Cutter was inside the solace of his new classroom, readying it for the arrival of his students on Monday, and even though Ru and Candice were across the hall and his door was closed, he had no problem listening to them, should he want to. Trying to tune them out was not as easy as it might seem since he kept hearing references to himself. Of course, they had no idea he’d be able to hear them on the other side of the building if he wanted to.
Setting up his classroom had been no problem even though he’d never done it before. After about an hour of work, it was perfect, as if he’d been working on it for weeks. He appeared as if he had been teaching for several years, and he hoped the students would learn something from him for the time that he was here, but that wouldn’t be too long. Mimicking an elementary school teacher couldn’t be that hard, could it?
His phone buzzed in his pocket for probably the tenth time in the last twenty minutes, and despite the fact that he was attempting to emerge himself in this new world of Thomas Elementary, he finally decided the texts required his attention. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw that all of the messages were from his cousin, Rider. The early ones seemed nonchalant, building toward: “Do you think you found her or not?”
Sighing, Cutter quickly typed in, “It’s hard to say. Give me some time. It’s been an hour.”
“It’s been years,” his cousin quickly shot back.
“Listen, I need to concentrate on what I’m trying to do here.”
“Trying is the optimal word. Okay, but do you think there’s a possibility that she is actually there?”
Cutter fought the urge to call his older, less patient cousin, but he was afraid the conversation might sound too intense for anyone who might be walking by in the hall, so he continued to text. “Saying ‘okay’ and then continuing to hound me isn’t helpful.”
The phone didn’t buzz again immediately, but Cutter knew Rider well enough to know it wasn’t over. “Fine. It’s just… there are no pictures on the website. It’s under construction for the new year. If what we’ve heard is true, and she really is there, you should know pretty quickly, right?”
Already aware of the problem with the website, part of the reason he’d fallen into this role to begin with, Cutter ran a hand through his short, blond hair. Should he tell Rider what he suspected? It might be too soon to tell, although, if he trusted his gut, she was definitely here. Knowing it would probably result in yet another line of badgering, he finally typed in, “I’ve only met a few people, but there is a woman who could potentially fit the bill.”
“Really? That’s awesome! Why didn’t you just tell me that?”
“Because I enjoy torturing you.”
“What is she like? What’s her name? Maybe I can find her pic somewhere else, social media or something. Will need to do some intel.”
“See! This is why I didn’t mention it. I didn’t want you going nuts. Not yet. I’m not sure. There’s just been some….” How could he best phrase it? “Strange activity.”
Once again, Rider went quiet for a while. Almost a minute later, he sent, “Okay. I’ll let you wait till you get back to explain that. What’s her name?”
He never gave up. “Roo Roberts.”
“Roo? Like that rat on Winnie the Pooh?”
“I think that’s a kangaroo.”
“Did you kiss three fingers and hold them up in the air in tribute?”
Cutter couldn’t help but chuckle at that one. “Stop with the movie references. I am not Katniss.”
“It’s what I do, man. Okay. I’ll see if I can find her. What does she look like?”
That was a legitimate question, and he definitely had an answer, more than one. What did she look like? Tall, blonde, gorgeous, with blue eyes full of secrets and an innocence about her that permeated with sweetness. It was too bad he was about to obliterate all of that. “She looks like an angel.”
The GIF of fireworks going off probably had a double meaning, but Cutter chose to believe his cousin was simply happy about the wording he’d chosen. “Now, leave me the hell alone,” he sent back, hoping that would be enough to hold Rider off for a few hours. He had a lot of meetings scheduled that day, and the last thing he needed was to slip up because of Rider’s distractions, or anyone else’s. He’d thought he’d been pretty clear about the importance of being left to his own devices here, but apparently some people either hadn’t been listening or had chosen to ignore him. When it came to Rider, Cutter was certain it was the latter.
After bustling around his classroom for a few more minutes, Cutter grabbed his school issued iPad, a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water and ventured out into the hallway. Ru was walking out of her classroom at the same time. She smiled up at him, her eyes flickering with self-doubt. If she was who he thought she was, he wondered how she’d gotten like this, and how she’d ended up here.
“Hey! Headed toward the meeting?” he asked, smiling back at her.
“Yes. Just gotta grab Candice.”
“Okay. See you in a bit.” He took off in the direction of the library, which he’d discovered earlier that morning as he’d been exploring the building. He could’ve waited for her, but he didn’t want to seem too clingy too early. He’d need a few days at the minimum to discover if she was who he suspected. And then the really hard work would begin.
When Cutter walked into the library, a few other teachers were seated at the rectangular tables, talking excitedly, as if they hadn’t seen each other in years—or maybe it was just months. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to work with people you didn’t see for a couple of months every year. As they noticed him, the women grew quiet for a few seconds, one or two even gasped aloud, and then the conversation shifted to whispers, assuring him he was the new topic of discussion.Normally, he would’ve gathered as much information as possible before subjecting himself to this sort of situation, but in this case, the discovery that the one they’d been searching for might actually be here had come with only enough time to get him this teaching position, and as Rider had pointed out, the website for Thomas Elementary was under construction. They weren’t too tech savvy around here, apparently. The Facebook page for
“Okay, let’s get started everyone!” Mrs. Long said, standing at the front of the room. Many of the voices continued to chatter, so she said, “If you can hear me, clap once.” A few people clapped. Cutter tried not to be confused and prepared for her to ask again. “If you can hear me, clap twice.” This time, he was ready and joined in with about half of the teachers. “If you can hear me, clap three times.” This time, almost everyone was with them. “Are we ready then?”Mrs. Long had a captive audience. She was a short woman, probably in her mid-fifties, with reddish-brown hair that came out of a bottle, though likely the bottle of a stylist. She had a nice manicure and was dressed in a black pantsuit. Though she was a bit robust, she had a kind smile, and Cutter had liked her the moment they’d met. She seemed to really know a lot about education. It was a shame he’d had to lie to
The GT presentation was only supposed to last until 11:00, but it was almost 11:30 before Cutter made his way to Ms. Owen’s room for the fourth grade team meeting. He walked in to see she already had stacks of papers prepared on the table with each of their names on them. Sitting down in front of his stack, he glanced at the others. “Oh, you spell it R-U,” he muttered, noticing the writing on the stack across from him.Ru sat down in the student’s chair, which she fit in much more comfortably than he did. “Yeah,” she replied, with a shrug.“Is it short for anything?” He flipped through the papers in his stack, trying to seem nonchalant, but he really needed to know.“No,” she replied, another shrug.Cutter raised an eyebrow in her direction.“It seems you’re not the only one with an unusual first name anymore,&rd
Ru pulled into her driveway a little after 6:00. The sun was starting to fade behind the horizon, and she was both exhausted and starving.Pushing open the front door, she found Piper there to greet her. “Hello, kitty. I’m sorry. Mommy had to stay late at work to set up her classroom.” She bent down to scratch her pet beneath her chin, dropping her bags on the floor as she did so. She’d come back and take care of that later, but first she needed to make sure Piper had some food and water in her bowls.Her cell phone rang as she was filling up the water dish. Glancing down at the name, she groaned. Should she take it now or put it off? “Better get it over with,” she mumbled, slogging back into the living room as Piper dug into her fresh bowl of food. “Hello?”“Where have you been?”Not even a greeting. Certainly no, “How was your first d
Cutter had stayed at work until after Ru left, watching discretely out the window as she made her way to her car. Sadly, she wasn’t the last to leave, and Cutter began to realize he’d had some misconceptions about public school teachers, but then, he’d never gone to public school, so he hadn’t really known what was typical.Once she was in her car and out of the parking lot, he grabbed his lunchbox and headed out as well. The light had been off in his classroom for more than two hours. He wanted everyone to think he’d gone home. Several people had stopped by that afternoon, after the final meeting of the day, and he was getting tired of pretending to be interested in their lives. They were all nice people, but he wouldn’t be staying there long enough to get to know any of them.He noticed Ru left the door to her classroom open and the light switch on when she left, though it had extinguished itself no
Ru’s classroom was almost ready to greet students Monday morning. She just needed Candice to come help her with a few things, and she’d be all ready, which was a good thing because that day—Friday—would be full of meetings. She always wondered why administrators thought it was a good idea to plan a day of trainings on the last possible day before students came in, as if teachers wouldn’t be completely distracted, wanting to be in their classrooms.She’d met her students the night before at Meet the Teacher, and she just knew this was going to be a great year. There were some familiar faces since she’d been teaching here long enough to start having siblings of former students. A few of the parents told her how happy they were that they had another child in her class. That was one of the rewarding parts of being a teacher, getting to interact with families who really appreciated what she was doing. Sometimes, paren
The library was already fairly full when they walked in, but no one other than Jane was sitting at the designated fourth grade table. It was no secret that Jane could be a little rude, and the other teachers didn’t like to give her an excuse to put them in their place.Ru did know a few teachers on other teams well from some of her committee work, and one of them, Hannah West, who taught third grade, waved at her as she came in. Ru waved back and approached her usual seat. She wasn’t paying attention when she set her belongings down, and it wasn’t until Jane shrieked that she realized what she’d done. Looking down, she watched as Jane’s full cup of coffee spilled all over the table.“Ru! What did you do?” Jane screamed, jumping up like the hot liquid was coming right at her, even though it was flowing the other direction.“I’m so sorry!” she said, feeling the
“Oh, my God, Ruin Sara Roberts! Where have you been?”Taking a deep breath, Ru squeezed past her mother into the house. “It’s 4:03,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm.“That’s right, and I specifically told you to be here before 4:00. The fact that you are late is just further proof that you don’t care one bit about your family!”Ru’s hands were full with the various items her mother had asked her to pick up, and she carried them straight to the kitchen, setting them down on the counter. Her mom was still barking at her, but Ru had learned that not listening was always better than trying to reason with whatever Liddy was going off about. “I’m sorry. I got off at 3:45, remember? I got here as fast as I could.”“You always have an excuse for everything, don’t you?” Liddy stood in front of her, arms fold