A Rough Start
Chapter 4 – She Works Hard for the Money
Bella had been working nonstop to get her classroom ready before Back to School Night. She wanted everything to be perfect for the parents. She's spent most of her lunch break in the office laminating envelopes so that parents would have something to take their students' work home in. Then, she decorated her classroom, best she could, without ruining the element of surprise for her students and their parents on the actual night of the event. This, in conjunction with her regular teaching responsibilities, was taking its toll on her.
So badly Bella had wanted to push the snooze button when her alarm went off that morning, so she completely empathized when Anthony strolled into her classroom late that morning, looking tired and unprepared for the day.
"Anthony, do you have a slip for me from the office?" Bella paused near his desk after helping Sierra with the reading exercise the class was doing.
Anthony held up the blue piece of paper, otherwise known as the tardy slip, before reconvening his position in his chair with his head on his desk.
"Anthony, honey, are you okay?" Bella leaned down and whispered to him quietly. When Anthony shook his head that he wasn't okay, Bella began to rub soothing circles against his back with one hand while her other hand tested his neck, forehead and cheeks for a fever.
Since he didn't have a fever, Bella deduced that he probably hadn't had a decent breakfast. But when she asked, Anthony told her that he didn't feel good and that he'd thrown up the previous night. Bella immediately sent him to the office, only to have him return moments later – sent back because he didn't register a fever.
At recess time, Bella was thankful to have a few minutes to herself so that she could grab some coffee to jolt some life into her. However, when she made it to her door, she found Anthony just outside of it, whimpering and miserable.
"Come on inside, sweetie," Bella held her hand out to him. He quickly took it and when they made it back to Bella's desk, and she sat down to further inspect him, he crawled into her lap with no provocation.
Bella picked up the phone on her desk and called the office.
"Vivian, can you call Anthony Cullen's dad? He's not feeling well and even though he doesn't have a fever, he doesn't look well. He should probably go home," Bella requested.
"Okay, but you know his dad doesn't have to come if there's no fever," Vivian reminded.
"Yeah, I know, but we should at least let him know. I know I'd want to know if my child was sick."
Vivian laughed. "Bella, I'm sure Daddy Dearest knows Anthony is sick. When you sent him in here it was more than obvious. It's also obvious that he's got so much medicine running through his system that he'd probably bleed bubblegum flavor. But I'll call and let you know what his dad says."
"Thanks," Bella nodded against the phone. As soon has she hung up, she went back to coddling Anthony. He clung to her, pressing his face against her chest and closing his eyes, as if he were truly resting for the first time in months.
Recess was long over before Vivian called to let Bella know that she hadn't been able to get a hold of Anthony's father. Bella struggled to pay attention to her other students, but her eyes kept roving back to Anthony as he sat, despondent and unengaged.
The day progressed in much the same manner – Bella keeping Anthony inside of the classroom at recess and at lunchtime to soothe and comfort him in an attempt to make him feel a little bit better. By the time the day had ended, Bella looked down at the to-do list she'd made for herself and realized that she had accomplished nearly nothing outside of what was written in her lesson plan. She would have to put in a long evening to stay on task.
So when the afterschool care aide poked her head inside the door of Bella's classroom at 5:40 p.m., Bella was still there, hard at work.
"Bella, help!" Regina mimicked a damsel in distress. "I have tried and tried calling Anthony's father and he's not answering and tonight of all nights I can not stay here. My daughter has a ballet recital."
Bella looked up to see Anthony standing at Regina's side, aware that his presence was cause for burden.
"Not a problem. I'm tired of doing this anyway," Bella put down the paper she was cutting, her smiling eyes focused on Anthony. "What do you say, Anthony? Do you want to go play a game with me in the care center?"
Anthony nodded weakly and Bella frowned at the tinged tone of his skin.
"Is he warm?" Bella asked.
Regina passed a hand over his forehead and nodded. "Yep. And you know we can't give him anything without a doctor's note."
Bella's heart broke for Anthony as she looked into his eyes. The sorrow and misery there was astounding.
"Let's get you some rest," she said as she scooped him up and carried him back to the afterschool care room.
She sat him down briefly at one of the small tables while she made a pallet for him using the nap mats and a few blankets from the play housekeeping area. She balled one up into a makeshift pillow before calling for Anthony to come over and lay down. He immediately did so and closed his eyes against his illness.
While Anthony rested, Bella continued to try his father, but it was hopeless. The home telephone number rang endlessly without even an answering machine to pick up. And since there was no next of kin listed on Anthony's emergency contact card, Bella contemplated whether or not she should call Social Services.
In all of her training, Bella had learned about obvious signs of neglect and abuse, but Anthony's case wasn't nearly as black and white. According to his file, his mother had recently died. Based upon that, his father was also, most likely, suffering some type of mourning or pain. Surely she couldn't' expect Mr. Cullen to be at peak performance after such a trial.
The fact that Anthony was only in kindergarten also hindered Bella's fact-finding. If she had previous records or behavior patterns to go on, she'd know if this was an isolated incident or if Mr. Cullen was truly a deadbeat dad. Because so far, without anything else to go on, she was leaning towards the latter.
Anthony coughed and stirred a bit, momentarily pulling Bella's attention from her silent thoughts on his family situation. She was just about to go to him and see if he'd be more comfortable on her lap when the door opened and a very hurried looking man rushed in.
At first Bella thought he was a new member of the custodial staff, because he wore a similar uniform: navy button down shirt and dark cotton pants. But when his eyes immediately searched for Anthony and found him, Bella knew this must be Anthony's father. And then he called out his name, thus confirming it.
Bella was anxious to finally meet this man and to get a feel for his situation before she told him about the lackluster job he was doing in meeting his son's needs.
"Mr. Cullen?" she asked as she stepped into his path. "Good, you're finally here. The school has been calling you all day." She was about to tell him that Anthony was not feeling well and that he had a fever, but Mr. Cullen cut her off.
"Yeah. Am I late or something?"
If his tone hadn't been so dismissive, Bella might have noticed the rich, smooth tone of his voice…or the fact that his boyish and rugged good looks made him a contender for a GQ cover model.
However, this was the man who hadn't left an appropriate contact number, had (most likely) purposely sent his sick son to school and was now half an hour late picking him up. Good looks be damned!
"Actually, yes. The school only provides afterschool care until five-thirty. After that, there is a charge of five dollars for every minute you're late." Bella's voice slightly shook as she communicated the information. Mr. Cullen looked like he was on the brink of losing it. But still, she'd spent her own time, for no additional compensation, looking after his son when she could have been getting her classroom ready for Back to School Night.
"You're thirty minutes late, so that would be 150 dollars," Bella added. Immediately after the words left her mouth, Bella regretted speaking them.
Immediately Bella's eyes dashed to the door to make sure she had a bona fide exit, because as soon as the vein in Mr. Cullen's forehead began to throb, and his jaw began to clench and unclench, Bella knew he was going to go off.
And just as she'd expected, he did. What she didn't expect, however, is that he would insult her as a teacher.
It became apparent mid-way through Mr. Cullen's tirade that he had no idea that he was actually speaking to the kindergarten teacher. Otherwise, he most likely wouldn't have interjected:
"First I got my son's hag of a teacher sending me these fucked up letters about shit that doesn't even make sense. If you're gonna charge people all this money, you should hire some decent teachers. The kindergarten teacher is a delirious bitch that has lost all touch with reality."
A hag? Delirious bitch?
Bella was just about to stop him and let him know that the "hag" he was speaking of was standing right in front of him. And furthermore, if he wanted to call her a bitch, she was going to make sure it was warranted.
But just when she opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, he spat out:
"Just because she teaches my kid here, it doesn't give her the right to talk to me like I am one!"
Bella's verbal rebuttal was instantly halted as her mind raced to remember what she'd written in her letter that he would construe as condescending. She thought over what she remembered writing:
Dr. Mr. Cullen,
Anthony has brought it to my attention on several occasions that for
whatever reason, he has not eaten breakfast before arriving at school. Perhaps
this is due to the fact that you are under the impression that school starts earlier
than it actually does. Rest assured that Anthony does not have to be at school
until 9AM. You may drop him off beginning at 8:15AM, but the school has a policy
against him arriving any earlier, as we do not have sufficient supervision for him
at this time.
I hope this information will resolve the issue of Anthony being at school
unattended so early in the morning, as well as allow you both the time to enjoy a
satisfying and healthy breakfast together.
I understand that some children are not interested in consuming a
lot of food early in the morning. For this reason, I encourage you to pack your
son a healthy snack to tide him over until lunch time.
Also, if you would prefer not to pack a lunch from home, the cost of a
school lunch is $2.50.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns
regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Miss Swan
Was it pompous of her to suggest they eat a meal together in the morning? Or perhaps she was out of line by inserting the cost of a school lunch?
In all of her deliberation of what she could have said to offend him so, Bella missed her opportunity to say anything to him at all. In a mere heartbeat, he'd swept Anthony up and headed out the door.
In a state of flabbergasted frustration, Bella sat down in one of the child-sized chairs and cried.
It took only a few minutes for Bella to pull herself together, but as she drove across the small town to meet Rosalie, she couldn't stop thinking about what Mr. Cullen had said to her. And the more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
How dare he insinuate that she was profiting at the expense of the less fortunate. She worked every bit as hard as everyone else, and if she honestly compared her wages to the hours she worked, she'd probably be the lowest paid employee on the planet!
"Fuck him," she muttered to herself as she pulled into a parking space and checked her reflection in the rear view mirror.
She tried to get her mental and visual composure in check before she went into the restaurant to face her friend, but it was inevitable that Rosalie would figure out something was wrong.
"Well it's about mother-freakin' time," Rosalie protested when she saw Bella headed her way. "I thought you were going to stand me up."
Bella shrugged. "I almost did. I did a favor for the afterschool daycare aide because one of the parents was late picking up and she had somewhere to be. I was so tired after such a long day, but when I realized I had nothing in my refrigerator and I didn't feel like shopping, I figured I'd meet you after all."
"Gee, thanks. It's nice to know I'm such a high priority in your…" Rosalie stopped mid-sentence and leaned forward to get a better look at Bella. "You've been crying. Why were you crying?"
"It's nothing," Bella insisted, shaking her head to emphasize her point. "I've just been putting in a ton of hours trying to get ready for Back to School Night and I'm tired; so everything kind of seems like a bigger deal than it really is."
"But did something happen?" Rosalie asked in suspicion.
"Just a disgruntled parent. Nothing out of the ordinary when you work at a school. I've dealt with it in the past and I'm sure I'll deal with it in the future. I'm just…stretched kind of thin right now," Bella explained. She didn't want to let on at how much Mr. Cullen's outburst had had an affect on her. For one, she was embarrassed that it had, and two, she was afraid she'd start crying again if she got into it.
"Bella, you work entirely too hard, and coming from me, that's saying a lot," Rosalie smiled.
Bella simply nodded in agreement. Rosalie worked all the time, but even she knew when to say when and take time out for herself.
"It's just because it's my first year. I'm sure things will calm down as soon as I get my rhythm," Bella explained.
However, Rosalie was having none of it. "No, that's not it. You just don't know how to have fun," she insisted instead. "When's the last time you just hung out with friends?"
"I thought that's what we were doing right now," Bella frowned.
"Friends, Bella, as in more than one. And preferably with members of the opposite sex…speaking of sex…"
"Rosalie, please!" Bella held up her hand and looked around to see if anyone had heard.
"Seriously, Bella. Aren't you even interested in meeting anyone?"
Bella thought about it for a minute. "I'm not…opposed to the idea of meeting someone, I just don't have the energy to put forth the effort right now. And it's so true what they say: you never, ever, find anyone when you're looking. So, I don't really want to look. Does that make any sense?"
"Yes. But not looking is entirely different from denying all opportunity," Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Listen, I promised Emmett I'd go to this barbeque slash party thing his friends are hosting. Come with me."
Bella looked skeptical. "I don't know…it sounds like it might be…rowdy. I said goodbye to those kinds of parties when I graduated college."
"It's not like that. Emmett said it's just a welcome home party for his friend's kid or something. But it's probably just an excuse to get together and blow off steam from a long week. Come on, come with me. I don't really know Emmett's friends, so it'll be nice to have someone to talk to."
A sigh escaped Bella as she considered the invitation. The thought of getting out and mingling with other adults did sound nice…
"When is it?" Bella asked.
"Next Saturday," Rosalie said hopefully.
Bella shifted her head from side to side as she mentally weighed the pros and cons of attending a party she hadn't been invited to by the host. But if there were going to be a lot of people, no one would really notice her…and Back to School Night would be out of the way so she wouldn't have to worry about that…
"Okay. I'll go," Bella agreed. She hated that she was reluctant in her acceptance of the invitation, but something just felt unsettling about it. Still, she chalked it up to nervousness about stepping out of her comfort zone and tried to enjoy the rest of her dinner – setting aside all thoughts of disgruntled parents and upcoming parties.
