The Watchmaker's Doctor ✔️

IV

2000, Eighteen Years Backwards

V

Being back in class was a whole other thing altogether. It was the thick, dusty smell of chalk that hit her first. Sure enough, there stood Mr. Lee, tap-tapping away on the board above the little mounds of white powder on its ledge. So absorbed in the almost extinct sight and smell, she was too late to object as the girls claimed their desks and chairs, in the first row. Although Anaya's hopes to hide at the back and digest all of this were dashed, she couldn't help the smile that spread at the boldness of her friends. Only at Emberswick High, where Kait wanted to revolutionize, and so the models lead from the front.

The class went by in a daze for Anaya and was almost at an end when Mr. Lee asked how everybody had done at the Fair. He opened with the stoners at the back, scrawling down the subjects they'd selected today. Although the words were illegible, it did sharpen focus on their choices.

"Parapsychology."

"Circus Performance."

"Yacht Management."

"Bagpiping."

Snorts and retorts followed as some fantastical disciplines were announced by the most unlikely people ever. But at least they all had something to say.

"Fashion," declared Taylor, which produced peals of appreciative laughter.

"Art or Political Science. I haven't finished weighing the pros and cons yet." A round of applause and fist pumps ensued for Kait.

Anaya marveled at how innocent and vivacious her friends looked. She didn't want to imagine what her life would've been like if the models had lived up to the clichéd, mean bimbos so often portrayed on TV. Tay was the school's pageant queen, and the sweetest girl she knew, and Kait was Anaya's study buddy and student council president. Anaya barely kept up with them as it was, so she couldn't dare disappoint them now.

Using her most nonchalant, don't-mess-with-me tone, she read out the title of the papers she clutched, "Education." She scanned the faces around her, daring any one of them to challenge her. "Those who can, do. Those who want to do more, teach," she heard herself repeating, as her closing argument. She tried to apply a trick she'd learned in college. To make an impression speak only occasionally. When you do, say something intelligent and expound on it with as much conviction and eye contact as physically possible. That usually discouraged stupid comebacks or attacks to undermine her position.

Silence.

"Hear, hear." Mr. Lee's voice cracked the general reverie, and was followed by some nods and shrugs of agreement from around the room. "Personal profiles and college applications need to be submitted by the end of November. Hop to it." At his standard dismissal of the class, everyone began picking up their things and heading out.

All except Anaya's group, it seemed, who just gaped at her.

"When did you decide that?" Kait demanded.

"To be honest, just today. I bumped into this really cool rep from JBU who told me why she got into teaching, and it stirred something inside me."

"And when were you going to tell us?" Tay probed further, eyes slightly narrowed and both hands braced on her hips.

"I didn't get a chance, babe. Besides, someone's got to step up to the noble task of pruning these hopeless teachers and preventing the currently inevitable death of style by refashioning these floundering teenagers!"

She thought Tay would be appeased by that, but she couldn't have been more wrong. "What have you been reading lately, Ana? Who talks like that?"

Kait too her own issues with Anaya. "And what happened to landing a job where you'd travel the world and really start to live? You've only given us that spiel for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past six months!"

Wow, how did they even put up with me? Keep it real. "Who's to say I can't do both? I could have it all." There. That was better.

"On a teacher's salary?" Tay raised her groomed eyebrows.

"I could ask my parents for a loan to—"

Anaya's legs buckled and her whole being was overcome with the sudden recall of her dad's construction consultancy being shut down. Unlike forgotten memories, regaining knowledge of a past life seemed to affect her whole body. The pain in her father's eyes the day he realized there was nothing more he could do to save them from going bankrupt, the tear-streaked face of her mother the night they lost the house... it was so real that her heart felt like it stopped, as if it were unsure in which reality to continue beating in.

"Ana!" The girls' screams echoed in the room as they caught her from collapsing.

"What's happening with you today?" Kait's face was strained with worry. "Let's get you home."

"The car's parked just out front." Tay shepherded Anaya to the door.

The red Beetle and the Toni Braxton CD revved to life together and helped avoid the topic of her sudden change of heart. Anaya recalled that her bipolar disorder had started being noticeable now, with her regularly speeding off on tangents, leaving her friends' heads spinning and lagging. None of them knew how to interpret it or help. They just wanted to be there for her and somehow not worsen things. Now that Anaya knew better, she'd have to remedy that soon.

The atmosphere in the car relaxed as the songs kept on playing and they joined in on their favorite melodies. Anaya sensed her opportunity and stole a moment to take in what Emberswick looked like in her teens. Still an engineering town, with a heap of lumber mills to show for it. It had been systematically envisioned and built around lush, small woods and pretty, little parks, spotted with bubbling fountains. A charming place to live, with a pleasant pace of life, and the people were just as engaging.

The older families had made their wealth through their ownership of land and factories. However, many lacked the skills and sharp acumen vital for the times that were advancing headlong at them. She remembered that this was what kept the townsfolk awake at night and cemented their worry lines by day. Anaya couldn't stop the sadness that engulfed her. So different from them the rat race it will become.

Soon, the girls rounded the corner to her house and said their goodbyes, agreeing on when Kait should make their usual nightly three-way phone call. Anaya watched until the car disappeared down the street, then hurried towards her own front door. She needed time to herself to plan her next move.

Hi all!
Thank you for reading!
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Thanks so much,
G.