Monday morning came pretty quickly and opening my emails that morning confirmed what Edward had said on Friday night. One Miss Elizabeth Moore was to start with us, taking on Freshman English for the first two periods of the day. This meant I now had two free periods to start my week again and half cheered, and half sighed. Angela had her senior class for the whole morning so baby-sitting the new teacher would be my job. I resisted the urge to stand in the hall and watch for the poor thing to arrive, figuring that if admin thought she could do the job, then she'd have to prove it to them. But when I heard shouting coming from Carol's old classroom, I dived out of my chair and away from the marking pile I had with a guilty twist in my stomach. I made it to the class, to find two of the largest boys in the building squaring up to each other in the middle of a skew of desk.

"I'm not listening to a drugged-up idiot like you," One - Mason Church, football player - spat at the other.

"Say what you want," The other - Jude Kurtz, wrestling team- laughed in Mason's face. "I'll get high on whatever the fuck I like, because it's not a fucking drug."

"That's it!" I snap pushing into the room to break them up. "Where's your teacher?" I push apart the boys and search the faces around me.

"I'm sorry, Ms ?" A slight girl moved from sitting on top of one of the shoved aside desks with the rest of the class.

"Swan," Another student offered next to her.

"Ms Swan," She corrects herself walking towards me. "We didn't mean to interrupt your class. We're merely having a friendly debate on whether or not coffee is a drug."

"And you are?" I couldn't for the life of me remember this girls name.

"Libby, Libby Moore." She smiled wide and bright at me, her hazel eyes searching mine, almost daring me to do something.

"Right," I realised I was still holding onto Jude's shirt. "Why are the class swearing?"

"Mr Kurtz and Mr Church are finding the topic rather emotive." She nods waving the boys down from each other. To my absolute surprise, both of the hulking teenagers move away and sit themselves down. "Wasn't my planned task for the day, but when opportunity knocks and all that." She shrugged and walked to the front of the room. "Tables back - Fun's over." The class groaned and began putting the room back together. I turned to look at her. She was tiny, pretty and most definitely wearing designer clothing. She stood to the side of the room, letting the students rearrange the furniture and sitting themselves down before speaking.

"Who can recall the exact moment that went from friendly conversation to altercation?" I watched as more than half of the room's hands went into the air. She pointed to a young man by the windows who hadn't raised his hand. "Mr?"

"Yardley." He grumbled. "It was fine unto Mason laughed."

"I think I'd agree with you," She nodded. "Jude, would you say similar?" I looked over at Jude who was smirking at Mason.

"Yeah - It was all words and then it felt personal."

"Mhmm," Libby nodded. "I'm sorry, Ms Swan, is there anything else?" The room was looking at me now. I was still standing there, pointlessly, at the front of the room.

"Oh...erm... no - everything looks good." I nodded stupidly. "I guess I'll get back to my work." I half waved goodbye as I quickly left the classroom with my cheeks burning.


"Out of control?" Angela hissed over her lunch at me.

"Completely," I nodded, my voice just as low. "The kids were swearing, tables were everywhere, she was sitting on one of the units. It was total madness."

"What were they thinking hiring someone so new without even a lesson observation?" Angela nodded. "Someone's got some serious sway for her to have gotten this job." Just as we were finishing our food, both our cell phones pinged with the work email notification sound.

Good news!

It was never good news when the email header stated it was. Angela caught my eye as we read the email on a single device.

Thanks to generous funding from The Cullen Family, we will be able to go ahead with a senior performance at the end of the year. The English department need to settle on a script and co-ordinate with Music to work through the finer details.

"That's how she got the job," I groaned. Yes, it was brilliant that the arts now had some funding to be able to do something like a production, but not at the cost of mediocre teacher.

"What do you mean?"

"She's with Edward Cullen." I punched out.

"With? As in 'with'?" I nodded. "But she's barely out of school and he's our age! He's old enough to be her dad!"

"Oh, I know," I shoved my chair under with a little too much force and sent the table shuffling an inch or two into one of the P.E. department's hips. "Sorry!" I waved and gave him an awkward smile. I dropped my voice turning back to Angela. "They've a kid and everything though."

"That can't be legal!" Angela's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Like baby?"

"3-year-old."

"Oh shit!"


The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. At least, I assumed it was. I'd kept out of the way, leaving Angela to play mother-hen as she apparently had way more time for the designer teacher than I did. She had developed a bit of a soft spot for her since our conversation on Monday regarding Libby and Edward's relationship. I was still struggling to get over a lesson that allowed the children to swear at each other and the added detail of the Cullen family funding our arts department just as she arrived.

But, it was Friday. Which meant once final bell had rang, I only had a staff meeting to get through and then I was free as a bird for the weekend, with nothing to do but read. I practically skipped into the classroom at the end of the hall were our department, art, music and history met together every Friday. Heading to my usual seat, I found it already filled with my least favourite person in the school behind the ancient P.A. to the head who would scold me every chance she got even now as an adult. I held back my sigh and roll of the eyes as I sat down at Angela's other side, furthest away from the chestnut baby teacher.

"Any nice plans for the weekend, ladies?" Angela chirped, either unaware of how uncomfortable things were or purposely ignoring so.

"Nothing much," I started. "Dad's fishing with Billy, so take away and cozy night in I think."

"Trade you," Libby looked over at me with jealousy in her eyes. "It will be chaos at ours."

"Oh, little ones at that age isn't she?" Angela patted Libby's arm in sympathy. I struggled to related.

"Willa is fine! Absolute angel - criminal mastermind, but she's good," Libby smiled softly. "It's the rest of them that are the issue."

"You've more kids?" The words fell out of my mouth with a ring and taste of complete disgust. From the dirty look Angela threw me and the cold stare I earned from Libby - I needed to wind my neck in.

"No," Libby said slowly. "Just a busy house with some loud personalities. Back in Chicago is was just me, Ed and Wills. I love the help we've got now, but I miss the quiet." This I could sympathize with. When I lived in Phoenix with Renee, it was non-stop chaos. Not parties or anything wild, just a permanent rollercoaster of activity and emotion. I nodded but said nothing.

"We've got Sammy's little league and then Cleo is starting rehearsals!" Angela gushed. "She's so excited, she gets to dance with the big girls now." Cleo was Ben and Angela's eldest at 8. She was tall and lean like her both of her parents and was exceptionally polite for a little girl her age. Sammy was a typical 5 year old and was the human form of a hurricane, but his parents had started to challenge that energy into sports, like Ben had when he was younger.

"Dance?" Libby asked.

"She's been going since she was 4,"

"Could I have the details sometime?" Libby suddenly really did look like a baby with wide, hopeful eyes. "I danced as a kid and I really thing Willa would love it too."

"Hey," came a new voice and all three of our heads snapped over to look at the young History teacher. He'd joined us at the start of September, but I honestly didn't think we'd ever exchanged a single word. "Did you have a good first week?" His gaze was fixed on Libby. She looked back at me and Angela, like she was asking for permission.

"Yeah," She looked back at the rather handsome young man in his stereotypical history teachers 'dark academia' styled jacket. "I'm Libby," She held out her hand for him.

"I know," He grinned like a fool shaking the out stretched hand. "I'm Toph, I teach history,"

"Wouldn't have guessed." Libby smirked looking him up and down, causing him to blush. I sat there speechless watching them flirt back and forth over meaningless pleasantries before Toph excused himself to sit down when the head of Music called for silence.


"I just think someone should really tell him," I complained loudly to Angela for the ninth time over the night. She just nodded. She'd said her piece. That it was innocent and she didn't think Libby was that interested, but maybe someone should coach Libby on how to let him down gently.

"Bella, just leave it." She sighed at me. "Lets dance?"