24. Ivy

24

IVY

I checked the clock on the wall of my classroom for the third time in…how had it been twenty minutes already? If time was a standardized unit of measurement, why was it moving so fast? Served me right. I’d never left things so last minute before and I was being thoroughly punished for it. My head was in shambles, and I had an odd feeling there was something I had forgotten. The big hour hand crept closer to 8:00 a.m. and the mandatory morning briefing with the entire faculty.

For a brief, mad moment I considered skipping it so I could finish setting up my classroom but promptly chased that thought away. No, Jeff would kill me or at the very least berate me within earshot of a colleague who would give me superior looks about it afterward. I stuffed Christmas decorations away in a storage tub while I tried to figure out my learning theme for the next couple of weeks. At least my new seating plan was done and I had a barely passable lesson plan meted out for the first day back.

In the final dying seconds before 8:00 a.m., I hurriedly stuck a solar system poster on the wall — unlaminated! So unlike me — and rushed to the teachers’ lounge. I squeezed into the already packed room, offering quick greetings to the other teachers.

“Ivy, I thought you’d be front and center as per usual,” chortled Tom, our PE teacher who lived in shorts all year round.

“Not today, I guess,” I replied, frazzled.

One of the other elementary teachers accosted me. “Want us to shuffle along so you can head over in that direction?” Francine tittered behind her hand.

“Nope, I’m perfect right here,” I said firmly.

It was important that I nipped that in the bud immediately. Rome was already here, leaning against the far wall and I stayed exactly where I was near the door. We had both agreed to keep our interactions at school professional even though I knew word of our courtship had spread.

There was no need to feed the gossip mill, so I pointedly ignored him. I did not need to be thinking about what we had been doing two days ago. Especially not the way he had handed me over to Logan that evening before heading home. How I had been too wrung out to do anything but sleep but was more than willing to let my big alpha do some territory marking the next morning.

I recognized Rome’s not-so-subtle cough from across the room. I’d slathered myself in No-NonScent Deodorant as a preemptive measure so he must have read it all over my face. Embarrassed, I dropped my head, giving the worn patch of multi-colored carpet between my shoes a very thorough examination.

Think about seating charts. Fractions. The effects of La Ni?a and El Ni?o on global weather patterns.

Much better.

“Gooooood morning, everyone!” Jeff called out, clearly angling for a new job as an announcer. Too bad he had the gravitas — and physique too if I squinted a little — of a lemur. “Are we pumped for the second half of the year?”

I cringed internally at the silence that followed. Not sure what Jeff was expecting; our brains were still asleep.

“Now as you know, we had a power outage over winter break,” Jeff continued undeterred. “Rest assured maintenance has confirmed everything is back up and running smoothly. If you run into any issues, let Bruce know.”

Thank god all evidence of our activities during that power outage had long been scrubbed clean, our scents dissipating to nothing in the chilly winter air.

Jeff began to drone on about our academic goals for the semester and upcoming curriculum changes to expect. I could see everyone’s attention wandering, filtering out what wasn’t relevant to them. But it only stressed me out more, my to-do list growing longer by the minute.

“And most exciting of all, I’ve gotten word that Preston Eberhart himself wants to stop by to make an important announcement .” Jeff emphasized the last two words with a clap of his hands. “So, we’ll be having a special assembly at the end of the week. I’ve got a good feeling about this, folks. I think one of us has won that grant money.”

I perked up. The Preston Eberhart Educator Empowerment and Excellence Grant. I hadn’t expected a result so soon. But it couldn’t have come at a better time. I crossed everything that my application had been enough.

“Rome, I’d like you to prepare a performance for the occasion.”

“Sure,” he said easily. “The choir and I will put something together.”

Jeff beamed. “Wonderful. Don’t forget your team meetings after school this Wednesday.”

Gosh, like I already didn’t have enough to do.

“Let’s have a great first day back, everyone!” Jeff pumped his fist in the air and held it, living out his freeze frame movie dreams. I died a little inside from the secondhand embarrassment.

I wondered if I could sneak a quick hello to Rome — nothing salacious, a squeeze of his hand and maybe an eyelash flutter too while I was at it — when Robyn grabbed me.

“Ow.” Her nails pinched into my arm.

“Oops, sorry about that Ivy! You looked like you were in such a rush, I didn’t want you to get away.”

Her wide frog-like smile filled my vision. Over her shoulder, Rome met my eyes for the briefest moment before disappearing out the door. I sighed internally. Maybe I could say hi during recess instead.

“Hello, did you hear me?”

“Hmm?”

“I said , did you get the IEP done?”

I stared at her blankly. “What IEP?”

Robyn huffed. “You said you’d do the IEP for me for my incoming student.”

Did I?

She was extremely unimpressed by my silence. “Remember? Because you did Tanner’s already,” she said slowly, enunciating each word carefully like I was an idiot.

I got a flash of a distant memory from last semester. Robyn had asked me… something about her IEP. She had a huge bow around her neck. I didn’t remember Robyn needing me to write the whole thing but by the way she was tap-tap-tapping her shoe impatiently on the floor, I must have forgotten.

“I can’t believe this, Ivy,” she said, frustrated. “He starts today .”

This was Robyn’s first time having an autistic student in her class. I felt awful that I’d let him down. His first day would set the tone for how he felt about the class and the last thing I wanted was for him to struggle from the outset.

“I’m so sorry,” I apologized, distressed. “I’ll do it during recess. You can handle the morning at least, right?”

“I’m going to have to, I guess,” Robyn said sullenly.

“If he has comfort items, make sure to explain to the class that it’s part of helping him learn,” I rifled off desperately, hoping Robyn would not lose any tenuous trust the new student might place in her within those first few hours. “Assure him he can take a quiet break if he feels overwhelmed at any point.”

“Yeah ok, Ivy.” Robyn walked off, waving a hand dismissively behind her.

I trudged through the long halls back to my classroom, feeling like a leaden weight was on my back. My students were lined up outside waiting for me, and I squared my shoulders with a deep breath and put on my game face.

“Hi Ms. Winter!”

“Happy New Year!”

“Ms. Winter, did you hear the news about Robbie?”

The familiar warmth rushed back in. I’d missed them. And this was where I was supposed to be.

So you had a bit of a shaky start to the semester. It happens. You’ll get back into the swing of things soon.

“So lovely seeing your faces again.” I smiled broadly, opening the door. “Come in, everyone!”

My students poured inside, many of them racing to the thriving fish tank. I heard a couple of them say Hi, Fish James and tucked away my grin. After what had happened at the start of the break, James installed an automatic feeder for me. Still, I made the effort to check in during the break when I could and there had luckily been no more power outages. Everyone found their new seats, chattering away excitedly.

“Did you hear about Robbie, Ms. Winter?” Riley asked again eagerly.

I shook my head as I leaned against my desk, wondering what news Riley O’Hara had about her brother in tenth grade.

“He went viral ,” Riley said in an awed tone, her eyes saucer-wide. “His piano cover of Fever Love got over a million views. Blissa Nova even commented and reposted it!”

I only understood half of those words.

The rest of the class, however, burst into noise, either to add that they had seen it too or asking for more details.

“That’s amazing,” I gushed anyway. “How is he feeling?”

“Already practicing his next cover like crazy and planning on posting it tonight.” Riley glowed, clearly so excited for her big brother.

I wondered if Rome had heard about this yet. I made a mental note to ask him later.

“Alright, class.” I clapped my hands to get their attention. “Let’s kick off the new semester with a quick writing exercise — I want to hear how your winter break was.” I smiled at the satisfying sound of twenty-five exercise books being opened.