Maya: Everybody down to hang out tonight? Watch a movie, have some drink, etc.
Mike: Always. Can’t miss out on this. See you soon.
Tony: I don’t have anything better to do, but I won’t be coming if nobody else is ;)
Vic: Why the fuck not? I’ll be there.
Jaime: Umm… should I dare to make an appearance? I understand if you’d rather not want me there…
Mike: No. We don’t want you here.
Vic: Mike, stop it. Jaime, just tag along, ok?
Mike: It’s not my fault if he ends up getting a black eye and a broken nose.

Reminder (20 minutes ago): parent teacher conferences

Naira’s POV
I was rushing through my room, trying to multitask like it was my second nature. It was a Friday evening and I was supposed to be at work. The only problem was that I was way behind schedule and there was a high chance that I would be late if I wasn’t going to start hurrying. You see, a week or so after all those meetings the other teachers had, the whole school had Parent Teacher Conferences. Yes, that also included me, because I had to comment on the initial development of the kids. My plan was to show up half an hour early so I could set up everything, make it welcoming and prepared. But that wasn’t going to happen anymore.

The one reason why I was going was also the reason why I was late. In the afternoon, when all the kids had been dismissed, I was completely ready to go home as well so I could get ready. However, then the principal came in the remind me of something. I had to make sure I had all the portfolios ready to show the parents so I could discuss some of the child work. We always kept a couple of tasks they did in these folders. I thought I had finished them days early, but apparently I needed one more piece of work for each student. So that was a whole adventure, trying to find something that would make the parents proud, but also something that didn’t warp and change the image they’d get from how their child actually was. And of course I also needed to be in possession of all these worksheet and project they did, which wasn’t exactly the case. So, I had rushed home, running like a crazy woman, as soon as I had finished, and hopped into the shower immediately.

I really needed to make a good impression on the parents, since they all weren’t so sure about me. I didn’t really blame them. Who’d love the new teacher if she basically just graduated, barely had any experience, and was only 23 years old? The previous teacher was much older and really knew how to deal with young kids, having had a couple of her own. I was at the age where I wasn’t even thinking of having kids yet! It was so important to show that I really did know what I was doing… or at least make it seem that way.

That was why a change of outfit was necessary. Usually I’d wear slightly more casual clothes, finding ways to incorporate my sweaters into my outfits, but this time I had to seem more sophisticated than normal. It was time for a tight, dark navy pencil skirt to which I added a white cross wrapped crop top, which I really hoped wasn’t showing off too much skin. I actually decided to wear heels as well, even though I knew how the tiles to the school building loved to swallow them. It was all about first impressions. Well, first impressions for most parents. I’d already seen some of them before. Let’s just say not everybody was happy that I brought a musician in for career day.

I quickly put on some red lipstick before deciding to just put my hair up in a ponytail. There was no time to make myself look any more decent. I was going to have to do with what I had. After picking up my bag, hanging it on my shoulder and holding my shoes in my right hand, I rushed downstairs to grab the cupcakes I had made the day before. Every teacher needed to bring in some drinks and snacks for the parents to enjoy. I just hoped this and some tea or coffee was going to be good enough.

When I came downstair, however, I was met with all of our friends sitting in the living room, drinks on the table, and the Netflix menu to the TV screen. I just walked right past them and into the kitchen to get my large box full of cupcakes. Luckily they were untouched, which was something pretty rare considering four guys often randomly walked around here.

“Hey, you’re finally joining us!” Tony exclaimed brightly, projecting his voice into the kitchen from his spot on the couch.

I shook my head, grabbing my keys and throwing them carelessly into my bag, knowing that I’d be searching for them later. “No, sorry, I can’t.”

“What!? Why not--” Maya groaned as I left the kitchen once more to go a find a jacket I could bring along. “Oooh, you look fancy, where are you going?”

“Back to school.”

“Why? Can’t they do that? It’s Friday evening, you should be allowed to do whatever the fuck you want!”

“Yeah, well, it’s Parent Teacher Conferences and I’m already late.” I decided to stop and look at them, feeling Vic’s eyes travelling over my body, checking me out. “I’m really not looking forward to it, so please don’t make it worse than it already is. It’s the one night where I’ll have to go up to parents and be like ‘hey, your child isn’t good at Math, or Science, or English, or anything for that matter, but, hey, he’s good at magic tricks and doing tricks on a yo-yo, so that’s something’.”

Everybody suddenly went quiet as Jaime’s eyes suddenly snapped towards me at the end of my mini rant. I frowned, confused why everything just turned awkward and uncomfortable. It didn’t seem like anybody was going to inform me until Tony decided to speak up once again.

“Jaime, here, umm, used to, you know, do magic and yo-yo competitions,” he carefully put it, like he was afraid to make the situation even worse.

My eyes went wide as my heart dropped. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just-- yeah, I’m just going to go before I make this any worse.” I was about to leave the house, just before I turned back around and said one more thing, “can I, by any chance, borrow somebody’s car? There’s no way I’ll be on time if I have to walk now.”

“I’d say yes, but it’s sort of out of gas, and I don’t think you’ll be able to go to a gas station first,” Maya apologized, ruling her car out as an option.

Lucky for me, Vic sat up a little bit and reached into his back pocket to take out his keys. He held them out for me and I ran up to him with a big smile on my face, thanking him. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and I took them from him, accidentally leaving a lipstick mark. Everybody around us, except for Jaime, let out a short holler as I quickly left the house before I was going to be seriously late.

----

I managed to set everything up just five minutes before all the parents were supposed to be let into the classroom. After putting the portfolios on the tables of the students, I put the food and drinks on a table I had placed at the very back of the classroom, making also sure there were also enough cups and napkins incase they were needed. When I opened the door, all the parents sat down, finding the binder that belonged to their child. It was only then when the nerves actually settled in. First impressions were really important.

I decided to start as soon as they were all looking at me, waiting for me to actually introduce myself. “Hi. So, I’m your kids’ teacher. They call me Ms. Naira since I don’t really think Ms. Belisle fits that well for me. Plus, I also like to make the bond more personal so they don’t have to be afraid to tell me anything and only think of me as an authority figure--”

“But aren’t you supposed to be the authority figure; the person who keeps everybody in line.” One of the parents interrupted, pretty rudely if I may add.

“Well, yes, and I do make sure that if one of them does something unacceptable that they know. I’m not afraid to get mad if needed, but I do not want to be the reason why your kids would not want to come to school anymore. I want them to wake up everyday and be excited to be coming here again everyday. It’s so much easier to motivate a child than to force them into doing something they don’t want to.”

“And you know this through experience?”

“I know this because I was once a child as well. When I had a nice and supportive teacher I was always happy to go back and learn, but when I had a teacher who was strict and formal, I would sometimes refuse to go to school. I know I don’t have much experience, with me being 23 and all, but I’ve always been around younger children. I started babysitting at a young age and even did some tutoring as I got older. With the grades I got in high school, I could have become a doctor or a surgeon, but I decided to pass on my knowledge to younger generations. I want your kids to have the opportunity to choose their career path as well, rather than having to stick to restricted possibilities. I know that it’s difficult to do that now already, in first grade, but I believe this year is more about getting them to want to learn and to be excited for it.”

“Ok, but you’re a young and unmarried girl, how do you know what is right for my child?” Another mother spoke up.

I sighed. Did they really not hear my point? I had no idea how all these stubborn parents were able to have such sweet kids. Now, I wasn’t the one to judge on parenting, but I was really starting to be afraid for the kids’ futures. Many of them were probably going to be forced to take a certain direction in life.

“Yes, I’m young; yes, I’m unmarried. But we all have to start somewhere, right? In some time I’ll suddenly be a lot older, and maybe I’ll even get married one day. But that day isn’t today. I don’t know how it’s been for all of you, but it takes a while before everything fall into place completely. I was very lucky to be asked to work here. Trust me, when I got an email from the school board asking me if I wanted to work here, I was surprised as well. I was just somebody in a small town where everybody knows everybody, and all I got to do was help out other teachers and be their assistants. I don’t know how they found out about me, because they were the ones who asked me if I was interested, not the other way around. All I know is that it happened the way it happened, I’m here now, and I really do love my job.”

The conversation continued like that for another while. They just didn’t seem to understand that I only had good intentions and that I knew where they were coming from. Every single one of them was very narrow minded, already having made up and impression of me before even getting to know me. I just hope their kids weren’t going to be the same when they grew up. The generation would be screwed if they were.

Eventually I got it all to stop and decided to focus more on individual kids and discussing about them, rather about me and how my life was. This evening wasn’t about me, but about the children I taught. I didn’t even understand why the parents didn’t think that was more important; they only really cared about how terrible of a teacher I was.

Well, everybody thought that, except for one mother. She made her way up to me, holding a cupcake in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Her big smile actually didn’t seem fake as she was finally stood in front of me. “Hi, I’m Keegan’s mother.”

“Oh, hi!” I returned the smile, really hoping she was as nice as Keegan was. “I’m pretty sure Keegan has claimed me as her best friend in the couple of weeks I’ve been here. But, hey, I can basically say the same about her. She’s always great to eat lunch with.”

“Yeah, she won’t shut up about you. She always comes home with new stories to tell.” She laughed, before leaning in a bit, her face turning serious. “Don’t listen to the others. I think you’re a great teacher. You’ve really helped Keegan, and I’m pretty sure you’ve helped so many other kids, but their parents are just to stupid to realize. I was unfortunate enough to marry into this community, but I can assure you that my husband is nothing like these people either. He just happens to have a good job, meaning that we live in this district and are able to afford this school. Keegan’s been having a pretty hard time since her dad is gone often on business trips, but you seem to compensate for it. I’d like to thank you for that.”

“Really, it’s no problem.” I shook my head. “Keegan’s a nice girl and I’d be happy to help anytime. If she ever needs some extra help, don’t hesitate to ask me.”

“Thank you… these cupcakes a great by the way.”

----

I locked Vic’s car and slouched towards the front door. After talking to Keegan’s mother for a while, more shit was thrown at me by other parents. I was being blamed for the fact that their kids were not good at something. It wasn’t my fault that not everybody was good at everything! If a child doesn’t understand math as good as the next and explaining more slowly and thoroughly doesn’t help, then there’s nothing you can do about it. Everybody’s different.

Just like expected, I was standing outside for another five minutes trying to find my keys. They turned out to be somewhere at the very bottom of the bag, which I only did find out after basically taking out all the other content. It was so much easier to carefully put them in a separate pouch than just throw them in without thinking.

When I finally walked in, I kicked off my heels, not caring where they went and if somebody would fall over them. Everybody was still sitting in the living room, watching the movie they had chosen. They all immediately knew about my presence, since my entrance wasn’t exactly a quiet one. I had slammed the door behind me quite loudly and my shoes weren’t made out of the softest material there was.

“Hey, how was it?” Maya asked, not taking her eyes off the screen, stuffing some more popcorn into her mouth.

“Hmm, let’s see. I’m this close to stabbing someone,” I emphasized it by squishing my thumb and index finger closely together, “and I’m thinking of maybe quitting my job. I think it went pretty well.” I put the box of cupcakes back in the kitchen before going back to the living room. “There’s ten cupcakes left, if you want to fight about them, or maybe possibly share them. I don’t know, it’s not like I’ve met many sympathetic and nice people today. But, hey, I got a bottle of wine.” I held up the bottle that I was holding in my left hand, reading the label as if that was important. “It looks pretty cheap, but it’s not like I can afford any better. At least it’s a screw off cap. Now, excuse me while I go drink this.”

I took a big gulp and threw the car keys back at Vic, muttering a ‘thank you’ again. I continued to take sips of the red wine as I walked up the stairs and right into my room. After I had closed my door, I put the bottle down for a bit, getting changed into my pajamas. I was tired of everything and just wanted to go to bed, maybe even finish drinking the wine I had gotten.

There was a knock on the door just after I had put on my shirt, so I called the person in, telling them I was decent. Vic walked in and closed the door behind himself, like he had found it when he came here. “The guy’s have left. I just wanted to check how you’re doing.”

I shrugged as I grabbed my wine again, “I don’t know. If I needed to stay there any longer and listen to all those comment, then I’d probably have had another one of my weird attacks. So, that’s not any good.”

“No, that’s not any good.” Vic shook his head and came closer to me, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my cheek. “Just ignore them and try to get some sleep.”

“Will you stay?”

“You want me to stay?”

I nodded as I buried my face into his neck and let out a deep breath.

“Ok, then. You go into the bed and make sure you don’t spill any of that red liquid onto your white sheets, I’ll take off my shoes and clothes. No funny business though.”

I did as he told me while he stripped down to his boxers. “No funny business, except for drinking this shitty wine and ranting about shitty people.”

“Except for drinking shitty wine and ranting about shitty people,” Vic repeated and climbed into bed next to me.

Notes