Another High School Romance

two

Luckily, I had no trouble getting up the next morning, and rose at the sound of my first alarm before switching them all off. I had breakfast, showered, got ready, and then made a second coffee to take with me. I might have energy stemming from excitement, but that would only take me so far. Abigail woke up just as I was gathering my things and she smiled at me as she came out of her bedroom, yawning.

"Nice." She nodded at my outfit.

"It's not too casual is it?" I tugged on the hem of my black turtleneck, tucking it down over my plain blue jeans. Abigail looked me up and down and then shook her head.

"No, you look great. Very much the teacher all the guys have the hots for." She winked at me, just teasing. 

"That's so not what my intention was." I grumbled, slinging my purse over my shoulder and grabbing my coffee and car keys. "See you later."

"Good luck, don't give anyone detention unless they really deserve it!" Abigail called after me, and I laughed as I went down to the front door. Crouching down, I pulled on a pair of boots and then left, cradling my coffee in my hand the whole drive there.

I got to school at seven-thirty exactly, maybe a little earlier than I needed to be since the staff meeting wasn't until eight. But it never hurt to be prepared, and there were a couple other cars in the car park when I pulled in. I parked, made sure I had everything, and got out. 

"Well good morning Miss Swift!" Ruth smiled at me when I walked through into the office. "You're early."

"Good morning Ruth." I smiled back. "I thought I might get a head start on things."

"Of course. Oh, and this is for you." She reached over for a folder and placed it on the desk in front of me. "Your last school sent it over and it just arrived this morning."

"Really?" I frowned, flipping the front open and scanning it. Oh. I smiled to myself when I saw that it was a stack of letters, letters from some of the kids I'd used to teach. At my first school as well as teaching English, I'd filled in a couple times in the accelerated learning class with the kids who needed extra help, and I'd loved it so much. Those kids had been so incredible to teach. I missed them so much, and I had to blink away tears as I stroked the letters between my fingers. "Thanks Ruth." I whispered, closing the folder and holding it against my chest.

I went down to my classroom, unlocking the door and turning the light on as I walked in. Sinking down into the chair behind my desk, I pulled my computer out of my bag and hooked it up to the desktop. It took me a few minutes to work it out, but then I got the hang of it. Pushing my computer to the side, I rifled in my desk for the things I'd need for the first class. It was my year thirteens first, and I knew all too well how hard it was to bother with first period as a student, so I wanted to make this at least a little interesting for them.

As I got everything ready, there was a light tap on the door. I glanced up.

"Hi, you must be Taylor." The man standing there smiled at me. He had a friendly smile, one that put me at ease.

"That's me." I straightened up.

"I thought I'd come introduce myself, I'm Chris. I'm right opposite you." He motioned to the open classroom door across the hallway.

"Oh, hi." I smiled, placing down the paper I was holding and going to shake his hand. "What do you teach?"

"English, same as you. I've got the other half of the senior classes, so we'll probably be seeing a lot of each other." Chris joked as he shook my hand and I laughed. "You finding everything okay so far?"

"Yeah, everyone's been really helpful." I nodded. "But we'll see how it goes."

"I was just heading to the meeting, you want to come with?"