Amazing

adjective

causing great surprise or wonder; astonishing.

The line of the local coffee bar was the longest around 8:30 in the morning. John knew that. And normally he wouldn't dare to go stand in that line, but today he just needed a decent cup of coffee.

He looked at his watch and sighed. If the girl behind the bar didn't hurry, he would be late for his application. Not that he was confident about it. He had six applications last summer and was rejected all six times. He could handle a seventh, but at least this time he had had a decent cup of coffee instead of the dirty coffee they served at most of the schools.
He leaned a little to the side and looked over the shoulders of the people in front of him. The girl behind the bar had as much trouble with this morning as he did and the other line wasn't going much faster.
People started to get impatient and looked up the line irritated to see if it couldn't go a little faster. They had to hurry for work, for school or for other important activities. John had already half accepted that he would be late for his application when he suddenly heard his name.

"John?"

John looked around but didn't recognize anyone. He looked over his shoulder, but there was no one he knew behind him.

"John Watson?"

Then John saw the man in the other line. He was his age, brown hair, a bit chubby, wearing little, round glasses. He smiled at him and waved, But John didn't recognize him.

The man was still smiling. "Stamford! Mike Stamford, we were at St. Mary's together."

"Yes! Sorry, hello," John stepped out of the line and extended his hand to greet Mike.

Mike shook John's hand in return. "Yeah I know, I got fat. I heard you were abroad somewhere, teaching in a war zone and got shot? What happened? "

John looked up at him. "I got shot." He didn't mean to be so short with Mike, but he couldn't help it.

Mike looked at him for a moment, still with the same smile on his face. "Say, I won't have to work until later. What kind of coffee do you want? My treat."

John looked at his watch. He would certainly be late for his application. Well, maybe he shouldn't go at all then. "Black, one sugar," he answered and went to sit at a table.

After a couple of minutes, Mike joined him with two large cups of coffee. John took a large sip. "Are you still teaching, then?"

Mike nodded. "Yeah, state school, year 6. New schoolyear starts in two weeks. What about you? Staying in town, getting yourself sorted?"

"Well, need to find a job first. Can't afford London on just my savings."

Mike frowned a little. "They haven't hired you already? They are crazy not to, you were top of your class!"

John just shrugged in answer and took another sip of his coffee. He watched how Mike grabbed his phone out of his pocket and started to text. "You know," he started, not looking up from his phone. "There is a last minute opening at our school. Part-time, year 4. You would be perfect. I texted the principal to see If you can come by today.

"Part-time? Who would want me as a partner?"

Mike chuckled a little in answer and John looked up curious. "What?"

"You are the second person to say that to me today," Mike grinned.

"Who's the first?"

"Your future colleague."

A couple of hours later, John arrived at Bartholomew's State School. He had read up on the school a little bit. It wasn't a big primary school and it wasn't one of the top state schools in London. They weren't specialized in a specific kind of education and didn't provide much extra curriculum activities. They absolutely didn't stood out against other schools. Just a normal state school, nothing more, nothing less. If John wasn't in desperate need of a job, he wouldn't even consider applying here. But then again, he was desperate.

John was surprised to see that the gate was open. He walked across the school yard and entered the building through the main entry.

"Can I help you?" a dark woman with big, curly hair asked right away when she saw John entering.

"Ah uhm… yes," John stammered. He was surprised to see that there was someone sitting behind the reception desk. "I have an appointment for a job interview?"

"You are here for the job in year 4?" John heard the surprise in her voice.

"I believe so, yes."

The woman snorted. "Principal Lestrade is expecting you. His office is at the end of the hallway to your left."

"Thank you," John answered and walked away.

"Good luck with the freak!" the woman called after him. John stopped and looked back at her, but her attention was already back on her computer screen. Freak? What? He decided to let it pass.

Once arrived at the door of the principal's office, John took a brief moment to prepare himself. He checked the collar of his shirt, stood up straight, braced himself and knocked on the door. He heard a "come in" on the other side and entered.

The principal stood up from his desk immediately and held out his hand. "You must be John Watson," the principal started with a friendly smile on his face. "Mike couldn't stop talking about you when came by an hour ago."

John shook the hand he was offered. "In that case, I would believe only half of it."

The principal grinned. "I'm sure that's not true. I'm Greg Lestrade. Have a seat, John."

John sat down in the chair. "Thank you for having me on short notice, sir," he started.

Principal Lestrade waved with his hand in a dismissive way. "Please call me Greg. And the pleasure is mine, John. I was started to worry that we wouldn't find someone for our year 4 students but from what I heard, you are perfect for the job. Did you bring your resume?"

John bent over to his briefcase on the floor, took out his resume and handed it to the principal who took it and flipped through it without saying anything.

After a moment, principal Lestrade raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You even have a license to teach physical education? That's great!"

John didn't knew how to respond to that, so he decided it was best to keep quiet. He didn't want to get his hopes up, but it seemed to go rather well. Better than the last couple of interviews, at least.

At last, principal Lestrade looked up from John's resume. "I would love to have you on board, John. If you want, I can offer you a two-day job in our new year 4 class and one and a half day teaching physical education to our 4th, 5thand 6thyears."

John looked at the man with amazement. "That would be great, sir!" The principal raised one eyebrow at him and he corrected himself right away. "Sorry, I mean Greg," he mumbled.

Principal Lestrade gave him a smile. "I think your partner is somewhere around the school. If you want, I can ask Mike to give you a tour and to introduce him to you. I would do it myself, but I have a meeting in 10 minutes. Let's meet again on Thursday so we can discuss the details and I'll ask our receptionist Sally to sort out the paperwork so you can read it at home, okay?"

"Yes of course, no problem."

Principal Lestrade stood up from his chair and held out his hand again, waiting for John follow and shook his hand. "Now, Let's find Mike."

Mike had been over the moon to hear that John was hired as his new colleague. He was already going on about the upcoming schoolyear and the fun they were going to have being able to work together during the tour around the school. John noticed he avoided one particular subject: his partner. Strange, John had thought.
When they ended their walk around the building, they stopped a classroom with a closed door. "This," Mike started with a goofy grin on his face. "Will be your office, your workplace and your playground for the upcoming schoolyear. Welcome." John chukled and Mike opened the door to the classroom.

There was a tall, slender, dark haired man sitting behind the desk. When Mike and John entered, the man gave them a sideways glance briefly before returning his attention to the notes in front of him.

John looked around. "Bit different from my day," he said turning on his heels to take in the whole classroom.

"You have no idea."

"Mike, can I borrow your phone? I left mine in my coat," the figure behind the desk suddenly asked casually. John's attention was immediately drawn to the man's low voice.

"Why do you need my phone?"

"I need to text."

John heard Mike sigh a little while he was grasping in his pockets. "Sorry, left mine in my classroom."

"Here," John started while he took his phone from his pocket without hesitation. "Use mine."

The head of the figure behind the desk snapped up and eyed him with interest. John walked towards the man and reached him his phone.

"Oh, thank you," the man said with brief hesitation and stood up from his desk.

Mike looked from the man to John and pointed in the direction of John. "That's an old friend of mine, John Watson." But the man ignored Mike and took the phone from John and started texting.

"Afghanistan or Iraq?"

It took John a moment to realize what the man had said. He looked at Mike to see if he had heard it right, but Mike just grinned at him, his eyebrows raised. "Sorry?"

The man looked up the phone. "Witch was it, Afghanistan or Iraq?"

John eyed at him for a long moment, failing to answer. Then, he looked at Mike again but he didn't seem to want to comment. "Afghanistan," John answered finally. "Sorry, how did you…"

But he was cut off by someone entering the door. A young woman with hazel brown hair tied in a ponytail entered with two cups of coffee.

"Ah Molly, coffee. Thank you," the man said and gave John his phone back. He then looked up at her. "What happened to your lipstick?"

The woman looked down and smiled shyly. "It wasn't working for me."

"Really? I thought It was a big improvement. Your mouth's to small now." The man waved his hand dismissively and walked back to the desk. The woman just mumbled something and turned around to walk away. John watched her go. He could feel the embarrassment radiating from her and felt a little sorry for her.

"How do you feel about co-operative teaching?"

John's head snapped back at the man's direction. It took him a second to register he was talking to him again. He furrowed his brow and looked at Mike suspiciously, who was ignoring John completely by now. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I believe in co-operative teaching and I am a perfectionist who makes his own lessons as often as possible. Would that bother you? Potential partners should know the worst about each other." The man gave John a fake smile.

John looked in the direction of Mike again. "Oh, you told him about me?"

Mike shook his head. "Not a word."

"Then who said anything about partners?"

The man just shrugged. "I only work part-time and Mike here is far too eager to introduce me to you, an old friend who previously worked in Afghanistan. That's no difficult leap." The man started to gather some things and put them in his briefcase.

John started to get curious now. "How did you know about Afghanistan?"

But the man ignored the question. "I got started on first weeks' schedule. Together we can work out the rest. Meet me tomorrow at 2 o'clock. Sorry, got to dash, I think I left violin case in the music room." The man started to walk towards the door.

"Is that it?" John called after him. The man turned around impatient.

"Is that what?"

"We've only just met, and we're going to prepare the upcoming year tomorrow?"

The man was silent for a second and glanced at Mike. "Problem?" he then asked.

John smiled briefly and looked also looked Mike, who was just staring at the two. "We don't know a thing about each other, I don't know your background. I don't even know your name."

The man looked at John defiantly. "I know you've been teaching abroad and you've been invalided home from Afghanistan. You've got a brother worried about him, but you won't go to him for help because you don't approve of him, possible because he's an alcoholic, more likely because he recently walked out on his wife. I know you've got a license to teach physical education but you are insecure about it because of your shoulder, your left if I'm not mistaken. That's enough to go on with, don't you think?" The man walked out of the classroom but looked back at John halfway through the door. "The name is Sherlock Holmes, I'll see you tomorrow." He gave John a small wink and greeted Mike. "Afternoon."

With that, the man just walked away, leaving John and Mike alone in the classroom. John watched the man and only when the door fell into the lock with a click he looked at Mike, who was grinning widely.

"Yeah, he's always like that. Does it with the kids, too."

John just stood there, frozen in his place. A look of surprise covered his face. "Amazing."