What Brought Us Together

The Situation.

The family was over his house, helping him pack up and move out. They had a lil music going, the kids were in the middle of the floor playing games, and the rest of the family was sitting on the last piece of sectional enjoying conversation.

Virtue was unfortunately working, being stationed in his bedroom, going through a mandatory training for her new position. She got the job and she was excited about it. In the interview, she learned that it comes with an immediate pay raise. So instead of $66,000 it was $67,000. Though it might not be much to some, it was enough to sustain her.

The only downside of the position is that Dr. Boone moved her to 9th and 10th grade, so no more upperclassmen. Yep fresh meat. It doesn't make it better that she hired new math teachers mid school year, chile. Virtue has her work cut out for her.

Dr. Boone sent over the 9th and 10th graders score sheets that had all of their course work, test scores, and comprehension analysis. It was bad but that was what she was here for. She can fix that.

But Virtue wouldn't be Virtue if she didn't ask to continue to teach her upperclassmen still and Dr. Boone only gave her two classes; one 12th grade class and one 11th grade class. Virtue accepted it because she felt like her upperclassmen can do okay without her. The underclassmen were the ones who needed her help the most.

She sipped on her ginger tea as she typed away on her laptop, submitting some documents to the 9th and 10th grade teachers. Its safe to say that she didn't like them already. She loves Mr. McCalister but 9th grade is the biggest class in the damn school so Dr. Boone hired another teacher.

She doesn't like her. Her name was Tiffany Hakes and she was real testy. She felt like she was too macho to accept or ask for help. Virtue never worried about Mr. McCallister because he had the same reputation as Virtue, being that no one failed his class and that he goes above and beyond for his students. But this Tiffany chick....

Like right now, Virtue sent over documents to Tiffany, letting her know that she made observations to her course plan, politely saying that it's too much and not enough. So many colors and not enough curriculum. True make it inviting and fun, but she sees why her students test low because she doesn't stay in the unit very long. Why the hell they having 4 tests in one month?

Virtue gave Tiffany her professional opinion and Tiffany gets defensive, emailing that Virtue's gonna ruin the vibe and the dynamic of her classroom.

She's overdoing it and under teaching. But Virtue's gonna fix that tough. She simply ignored her and kept it pushing. While she was emailing Mr. McCallister, Ms. Elaine came in the room. She had Quest or as the family affectionately call him QC, in her arms and his eyes were wide.

"Hey Ms. Elaine. Hi stinka doo!" She said enthusiastically.

She sat on the edge of bed while passing him along to Virtue, who hurriedly slid her laptop to the side and cradled him. She held him close and fawned over him. He was too cute.

"You know you can call me Ma if you like," Ms. Elaine offered, and Virtue's heart skipped a beat.

Virtue took a breath before saying, "Hi Ma," She smiled softly.

"Hi Virtue," She said with a smile and in that moment they share a hug.

They hug for a particularly long time and Virtue just breathed. It was a breath of release and with the way that Ms. Elaine hugged her securely, she was bound to cry any second. This hug felt like a mother's love. She topped it off with a kiss on her cheek before they released.