Saffron's Fire

Teacher, Teacher What Do You See?

Carrigan quickly found out she loved teaching. Her first class of students were the Kindergarteners and they loved the book "Brown bear, Brown bear". By the end of the lesson they knew the animals in the book that were primary and tertiary and they had begun their art project using Eric Carle's style to create their own animals.

The First Form students were equally delighted. A little boy in that class named Cedric declared that "Brown bear, Brown Bear" was their class's favorite book. They all got to work except for a little girl with dark kinky hair and glasses with bright green frames. Her eyes were also green, which was startling in her dark face as she stared at Carrigan. Her eyes were full of something Carrigan understood well. Anger.

She went over to the girl and just began talking. "Hi. What seems to be the problem here. Not sure what color to pick?"

The girl crossed her arms but seemed a little less angry.
"Why don't we start with green like your super awesome glasses." That won a small grin out of the corner of the girl's mouth. Carrigan brought over the green tissue paper, paint and pencils and looked the girl directly in the eye. "You look like a 'orse girl to me. That can be kind of 'ard to draw if it's your first time, so let's find a picture you like and we can trace it."

That comment won a full smile from the little girl and she nodded in anticipation and un clasped her folded arms. She asked in a slightly raspy voice, "Can it be grey-green?"

"Absolument!." Replied Carrigan.

The little girl's attitude disappeared all together as she said, "My name is Regina."

Carrigan solemnly held out her hand and shook Regina's as she said, " Nice to meet you."

"You're nice." Regina stated very matter-of-factly. Carrigan responded, "You seem pretty nice yourself but if you don't mind me asking, why were you angry before?"

Regina shrugged then said, "I just miss my mum and dad. Everyone here does but I'm new so I miss them most. It's hard to try new things. I don't really like to."

"Well," Carrigan replied, "We'll just go slow and see what happens. Maybe you find some new things can be fun. I just discovered that teaching you children is lots of fun." Regina laughed at that and relaxed. Carrigan knew then she had won a new friend. Regina laughed and talked with her and they both picked out a horse which Regina traced herself from a book.

The lesson ended all too soon, and the children went to their next class. Carrigan went about cleaning up the spilled paint and scraps left over from their projects, when something out of the window caught her eye. It was one of the male teachers, at least she assumed it was because he was wearing school colors. He was walking across the courtyard surreptitiously looking from left to right when he got to the middle he stopped and seemed to be waiting. Carrigan turned off her classroom lights and continued to watch him hoping that he could not see her with her lights off.

He turned his head to look up at her classroom but was quickly redirected by someone getting his attention. He made his way over to an overhanging walkway that shadowed anyone who was in there. She could not see who this teacher was meeting, though the original teacher was still visible. From his body language he seemed agitated, he kept making impatient gestures in the air. Then he stopped and looked up at her classroom again. Had someone seen her? Her heart leapt to her throat.

He evidently had not, but his agitated gestures got more emphatic as he continued to look and talk about her classroom.
The first teacher left with a huff. She waited a few more minutes to see if the other person would reveal himself. Ten minutes passed and Carrigan wasted no more time. She went to her paper cabinet, pulled out ordinary printer paper and did a quick sketch of the teacher's face. She would bring this to show Kiran tonight.

---

At about 4 that afternoon, Gryphon knocked at her door. At least someone knows how to knock she though wryly.When she saw that it was Gryphon, she mentally gave a conniving laugh. This was her opportunity to interrogate him about how they knew one another. She made several attempts to start conversations once they got in the car, but was quickly disappointed for he said nothing to her and would not answer her at all.

So she visited the 3 clothing stores in town and bought herself several nice blouses, skirts, sweaters, slacks, shoes, workout clothes, and other essentials she would be needing. All the while she kept asking questions, making small talk, and generally making a pest of herself. Yet he remained stoic. Gryphon paid for all the purchases without hesitation. She went home with her purchases and as Gryphone helped her carry her bags to her room he said one thing to her.

" Kiran told me to let you have this for online clothing purchases." And with that curt speech he handed her a card and left. Carrigan was stunned. Was this Kiran's personal credit card? She wondered. She could not accept this. It felt to much like...well dependency.

She was dependent she realized with loathing. How did she expect to pay for her life. Her life was owned by someone else now, as it was owned by Scion House after the memory wipe. She hated to admit this...she didn't know how to use a credit card for online purchases. It was amazing, the gaps in her education. She would have to ask Kiran and that might just kill her.

She changed into a blouse, and sweater with slacks that she had found in town and waited to be summoned to dinner.