piece by piece~j.d

~74~

It was lunch time at school on the Wednesday, Aubrey was working alone as Ebony had called in sick for the second day in a row and was unable to be there. The sub obviously wasn't going to spend time with Aubrey so she was looking over work alone, not that she minded at all. There was something much more calming about working alone and not having to speak while focusing on what work needed to be done.

That was when the texts started to roll in, from people she was close with to those that she hadn't spoken to in years. She was getting questions about her and Josh, her and Bailey and she was getting messages from pretty important people at the club, people that she had gotten the numbers of just in case, but never intended on using. But with only five minutes left and already having to go and get the classroom ready for the fun maths activity that she had promised the kids, she was unable to check what any of it was knowing that she would become just too distracted by it.

Plus, if it was anything like last time to do with another false injury, there was no chance that she was going to stress herself out over anything like that again. Not when last time she had been practically pulling her hair out and had gotten home only to find that it was all a it of 'fun' just a few hours later.

Aubrey started to talk to the kids when they walked in, explaining to them what the task that they would need to complete would be, both classes were combined so that Ebony of Miss Clifford's class didn't miss out, Aubrey's main job other then teaching them was to try and keep them a happy and she had every intent to do so.

They were in the midst of cutting up some swiss roll, Aubrey helping out some of the girls in the front that had their hands up begging for her attention.

"Miss Smith, would you come and help us?" Ruby pouted and Aubrey hurried over, laughing under her breath at the girls facial expressions which gave everything away every time. "We're really confused."

"Of course, lets see." Aubrey chuckled as she moved a spare seat over and started to help the girls out, they listened intently to her every word, they were dying to finish the activity so that they would be able to eat some of the cake.

~~~

By the end of the day she had been able to, for the most part, forget about the way that her phone was blowing up, too busy making sure that all of the kids were okay and that they weren't accidently cutting themselves instead of the swiss rolls, which had happened many times before according to some teachers she had spoken to before deciding to conduct the activity.

She decided to go and talk to a few of the staff, there were always a few that stayed behind and hung out for about an hour and the attendees always swapped around, Aubrey and Ebony usually decided that they were too tired or they would just hang out with each other for a little while after, if nothing was planned between friends and family or in Aubrey's case, partners.

As she had walked there her mind was on no messages or calls as she instead found herself wondering what food they would have there, whether or not they would have any chocolate which she had been desperately craving for the entire day.

"Hey Aubrey," one of the year three teachers, Mr Mal, or just Peter, greeted as he held the door open for her and she returned the greeting as well as thanking him before sitting down beside him and Alyssa.

"Are you okay?" Alyssa asked, she had mumbled the question at Aubrey, looking genuinely concerned. Aubrey flicked through her mind in an attempt to figure out what the girl could possibly be asking her the question for.

"What do you mean?" Aubrey felt confused. "Like were the kids good today while Eb was gone?"

"No, its nothing to do with school." Alyssa tried her best to explain. "Haven't you checked your phone at all?" Just on cue, as if the person ringing her was eavesdropping on her conversation, her phone started buzzing in her pocket as the 'do not disturb' feature was on all day until she had finished school, it was then that she remembered all of the notifications that had appeared on her screen at lunchtime and she would soon see had seemingly doubled at least, since that time.

"It's my friend, I better pick up." Aubrey excused herself from the room and answered Chloe's phone call, wondering just how many times she had missed one of her calls. "Hey Chlo, what's going on?"

"I knew you would pick up now, have you seen it?" Chloe asked her voice was panicked though she was trying to keep it as even and calm as possible, knowing that there was every chance that Aubrey had no idea what she was talking about and being too front on would be stressful for Aubrey.

"Would this have anything to do with my co-worker asking me if I'm okay?" Aubrey asked. "Also no, I haven't checked my phone pretty much all day except for this morning."

"You might want to, I'll stay on the phone. I'm sure a lot of people have sent some of it to you. Or you could come over so that you don't have to process it alone. It's just me and Pat at home, we don't have anyone over." Chloe suggested, she was worried about how Aubrey would be bale to drive if she was going to be so emotional, she didn't want her friend getting injured physically as well.

"I'll come over and then figure it out, just...can you stay on the phone the whole time?" Aubrey asked, her voice had lowered but Chloe quickly affirmed the idea. "Give me a second." Aubrey walked back into the staff room. "Sorry for the short visit, but I'm not feeling too well, I'll see you all later." Aubrey waved, ignoring the look that she was receiving from Alyssa who knew that she had just been told at least something to do with everything going on.

lol the last like ten chapters have been the calm before the storm in some ways