Mania

Lesson 16: Impenitence

'Clem! Clemence! Hey! Clem!' Tim's voice grew louder and the last exclamation shook her from her daydream. She looked up to see Tim jogging towards her, an eyebrow raised.

'You not catching that?' He jerked his head over to the side, where the children were running around, shouts and screams.

'Huh?'

'Joseph? He just pushed Carly again, pretty hard this time.'

Clemence sighed. 'For goodness sake. I already spoke to him three times.'

Tim watched her wearily. 'Yeah, sorry, he's on your team so I was waiting for you to handle it.'

'Right. Yeah, sorry...i missed it. I'll deal with it.'

Tim nodded, holding her eyes for a few seconds before turning back to his team, cheering them on boisterously.

Clemence called Joseph over, asking him why he felt the need to continue to be aggressive to the other children. Normally Clemence was patient, her method of controlling children one of mutual respect, not one to shout and yell but rather encourage the children to open up about why they were behaving the way they were. This day however, Clemence patience was thin and as soon as Joseph answered her back rudely, she sent him straight inside with a few strict, swift words, including the fact that he wasn't welcome back outside to play again.

Tim watched her wearily out of the corner of his eye, watching the small boy stomp inside before approaching Clemence again, who stood straight, arms crossed, silently watching her team play.

'Hey. Are you okay?'

Clemence nodded.

'Wasn't that a bit harsh?'

'He needs to stop being so violent when he doesn't get his own way.' she muttered in response, shoe digging into the dirt.

Tim nodded. 'Fair enough.'

He stood next to her, not facing her but kept glancing at her from the corner of his eye, her stoic frame an unusual sight.

'Clemence...I can take over if you want, if you're not feeling well or something...' He trailed off as he tried to offer a branch.

She sighed, waited a few seconds for her frustration to bubble down, not sure where it had grown from, maybe Leon, maybe Erin, maybe still Tim. When it had settled she nodded before quicky shaking her head

'No...i''m okay. Sorry, i'm just tired. I'm okay.'

He nodded, not seeming convinced with her answer. 'And uh...we're okay yeah? You finally going to stop avoiding me?'

Clemence blinked at his bluntness, not expecting him to address outright her unspoken distant towards him.

'I mean, we don't have to be the best of friends or anything.' He flashed a grin, the crooked smile, the dimples she was so used to. ' But seeing as we work together and that, i just want to get rid of the awkwardness you know? Start over?'

He looked at her earnestly, puppy eyed and Clemence smiled back weakly, nodding.

'Yeah, sorry....let's just-yeah...Start over.'

He nodded, his grin wider still and she shifted on her feet, wondering how to start a conversation.

'So um, things all good with Erin?'

He gave her a surprised look, eyebrows raised and she smiled guilty.

'Sorry, we don't have to talk about that...if it's still weird.'