Page 26 of Fundamentals of Chemistry

This was closer to how I thought teaching would be. My second class still wasn’t as enthusiastic as Cooper’s had been, but that was alright. Over the next few lessons, I would continue to draw them in, and they would love this subject as much as I did. I just had to stay on track, follow my lesson plan, and keep from getting derailed by a certain rival teacher.

***

Wednesday, I swung by the admin building after lunch. Yes, I had a little errand, but mostly I wanted to see a friendly face after the week I’d been having, and my breakfast pep talks from Ashley weren’t cutting it. Silvia, my usual comfort-human, left me on read this morning, and I was jonesing for a judgment-free interaction while I waited for her reply.

“Melanie! Hello,” TJ sang when I moseyed up to her desk. Her face was lit up by a broad grin, and the knot in my chest began to loosen as we exchanged greetings.

“Did you see what that fool landscaper did to the boxwoods?” she asked.

My brows pulled together. “No?” I replied tentatively.

“Exactly!” she said. “First he cuts back the hydrangeas until they are practically stumps, so I tell him to go easy on the boxwood hedge. And what does the man do?”

“Nothing?” I guessed.

“Nothing! I swear—he’s testing me. If the Headmaster didn’t insist we use him, I’d have sacked him a week ago. But no. He’s some donor’s brother-in-law or something, so I’m stuck with him.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.”

TJ waved away my apology. “It’s fine. It happens. What brings you in today?” she asked.

I rested my arms on the counter in front of her desk and leaned in. “Well, I was hoping to pick up the copies I emailed you about. And also… you said I should talk to you if I needed classroom supplies.” I had intended to sound matter-of-fact, but the statement sounded more like a question.

“That’s right. What can I get you?”

“Um…” I glanced down at my hands for a second, color rising in my cheeks, before muttering, “markers.”

“Sure thing. We have a whole case in the supply closet. I’ll be right back.”

I was relieved that she didn’t ask why I was already out of markers on the third day. I liked TJ well enough, but I wasn’t ready yet to complain about other faculty members to her. For all I knew, she loved Cooper too, and everything I said might get back to him.

She returned a moment later with a box of twelve black Expo markers and a thick stack of paper, setting it all on the counter between us.

“What are all these?” TJ asked as I gathered the materials into my tote.

“Homework assignments. For the next two weeks,” I explained. “I feel pretty good about them. I wrote most of the questions myself.”

“You’re giving out homework? Jackson mentioned that he wouldn’t be doing homework for his sections.”

Jackson. He had won over TJ too. I was right to keep my thoughts on the abs-hole to myself. Then, my brain processed the rest of what she said.

“He… what?” I couldn’t have been more surprised if TJ had told me that Richmond had an affair with Phyllis. “No homework? He can’t do that. Homework is teaching 101.”

TJ shrugged and made a non-committal hum. “Maybe I misheard them, but I don’t think so.”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times like a fish out of water. How could he get away without homework? It was essential for reinforcing technical concepts—not to mention how we had both been taught by Mr. Stephens. Cooper was doing his students a disservice—under-preparing them for their exams.

Their exams.

The AP students were counting on those college credits. The knots in my stomach twisted harder, and I was suddenly irate on behalf of the AP students.

“Them?” I asked. “Richmond knows? He can’t possibly be okay with it.”

TJ nodded. “Yeah, he knows. Jackson was in there for over an hour the day after you all arrived. I don’t know what exactly they talked about, but when they came out, the Headmaster said ‘I believe in you’ or something like that.”

I stared at the woman, my jaw practically on the desk after that pronouncement. None of what she said made sense. Then again, I had seen Cooper’s lesson plan. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Maybe the “no homework” thing was part of his strategy? It must be. And apparently Richmond had signed off on it.

The real question was whether or not it would work better than traditional methods. Only time would tell. I didn’t like it, but worrying even more wasn’t going to help me.