Over the Phone | Mike Schmidt

1 | Lorelai

The gentle flutter of nerves clutching her insides wasn't a foreign feeling for Lorelai. She'd been a substitute teacher for almost two years now, and she still got that little feeling of unease the morning before she met the new bunch of children she would spend the day looking after.

It wasn't that she was nervous to meet the kids. In fact, that was probably one of the best parts of the day. Lorelai just always had the worry that she'd find a way to mess up, and she couldn't be there for them like she was supposed to be. It was irrational to think the worst in situations that hadn't even happened, yet, but she couldn't help it.

Lorelai's brown heeled boots clacked against the concrete as she walked away from her car and up to the school. It was a colder January morning for the outskirts of New Orleans, with the wind nipping at her cheeks as it blew her straightened hair behind her. She drew her puffy cream jacket closer to her body as she jumped up the two front steps and headed inside.

The school looked even smaller on the inside than it did on the out, though it was filled with the life of kids running in and out of doorways, their bags and jackets hanging off their bodies and their shoes half on their feet. Drawings and signs filled with colour lined the walls of the hallway, and a massive WELCOME sign was taped over the door of the secretary office Lorelai walked into.

"Good morning," she greeted, ignoring the fogging up of her glasses and doing her best to keep her smile as the secretary hummed in annoyance. "I'm Lorelai Seong, I'm here to fill in for Mrs. Medina."

The woman's typing on her computer didn't pause as she answered, "Down the hall on your right. Make a left. Third door on your left."

Lorelai tried not to show her confusion on her face. Maybe the school wasn't as small as she thought it was.

"Thank you," she said, disregarding the grunted reply from the secretary and turning to follow the directions she was given. Luckily, the hallways were small, which made it rather easy to find the room with Mrs. Medina's name on it and peek her head inside.

The classroom was a decent size, though the floor-to-ceiling windows easily made it feel twice as big. Four rounded tables each had four different coloured chairs sitting around them, and different supplies and games lay uncleaned and messy across the tops of them. The light blue walls of the room didn't have many pictures on them, though there was a chalkboard at the other end of the room with the eight-times tables and a large tic-tac-toe game drawn across it.

Lorelai smiled at the two little girls playing connect four at one of the tables and moved to the desk to see if a lesson plan had been left for her. Or, she would have, if she hadn't heard her name being called out, first.

"Ms. Seong?"

Lorelai turned swiftly, her large smile still plastered on her face to see who called for her. It was a woman slightly shorter than her, her short brown hair clipped out of her face and her smile just as wide as Lorelai's.

"Good morning," the woman said, sticking her hand out and shaking Lorelai's gently. "I'm Mrs. Medina. It's good to finally put a face to the name."

"Likewise," she laughed.

Lorelai had to admit: getting a call to take over a class for the rest of the year to cover someone's maternity leave was probably one of the last things she expected only a week after Christmas break.

She'd been on the phone with Sarah Medina a few times, just to clarify how long she'd be supplying for and what day was best to come in for a day of shadowing. Apparently, that was the Friday before her first day.

Mrs. Medina hobbled over to the chair behind the desk with her hands on her lower back, and sat down in it slowly. Her face scrunched a little as she readjusted herself, though her expression softened when she glanced at Lorelai.