"Why did you even take this job, Joel?" I asked myself aloud as drove through endless the miles of cornfields until I found an unassuming sign for "Steppington Springs Home of the Bigfoots" with a poorly painted yeti on it. I surveyed the quiet main street when my gas light came on and a loud *DING*.
"That's why, Joel. You're broke as a joke; it's a week before school starts and this was the only teaching job you could get. There's probably more cows that kids in this town." I stopped in the school parking lot, the car that served me so well during college sputtered like a three pack a day smoker. I did my best to ignore it and found my way to the office to find my new boss, Principal Corbin. He was a portly guy with a bad comb over in a cheap suit that greeted me with a vice grip for a handshake.
"Glad ya found us ok, Mr. Dietz!" He beamed as I took the wreckage of my hand back. I couldn't complain too loudly about him, he was giving me a place to stay for next to nothing. He took me on the obligatory tour of the school; the place was pretty run down until we got to the pool. It was better than the one we had at the Division 1 college I went to! I looked around in wonder and it caught the Principal's eye.
"We take a lot of pride in our girl's swim team! The high school girls are state champs six years running!" I gave him my best surprised look as we headed for my classroom. It was a little dingy, the lights flickered but the windows looked out over the playground and the large field of vibrant green grass. I just wanted to get rid of the Principal as we chatted in the hallway I saw the teacher next door, she was sitting behind her desk reading, her blonde hair haloed in the bright sunlight. She looked up and lowered her glasses looking at us both disdainfully.
"Ahh, Sarah! Glad you're here!" The Principal walked in and I followed "Joel, this is your new, ahh, neighbor" he chuckled thinking he was being cleaver as he introduced Sarah Larkin. I nodded politely and looked her over; she looked to be about my age wearing a black t-shirt that gave just a hint of her C-cup breasts. If this is what I do to look forward to I think I could do this small town life. The Principal cut in again. "Sarah teaches English like you. And ahh, remember how your contract said other duties as assigned? Well, you and her are going to be teaching Health Class this year!" He gave me a pat on the arm and moved about as quick as he could to get away from us. I sat befuddled having more classes dumped on me, and a subject that I had zero idea how to teach.
"Hey new meat." Sarah caught my attention as I stood there slack-jawed "Don't worry; Corbin's harmless, we got put in a hard spot here with this whole stupid health class thing."
"Why did they need us to teach it?" I asked still confused.
"Ahh, I'm guessing you didn't hear up there in the big city." She sat back in her chair and stretched showing off her fantastic rack. "The last guy was giving a couple of student some rather interesting foot massages. He's looking at six years but he's not the only pervy bastard here. If Mr. Saunders wanted them any younger he'd have to wait out on the parking lot right after graduation."
"So, umm, how do we do,.." I motioned awkwardly with my hands.
"Relax, it's eight weeks. For the really ¨gross stuff¨ you get the boys, I get the girls. I read the lesson plans it's so bare bones all we do is tell them they're gonna get taller, their voices are gonna crack and they'll have hair in weird places. I just REALLY hope they don't want to dwell on that last part."
"Ditto!" I shivered thinking of what an awkward teenager I was.
"So I hear you're living in Corbin's cottage?" I nodded and asked if there was anything I should know about. She shook her head but smiled "There's a reason it's free, new meat!" I smiled and made my way back to my room and got started. Before I knew it, it was time to go. I got up and said good night to Sarah, still at her desk. She gave me a lazy wave without looking up and I headed out.
I got where I was staying and it was as bad as I expected. An old single bedroom house with the barest of essentials; I think my old dorm room would be a step up from this. There was no AC for the hot summer night so I turned on the dusty old fan that sounded like a jet engine next to my head.
"Guess I could stand to lose a few" I fanned myself as I lay down and drifted off.
The next morning I woke up feeling like I was in a sauna all night. I took a cold shower and rolled into work; pouring a cup of shitty coffee in the lounge as an excuse to go past Sarah's classroom. I stopped on the doorway as she stood behind her desk with her back turned to me. I admired the view of her curvy ass and thighs in her black shorts and purple tank top. She bent down like she was stretching, I took it all in when she must have spotted me.
"Taking it all in?" she came back up and turned around at me. She didn't look completely disgusted with me so I tried to change the subject.
"I just wanted to tell you thank you for the warning about the cottage, no AC and that fan could wake the dead." She smiled and sat down. She didn't have her glasses on and it made her green eyes really stand out.
"Yeah, there's no AC here in the building either for a couple of weeks. So get used to a bunch of hormonal kids who haven't discovered deodorant yet." I cringed and caught sight of a pair of white and purple running shoes poking out from her desk. I asked her about her stretching as she put her hands above her head.
"On days it's not too hot I run to school; it's only two miles away." She sat down and chugged some water as I asked if she was a runner. Her cheeks full of water she nodded no then swallowed. "I was a swimmer, you can see me in my prime at the high school in the state championship team photo." She smiled being coy.
"Corbin said you've been champs six years running?"
"Yup, must be something in the water around here." Sarah said looking down at her desk.I smiled and got to work sweating in the hot day. It got to lunch and I got up to see Sarah reading something behind her desk.
"You getting some...lunch?" I stumbled over the last word as I saw her behind her desk sitting back with her feet up in a pair of black flip flops bathed in sunlight. There was something off about it though. From seeing her this morning she couldn't have been more than 5'5 but her feet looked bigger than my size 12´s perched up there if I had a pedicure and some nice polish on them. I shook it off, must be the light I thought.
"I brought some food. Hey if you need to cool off, head to the high school across the way. Their AC works." I nodded and walked away, kind of confused by what I saw. I've never been a foot guy but with what I saw and the story about my predecessor I got a little freaked out. I got out of the heat in the high school and made my way to the trophy case and sure enough there she was smiling and holding a trophy with her teammates. I got a little hard seeing her in her bathing suit and her hair all wet. I have to see if I could get her into a bathing suit sometime I thought heading back.
After a few more days of awkward flirting school started with a big assembly where myself and all the other teachers got introduced. Sarah took pity on me and talked me through which of the little monsters would be ours. It looked like a motley bunch of cliques and groups huddled together sizing each other up. I heard her talking and trying to point out who to keep separated and who to keep together and I tried to take mental notes. I looked down and saw her feet again, she had new toenail polish on but I noticed in her sandals that her feet were bigger than mine! That´s how she must have been such a good swimmer, I thought to myself. I looked down the line though and saw this appeared to be the same with all the female teachers. All wearing dark dress shoes or sandals like Sarah and all bigger than us guys! I blinked and started to look again when Corbin introduced me. I was caught a bit off guard as took a step forward, grinned like a dope and waved. He moved on the next new teacher and I stepped back.
¨Smooth, new meat.¨ Sarah smirked while Corbin finished his speech and sighed. ¨Now that the pleasantries are out of the way they´re going to let the beasts loose.¨ She wasn´t kidding; they tore out of the gym and clogged the halls before we knew it. I fought my way back to class feeling like I was stumbling every couple of steps as someone cut in front of me.
¨Smooth move, Mr. D!¨ a student deadpanned as others laughed. Damn these kids are vicious! I thought as I got to my classroom. From there to the end of the day I was in pure survival mode. Watching the boys to make sure they didn´t beat each other up. Watching the girls to make sure they didn´t scar someone forever emotionally. By the end of the day I was dizzy sitting in my chair staring at the ceiling. indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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