"Why would you want to work here?"
The question was a good one. But Nina had thought someone would ask her eventually, so she had an answer ready to go. "I love performing, but I don't want it to be my whole life. I've had enough for a while, I just want a normal life with the man I love. This job is a great way for me to settle down and start a family. At least, I want to start a family."
"That sounds so sweet. You are so nice."
Nina laughed. "Thank you."
Tanya smiled. She liked Nina, and she had so many other questions, but they had reached their classrooms. "Maybe we can talk at recess?"
"Sure. That would be nice," said Nina.
Tanya gave her another smile and then headed into her class. Nina took a deep breath and then stepped into her own room. She could see half of the class was missing, but she could also see Amber and Imogen there. Familiar faces to make the day a little easier. The girls grinned happily as they saw their teacher. Nina sat on the desk and pulled out her class list.
"Where is everyone?" she asked.
"Late, as usual," said Imogen.
Sighing, Nina thought back to something Susan had mentioned about the late comers. If they were late, mark it down. If you are already there, then they should be too. So Nina looked at her list to call out names. She called a few names, the people not actually there, and then arrived at her niece.
"Amber Turner?"
Amber raised her hand.
"Imogen Willis?"
Imogen called out, followed by her brother. Nina put her list down, frowning. "Being late better not become a habit," she stated as people finally came in. "I won't tolerate it, and you will get detentions."
"Are you our permanent teacher?" asked Josh.
"I am. Don't think you'll be getting away with anything in this class, or any classes that I teach." She looked at the papers in her hands. "I have a few notices to give out now, so bear with me."
She began handing out notes and newsletters. She even had some forms to give out, and only managed to finish just before the bell. As the kids left the room, she gathered her paperwork and got up, waiting until everyone was gone to get to her music class.
When Nina arrived at the music room, she found her entire class waiting there. Amazed that the students had actually listened to her about being late, she let them in.
"Alright, I have the work you were doing yesterday, and I believe you all had homework too. I want to check that homework and then we are going to get started. We have a lot to get through this year, and not a lot of time to do so. If you miss a class, you need to come and see me so I can give you the work, because VCE is not easy and you most certainly do not want to miss anything."
"Yeah, yeah, we know. We got that speech a dozen times last year," said someone in the back row of desks.
"Who said that?" asked Nina.
A boy in the back row raised his hand, a grin on his face. "Me, miss."
"What's your name?"
"Zach."
"Well, Zach, consider this a warning. Next time you throw a sarcastic comment out, you'll get a detention."
Some of the class laughed. Clearly, Zach was a troublemaker, something that Nina was not going to have in her classroom.
"If you think guys think this is funny, you can have detentions too. Now, I know you all know who I am. But while you are at school, I am Miss Tucker. Understand?"
The room was filled with nods. Nina smiled.
"Great, now, bring up your homework. If it isn't done, there better be a good reason for it."
One by one, the students stood and brought their work up to Nina's desk, then returned to their seats. Some of them were happy, but others seemed worried, and it made Nina think that they hadn't done the work they had been given.
"Thank you. Since I'm assuming that classes haven't changed since last year, we are going to get stuck into work. You have a project this year, one that spans across this entire semester. We are going to start it today. It's a group project and you each will work with three other people. I'll let you choose your groups, but it should only take a minute. If it takes longer, I will just put you into a group. Get going."
Two minutes later, Nina stopped everyone. It was a small class, so she told them to sit in their groups.
"Tell me who is in your group. Amber?"
"Me, Imogen, Tessa, and Leah," replied Amber.
Nina wrote the names down. "You are group one. Next group, Dean?"
"Zach, Sam, Matthew and I."
"Great, you are group two. And group three, who do you have?"
"Ash, Fred, Katie, and me," said George.
Nina finished writing the groups down and then looked up. "Today, we are going to organise what each group will be doing for their project. Group one, your task is to write and perform a love song. Group two, you are going to write and perform a rock song. Group three, you will write and perform a pop song. I will let you choose how to go about this, but be aware, do not copyright songs or you will get an automatic fail. Any questions?"
A few hands went up. "Dean?"
"What if our song sucks?"
"First, it won't. Not everyone is great at music, and that's okay. But if you really want help, come and see me. And in the classes that we work on the project, feel free to ask for help. I'm your teacher, and I'm here to help you learn. Amber?"
"What if we don't know how to write music?"
"Again, ask me to help. Shouldn't you have learnt how to write music last year though?"
"Our teacher left halfway through term one, before we even got to writing music. Then we just had subs all year, and they didn't know anything. We knew more than they did," said Katie.
"Okay. Well, I guess I'll try to fit in a couple of lessons solely for learning how to write music. Does anyone in here actually know how to write?"
Fred and Ash put their hands up. "But we don't know very much," Ash said.
"That's alright. It'll mean more homework, but we can fit it in." Nina grabbed papers from beside her. "Okay. George, Imogen and Zach, come up and grab the work for the projects. Give one to each member of your team and note down which song your group is going to perform." The three students came up and Nina gave them the work. Once they were seated again, she spoke. "You are going to work on task one today. We have half an hour left of this class, so do as much as you can and we'll talk about what you are going to do for homework. By the end of class, you will also get your homework from yesterday back."
As the class started working, Nina pulled the pile of homework to her. She pulled Amber and Imogen's work from the pile to check first, knowing they had both done the work and that it would be above the standard since she had helped them. She quickly checked the work in their books and ticked them off on her list. After ten more minutes, she had checked all the work. Eight of the students had done well, two had barely passed, and the last two hadn't even finished the work. She was disappointed to learn that Zach was one of them. She wanted to make him be behaved, make sure he passed high school, and she refused to give up on him.