Naira: Going to the interview now. Please pray for me!
Dad: Will do! Good luck, darling! I wish I was there to give up a pep talk.
Naira: Don’t worry, Maya did that for me. Let’s see how this goes.
Naira’s POV

I checked my outfit once again. Was this too formal? Maybe it wasn’t formal enough! I didn’t know what this school was like. It could be a super posh one for rich kids who’d laugh at me when they saw what I was wearing, or it could be one where the kids really didn’t care, but maybe it was like the one I went to when I was younger. I just really didn’t know. San Diego was so much different from Ashland! This place was humongous and everything was busy and rushed. I was used to calm and small; this was the opposite to what it was like at home.

Anyway, I had to stop worrying. Believing you can’t do something often means you also won’t achieve it. I even decided to walk to the school instead of going by car. It wasn’t to far away and that way I would have enough time to think and tell myself I could do this. Plus, it was a nice day, so why ruin planet Earth by adding more exhaust gases? Maybe I wouldn’t change the world by myself, but I felt good about it.

As I got closer to the school, I heard kids shouting and playing. It was probably break time, a moment for children to use up some of their energy, and for teachers to regain theirs. And, instead of thinking about all the kids that would see me, I thought of the bright side; now I could see what the kids were like and what type of school it was. No time for negative thoughts, only positive thoughts. If I was going to get this job I had to seem happy and had to show I actually really wanted it.

I walked past the playing kids, some of them stopping to look and wonder who I was, others just completely ignoring me. But this place seemed pretty promising. Everybody was playing with everybody, there was no sexism or racism going on -- it was pretty amazing to see how many kids actually have those characteristics because they follow their parents, but here it wasn’t a problem at all.

After pushing open one of the doors, I stepped into the empty hallways. I had no clue where to go, but I couldn’t help but admire this place. There were posters and drawings hung on all the walls, covering all the boring white. It was actually pretty spacious and just looked like a nice environment. Everything was getting better and better.

“Hi,” somebody said from next to me. I looked down and to my right to see a young girl smiling up at me.

I grinned down at her, “hi.”

“Are you the new teacher?” she asked bluntly while looking me in the eyes, “because we still have somebody else who isn’t an actual teacher here and I don’t really like him. You are very pretty, though.”

Yep, that’s right, as you probably guess, I wanted to be a teacher here, specifically for first grade. A position opened up after the last teacher had a baby, but they hadn’t been able to find anybody. So, for the time being they had a substitute who was actually a math teacher for the older kids. I could only imagine how bad the chemistry between the kids and the teacher was.

“Thank you,” I couldn’t help but smile again and crouched down so I was at the same level as the girl, “and, no, sadly, I’m not the new teacher, yet. I’d like to be, though. Why aren’t you outside with the other kids?”

“I don’t like playing with them. Some of them are kinda mean,” she told me.

“Oh,” that actually made me sad, knowing a girl who was being this nice was potentially being bullied, “What’s your name?”

“Keegan,” she said proudly.

“Well, Keegan,” I chuckled, “how about you show me where the principal’s office is, so I can maybe be your new teacher.”

“Ok,” she took my hand and started dragging me along a couple of the hallways before stopping in front of an open door. She knocked and walked in, not letting go of my hand yet, “Ms. Johnson, this lady was looking for you.”

The principal looked up from her laptop and smiled when she saw both of us, “you must be Naira.” I nodded, and then she focus her attention more on the little girl, “thank you Keegan.”

“No problem,” Keegan squeaked and skipped out of the room, leaving me alone with the principal.

“Why don’t you close the door, Naira, so we can discuss this job you want.”

I nodded once again and closed the door before sitting down on one of the chairs opposite of her. She actually looked like a friendly person, and not some stereotypical principal that you normally find in movies and TV shows. Her smile was sweet and kind, her brown eyes shined bright, and her short auburn hair was only styled slightly into loose curls, that possibly could have been natural.

“So, I see you’ve already met one of our students,” Ms. Johnson chuckled, thinking about Keegan, “oh, and call me Audrey, only the kids call me Ms. Johnson. I hope you can remember names easily.”

“I don’t believe I have any trouble, or at least didn’t have any last time I checked,” I continued the joke she had started.

“Well, then you should have much trouble remembering all the names you will come across,” she nodded before getting into more serious business, “so, why don’t you tell me about your experience in this field.”

“I don’t have much experience, with me only being 23 and everything,” I told her honestly, “but I have done the whole training on top of me getting my degree in English. In high school I would often tutor middle school kids who had some troubles, and I did an internship at one of the elementary schools back in Ashland. I mainly helped out, but I also got to teach a couple of classes. I’ve always been able to get along well with kids.”

Audrey made a couple of notes while continuing to listen, “ok, that sounds promising. And what are your views on education?”

“Well,” I started, having prepared this answer on the way here, “it is very important for children this age. It’s basically the building block towards their further education and their future. I also believe that education should not only be teaching and discipline, but fun as well. That way the children will enjoy learning and have good memories with certain knowledge. It would be such a shame to make a child hate something so early on in life just because their experience was influenced badly by someone else.”

“That actually a very interesting view,” she smiled and nodded, “I like the way you think, Naira. But I wonder how you cope with stress, are you able to do that?”

Well, shit.

“Uh, umm, yeah...” I quickly tried thinking of an answer to bend the truth, but my brain wouldn’t think properly, so I was left with just telling the truth, “well, I used to have verbal tourette’s as a child, and I still have a very mild form of it, which comes back when I’m under a lot of stress. So, over the years I have figured out coping methods so I don’t get sudden outburst or attacks. And in general, they work. Only when there is way too much for a normal human being to handle, will I have a problem.”

“Oh…”

----

More questions were asked, but I felt so much less confident after the stress question. It was always the thing that made people think I was weird and incapable of doing things. First they would treat me like any other human being, then one day I’d tell them about by tourette’s and suddenly they’d treat me like some mentally ill person or like a fragile puppy. It was pretty annoying.

So, I left to school feeling bummed out and not confident at all anymore. At least Keegan came to say bye to me, so my spirits were lifted a bit more. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to beat myself up over it. I had some time while walking back to Maya’s place, so it would only make everything worse for myself. All I could do was overthink every little thing I said. I probably messed up the whole thing, and the principle was only being nice because she had to. At least it was sunny, though. I would not have been able to deal with that.

When I finally got to Maya’s house, I saw a pretty big car pull up on her driveway. The four Mexican guys, who considered themselves to be Maya’s best friends, stepped out of the vehicle, and of course the first one to notice me was Jaime. Even though I only knew him for a couple of days, I knew it was going to happen, he just had that sort of personality… or so I was guessing…
“Looking very fancy, Naira,” he told me with a smile as I walked past them.

I looked down at my clothes, a reaction everybody had when somebody said something about the clothes you are wearing, “is it really that bad?”

“No, quite the opposite actually, it looks really good,” he assured and checked me out once again.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” I went to the front door, getting the key out, which Maya had given me a day prior, “I’m going to get changed anyway,” I opened the door and took the key out of the lock, “and I guess I’ll let you guys in as well, since I don’t think Maya would really care.”

“I hope she doesn’t,” Mike huffed, “or our whole friendship might be a lie.”

I kicked off my shoes and walked into the house, calling for my friend, “Maya! Those weird Mexican guys are here again!”

“Ok!” I heard her shout from upstairs before I heard her footsteps thundering down the stairs, and in no time she was in the living room with us. She greeted the guys before shifting her attention back to me, “how did it go?”

“Ugh,” I groaned and followed her to the kitchen.

“That bad?” she chuckled and got a beer out of the fridge, handing it to me.

I looked at the bottle weirdly, not really thinking it was time to drink, and handed it to Tony instead, who happily kept it as his. Maya then handed everybody else a beer and got one for herself as well, while I got a glass of water. I wasn’t a big drinker, and after that hangover I had, I wasn’t planning on drinking for a while anymore.

“No, it actually went pretty well,” I started explaining, “but then she asked me something, and I had to tell her about my-” I stopped there and gave Maya a look instead, and she immediately knew what I was talking about, “so, yeah, I might have to change my plans for the future; maybe move back in with my dad…”

“Oh, that would be such a shame,” Jaime pouted and leaned against one of the counters, putting his beer down next to himself.

“It really would be, wouldn’t it,” I quickly finished my water and went to go to the stairs, “I’m going to go change now… Don’t even think about following me.”

Jaime raised up his hands in defense, as if he hadn’t even considered it for a second, and the rest just acknowledged me. I ran upstairs, and closed my bedroom door before rummaging through my suitcase. I probably should have put everything in the empty closet that was in this room, but I kept procrastinating, and now wasn’t the time to do it. Now, I changed my clothes for a white sweater and some army green jeans, and couldn’t help but throw my hair up in a ponytail.

I quickly ran back downstairs, almost running into Vic, however, I managed to stop just before I actually hit him. He grinned and laughed a bit, causing me to smile as well. I just had this thing that I couldn’t help but smile when somebody else did… was that normal? It could very well be. We tried to sidestep, so we could walk past each other, but we kept awkwardly shuffling in the same direction.

“Hey,” I pointed out, “we’re the same height.”

“Really?” Vic smirked and looked at me, “I guess we are,” he then looked in the direction of the kitchen, where Maya still was, “Maya! I’m stealing your best friend!”

“No you’re not!” Maya shouted back.

“But she doesn’t make fun of me because of my height! She’s the same height!”

“Cool, but you’re not stealing her!”

Vic shook his head and laughed, before pointing in a direction, “I’m going to go this way.”

“Ok,” I nodded and stepped the other way. Well that was an awkward situation turned good, maybe I could build up a better relationship with these guys. They actually seemed pretty cool, and they didn’t seem to judge me or anything about the drunk incident. Back at home, I would never be able to live something like that down, but I guessed it wasn’t the same here.

When Vic walked away, I saw Jaime give him a dirty look. What was his problem? Vic and I were just being nice to each other, there was no reason the freak out. Wait, no. Jaime didn’t claim me, I could talk to anybody I wanted. And not everything was flirting! I was just making a awkward situation less awkward, and so was Vic. There was nothing going on between us, and Jaime just had to get his shit together.

Notes

Is Naira going to be able to stay in San Diego, or will she have to return back home to her dad? And will her relationship with the guys improve? What about Jaime definitely trying to get with Naira, but last chapter you found out that Maya has a crush on Jaime! Is that going to go ok? or will things go badly?

I just realised I ask so many questions in all my notes... oops, sorry.

- aweirdkindofyellow