Before homeroom began, Golden gave me a seating chart for all of his classes. His homeroom consisted of seniors with last names Mo-Re; he subtly said that his homeroom was the best, but that didn't surprise me. I was not needed to be there for homeroom, but it was a whole hour I could spend working on assignments and trying to get myself ready for actually teaching.
Mentally my mind was goo, but I wasn't about to let Mr. Gold over here know that. All of the students stared at me when they walked into the room. I looked down to see exactly what I had worn today, a white button down blouse tucked into my light brown pencil skirt at my waistline. This morning when I was picking out my wardrobe for my first day again, I was fighting with myself a lot. All of my pants were out of the picture because of heat, but moving to Stockton I had already known that. I rarely bought pantsuits unless I wanted to look incredibly professional, which didn't happen often enough.
There wasn't a seating chart for his homeroom so I didn't know who everyone was, not that I needed to. I saw the cliques form around the room and then the loners sitting at their desks doing homework by themselves. Very few of the students were doing homework, but then again school just started again. Most of the kids were playing games on their phone or already in heated conversations with people around them. It reminded me of my high school days, but these kids were a lot different than me.
You could always find me avoiding all school responsibilities in the art room covered in my latest project. I saw people talking about me, but I never cared to find out exactly what everyone thought of me, I just assumed they had no opinions of me. It was easier to judge them if I thought they couldn't judge me right back. I think that goes for everyone, if you think that everyone likes you, it is always easier to see the bad things in others.
I was sketching the beach with a sunset, which I had seen firsthand many times, when I felt the silence creep around the room. The heat from everyone's stares was directed at me and I looked up frightened at what I was about to face. Mr. Golden was staring down at me with his hands on his hips, with the dirtiest scowl I had ever seen.
When he realized he had my undivided attention he started lecturing to me with his class as an audience, "When my students ignore me, I accept it because they're children. But when someone who I am supposedly advising ignores me, I get a little annoyed. You realize that one day you will not have the chance to zone out and draw these stupid little pictures," he picks up my almost completed sketch and shows it to his class. After they have had a look he starts ripping the paper into little pieces scattered around the floor.
Tears threatened my eyes, not that I truly cared about the picture, but the fact that this man thought he could embarrass me in front of all these students had me livid. Whenever I would get mad and try to yell at Simon or my parents, I would end up choking on my own tears and not be able to get the words out. I was determined not to let that happen this time. It was different to yell at someone you don't necessarily know. My face heated up and I took a shaky breath before I got up from my seat to walk directly in front of him.
"Look, I don't know you and you don't know me, but let's get one thing straight. I am not some little children's toy that you can push around for your own enjoyment. You act as if I chose you to be the teacher I shadow. I didn't and if I could switch schools I would've done it before I even stepped into this godforsaken place. Now I'm going to get some coffee, do you want anything?" I finished as I turned back to my desk and grabbed my bag.
When I turned back around all of the kids had made themselves busy knowing that their entertainment had ended.
Mr. Golden was staring at me with what I had pictured was respect, but it could have been a number of other things, perhaps not so nice ones. He shook his head lightly and I nodded at him as I walked out of the room away from the man I had a newfound hatred for.
Who does he think he is?
Before I left the building to find Starbucks, I stopped by the main office. Isabelle was at her desk attending to some paperwork. I would hate to be a secretary, it seemed like she never stopped working.
I walked through the glass doors and she immediately smiled when she saw me approach, "Oh Clary! To what do I owe this meeting?"
"Hi, Isabelle," I beamed at her. "I was wondering if I had any messages, my father said something about a package coming for me."
"I haven't seen anything, but I'll be sure to tell you over the intercom if something arrives for you. How has Jace been?" Isabelle looks curious.
I thought back to when he snapped at me and decided against telling her every last detail, "Oh he's alright. A little cold, but I've dealt with worse from my own family." I was honest, maybe too honest, but I didn't really care who knew about my personal life. I barely had one and my family was a subject I was comfortable talking about. I am an open book, there's nothing you can say about me that I will take personally when it comes to people that are of blood relation to me. Now if you said something bad about any of my art pieces I would take that to heart and most likely claw your eyes out. I only ever showed people the art I was most confident with, and I've always been praised for it. I suppose getting a little true feedback wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Oh who am I kidding? It doesn't matter anymore; my life has already taken its track and I wasn't even the conductor.
"Ah, I see you have some baggage. Well doesn't everyone? I think you and I need a proper greeting. I assume you've been to the clubs around here, how about Paradise Nightclub?" the dark-haired girl looked at me expectantly.
"Oh, I've only been there once or twice, my roommate likes to go there a lot. She's always meeting her hook-ups there. I go with her when no one else is around, but it's fun and the drinks are cheap," I said with a small smile. I didn't really like the club, but that opinion could be who my company was. Helen and I never got along, but we persevered because we knew there were worse roommates than each other. "I'm not going to drink the night before I have to work, unfortunately. But I will gladly go and party! Do you care if I bring along a friend of mine?" I asked knowing that Simon was going to be invited no matter how she answered.
Isabelle didn't disappoint and nodded her head quickly. "So tonight at 8?"
"Yeah that sounds just fine," I say with a smile and I make my way to the doors. "Do you want anything from Starbucks while I'm there?"
"Oh goodie, can I get a grande caramel macchiato? I'll buy next time!" she adds quickly before I mockingly salute her and leave the office.
I was starting to like Isabelle a lot more than I had originally intended. She was just so excited about life it was refreshing. I felt happier whenever I was around her, which is one of the reasons I accepted her invitation to go clubbing tonight. I pictured me going out with Simon and then going out with her, I could easily see which one I would have more fun with, and it wasn't my dork of a best friend.
I loved Simon, but he was as awkward as me when it came to dancing. At least when I'm around a bunch of drunken girls, they can make me move with them. Plus my mind is normally fuzzy so I lose all of the care I had before I started dancing. I haven't gone out since Thanksgiving and I think I needed to let go of all this tension.
I made it to Starbucks and back to the school within fifteen minutes. Homeroom still had a couple of minutes so I hung around the office drinking coffee with Isabelle to pass the time. When I heard the already familiar ding, I said goodbye to my newfound friend and made my way back to hell. The first class of the day starts with freshman learning about World History.
When I was exploring the school, I had found Mrs. Peabody to be very informational about World Literature. I borrowed one of her textbooks and decided to incorporate some of my teachings with hers. She taught seniors so I thought it was fitting that I get them accustomed to the material as freshman.
I had my mocha in my hand as I walked into the classroom and saw all of the curious ninth graders looking at me. Mr. Lightwood was seated at his desk clearly playing some game on his phone. Oh yes, I sure am working with the brightest teacher this school has to offer.
I made my way to the desk I had claimed and waited for him to begin introductions. Today would be a calm day for me, I was just meant to learn as much as I could about the students. For each class I printed a common assessment for their learning progression and then a get-to-know-me sheet.
Mr. Lightwood began the class by telling a few jokes about his high school days, but I didn't find them as funny, considering everything he said about our school was false. Some of the stuff was more realistic than others; for example there's no way he jumped into the school pool butt naked. We didn't even have a pool.
On the inside I was annoyed but I didn't let that show when he introduced me, "Class, this is Ms. Fray, she will be here for the rest of the semester to see how things work at our school. Most of the time, she will be teaching this class so I hope that you give her all of your determination and attention."
I fought the urge to roll my eyes when he said determination, are you serious they're freaking freshman!
"Hello, this semester I hope to help you discover the world we live in and all of its beautiful history. I want you guys to be honest when I pass out this pre-test. It's the only way I know exactly what to teach and how long I need to teach it for. Take your time with these," I started passing one out to every student.
A couple of them moaned loudly, but no one objected. They must be used to these from previous classes. I remember hating these assessments, but I discovered they were essential if I wanted to teach classes what they needed to know without frying their brains. Mr. Lightwood had retired to his desk and was now doing God-knows-what on his computer. "Just bring them up here when you're done and pick up this fun little questionnaire."
About ten minutes into the practice test some started to finish, or guessed on most of them. I would assume the latter, but who knows. They picked up the other sheets and took only a few minutes to finish those as well. One of the first questions was: When is your birthday? I was hoping that I could find the same date throughout history that every person's birthday meant something to someone.
Most of the freshman's birthdays were in spring, summer, and fall. Only about five of them were born from November to March, which I found extremely odd. I was going to have some fun with these I thought to myself as I smiled and that's exactly how most of my first day went. I ignored the pointless stares from Golden boy and kept myself busy trying to memorize names before we started classroom discussions.
Before I knew it, Mr. Lightwood was packing up his things and I followed suit. When I was just about to put my jacket on I realized he was still in the room. "Do you need something, Mr. Lightwood?" I asked as politely as I could stand.
"I was just going to walk you out, is that a crime?" he looked a little offended, but I couldn't care less.
"For you, yes it is. Now, if you'll excuse me there are a few things I need to take care of before tomorrow," including getting away from you.
"Fine then Ms. Fray, have it your way." He grabbed my hand as I walked slowly past him, "You did well today, I hope to see even more days like this in you." I let go of his shaky hand quickly and made my way to the office doors. I was flustered, but not enough for anyone to notice or care. I said farewell to Isabelle and reminded her about the club tonight.
Dressed in a black sequin mini cocktail dress and some high stilettos, I meet Simon at his dorm. Helen just got off of her night class and said she would meet us there. I find Simon trying to think of what tie he should wear with his clothing choice. "Simon, do not wear a tie with that," I simply say because it would look weird at the club if he were wearing one.
He was dressed with a blue button up shirt and black slacks. "If you tuck in your shirt, we're good to go!" I smile at him, but his irritation towards me is growing by the second.
We make it to the club just after eight and I don't see Isabelle anywhere. I go to the bar and Simon orders a rum and coke while I simply just get a sprite. The music from the DJ booth is vibrating the whole club and multicolored lights flickered around the room with the beat. I was picturing a lot less people here for a Monday night, but the club was crowded. The club itself wasn't very spacious, but it didn't need to be in order for people to have a good time.
I saw the recognizable Isabelle appear in front of me from the entrance of the club and she was as happy as ever. "Oh my God, you look fabulous! I would never have imagined you looked this hot underneath that teacher vibe you have." I giggled at her and my peripheral vision caught Simon with his jaw open as he stared at Isabelle.
Her skintight purple snakeskin dress looked incredible and I immediately knew I would never be able to pull it off. I told her as much, but she disregarded it completely. "Oh this is my friend Simon," I said as I turned to the side and pulled my best friend over to the black-haired beauty. His hand automatically came up and she met it with a small smile directed at his shyness.
"So are you guys really friends, or is Clary here being modest?"
"Most definitely friends, been there done that. Just a bad idea all around, I don't know how long I was caught up on her before I finally realized it," Simon was nervous and babbling. Isabelle did the nicest thing she could do, she laughed and grabbed his hand dragging him to the middle of the dance floor.
I sat down on the barstool laughing at the way Isabelle was trying to get Simon to dance. His body moved like a robot against her ballet skilled body.
"You know Clary, I'm beginning to wonder just what I'm going to have to do to get you home with me," a husky voice spoke up and my eyes found Mr. Lightwood standing above me. His golden eyes looked glazed and I knew he had been drinking.
"My name is Ms. Fray, and that will never happen, so you can just forget it," I stood my ground.
He kept eye contact with me for a few what felt like hours and then finally he averted his eyes to check me out instead. "Darling, It's going to happen eventually," he stepped closer to me and pried my legs open with his hands. He stood in-between them and bent down to whisper in my ear. "All of those daydreams about me in your bed on top of you…in all those different positions. I'm surprised you didn't jump me the first time you laid eyes on me; heaven knows I've wanted to claim you as mine. This hatred you feel is just pent up sexual attraction towards myself, and if you keep it up you're going to do something highly unprofessional during one of our classes. I just think it's a waste when we could easily go into one of the storage rooms right this second and delete this possible threat from existing. What do you say?" his five-o'clock shadow was rubbing against my cheek as I search with my hand for my forgotten soda. I throw it on his head and he stumbles back, his eyes wild and glaring.
"Don't be such a prude, live a little for fucks sake!" he hissed at me before he got up to go to the bathroom.
"Everything alright miss?" the bartender asked me.
"Oh yes. Actually can I get a vodka on the rocks dirty, please?" I got my mini wallet from my bra and collected my ID to show her I was twenty-one. She smiled at me then turned around to make my drink. I put the money on the table and chugged my drink as fast as my throat would allow. I needed to feel a little dizzy after that. I ended up ordering another one because it wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be.
I was going to need a lot of alcohol to pretend that didn't happen tomorrow.
Do you guys like the chapters a little longer or do you like short and sweet?