Page 19 of Between the Lines
And for the second time today, hell freezes over. Nathan Hardinglaughs. It’s small. A puff of air from a discreet smile. ButImade that happen. Damn, these butterflies can settle downwhenever they’d like to.
“I’d better go. Have a good night, Mr. Harding.”
I raise my hand in a goodbye wave as he nods and does the same.
If I’d been willing the butterflies to calm down a moment ago, it’s useless the moment I hear him mutter,I still don’t think I’d call her the feistiest.
nine
claire
“Hey,”Lucy says with a smile, peeking her head into my classroom right after the lunch bell rings. “Got a sec?”
“Bring your lunch! I have a list,” I chuckle.
“Can I come too?!” Aaron follows, his lunch in hand. “I don’t need to talk about kids. I just don’t want to give up time with m’lady since we have the same lunch this year.”
Adorable. What I wouldn’t give for something like that.
In the same moment that I have that thought, I chuckle. Out loud, on accident. Lucy and Aaron look at each other, then at me in confusion, as we bring our lunches to the kidney bean shaped table in the back corner of the classroom.
“Sorry. I was just thinking about how sickeningly adorable you two are, and then laughed when I wondered what it would be like to have time for a relationship,” I clarify, popping open the lid to the dinner leftovers my dad didn’t end up taking to work this morning.
“It’s all about the time youmakefor one another,” Aaron says, wrapping both arms around Lucy and resting his head on her shoulder.
She makes a face in the same moment that I stick my tongue in my mouth and fake a gag, but as we laugh, I see the doe-eyed way shelooks up at him, and the way she tilts her nose into his cheek as a sign that she agrees with him one-hundred-percent. I’ve learned a little about Lucy’s past, and it seems like Aaron’s doting is a complete one-eighty from the way she was treated by her ex-husband, and she is fully into it.
“Okay. No bullshit. How are you doing?” she asks me.
I nod, chewing on my cold pasta.
“Good. Fine. They’re teenagers, so I’m handling them as best as I can.”
“Are any of them giving you a hard time?” Aaron asks.
“I think I’ve got them mostly in check,” I nod. “But like, do theyallhate homework? How do you get them to turn stuff in?”
“With the way their homes are?” Lucy asks. “You don’t, unfortunately. You finagle your schedule so that they have ample work time, and encourage them to come to you during study hall.”
“I seriously did not understand how much ofteachingwas simplyworksheet patrol.”
“Seriously,” Aaron nods. “Sometimes I feel bad for being on the gym end of things.”
“Yeah, but you coach,” Lucy interjects, “which means you deal with parents on anafterschool basis.”
“Noooo thank you,” I shudder. “I don’t even like having to email them when their student has missing assignments.”
“You’re doing that?”
Lucy’s eyes bug, and I suddenly feel warm.
“Yeah? Am I not supposed to be?”
“No, you go right ahead. It’s what Juliet would be doing. I’m just surprised. We have certified teachers here who don’t let a parent know their kid is failing unless they check their grades online.”
“I guess I’d want to know if it was my kid.”
Then again, I don’t let mine get this behind…