Kylie & Jack 1: Humble Beginnings

81. That Time of Year Again

Friday 13th Dec 2019, 2:55 PM

With only five minutes to home time, Jack, Kylie and Linda handed out sleek A4 – sized envelopes with the school logo stamped on them to their students. Kylie was so grateful that reports were finally done and being sent home. All that was left now, was to survive the last remaining week of the school year and then they could relax for at least four of the six week Christmas holidays.

Jack was finding this end of term utterly delightful. With Christmas barely a fortnight away and it being his first with Kylie, he was walking on sunshine every minute of the day. Although, because of reports, neither of them had been able to do much more than decorate the Christmas tree in the lounge room, never mind actually doing their Christmas shopping or decorating the whole house, for that matter. Jack knew this was grating on Kylie, the 'official Christmas Wombat', as he started calling her.

Kez, Jodi, Nat, Bernie and the rest of their parents trudged up the footpath and inside to the cool to pick up their kids, hovering in the corridor.

"Ok everyone – chairs on desks and everyone on the floor while we tally up this week's Dojos, then you can go." Kylie called out, turning to the smart board and bringing up the Dojos for the class.

One by one, her students came forward and scooped up a novelty rubber or sharpener, pencil grips or glue stick, whatever she could find at Smiggle, Kmart or Typo in town.

Finally, it was three o'clock and the week was officially over. She trudged towards her door and leant against it, an exhausted grin on her face as the parents smiled and waved to her.

Linda waved goodbye to the last parents and students as she came out of the library and Jack too, as he came out of his classroom. They all looked exhausted, but relieved the day was over.

Kylie and Jack had another reason to be exhausted, however. Jack had put it down to Kylie being so stressed over finishing reports and Kylie had put it down to just this inexplicable natural need, that they had had sex every day, sometimes twice or more, in the last week or so.

As she leant against the doorframe, wiped but glad the thirty–ninth week of the school year was done and dusted, grimaced slightly, rubbing her hand over her hip, feeling a slight twinge of discomfort. She had had this twinge for the last few days and wondered if it was too much sex – they had gotten quite athletic this week.

Linda and Jack exited their rooms at the same time, heading for the kitchenette. Kylie heard Kate yell out that she was off for the day, being returned by Jack and Linda saying their goodbyes to her.

In the kitchen, Linda was telling Jack about her Christmas plans when Kylie staggered, exhausted, into the kitchen and towards the fridge to get a drink of water. It had almost hit forty degrees today; they were all rather red faced and sweating having been fighting off dehydration by guzzling water all day.

"Far out, I'm glad this week's over!" Jack groaned, downing his last mouthful of icy water. Linda and Kylie both puffed, nodding. "You're not wrong, Jack!" Linda said, forcing herself to stand up straight from the bench.

"Right, I better go settle in for the next hour or two and get some more work done."

"Linda – mate – if there's ever a day to take work home with you or even leave it till Monday morning, it's today!" Kylie gasped, barely able to believe Linda was going to make herself sit in her cramped hot box of an office for another hour, when the sun was bearing down on them all, still at its hottest point of the day.

Linda hovered on the spot, considering Kylie's words.

"Go on mate, let us all clock off early today," Jack added, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. He was wearing shorts, joggers and a white polo shirt with Murruma Public School stamped across the back. Linda was fanning herself with a folded piece of paper, in her straight cut green and white floral printed dress. Kylie was leaning against the fridge, pressing the semi frozen bottle of water to her collarbone and still rubbing her hip. Her hair was tied up in a top knot, wearing a blue Murruma Public School polo and black cargo shorts, with open toed nude sandals. Still they all felt like they were wearing winter clothes.