Marjoreece - Date Night

Covering the Rooms

Despite this mornings distraction, Reece and Marjorie made it to work on time. They'd picked up Carly and some coffees on the way in. After dropping Marjorie off at her nursery, he carried on to his own with Carly in the back as she was covering with him today. When they arrived, Carly went off to the pre-school room to start, and Reece went to his office. The first phone call he received was a member of staff calling in sick. He looked at the rota, wondering whether to call Marjorie and see if she could help out but saw that they should be fine, just about. He may need to cover in the rooms over breaks, but that didn't bother him. He secretly loved covering in the rooms. He didn't get to do it that often because of having so many other things to worry about, but it always made a nice change. The surprise everyone showed when he did cover did get on his nerves a bit. It was like everyone thought he was where he is just because of his dad. Yes, he was managing that nursery because he'd begged his dad to let him have the job so he could try and mend his relationship with Autumn, and have a chance to get to know the 'legendary Marjorie', but he still had all the qualifications to do the job and he'd worked hard for them. Besides, time in the rooms would be good practice for when he would be an Uncle.
He was brought back to reality by the phone ringing again.
"Hello."
"Reece, it's Carly. Stacey's just gone running out of the room feeling sick. I think she's gonna have to go home, so can you get someone to come down and cover her, please? I've only got 5 at the minute, so I'm still in ratio, but there will be 14 later, so I'll need another person as well as break cover."
"OK, Carly, leave it with me. I've already had another phone in sick, but I'll sort it."
He hung up and looked back at the rota and register for the day. If he spent the day in one of the rooms rather than covering breaks, they should, just about, be OK, providing nothing else went wrong. It would be tight, but with the amount of staff he had in and the children doing either morning or afternoon but not both, they should be able to manage. He messaged Marjorie just as a backup. 

~hey gorgeous, I've had 2 sicknesses today. I've literally just got enough in to stay in ratio and cover lunches, but if I need someone later, can you have someone on standby to come over and help? Xx

~No worries, I'll speak to Char and Sorscha and make sure one of them can come over if needed. Just call if you need them and I'll send them straight over. Love you xxxx

~Thanks. I love you too xx

With that sorted, he got up and went to the pre-school room to see Carly.
"Hi Reece, did you manage to sort cover?"
"Yea, I did... You're looking at it."
"You're going to cover in pre-school? So you couldn't get cover then?"
"Carly, I'm qualified to cover in the rooms, and I'm perfectly capable as well. I just won't be able to have lunch with you, so you'll have to leave my half in the office and I'll have it later."

With that, the next parent arrived to do handover. As Carly was still on shock at the fact that Reece was covering the rooms, Reece stepped forward to deal with it.

Carly kept watching Reece with his group, she was genuinely shocked at how good he was with the kids and they all seemed to absolutely adore him. She should have guessed that would be the case. She'd managed to get him wrapped around her little finger really quickly after they'd met, and she knew he took his cousins kids out at least once a month, they were a bit older than the kids in the room but they would have been this age once. She'd never actually had such a calm day in the pre-school room. Even her group wanted to join in activities with Reeces' so they ended up as one big group for parts of the day. Eventually it was Carly's lunch time. Another teacher came in to cover her, she was more nervous about being in a room with the boss than Carly was so was really trying to do everything by the book. She soon realised this might not be necessary, when she noticed that most of Reeces' group were trying to climb the 6'3 blonde like a tree and he was letting them. What he was doing was using it as a game to get the kids to sit at the table to work on their handwriting. She thought to herself that it may not be traditional, but it worked, as they all settled really quickly and paid close attention to what he had to show and tell them. He was a bit tall to sit on the chairs and still be able to make eye contact with them easily, so every time he was helping one of the kids in his group individually, he sat on the floor next to them before moving on to the next one. She'd assumed he would have been strict in the rooms but now realised she couldn't have been more wrong, yes he wanted them to learn and to prepare them for school, which was the whole point of pre-school, but he wanted to do it while the kids all enjoyed themselves. He was always under so much pressure to do well as a child, he wanted to make sure the kids all had what he didn't growing up. 

Carly sat in the office for her lunch out of habit, it also meant she could leave Reeces' half there for when he took his break. She was still thinking about how good Reece was in the room while eating her lunch.  She was a little in awe of him, after what she'd found out about his childhood recently, and the fact that she knew that was probably only the tip of the iceberg, it was amazing how he was so in tune with the kids and how well they all responded to him whether he was playing with them or teaching them something. She was just finishing up, when Marjorie walked in. "Alright my love? Eating alone? Where's Reece?"

"Hi Marjorie, Reece is down in pre-school covering."

"Oh, did he go down to cover your lunch? I told him I could send someone if he needed it. He only had to ask."

"No, he's there with me all day. Carol's covering my break. I'm guessing she'll do Reeces' after if you've come to have lunch with him?"

"Reece is covering in the rooms? Never thought I'd see that."

"Me neither but he's actually really good. The kids all love him, even my group want to play with him. I think that golden retriever energy he gives off when he isn't in a bad mood helps. It matches the kids." Carly laughed. "Even the one's that usually cause trouble are easy today. I don't know what it is."

"Wow! Are you going back now Carly? I might come with you. Think I need to see this for myself."

They walked back down to pre-school together. Carly went back in but Marjorie hung back, not wanting to be spotted just yet. Reece was in the book corner doing story time, as he was reading to his group, he was doing different voices for all the characters. Once again the second group wanted to join in. Carly now back in the room, admitted defeat and joined in with Reece, Marjorie thinking the two of them formed quite the double act keeping all 14 kids entertained even though they had already heard the stories from every book in the classroom before. They all sat there like this was the first time. But then, it was the first time hearing them how Reece told them. Marjorie thought back to the conversation she had with Autumn when she was told how Reece would tell Autumn stories, do all the voices and draw all the characters when they were children to distract her from what their father was doing. This was her first time seeing the Reece that Autumn knew as a child. 

Marjorie cleared her throat to announce her presence. Reece looked up with a start and blushed slightly, like he'd been caught out doing something he wasn't supposed to, before smiling at her.

Carol looked over at Reece and said, "I think it's your turn for lunch boss, looks like you've got a visitor."

"Thanks, I'll see you guys in a bit. Kids, Ill be back so don't cause too much trouble. I'll find out about it." He said with a wink, taking Marjories' hand and leading her to the office for lunch.