Teachers Tapestry

Six

✽Valentina's POV ✽

It's my second year teaching and honestly, teaching this year at one of the best public schools in the Hamptons was probably one of the best decisions I could've made.

The pay was better than the old school i taught at, and it was a private school. But the down side is the students.

They are rowdy, loud and think because they live in big houses with parents who have big fancy names they can get away with anything.

The worst class I have is by far the senior English 15 class. They are rude, don't listen and hardly complete the class work. Not to be mean or anything but they all have the intelligence of cockroach.

I teach two English classes for the seniors since there's so many of them. English 12 is nicer than the others and at least have slightly more intelligence. Not by much but at least they actually complete the work.

I asked them to complete a two page summary of their favourite book they read last school year and half of them wrote stuff about the movies and most of them couldn't provide an adequate standard of senior level writing.

All except two out of all the 45 five students I teach in the senior class.

Collette and Zoë. They are bright students. Good at the subject too.

Last night I went out for a short and quick snack run with a pair of my best friends, Stella and Lottie, and their kids. Natalia and Emilia. They are sweethearts and I love them so much but when they're tired and grumpy, together, it's like putting pain and panic from Hercules together.

A mixture for trouble.

Emilia got overwhelmed inside the store yesterday so i offered to taker her for a short walk in the park with Artemis, my dog. They agreed and said they'd meet us there because they were almost finished.

I just expected Emilia to tell me about how nursery is, for the third time today, her asking if she can hold Artemis's leash and that would be it, we'd be out in no time.

But of course I made the mistake of taking Artemis off his leash so he can run around for a bit. And at some point he ran too far ahead so both me and Emilia were running after a 70lbs large dog.

When we did eventually reach him he was stopped in front of no other than Collette.

I didn't expect her to be there.

And in all honesty, she looked different. She looked tired and drained, not like how she does in school. She always looks so lively in school, so happy and smiley. Especially when she's with her friends, Zoë and the other one.

But last night, she looked drained.

Once Stella and Lottie took the girls home, I sat with her for a couple minutes and asked her what was up but I could tell she lied to me, playing it off as "teenage stuff" but I didn't want to press her on the matter because I am just her teacher after all.

And honestly, i get it takes time for a person to trust a teacher.

I didn't press the matter with her and just went home with Artemis.