Game of Teaching
HARRY
The late summer morning was warm and bright, too wonderful for being stuck in a high school building for seven hours, Harry thought. As he dropped his kids off at school and made the tedious drive that he will make every morning, five days a week for the next nine months, Harry still felt hopeful. He believed that this school year would be different. He arrived at 7:10 am, right on schedule...so many new faces. As it always does, the school day flies by in what seems to be an instance and Harry was left to grade summer reading assignments at his desk alone for another hour or so. He forgot how quiet the building grew after the rapid departure of all the teens with their after-school plans.
"How was your first day?"
Harry gazed up and found Jenna leaning in the doorway with some papers and a clipboard in her arms. She already seemed as if she wanted the year to be over with. She'd grown out her hair, wonder if her kids finally stopped pulling on it.
"I can already tell that the seniors will check out before the first semester even ends." Jenna sighed as she entered the room.
"Well I have hope that this year will be amazing!" Harry exclaimed.
After a moment of silence, two people are heard laughing hysterically whilst coming down the hallway. Sarah and Kelcey, math teachers. Always laughing about something or talking about someone, guess they truly belong at high school.
As they pass by the room, Sarah yells out, "Don't forget our staff meeting in ten minutes, you two don't want to be late like always." They laugh again and round the corner, disappearing from the English territory. That's how the school is set up, by different departments. Of course there's english, math, history, and science, and then there's sub-departments like language, fine arts, health/fitness, etc., but the ones who have the most issues are the four core departments. For years, there's always been a constant competition, or a game if you will, between each department with who's the best at teaching and how many students like them. Of course Harry's never been worried about that, his students love him, not just because he's great at his job, but also for being a great person. Unfortunately the English department has a bad rep for assigning all those papers to write and books to read, but that's better than math right? He wasn't so sure considering that no one really likes high school, but he tries to make it a more exciting environment.
"I guess we should get going then, definitely don't want to miss out on yet another first day meeting, even though we've heard them say a million times, 'Make this year fun! Push students to work harder!' Blah blah blah." Jenna chuckled, turning towards the door.
"Yeah, sure. I'll be there in a sec." Harry said as he started packing the numerous books he picked to satisfy his reading addiction later.
He finally left his room and started towards the auditorium. That's where they hold staff meetings in the beginning of the year, or at least before the drama kids wreak havoc upon it. He always loved the feel of the high school, especially the intersection between the english, math, and history hallways...they feel to him as if for one second, those departments themselves connect at this point, and sometimes, it's comforting. But that only lasts for a second as one walks into the Math territory. For some reason it's cold, unfeeling, and hardly comforting at all. It's nothing against the math teachers, Harry's sure that they seem to be nice people, but like he always told himself, never judge a book by its cover.
"Shhhhh! Don't speak so loudly! Jenna could walk by at any time."
Harry stopped just before a cracked door and slightly peered in. Sarah and Kelcey again, but this time they were talking in a hushed tone. Now Harry has never been one to eavesdrop, it's not really a good thing, but he heard his friend's name and was stuck in his tracks.
"Should we really do it this year?" Kelcey seemed to be a little more than kind of anxious. "It seems too risky. What if she finds out it was us?"
"We have to, I'm tired of her getting more funding, better student reviews, and always taking that damn computer cart!" Sarah growled, not seeming to care about actually keeping her voice down.
"Okay, so wh-what do we do? What's your plan?"
"It's simple, we just frame her for something that will most definitely get her fired and then we'll be golden, back at the top."
" But what about the others, won't they find out it was us?"
"I hardly doubt it, just because they read Sherlock Holmes, doesn't make them detectives, and besides I'm pretty sure the only one who'd care is that side-kick of hers, Harry Potter."
Harry was beside himself, what the hell was he listening to? He knew that some of the teachers didn't like each other, but was it really this bad? He couldn't just keep this to himself, he had to tell the principal Josh, he'd definitely not want this happening at his school, but suddenly the door opened. Harry found his eyes meeting with Sarah's angry pair of brown eyes.
"What are you doing? How long have you been listening?" Sarah yanked him into the classroom and sat him in a desk chair.
"Er nothing. I heard nothing, I was just walking by." Harry nervously chuckled.
"If you were just 'walking by' then why were you stopped by the door with your ear basically pressed against it?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah! Like this" Kelcey attempted to portray Harry physically pressing his ear upon the door and listening in. Sarah rolled her eyes at her and barked at her to be quiet.
"What did you hear? Tell us now."
"Nothing," Harry said, " just something about how you don't like Jenna and stuff.." He had always been a terrible liar.
"And stuff…" Sarah huffed, " Great, he knows. Now what do we do?"
"See I told you this was a bad idea, now he's gonna tell Josh and we'll both get fired!" Kelcey cried.
"Unless he doesn't cause if he does, well Jenna won't be the only one getting framed and fired." Sarah gave Harry such an evil grin that made him shiver.
"No no no, please don't! I'm married with kids, I need this job, you can't do this!" Harry begged, "Please I won't tell Josh or anyone about your conspiracy, just please don't get me or Jenna fired."
"What we do with Jenna is none of your concern, unless you don't care about keeping your job. Stay out of our way or else." Sarah grabbed Kelcey and headed towards the door, but before she slipped out, she looked back at him and made the universal motion to zip one's mouth.
Harry just sat there. No emotion, no words, nothing. He couldn't move. Think. Breathe. What just happened? He was so confused and he wanted to confess to Jenna, but he couldn't. What in the hell just happened?
