The Loneliest Stars

Chapter 36

"I'm not flying out anywhere for Christmas, please when will you let it go." She was exasperated.

This was the second phone call in the same week that her brother was making a case for a Jamaican Christmas with all the Burtons.

"Why are you so stubborn, Nat?"

"I'm not being stubborn. It's called boundaries. Do you know what they are?"

"Fine, I'll be in Austin with you for Christmas Eve and I'll do Christmas Day with mum."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ashley for one, nobody has invited you here."

"I'm your big brother, I don't need no bloody invite."

"Anyways. Why don't you have a girlfriend or something so you can stop being so inner in my business."

"I'm a busy man...what do you want for Christmas?" he asked, smoothly changing the subject. Yeah, her life was fair game but his own he kept under a tight lidded jar.

"Gifts, donations, donations, cash in pound sterling, Mr Forbes, Mr Time's Most influential, Mr — "

"You'll get a lump of coal if you're not careful."

"What I really want is for you to stop nagging me and that's free 99. Do with that knowledge what ye will."

"I have to go but this conversation isn't over."

"No. It really is," she seethed staring down at her phone. She let out a few choice words, glad that it was well past the end of the school day and that there were no kids around to hear her swear.

Christmas was a week out, she was tired and needed a well deserved break from teaching, from marking quizzes, test scripts and homework.

She had spent much of the night before personalising Christmas cards for her students and writing motivational messages inside for them. Her body was more fatigued than the usual end of term sprint, she slept a hell of a lot and ate even more.

Mild depression really had her by the neck. She tried to exercise it out, going to various classes with Porsha but it only made it worse, she slept like a log every time her head hit a pillow, or she was even remotely horizontal. She was going to need to visit the doctor soon for a checkup, because the other day she almost fell asleep supervising a detention class and she had never done that before.

But first she needed to get through her progress meeting with Ella. School was closing today for the Christmas holidays. The meeting was a requirement of the programme that had sent her to Texas. They got regular updates on her progress from Ella, and in turn Ella and Nat had met several times in that term already to monitor her performance.

"Hey, Nat how are you doing." Ella looked up from the pile of paper on her desk.

"I'm good," Nat lied.

Ella gave her a sceptical look, but pushed on with their discussion. Her performance was good, the students gave great feedback about her classes and her colleagues were happy with how they cooperated on classes and lesson planning. Ella highlighted some areas of improvement but overall it was a good outcome.

"So I've been looking at next year's budget and I'm afraid I have some bad news..."

"Oh?"

"I know you may want to stay here next academic year considering your...ties to this community. But with the budget I have I can't afford both your salary and the visa sponsorship fees."

"I hadn't thought that far ahead, but thank you for letting me know."

"I'm going to try my hardest to resolve this, Natalia but I don't want to get your hopes up."