Forbidden Miss Foster

Chapter 23

Kennedy's POV

Never in my life has the phrase "I had to drag myself out of bed" carried so much weight until today. I still feel like I'm half asleep and it's almost the end of my last class. It's not my fault though, last night was a nightmare out of my control.

Visiting hours ended at their usual time , and so as normal I waited at the bus station in the city centre for my bus home. The first bus was cancelled , which wasn't an issue...until a few minutes later when the digital screen displayed a message articulating that the next three busses back to my town were also cancelled. For context , there's just one bus that takes a route relatively near my home and it leaves the station only once every hour. So , four busses later I was left stranded there until 22:30pm , finally stepping foot through the door at around quarter past eleven. Some might say that's not overly late , and normally I would agree with them , but when you're stood in a grotty, dark , cold bus station for nearly 4 hours after a long ass day , your energy dissipates the second you're in sight of a place to lay down.

My alarm went off this morning at 6:45 , and after snoozing it just twice (a personal record) I got up and showered. Thank god for my past self , because when I made it downstairs to the kitchen, on the fridge was a note to myself I had written the night before reminding me of things I needed to do this morning before school.

The note read :

1. OPEN EVENING TONIGHT AT SCHOOL, YOU TOLD MISS FOSTER YOU WOULD HELP , REMEMBER FOLDERS.

My past self clearly underestimated my future self , the aggressive capitals were not necessary.

2. Call Gavin and remind him to visit mum tonight.

I groaned internally reading that one ; I hate reaching out to Gavin , it's never a simple conversation when I have to ask him to do something. Nevertheless I did exactly that , i rung him on my way to school this morning and was greeted with exactly the response I anticipated.

He became defensive when I asked him why he didn't visit mum last weekend, saying he was busy and that his car had broken down and so he couldn't get there even if he wanted to. I refrained from reminding him of the existence of public transport, as I knew that if I ticked him off any more he wouldn't agree to go there tonight either.

After lecturing me about remembering "my place" , he eventually agreed to visit mum tonight and put the phone down. Fine by me.

3. Go shopping - eggs , bread , cheese , orange juice , bananas , bin bags.

An interesting mix of groceries it has to be said.

In a rush I ripped the note down from the fridge , shoved it deep into my coat pocket for later and left the house briskly , arriving at school exactly 3 minutes before the bell was due to go.

I routinely sat down in my seat in the second row and took out my phone waiting for Miss Foster to arrive for form.

I panicked slightly when another teacher I'd seen in this department occasionally, but didn't actually know , walked into the room , sat at Rosie's desk and began reciting the register.

If Rosie wasn't here then why should I stay after school for the open evening? I only agreed to help out because SHE asked me to. I planned my whole day around this!!

However , around 10 minutes of silently huffing and puffing to myself later , Rosie stumbled through the door looking windswept and agitated , announcing to the class that she was sorry she was late and then dismissing the other teacher who was covering her duty.

I smiled to myself as she stripped herself from her coat and slumped down into her chair , frustratedly explaining that she had originally gotten to school on time this morning , but realised she had forgotten her laptop and so had to drive home again to retrieve it.