The Teacher (13 page)

Chapter
Eighteen

Stacy had no idea what she was talking
about. Of course, Emma was interested in Alec. Why else had she spent the last
two weeks since having dinner with Stacy and Seth imagining herself and Alec as
a couple? She could picture the two of them in a modest home complete with a
white picket fence and a handful of children running around the backyard.

In the evenings, they would sit together
commiserating about the students in their classes, the ones that drove them
crazy and the ones that melted their hearts. They would spend their summers
traveling to new and interesting places. The two of them together made perfect
sense.

Every day at school, she anticipated seeing
him and felt like a giddy schoolgirl each time she walked down the hall hoping
they might cross paths. But she had scarcely seen him since Brayden’s meeting.

Emma ignored the blustery rainy days
that came one after the other, consuming herself instead, with images of a
future with Alec Martin.

The morning announcements were droning
on again. The children squirmed like little worms on the carpet in front of her.
The day showed the promise of spring as the sun climbed to its post in the sky,
keeping the clouds at bay. For the first time in weeks, the kids might be able
to play outside the confines of the small covered space on the playground and
access the entire grounds. But by the end of the announcements, the clouds had
overtaken the sun.

Brayden sat gloomily inside his coat
locker, sitting as still as a statue, when Donald joined the class. Emma’s
heart skipped a beat when she saw Alec followed him. Sandy was taking her son
to the orthodontist this morning, so Emma had expected a sub, but she never imagined
that Alec would fill in for her. Emma felt a light flutter of butterflies in
her stomach when he smiled at her, just like a lovesick adolescent.

He closed the door quietly behind him
and watched Donald put his things away in his locker. Donald, as usual, stopped
to greet Brayden before joining the rest of the class at the carpet.

“Brayden?” Alec mouthed to Emma and
pointed to the solitary boy. She nodded and Alec walked over, kneeling beside
him. Brayden remained frozen, except for his eyes, which shot like laser beams
from Alec to Emma and back to the floor. When Brayden didn’t engage him, Alec
gave up and pulled a tiny chair to the carpet near Donald.

Emma could feel herself becoming flustered
as Alec watched her lead the class through their morning songs, dances and
calendar routine. It was one thing to sit in front of her class making funny
voices and singing silly songs, but it was quite another to do it in front of
someone that she was trying to make an impression on. And a good impression at
that.

The children peppered her with requests
for the chicken dance. Usually she would indulge them—it was their absolute
favorite— but she would be mortified if Alec saw her strutting around like a
chicken. She bluffed, telling them there wasn’t enough time and transitioned into
writing centers, dismissing one group at a time to their workstation.

Emma sat with her five students at the
kidney bean shaped table and started with their lesson. Alec followed Donald to
the table where he would work on illustrating a short story he wrote with Emma
yesterday. Usually, Brayden would find his way to his group at this time if he
hadn’t already joined the class. He especially liked illustrating his books,
but Emma could see he wasn’t moving from the shelter of his locker.

Alec noticed Brayden’s book at the table.

“Brayden, here’s your book,” he said,
holding it up.

Brayden ignored him.

Alec tried again, this time taking the
book with him as he walked to the back of the classroom. “Here Brayden,” he
said and held out the papers folded and stapled into a booklet. “Let’s go work
on your book.”

Brayden’s eyes turned on Alec, a wild
frightened look in them. Alec waited, holding the book. Brayden ripped it from
his hand and tore it in half. Alec’s eyes turned to Emma, stunned and
apologetic. He returned to the table without the company of Brayden.

Emma worked with Lyle on sounding out
the word dinosaur when Brayden walked over and stood next to her. Lyle’s eyes
shifted to Brayden, but Emma kept her attention on his work. When they finished
working out the word, she looked at Brayden.

“Is there something I can do to help you
Brayden?” she asked while pointing at Naomi’s sentence to remind her to put a
period at the end.

“My book is ripped,” he mumbled and held
up the two halves of his book.

“I see that. What would you like to do
about it?” This wasn’t the first time a piece of Brayden’s work had suffered a
ripping and they’d been over how to fix it many times before. He also knew if
he wanted to join his class at recess in fifteen minutes, he would need to have
his work finished.

“I need to tape it.”

“Okay,” Emma replied. “The tape is on my
desk. If you would like me to help you, bring it over here and we can do it
together.”

Ivan passed Emma his writing book and
she looked over his work as Brayden went to retrieve the tape dispenser. She
excused Ivan and then Naomi.

Emma held the halves of the book
together as Brayden stretched the tape across the rip. He returned the tape to
her desk and then slumped down in the seat next to her as Lyle left the table.
Emma organized her materials and made a couple of notes about her group’s
progress before she walked to the panel of light switches, turning them off. A
buzz of activity filled the room as the students cleaned up their stations.
Brayden kept his eyes down and focused on his work.

Emma walked the rest of her class down
the hall to the playground. Alec and Donald came out of the classroom when she
got back, meeting her in the hall. Alec stopped while Donald walked ahead.

“Sorry about that,” Alec said, jerking
his head back toward the classroom where Brayden was working.

“Don’t worry about it,” Emma said with a
mild shake of her head. “It certainly isn’t the first time this has happened
and I’m sorry to say it probably won’t be the last.”

“Well, you’re really good with him, you
know,” Alec said and pushed his hands into his coat pockets.

Emma could feel her cheeks blush as she
shrugged.

“Any word from his dad yet?” Alec asked.

“Not a word.” Emma peeked into the
classroom to make sure Brayden wasn’t able to hear them. He was at the table working
on the pages of his book.

“Well, let’s not give up hope yet, he could
still come around, huh?” Alec reached out and gave her arm a squeeze.

“Yeah, maybe,” Emma said, a smile
blossoming on her face. They both turned at the sound of Donald opening the
metal doors out to the playground and Alec started in his direction, but then
stopped and turned around.

“Hey, I didn’t see you at The Brewery
last Saturday.”

“I know. Something came up,” she told
him. Audrey called with a babysitting emergency last Saturday and Emma spent
the night with her nieces.

“Well, I hope you can make it this
weekend.” He smiled and took a few steps backward.

“Okay, I’ll try,” Emma said. He noticed
her absence last weekend? He was inviting her to the bar again? This had to be
a good sign.

He smiled his infectious smile at her.

Yep, this was definitely a good sign.

“Well, I better catch up to our little
guy. See ya Emma.” He threw his hand up in a wave and went outside to join
Donald.

Turning into her classroom she nearly
collided with Brayden. He had his coat on and handed his book to her. He rocked
back and forth on his heels as she flipped through the pages. The illustrations
were basic, but he had colored each page. There was a little less precision and
detail to his work than usual, but she let it go, because it was still better
than some of her other students’ work. She gave him a nod and he hurried out to
the playground.

Emma met her class on the red star at
the end of recess and saw Sandy following behind Donald. Alec had already
returned to his classroom. Her disappointment was outweighed by the fact that
he had asked her to see his band again and she was not letting anything keep
her from that bar this Saturday night.

*     *     *

“Where are you off to?” Seth asked when
Emma walked out of her bedroom Saturday night. She wore a pair of dark blue
jeans, black spiked boots, and a tight white top under a loose cardigan
sweater, belted with a tie at the waist. It was all a part of the new
casual-trendy-look Stacy was helping her piece together. Most of it was working
for her except the tiny heels on the boots. She rolled her ankle in them just
walking down the hall.

“I’m going to watch Alec’s band play
tonight,” she said.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to tag
along. To check the guy out for you? You know, make sure he’s worthy.” Seth
winked at her.

“No, I think I’ll be okay. Besides I
don’t want to give him the wrong idea about us. I’ve got to go solo and show
him just how available I am,” she said copycatting Stacy’s words.

Seth shook his head. “You know I
wouldn’t exactly call our dear friend Stacy an expert on men. It’s not
quantity, but quality that counts. If you’re not going to let me meet the guy
at least give me the run down on him.”

“Well,” Emma said as she pulled her
black coat on and fastened the toggles. “He’s a teacher at my school, and he
plays in a band.”  Seth nodded as she stated the obvious, but waited for more.
Emma racked her brain for something else to share, “And he’s really hot, you
know, tall, blond and built. I guess he kind of reminds me of you.” She smiled,
teasing him.

“Well, he sounds perfect then.” Seth
smiled back at her. “Have fun tonight, okay?”

“I will.” She picked up her clutch bag and
peered out the window. The cab she called earlier was waiting by the curb. She
gripped the handrail tightly as she wobbled down the stairs and out into the
dark and chilly night.

The Brewery was new to her and nowhere
near as upscale and trendy as she imagined it would be for a place downtown.
The brick building, sandwiched between a flower shop and shoe store—both closed
at this hour—had a large window in front painted with the words: The Brewery on
Fifth, in rustic gold. Inside, the place was narrow. A few occupied tables
lined one brick wall and the bar was against the other. In the back were six
more tables and a stage. The lights were dim, except for the spotlights
blinding the performers, and it was loud. Emma pushed through the people and found
an empty stool at the bar.

She ordered a rum and coke, which the
bartender produced quickly and she picked it up turning away from the creepy
single guy next to her that kept trying to catch her eye. Alec was up on stage,
beating out the rhythm on his drums. He made eye contact and smiled. Emma
beamed back at him thrilled he had noticed her. The band transitioned from one loud
song to the next. When Emma finished her first drink, she ordered another.

The bar continued to grow more crowded
and Emma’s view of the band was cut off again and again as patrons leaned in
front of her to order drinks. Emma wanted to move, but there were no other
empty tables or seats anywhere. Between the thick congestion of people and the
loud pulsing of the band’s music Emma began to feel claustrophobic. She didn’t
know how much longer she’d last in this jam-packed place. Finally, the band
took a break and Emma watched as Alec walked toward her. A fuzzy feeling came
over her—delight coupled with the happy relaxed buzz her second drink had given
her.

“Hey, glad you could make it,” Alec said
and leaned in to give her a sweaty hug, which she didn’t mind. She was
overwhelmed with the pleasure his touch brought. He leaned on the bar, reached
for a handful of peanuts on the counter, and asked the bartender for a bottle
of water. Emma remained fixed in place. She didn’t lean back, she didn’t shift
in her seat, she welcomed his proximity and she hoped this was showing Alec
Martin just how interested she was. After twisting off the top of his bottled
water Alec tipped his head back. Emma watched that small bump in his throat bob
as he drank half the bottle.

“Aaaah.” He came up for air and wiped at
his mouth with the back of his hand.

Emma felt the blush rush into her cheeks
at the sight of him.

“So,” he said. “Are you enjoying it?”

“Yeah, you guys are really good,” Emma
said and nodded, even though she hadn’t understood a single word the lead
singer said, the music in general was a bit louder and more rock’n’roll-like
than she preferred.

“Well, I’m glad you could make it.”

“Me too,” Emma agreed when a woman with
long straw-colored hair sidled up to Alec. Her black crocheted vest hung over a
tight t-shirt and jeans. Her round ruddy face scrunched into a smile meant only
for Alec.

“Hey,” he said and threw his arm around
her shoulder. Emma sipped from her glass as the woman kept her smiling face on
Alec. “This is my fiancée, Brittney,” Alec said, introducing her. Emma felt the
sensation of fizz bubbling in her nose as she choked on her drink. She smiled,
suffering a mild case of sputtering, as the woman held out a glitzy diamond
ring.