from Mr. Flynn caught her eye. She noticed several pictures from former students from years ago were on it. Claudia had a feeling she recognized one of the female students in one of the pictures.

She quickly ran out the door to catch up with Mr. Flynn, who was already done with putting up flyers and had almost made it back to his classroom at the end of the hall.

"Mr. Flynn!" She called out.

The robotics teacher turned around. "Yes?"

"I was wondering if you knew who this woman right here," Claudia pointed at the picture.

Mr. Flynn adjusted his glasses. "Ah, one of my best students. Not a day goes by where I don't think about where she ended up."

"So you know her pretty well?" She questioned the older man.

"I'd say so. She spent most of her time in my class with a friend of hers. I swear those two were inseparable," he chuckled.

"What's her name?" Claudia was eager to know.

"That's Lara Harmon."

Oh, thought Claudia, this is very interesting.

An: interesting indeed 👁👄👁

ok not playing anymore y'all are gonna meet lara soon like two more chapters soon tehe

ngl feeling like crying bc of the selena series (yes, i'm barely watching season 2 of the selena series and i'm on the last episode and you know what that means...)

PINCHE YOLANDA ME AND MY HOMIES HATE YOLANDA 🤬🤬❗