Teach Me Something // LH44

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"Georgina, please come on in," Jacob Clancy, the fifty year old who has been the Head Teacher of this school since before I've been teaching and whose silver hair shows the length of time he's had in this stressful job. He's smiling as he holds the door open for me to follow him into his office but I don't see the smiling reaching his eyes as I pick up my bag and follow him in, feeling like a kid being called to the principals office rather than the teacher which I am. I swallow my nerves and continue stepping forward as I do as instructed by him, the same nervous feeling I've had since receiving his email while marking at home last night.

Miss Hart,

Please can you come and see me after school tomorrow. We need to discuss some staffing issues ahead of next term.

Mr Clancy

It had instantly set alarm bells ringing, how could it not? I'd worked with this man for almost ten years and not once had he ever used my last name, not even during my interview. He'd greeted me warmly by my first name before quickly switching to 'Gigi' when I had somewhat nervously told him that's what my friends called me in a moment of nervous panic. Working in his school and the environment he'd created here was why I had fallen in love with teaching - so this... this did not feel good. So the fact that he used my formal name, he signed off with his name and the fact that he wasn't meeting my eye was more than enough to get my hairs standing on end.

"Thanks for staying late to talk. We just need to wait a couple more minutes for Mrs Grant to join us," he says, tapping on his keyboard while my heart rate spikes further. I can't help but devolve into biting my still manicured nails from Vegas, the red a reminder of the fun yet blurring weekend which did not soothe me as we sit in a tense silence. I can see Jacob glancing at me each time the typing pauses and I know that he's as uncomfortable and nervous about what's happening as I am. It doesn't reassure me though.

I sit quietly, leaning back in the chair as I try my best to pretend to be calm and frown just a little as I try to figure out why I'm here... and why the HR manager for our school was expected at this meeting. After ten minutes, we're released from the awkward silence when Christine Grant walks in to see us both looking both relieved and more tense at her appearance. There's a shared look of apprehension between them as she makes her way to sit in the chair next to mine, giving me a soft smile before nodding at Jacob to begin the conversation and all it does is make the cloud of impending doom cover me like a blanket as I realise I'm definitely missing something. I'm missing something... and this isn't going to be a good meeting.

"Okay," Jacob starts nervously, his voice shaking slightly and I can see sorrow in both their eyes as he pauses to clear his throat, a final glance at the woman beside me for support before he tries again. "So, Gi- Miss Hart, I have asked you to come and talk this evening as, unfortunately, there have been some concerns raised about your conduct..." Jacob trails off, his voice becoming less certain as he talks and I notice, even in my shock, how his eyes look towards his computer screen as he talks, as though he's reading from a script - even for a sentence that short.

"M-my conduct?" I ask, caught somewhere between confusion and devastation as I look between the two people who clearly know a lot more than I do. If I thought my stomach had sank before, that was nothing compared to those dreaded words as I racked my brains for anything I might have done that would put me in this position. For the life of me I couldn't think of anything I had done that would warrant this. I was one of the best teachers in the school and that's saying something given I rarely gave myself credit for anything - but I knew that was true.

"Images and videos have emerged of you... in, erm, Vegas the other weekend a few hours before school began. This along with revealing images of you on holiday circulating the internet has led to some complaints from parents. They're questioning... the appropriateness of you to be teaching their children..." Jacob says solemnly and I can't help the tears building in my eyes as I stare at him in disbelief. I can't come up with anything to say in response because I can't even comprehend the situation and so I sit there frozen, my heart almost stopping from the pain of his statement.