Heartstopper Future

Chapter 51: Final Prep

Date: Sunday 1st September 2024

Charlie’s POV

Me and Nick are sat at the dining room table, frantically trying to get as much done before tomorrow as possible.
I have decided, that I want to use a different schedule for the first week, compared to the rest of term, so I'm trying to get that done. And Nick is finalising his lesson plans and worksheets, getting everything organised into different folders.

Even though tomorrow is an inset day (so we technically still have 1 more day before working with the students), we both have many meetings tomorrow, where more jobs for us to get done might come up, so we want to get everything done today.
When we stop for lunch, we’re just over halfway through, so we decide to take a long lunch break and go on a walk, then have a picnic in the park, the refresh our brains.

On the walk we talk about everything but work, trying to keep our brains busy so no anxiety can build up.

When we stop for lunch, Nick asks “Charlie, I know we agreed to not talk about work, but what’s it like working at the school? It’s just you’ve already done a few days, so I was just hoping you could give me an insight.”

“Well, both the students and teachers are really nice and the school in general just has a really nice, positive feeling.”

“Thanks, I don't know why I'm overthinking this.”

“Maybe you’re putting too much pressure on yourself, over this.”

“Maybe, I just really want to do well.”

“Nick, there going to love you and you’ll do amazingly. I’ve seen you're lesson plans. They look fun and engaging – which is just what the students want. And the staff want the students happy and engaged, and your lessons will provide that. So don't worry about it, because you’ll be amazing.”

“Thanks, you’ll do amazingly too.”

Once we’ve finished eating we pack up and walk back home, to go and continue working.

When we get home we unpack everything, and when we’re ready to continue, we get ourselves situated at the table again and continue.

Luckily, we’ve already finished all the boring, paperworky bits, so now we’re preparing various posters to go up on our display boards.

I only have 1 display board in each of my offices (3 in total), but since there at different schools, I'm planning on just doing 3 of the same. I'm going to divide them into 4 equal sections, and 1 of the sections would represent 1 of the following topics: Gender and Sexuality, Good Mental Health Tips, information on Hidden Disabilities and Healthy Coping Strategies. These topics should hopefully cover everything, and also be a useful resource for students.

As Nick has got multiple boards to fill each with a different purpose (as he has an actual classroom), I end up helping him organise it all once I’ve finished and will also go and help him put it all up tomorrow.

We then both finalise our plans for tomorrow, and make sure each other has a copy of our plans so we know if the other is in a meeting or something and can’t be disturbed.

Once we feel like we can’t do any more, we (Nick) loads the car up as we have a lot to bring in (e.g. my student files, Nicks lesson plans, etc) and we don't want to be in a rush tomorrow. We also put our lanyards (which got delivered a week ago) in the car because we can’t forget them. I, unfortunately, have 3 (one for each school) so I'm going to have to change them over through out the day based on where I am. But oh well, there are worse things in the world.

We then spend the rest of the evening cuddling on the sofa watching a movie (except for the hour where we had dinner), just holding each other and making each other feel safe.