First Day on the Job
DW's POV
I can't believe I'm doing this. After growing up with the Tibble twins, I don't know what possessed me to become an elementary school teacher. I mean, those boys ate those people alive and now I'm one of them.
My student-teaching went well, at least, and it gave me enough practice, but now that I'm driving to a school that is my workplace instead of a school I should be learning in, all those horrific memories have come flooding back.
Take this one, for example. Tommy and Timmy pretended to fight once. They were in fourth grade with me, and Tommy had a nosebleed. The teacher freaked out, as she should have, but it was all a hoax. While she rushed Tommy to the office, Timmy wrote the most horrible things on the board about the teacher. She was young, like I am now, and they wanted her to leave. They had it out for her all year, but she never gave up, not even when they did all of that to make her leave.
I don't know how she did it. I asked my professors about how to deal with kids like that, but they said those types of kids only exist in movies. I couldn't convince anyone that these boys were real, that my questions were based off horrible memories, and now I'm here, pulling into an elementary school's parking lot just before sunrise for my first day of work.
After filling out some paperwork, I found my classroom. It was smaller than I remembered, but it was quaint like I wanted it to be. I was teaching at a charter school that specialized in small classes. I only had fifteen students, and while I had their lunch card pictures from the previous year, I knew nothing about them. And my pounding heart knew that any one of them could be a Tibble remake.
Slowly the day began, and soon I was looking my students in the eye as the day began. They wore matching white and navy blue uniforms, but each face was distinct. Some wore glasses, others had freckles, and one girl had a strawberry-shaped scar on her cheek. Each were different, just as I knew from experience and just as I'd been taught. I would have to get to know the child behind the face, and I couldn't let my Tibble-based fears get in the way.
After a week, I knew each child as if they were my own. Each had specific traits and needs, and I helped them learn the semi-tough second grade material.
None of them were Tibbles. Well, Steven would act up whenever he got bored, but once I let him read between activities, he calmed down. And Annalisa was dramatic, so she could sometimes be a handful, but they were all good students.
They were my students, and I knew to cherish every moment, as the batch would change the next year and then the next. I'd have to fight to remember them, shifting my greatest fear. Instead of fearing a Tibble, I began to fear forgetting.
Theme 1: New Teacher
A/N: Theme from my Arthur Infinite Theme List Challenge. I've probably already done this theme once, but I want to redo the list and see what else the themes can inspire. If you want more info or would like to participate, let me know. And to see more entries, check out my community, Arthur Collab Serieses.