September 2003
"Oi, Dunham! When d'you have to go back to wrangling them midgets?" Swill asked in his usual elegance over the loud chatter surrounding the group of men seated in the back corner of The Brigid Abbey Pub.
"Boys come in on Wednesday, but us lot have to go in for tomorrow, faculty meetings and shit." Pete Dunham replied, unenthusiastic at the returning prospect of the 6:30 AM mornings, hyperactive 10-year-old boys, and middle aged housewives ogling him at the once-a-month mandatory PTA meetings.
"You got all your Queen Mum posters set up and everything did you then, Pete?" Bovver snickered over his shot.
"Fuck off!" Pete laughed giving his best mate a shove.
"Well seeing as this is your last night of summer freedom, let's get pissed!" Ned cried to the cheers of the other men raising his beer. Grabbing a full mug, Pete closed his eyes tightly and downed the pint.
"Shit!" Maisy Thompson exclaimed as a tower of cardboard moving boxes cascaded from where they had been neatly stacked, or so she thought. The sound of tiny nails clipping along the wooden floor was soon followed by little yips.
"Ugh, Jerry, go to your bed!" Maisy commanded the small French bulldog as he sniffed around the pile of now broken bowls adorning the floor, assessing the situation. After sniffing and snorting for a few more seconds the white puppy turned around and headed back into the bedroom.
Though she had been in her new East London apartment for almost a week, Maisy had still not managed to unpack all of her belongings, many had still not yet arrived in the post. Glancing around the room for the dustpan, her eyes landed on a collection of photographs scattered on the coffee table waiting to be sorted and placed in frames. Picking up the photo on top, she studied the seven easy smiles and seven pairs of warm eyes staring back at her.
Do, do, do, Lookin' out my back door…
Flopping down on the couch, Maisy stole a glance at the clock. 7:08 PM.
"It's gonna be a long night." She sighed into the empty room.
"Mr. Dunham, pleasant of you to join us this morning, do have a seat." Principle James Connors muttered to the young man as he slowly waltzed in late to the small library which doubled as the faculty meeting area, trying to hide his need to squint at the bright rays shining in from the skylights. Not wanting to draw further attention to his current state, Pete dropped into the open chair at the end of the aisle to his right; not bothering to look for the few friendly faces he knew that would be scattered in the crowd.
"This year, I'm pleased to report we have some new members joining the faculty at Thoriver, this includes Kathleen Heaney who will be taking over music education," Introduced Mr. Connors as the graying woman nodded her head and gave a wave around the room while the veteran members gave a round of welcome applause, "and new blood Maisy Thompson who will be teaching 1st grade." Pete turned to face the young woman seated to his left and noticed she seemed younger than the majority of the staff, around his age of 23. "Miss Thompson is coming to us all the way over from America! Would you like to say a few words?" Pete smirked, taking in the girl. Aside from her panicked expression she looked quite well, breathtaking in fact. Her hair, an odd mix of red and brown, curled softly, framing a face that was showing just a hint of stress; Connors always did know how to make a person feel welcome.
"I'm sure we have more important things to get to then to listen to me babble on…" The curly headed girl spoke swiftly with a shy smile, a tad nervous about being put on the spot.
"Oh, pish! Go on then, stand up and give us a word." Connors nodded.
"Well, I'm Maisy." She began as she stood up and gave a short wave, wrapping her olive sweater a little farther over herself. Pete studied the girl beside him; she was slender, but had nice curves which were accentuated by the form fitting jeans she was wearing tucked into brown leather boots. She didn't wear much make-up it seemed; just enough to make her warm green eyes shine. "Uhm, I'm from Vermont." Not wanting to sound like the arrogant American she suppressed the urge to describe geographically where that was on the map. "There aren't a lot of teaching jobs where I'm from, so I figured if I was going to have to move to find a job, I might as well make an experience of it and so…here I am!" She finished with a shaky grin.
"Alright, well, onto business then?" Connors said approaching the front of the room again, allowing Maisy to settle back into her seat, "We're going to uphold last year's protocol for strangers on campus. For those of you who don't know- or more likely don't remember- do not approach such a person…"
"…Ok well, that about does it! Everyone get a good night's sleep, you're going to need it for tomorrow!" Connors advised as he dismissed everyone. Like he remembers what being in a classroom is like, thought Pete contemptuously, before sneaking a last glace over to the girl gathering her things together beside him.
In the intense boredom that occurred as a result of Connors' two and a half hour lecture, Pete decided to direct his attention elsewhere, such as the leggy American seated next to him. He had noticed the way she gave her undivided attention to the droning Connors, even as he went off on tangents that lacked any clear resemblance to the topic at hand; he had noticed the way her pen traced over her pad of yellow paper as she took notes, not caring she was the only one in the room to do so. Her handwriting was elegant and smooth, and yet the signature print of a primary school teacher.
Watching as Maisy struggled to balance two large boxes, Pete jumped up to catch one as she lost the battle.
"Need a hand?" He joked.
"Thanks! I'm Maisy." She replied gratefully.
"I remember," He laughed offering his hand, "Pete Dunham."
"Nice to meet you." She said, noticing how small her hand seemed compared to his.
"You too. Need 'elp carryin' all this down to your class?" He asked with an amused look as peered into the box and saw board game packages with names like "Hungry, Hungry Vowels!" and "One, Two, Three- Count with Me!"
"That would be great, thanks!"
"No problem, love." Pete said with a wink. "Year one, right?" He asked leading her down the still not yet familiar corridors.
"Yeah, what do you teach by the way?"
"History and P.E. It's a fucked up schedule- I know." He added off her confused look. "So you're all the way from where now?"
"Oh, uhm, Eden, Vermont."
"Fuck me!" Laughed Pete boisterously, becoming more animated the farther away they got from their colleagues, "From Eden? What the hell you doin' here in Jolly Old then? Eden sounds like a right fine place to me!"
"It's really not as great as it sounds," The charismatic smirk shining on Pete's face cheering Maisy, after nearly a week of only canine companionship, human conversation was greatly appreciated, "It's a really, really small town, and like I said, not too many teaching jobs around there. Actually, there aren't that many jobs around there period." She said with a shrug.
"So how you liking England anyways? Being a yank n'all?" He teased
"I've only been here for about a week so I haven't been able to get out much; I've mostly been setting up at my apartment. London's beautiful though, from what I've seen."
"Wow," Pete exclaimed as they entered Maisy's classroom, "It's so…bright!" Maisy grinned pulling an Alphabet strip out of the bin as he walked around the room taking in all the colors from the rainbow themed calendar, chore boards, name tags and posters.
"A bit more colorful than yours?" Maisy laughed rummaging through her desk for some tape to tack the strip up with "My mom did a bit of comfort shopping online when I told her I was moving 'across the pond'" Pete couldn't help but notice how soft and easy her laugh was. "I imagine the chairs are a bit smaller, too, huh?" Maisy added as she pulled said chair over to the wall to gain the needed height to reach above the white board. For a split moment, Pete was stuck just looking at her, she was breathtaking. Not the overt, in-your-face beauty, but more timeless. Her oval face and angular jaw housed delicate eyes and a lower lip just large enough to make her mouth seem mildly out of balance. Shaking certain thoughts out of his head he moved towards her.
"Oi, give it here, love; lemme do that." He said pulling the alphabet out of her hands, remembering how soft her hands were as their fingers briefly brushed.
"Thanks." Leaning against the board Maisy watched appreciatively as his lean figure easily stretched to reach above the white board, the sky blue button down shirt tightening around his shoulders.
"So you nervous then? For tomorrow that is? Your first day with proper English schoolboys." He chuckled.
"Not so much, I have a secret weapon." Maisy said going back into the bin.
"Oh yeah? What's that?" Pete asked curiously as he hopped off the chair, struggling to suppress a grin.
"Candy." Maisy replied holding up two different bags of sweets.
"Works every time." Pete said with a head shake before noticing the time on the clock, each number displayed in a different color. "Well I'd better be off, but good luck tomorrow, yeah?"
"You too, thanks for all your help!"
"Later." He winked with a breath-taking smile before walking down the hall.
Shaking her head after she realized she's been staring at the empty doorway for while, Maisy resumed unpacking her materials, all the while resisting the grin that threatened to overtake her face.
"…he just went on and on though! I mean if this guy is gonna be my boss for the year, I don't know how I'm gonna be able to manage-"
"Mase!" Julia interrupted. "I hate to break it to you, but I could really care less about your boss." Maisy sighed and knowing what was about to come decided to scoop herself a bowl of ice cream, "What I care about is the fact that you are in a foreign land, surrounded by hot foreign guys, who speak a foreign language-"
"I'm not sure English with a British accent is considered a foreign language."
"That's not my point!"
"Well what is?" Maisy sighed exasperated through a mouthful of ice cream.
"My point is that you have to go out and live a little. Meet some cute guys, have a one night stand-"
"I am not going to have a one night stand, Julia!" Maisy claimed in shock.
"I know, I know- but still you need to meet some hot guys and claim them for yourself! Club them over the head and drag them home." Julia jokingly chided.
"Who said I haven't met any hot guys…?" Maisy taunted her sister, laughing as she could hear her sister gasp thousands of miles away.
"Have you? Tell me all about him!" Maisy paused eating a bite of ice cream as she heard her sister's fiancé Mark chiding her for presumably being a nosy-body, her snappy response and then her request for Maisy to continue.
"Alright, he's tall, maybe an inch or two shorter than Abe. He's got blonde hair and blue eyes. He seemed nice enough, maybe a little rough around the edges."
"Well where did you meet him? Were you lost, wondering about the city and he saved you? Oh, oh! Maybe you were accosted in the dirty streets of London and he swooped in like some rouge hero and ruffed up the muggers!"
"First of all, not quite: he works at Thoriver's with me; he teaches history and P.E. And secondly, the streets of London are surprisingly clean."
"Are you gonna make a move?" Her sister squealed, her voice dripping with glee.
"Julia, I've only met him once!"
"Oh my god, you're desperate!" Julia cried. Even though she normally would be annoyed with this classic display of her sister's dramatic chops, Maisy found a glimpse of comfort in the long resigned sigh that followed. "Well me and Mark are going to Mama and Papa's for dinner so we're gonna get going; it's 5:00 here."
"It's 10:00 here. I should probably go to bed. Tomorrow's the first day of school so wish me luck!"
"Good luck Mase, you're going to do great!"
"Thanks, Jules, tell everyone I love them." Maisy added morosely before saying her goodbyes and wandering to the bedroom, where she found Jerry spread across the fluffy white duvet, snoring to his little heart's contents. She had been good since her move to London about making him sleep in his dog bed beside the door. This night however, she pulled his little body closer to hers smirking lightly at his surprised snorts, and drifted off to sleep.
Rubbing the tense muscles on the back of her neck, Maisy lumbered in what she hoped was the direction of the teacher's lounge after dropping her students off at the playground for recess. Though it was small for a school, Thoriver School for Boys was converted from an old country house, resulting in lots of tricky corridors perfect for getting lost in, which she had done quite often in the past three days. Relieved as she approached the door she recognized as the entrance to the lounge, she was momentarily perplexed as two blurs flew past her.
"Boys, save the running for the playground!" She called out gently.
"We don't have to listen to a septic!" One of the boys spun and retorted, his voice laced with a good amount of venom for a 10 year old.
"Excuse me?" Maisy said dumbly, knowing it must have been some sort of colloquial insult, but not quite getting it.
"Aye, aye, everything alright out here?" She turned to see the familiar smirk of Pete Dunham as he leaned in the door way to the lounge. Immediately the boys straightened up and looked bashful.
"Yes, Mr. Dunham." Replied the boy who had not yet opened his mouth.
"That so? 'Cause I thought I heard some ruckus out here and I know you boys wouldn't be so rude towards Miss Thompson here, who's been nothing but kind to you, right?" The boys merely looked down at their shoes. "I think Miss Thompson deserves an apology, what about you lot?"
"Sorry Miss." The young boys murmured in unison.
"What was that?" Pete asked cupping his ear, taking a small pleasure in their embarrassment.
"Sorry Miss." They repeated perceptibly.
"It's alright." Pardoned Maisy suppressing a small smile at their chagrin at being caught by a teacher they obviously looked up to.
"Why don't you boys head off to class then, huh?" Pete nodded down the hallway, smirking again as the boys trotted off as quickly as possible without actually running.
"Did…did a little boy just call me a 'septic'?" Maisy pondered out loud, mildly perplexed.
"Yes and no." Pete laughed holding the door to the lounge open for her as she passed through. Gesturing to the table by the door he had been sitting at Pete continued to explain, "It's cockney rhyming." At her confused expression he went further, "It's like slang. Instead of saying a word we use another that rhymes with it. Like 'Bubble Bath' for laugh. 'Cept most people just use the first word. So rather than say 'septic tank' for yank, for example, someone might just say septic." He ended with a wink.
"Classy." Maisy deadpanned teasingly, pulling out the yogurt and granola she had brought for lunch.
"Of course!" He chuckled. Nodding towards her he continued, "So 'ow was the first week? You rethinking the whole 'adventure of a lifetime' bit?"
"No, it's been great. I didn't have to use the candy after all; my 'Yank' charm was all that was needed. Or yank accent, rather."
"Oh yeah? Any favorites?" Pete asked, intrigued by how she had won the lads' hearts over.
"Apparently I say 'schedule', 'absent', and 'soccer' funny." She laughed scooping a bite of yogurt into her mouth.
"Ugh, and I was beginning to think you were alright for a yank!" Pete exclaimed only half joking throwing down that sandwich he hadn't been eating. "No wonder they thought your accent was entertaining!"
"What do you mean?" Maisy asked.
"I mean, first of all, if you want to survive for ten minutes, in Newham especially, you can't call it 'soccer' anymore, it's football here. That's the holy grail of living in West Ham."
"What else do I need to know?" Maisy asked, the mildly sultry tinge to her voice stunning her a bit. She tensed imperceptibly as Pete bit his lip in thought; relaxing finally he leaned forward on his elbows as if they were conspirers.
"When you have an emergency call 999, you'll be waiting for a long time if you try calling 911. 'Pants' are underwear here; we call your 'pants' 'trousers'- that's something to keep in mind when teaching five and six year old boys." He said with a wink. "And whatever you do, avoid the curry at 'Eye of the Tiger' at all costs, that shit'll have you sick for days." Pete concluded with a shiver.
"Noted." Maisy grinned.
"What if you let me take you out 'round the city. Give a taste of what it's really like to be a true cockney…?" Pete hedged looking at Maisy's widening eyes, hoping he wasn't setting himself up for a slam down.
"I'd like that." Maisy smiled trying to keep her voice even and not sound like a dog chomping at the bit.
"I haven't got anything planned for this weekend so if you're free maybe tomorrow…?" He began, while Maisy nodded, her breath momentarily caught in her throat.
"Tomorrow's great." And as they began to share information and plot where they would meet up, it was all Maisy could do to consciously remind herself to focus, lest she get caught up in the sheer simplicity and wonder of it all…
"Aye, aye boys!" Pete cheered as he fell into the familiar corner table later that evening. Excitement and anticipation still strummed through his veins even as he shook his friends' hands.
"What's got you all keyed up?" Dave asked as he took a sip of his drink.
"Nothing." Pete replied with a smile, rubbing his hands together while overlooking the assortment of snacks and beverages on the table in front of him.
"Bollocks, what's up with you?" Ike continued.
"Can't I just be happy to see you lot?" Pete laughed as he began to rough house the poor man.
Though the boys allowed him the brief reprieve, once a few hours past and Pete's good mood had still not lightened their joined curiosity continued to rise.
"Hey, Dave, you heard of anything going on tomorrow, after the match?" He questioned as they made their way out of the pub into the cool early fall evening.
"Nah, mate, it's been fairly quiet. Gooners are licking their wounds after they had it out with Manchester last week.." Dave replied, eying his friend as he nodded to himself. "Seriously bruv, why you lookin' like the Hammers've won the cup?" Dave asked, his slightly tipsy eyes squinting as he studied his best friends huge grin, "You get laid or something?"
"Close, I met a bird." Pete's grin grew as zipped up his light jacket and continued, "A thoroughly fit bird."
"You must be kidding me, bruv? You're this uppity over some chick? Have you even done her yet?" Swill asked brusquely
"No. I have a date with her tomorrow though." Pete chimed "I think I'm gonna take her to the game, she's never been."
"What kind a' bird has never been to a match?" Ned asked perplexed.
"The fit kind, not that you would know." Pete said smartly, lightly smacking Ned around his head before prancing away, laughing into the night. He had a feeling about this girl…
Two stories based on Charlie Hunnam's characters …does this mean I'm obsessed? ;) Listen, I know this is crap, but I'm working on it so please don't a total jerk if you review :P That being said, I really love reviews, they make me happy and motivated! Also, I'm looking for someone to beta this story, preferably someone from England/UK who can help me with the dialogue as I'm from the U.S.! Thanks for reading and be on the lookout for Chapter 2!