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Chapter 6

Submitted by Midnight Writer on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 01:00

Chapter 6

Tuesday morning, Shane found his classroom just as he'd left it.

Now that he felt a little more comfortable at the school, he set the door to stay open. He still wasn't keen on the idea of visitors, but any people whose small talk he suffered that day would be down-payments against the horde to arrive the next.

He unpacked his last box, put Julianna's picture back on the desk, and then settled into the chair with Mr. Garrett's book and the printout of the notes he'd made that summer when he reviewed the curriculum and text. Mary and several others came and went.

Dan appeared at the door. "So," he said, "what are you up to?"

"Just goin' over some stuff for tomorrow," Shane answered. As scheduled over the summer, the Math Department teachers would convene at nine the following morning, after the principal's start-of-the-year address.

"Why?"

"It's part of the job."

Dan snorted. "Don't waste your time," he said. "You think anybody there is really going to care what the new guys have to say?"

Dan had probably spent weeks crafting his input. It wouldn't surprise Shane if Dan showed up with a full-fledged presentation with glossy-paper audience copies collated and bound. The important thing for Dan would be that it looked good. Substance would only get in the way.

"You know what?" Shane said, closing Mr. Garrett's book. "You're right. I'm just gonna wing it."

"Good for you."

Shane nodded. "Yeah, 'cause, I mean, seriously, how much meaningful discussion can you have in two days anyway?" He leaned back in his chair, fighting the urge to send Dan on a wild-goose chase. No matter how much fun it might be, he just couldn't let himself waste the school system's money that way. "They pretty much decided what they were gonna do before last year even ended. I mean, take that whole Magellan proposal. You know that's how they wanna go."

"Yeah," Dan said, clearly working to hide his discomfiture.

"But if we're not careful, we're gonna end up worse than Easton on the applied calc. Right?"

Dan nodded. "That's what I was thinking."

It was understandable he was a little confused. 'Magellan' hadn't appeared anywhere in the documentation sent by the school. Still, it wasn't a fabrication. One of the plans provided with the curriculum outline had been so similar to a pilot program in New York, the Magellan Project, that Shane had no doubt Mr. Garrett and the others had pored over the Magellan documentation while crafting it. Magellan had proven a major success in some areas but a dismal failure in others. Those involved, as well as other educators, were trying to sort it all out in follow-up projects. If Dan planned to help craft high school math curricula, he really needed to educate himself about what others were doing.

"That would be a shame, wouldn't it?" Dan said and headed for the door.

"Hey, since we're done with this shit early, you wanna do lunch?" Shane said. "We could hit the Japanese place."

"No," Dan said. "There's some other things I need to take care of."

"All right, then," Shane said. "Catch ya later."

He managed not to snicker until Dan was gone.

If Dan's intent was to impress the head of the Math Department, he hadn't gotten off to a very good start.

Shane had just put the book and his newly annotated notes away when Faith arrived.

"Have you eaten yet?" she asked.

He would have liked to say he had but a clearly undisturbed lunch bag sat on his desk. "Uh-uh."

"Great," she said, grinning and slipping through his door, bagged lunch in hand.

"You really don't have to babysit me," he said as she settled into the front and center student desk. "I'm fine."

"My friends don't get here until tomorrow," she said, pulling chips from her bag. "If I sit with anyone else now, they'll feel like I used them when I go back to my friends. Besides, if I'm sitting there with them, that deprives them of the opportunity to talk about all of us."

"They do that?" he asked, grinning.

"All the time," she said, setting her sandwich onto the desk. "Every school's got to have the weirdos. We're the weirdos."

"I thought that was just... like... umm... a kids' thing."

She shook her head.

"I see." He touched his tongue to the corner of his lip. She'd questioned him. It was his turn now. "Is it a good thing for a weirdo to be a school counselor?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Weird kids, they have a lot of issues. And not just anyone could understand those." She opened her soda can. "So tell me about your childhood."

Shane laughed. He had no intention of talking about his childhood--not honestly, anyway--but he didn't have the heart to rebuke her.

"You know what, Faith?" he said. "Most people, they kinda' just let conversation happen. See where it goes, you know?"

She waved a dismissive hand. "Once all those teachers get here, they're not going to leave you much time for me. I'm taking you while I can get you. So... how's your relationship with your parents?"

Shane sang his answer--the first line of "Rehab."

She laughed, then arched a brow. "For real?"

He answered with the first line of the refrain from "The Joker."

She set her jaw in a tight line. "What's your favorite book?"

"For fiction, I will always love The Stand," he said. "I love the exploration of human nature in there. What's yours?"

They continued exchanging questions and answers, getting acquainted. Whenever he thought she asked inappropriate questions, he responded with lyrics and she tried again.

She told him about her family life, her husband, son and daughter. They were pretty much her whole world, when she wasn't at school, and Shane thought that was the way it was supposed to be.

They talked for close to two hours, exchanging little pieces of their lives--mostly hers.

"Thanks for indulging me," she said.

He smiled. "It was good."

She nodded. "As you've gathered by now, I don't get out much. I don't get to meet too many interesting people." She moved to the door and almost left. Then she turned and looked at him. "So did you ever make it to rehab?"

He grinned. "There and back again."

She smiled. "I'm glad you made it to here."

Then she was gone.

The implant wouldn't engage that night. Shane sat on the bed, his eyes tracing the green leaf patterns on the comforter, while Julianna paced, stomped and yelled. He wished she wouldn't get quite so loud. He didn't think the neighbors needed to know.

Finally she stood at the foot of the bed, her hands on her hips while she glared at him. Her eyes weren't on his face, though. They were fully focused on the object of her dissatisfaction. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Sorry, Julianna," Shane said. "I think he's a little too scared of you to have much to say, directly. But I'm sure he wants you to know that you're not helping things by acting like a five-year-old."

"I act like a five-year-old?" she said. "I--you--" She picked up the porcelain pitcher from the antique washstand and hurled it at him.

He caught it just before it slammed into his crotch.

"You're the goddamned five-year-old here!" she screamed. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. The framed copy of their wedding announcement fell from its place on the wall.

Shane looked down at his errant member. "You better straighten up and act right," he said. "Next time, I might let her hit you."

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