…
Chapter Two. Drinks.
Rosita was right. It wasn't the most stimulating meeting Beth had ever been to. Principal Horvath spent the hour going over curriculums and changes to the school's policies that year as well as what was expected of both their students and the staff. It was what Beth expected from a staff meeting before a new school year began. Beth admitted that, while paying close attention to everything while following along with all of the paperwork that was handed out but, her eyes kept glancing to Daryl a couple of tables over from the corner of her eye. He had noticed her the instant she and Rosita sat down and she smiled warmly at him once their eyes met and he smiled a little, too. There was a pretty woman sitting on the other side of him with sun-kissed brown hair, on the longer side, with a light tanned skin that many of the staff was sporting after their summer vacations. Beth recognized her as the woman that sometimes was over at Daryl's house, yelling at him. That must be Leah.
Beth was quick to move her eyes away before Leah noticed Daryl looking at another woman and smiling at her. She didn't necessarily believe her when Rosita said that Leah had "something wired wrong", but Beth didn't want to draw attention to herself. Living across the street from Daryl, even just for a week, Beth had heard Leah more than once and she honestly never would have guessed the pair were boyfriend and girlfriend. (Though calling Daryl a boyfriend seemed a little ridiculous because he was definitely NOT a boy.) She obviously wasn't privy to every single aspect of their relationship. She wasn't even privy to the tiniest bit of their relationship but what she had seen of it, it seemed to mainly consist of Leah just yelling at Daryl. That didn't seem like much of a relationship to Beth.
"So, I think that covers everything," Principal Horvath said, lifting his head and pushing his glasses back up that had slid down to the end of his nose. "And lastly, real quick, I would like to welcome Ms. Beth Greene, our new freshman English teacher."
Beth had been expecting this but her cheeks grew warm nonetheless as she held a hand up with a smile and everyone applauded for her. Rosita put an arm around Beth's shoulders and pulled her into her side for a hug as if they hadn't met one another just that morning. Beth blushed from the attention and felt embarrassment but she made sure she kept smiling at her new coworkers. She also made sure that she looked nowhere in Daryl's direction.
…
Despite its small size, Maxwell had more than one bar to offer drinks and Rosita said that they would go to her preferred one. Before leaving the school, Beth spoke with Principal Horvath as the rest of the staff emptied out of the library. He smiled as she approached him and Beth didn't know why she felt a tenseness in her belly. She had already met the man. He had partaken in her job interview and she already knew he was perfectly nice. She supposed there was just always a healthy dose of nerves when going to speak to her new boss.
"Settling in alright?" He asked her with a smile.
"I am," Beth confirmed. "I think I should have my house together in about ten years."
Horvath chuckled at that. "There's plenty of handy people who live around these parts. You just let me know if you need help and I'll find someone for you."
"Thank you, Principal Horvath," she smiled. "I really appreciate everything you've already done and I can't thank you enough for this opportunity."
"No reason to thank me. Per your file, you're a good teacher and Maxwell High is lucky to have you." He finished stacking all of his papers and held them in one arm while pushing his glasses up again. "I haven't checked on your classroom yet. Have you everything you need?"
Beth had gone into the school a couple days before to get a look at her new room and get it ready for the first day and new year. Maxwell High School was an older building – brick and rectangular with three stories and no air conditioner. When Maxwell was first founded after the Civil War, this building was first the school for all grades before the population grew and two other schools were able to be built. Each classroom was equipped with several fans and on their list of necessary supplies to bring, all students had to have water bottles. For the teachers, it could make doing their jobs a little challenging – especially with teenagers – because everyone would get sleepy or cranky or both. Beth hoped she could keep her students engaged.
The former freshman English teacher, Mrs. Barnett, had retired and left much of her things behind – which Beth was grateful for because while she had some of her own things, Mrs. Barnett still had posters up on her walls that covered the units Beth would now be teaching. Beth had taken the time to decorate the two bulletin boards in the classroom but all of the posters remained. She had made sure the desks were in neat rows and all of the textbooks were accounted for and ready to passed out. Maxwell High's classrooms each had one chalkboard and one whiteboard, which she absolutely loved, and her classroom windows, from the first floor, looked out towards the practice fields.
"I do," Beth nodded to Horvath's question. "Thank you again, Principal Horvath."
"Beth," the man smiled kindly. "Call me Dale."
Rosita was waiting in the hallway outside of the library and when Beth, with Dale, came out, she pushed herself from where she leaned against the wall. Both girls smiled at one another.
"Oh, no," Dale frowned. "Beth, form a friendship with any other teacher at this school than this one."
"Principal Horvath!" Rosita gasped in mock horror. "How dare you! Still holding crepe day against me?"
"Of course I'm still holding crepe day against you," Dale stated matter-of-factly. "Have a good day, ladies." He tipped an imaginary hat towards them and continued on his way down the hallway, stopping another teacher further along to speak with them.
Rosita looped her arm through Beth's and they began walking down the hallway towards the doors. "At the end of every school year, I have a crepe party for my classes where I bring in my stuff and we make crepes. I guess that was pretty self-explanatory. Well, this past year, Dale's wife, Irma, called me and told me that the Principal was not permitted any crepe because crepes are from France so of course, butter and sugar are involved and that just isn't the best thing for his health at the moment. Apparently, he's still upset with me."
Beth nodded and then looked to Rosita. "I don't blame him. I wouldn't be so quick to forgive you either if you kept me from crepe day."
"I promise," Rosita said with a laugh. "We make it through this school year, we will eat as many crepes as a human can possibly eat."
Beth followed Rosita to the bar they were going to go to and she saw that they drove right past her house. She smiled when she glanced to it as she passed and saw Mayonnaise sleeping in the living room window. The bar was called Lodi, from both the Creedence Clearwater Revival song and Rosita said that the man who owned the place was actually from Lodi, California. Beth loved it before she even stepped inside but inside, it was just as perfect. It was a fairly large space with a few tables, a pool table near the back of the room, a jukebox and a large open floor that made her think that perhaps there was dancing at least one night a week.
There was a good-looking guy standing behind the bar – around Beth and Rosita's age – with a taller frame, mousy brown hair and a playful smirk. Rosita mirrored his smirk with her own and without a word, she stood on her toes, leaned over the bar and the bartender gave her a kiss.
"Are you two dating or is that the Lodi greeting?" Beth wondered out loud.
"I am ready and willing," the man grinned and spread his arms out on either side of him.
"This is Spencer, he's my boyfriend and he's an idiot. This is Beth Greene, the new English teacher," Rosita made introductions as she slid herself up onto a stool. Beth slid up onto the one next to her.
"It's nice to meet you," Beth smiled.
"You, too," Spencer said, still grinning. "What can I get you?"
Spencer looked familiar to her but she had absolutely no idea why he would. It almost seemed like she had seen him on television once or twice before but that also made absolutely no sense.
"They also have food. It's not good but they do have it," Rosita added.
Beth looked down to the bar menu. She actually was quite hungry. She had barely eaten breakfast that morning, too nervous before her first school staff meeting to have a taste for really anything. She had managed a banana and her usual multiple cups of coffee but she definitely needed something in her stomach if she was about to consume even the tiniest bit of alcohol. The absolute last thing she wanted was getting drunk in front of coworkers and possible new friends.
"A chicken quesadilla and a rum and coke. Way more coke than rum," she made sure to add.
Spencer grinned. "You got it." He turned to enter their orders into the computer and within another minute, both girls had their drinks.
Rosita had gotten a Manhattan and after eating the maraschino cherries, she held the glass with both hands and turned on her stool towards Beth. "Now," she smiled. "Tell me everything."
…
Rosita was right. The food at Lodi was not good but Beth knew that people didn't come here for the food. They came to have something in their stomachs to help absorb the alcohol they were drinking. And if they drank enough, the food would be good. The quesadilla was far from the best she had ever had but she was happy to have it as she ate and drank with Rosita and they both got to know one another. People came and went but Beth didn't pay attention to anyone as she made a new friend for herself in her new home. Rosita was originally from Texas but had gone to Florida for college and much like Beth, she was looking for a teaching job and Maxwell, Georgia had been hiring. And Spencer was from Ohio, who had moved to DC, before leaving. He hadn't known what he wanted to do and much to the chagrin of his parents, he figured he wouldn't find out what he wanted to do unless he tried a little bit of everything. He landed in Florida, working odd jobs, and he met Rosita. When she moved to Maxwell, he wound up following her.
"And why French?" Beth asked before taking a sip of her drink.
This was her second one and now that there was some food in her stomach, there was a bit more rum mixed into this one. Not too much though. Beth was a self-proclaimed light weight and she wasn't in the mood for getting trashed even if she lived right down the street and could manage to get home without killing herself or anyone else.
"Because I am damn good at speaking it and it's not predictable," Rosita said. "I like doing things like that. It's why I'm still dating the gringo."
"I heard that," Spencer replied from further on down the bar where he was getting a pitcher of beer.
Beth snorted into her glass. When Rosita got up to go to the bathroom, Beth pulled out her phone to see that she had a new text from her sister, Maggie – Call me! – and she had a missed call from her dad. She would call him when she got home again. For some reason, calling her dad while in a bar didn't seem like the right place. Obviously, she was an adult and had every right in the world to be in a bar but her dad didn't need to know that – especially since Hershel was a former alcoholic and Beth wasn't a massive drinker because of it. She wasn't even a small drinker. Being here at a bar was definitely something she rarely – if ever – did.
She was still looking down at her phone when she saw someone from the corner of her eye, standing next to her at the bar. She braced herself to get hit on and honestly didn't know if she wanted him to or not. She was getting that pleasant floating feeling – even from the small amounts of rum in her veins – and she actually might flirt back if his face did something to her.
"For some reason, when you said you were a teacher, I imagined you bein' at the elementary school."
That familiar Georgia drawl had Beth spinning around in her stool and sure enough, it was Daryl. She spun too quickly though for having alcohol on her brain and nearly fell off her seat and into his side. But just like in front of her house when Shawn had shoved her into Daryl's side and he had hardly moved, he hardly moved now. And actually, his hand went to her elbow to steady her and her arm instantly felt warm. It took her a second to realize that she should NOT be feeling warm from his touch and she managed to pull herself back onto her stool without feeling like she was going to fall over. Attached men should not touch her elbow.
"And you didn't tell me you were a teacher at all."
Daryl smirked a little at that and shrugged. "You never asked."
"I asked what you do! I didn't know I had to specifically ask you if you were a teacher. Why would I even think to ask that to you in the first place?"
Daryl's smirk slid into a smile. "Alrigh', you're right. I was purposely vague."
"Of course I am," Beth said with a definitive nod. She picked up her glass for another sip.
He was still smiling as he signaled for Spencer, who came down the bar towards them. "What's up, Daryl? What'll it be? Usual?"
"Yeah, please." A second later, he had a bottle of Budweiser sliding across to his hand.
"Another for you, Beth?" Spencer nodded to her near empty glass.
She shouldn't. She really shouldn't. She had to get home while she could still drive herself. She had so much work to do on her house and she had to go shopping for more things and she had school starting in three more days that she still had to get ready. She didn't have time for another drink. But Lodi was relaxing and she liked being here, hanging out with Rosita, and now, Daryl. She looked at Spencer and sighed heavily.
He gave her a grin. "As a bartender, it is irresponsible for me to try and guess what your sighs mean."
Beth looked down to her glass. "No, I'm alright. I'm going to be responsible for the time being."
"That behavior is completely overrated," Spencer said but he was still smiling as he took her glass and empty plate away from her. "Want to cash out?"
"Yes, otherwise it's too tempting."
As Spencer went to get her bill, Beth turned – slowly – on the stool again towards Daryl. Past him, she could see that Rosita was out of the bathrooms now and was now at the jukebox, standing with another man, someone she clearly knew, and they were laughing and talking as they went through the musical selections. Casually looking around, making sure she made it seem like she wasn't looking, she didn't see Leah anywhere. Not that that mattered. Daryl was in a relationship with someone whether his girlfriend was here or not and Beth had already seen enough of Leah from a distance to know she didn't want anything to do with her. It did make her wonder though what Daryl was doing with her. Why did Leah talk to him like she did? Well, not talk but yell at him.
That wasn't fair. Beth didn't know Leah. She could be perfectly nice. Yes, Rosita had said she was wired wrong and Beth saw no evidence of Leah being actually nice but still, that didn't mean that she wasn't.
"I don't know anything about you," Beth then declared.
She knew he was nice – anyone who helped a stranger empty their U-Haul when they absolutely did not have to was automatically nice. And he put up with her idiot brother for the day as they worked so that was also a gazillion points in the favorable column. He was a high school shop teacher, had a motorcycle and pick-up truck and had named his German Shepherd "Dog". Those were the most surface, basic facts though. She should know more about her handsome across-the-street neighbor. Handsome? Come on, Beth. Yes, he was handsome but he was attached and that could not be forgotten.
Daryl sat down on the stool next to her, facing her, and one of his elbows rested up on the bar with the neck of his beer bottle hanging from his fingers.
"Alrigh'," he said. "I don't know anythin' about you either except you're teachin' English, you play piano, you have a cat named Mayonnaise and you have a fuck ton of work to do on your house."
The laughter burst from her mouth before she could stop it. "A fuck ton?" She echoed. Daryl smiled and took a sip of his beer. "And those are surface basic facts about me."
He shrugged a little at that and his eyes were looking into hers and Beth felt her stomach clench. "So tell me what I need to know."
"Wait," Beth shook her head. "I'm trying to get to know you," she laughed and Daryl was taking another drink from his beer but his eyes were still on her and Beth swore that they were smiling.
…
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