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Well, almost always. There’d been a few weeks when she’d thought she’d never smile again.
“Plus you have Brooke and Ally – they’d be lost without you,” Chelsea continued.
Ember’s heart grew a little bigger at the mention of her two best friends. They’d been at the party earlier – Brooke Newton had brought her son, Nicholas, and Ally Sutton had brought a keg of beer. They’d all grown up together, her ‘sisters from another mister’. Made it through grade school and high school, and then into adulthood without ever losing their closeness. If she went away she’d miss them as much as she missed Chelsea.
The sky was getting darker, turning the buildings that lined the boardwalk into a series of silhouettes. A movement to her left caught her eye. Somebody running on the beach – taking advantage of its emptiness the same way she and Chelsea were. The man’s rhythm was fast and steady, enough for him to put a distance between himself and the sisters before Ember had a chance to really look at him. All she could see was the strength of his body as he moved across the sand. Any sound he made was obliterated by the gentle rhythm of the surf.
“Jogging. Now that’s something you’ll never find me doing,” Chelsea said, her eyes following the runner the same way Ember’s were. “Cycling, yes. Swimming, why not? Running, ugh, no way.”
Ember smiled. “You never did like breaking a sweat.” She could remember a three-year-old Chelsea, her plump little legs working over time in an attempt to keep up with Ember. She’d shout and grumble until Ember would finally slow down and let her catch up.
“Why run when you can drive or cycle? It doesn’t make sense.” Chelsea’s tone was teasing, a welcome respite from their serious discussion. “Although from the looks of that guy, it’s working for him.”
Her words took Ember back to Megassey’s parking lot. To the man who was all muscles and no charm. She sighed at herself, at her reaction to him. She was better than that.
She didn’t want to think about that guy. The same way she didn’t want to think about Will, or her dad, or anything at all. She wanted to empty those thoughts out of her brain, and replace them with a calming nothingness.
“I’ll tell you what,” Ember said, kicking water at her sister’s bare knees. “Let’s show him how it’s really done. I’ll race you to the pier. Last one there has to buy the ice creams.” She’d barely finished her sentence before she was running, her bare feet slapping against the damp sand, her arms flinging out as her fingers clung to the straps of her sandals. The air pushed back against her, lifting her hair and rushing past her face.
“That’s not fair. You’re cheating again,” Chelsea called out. “And you know I hate running.”
But Ember was panting too loudly to hear.
4
When Monday morning came there really was a smile on Ember’s face. There was something special about walking down the school hallway before anybody else had made it in. Even after so many years of teaching, she still felt a little shiver go down her spine whenever her shoes clicked against the tiled floors as she headed toward her classroom.
She’d attended Angel Sands Elementary as a pupil, back when her mom used to tie her hair in pigtails so tight it would make her wince. Every room held a memory – the classroom where she first learned how to tie her shoelaces, the gym where every Christmas they’d sing their hearts out for their parents, and the playground when one recess she’d had her first kiss, with Adam Reyes, who’d thankfully long since left town.
She’d been more than lucky to land the job of First Grade teacher. Staff didn’t tend to leave Angel Sands very often – half the faculty had been here for more than twenty years. Only Rachel Foss, one of the Kindergarten teachers, had joined more recently than her. Even after all this time, Ember was still a relative newcomer.
As happy as she was to be there, Monday mornings at school were always a tough gig. Trying to reacclimatize the children to the classroom after the weekend took patience and grit. Sometimes, much more tolerance than Ember felt she had. She always tried to make the first lesson of the day as fun as she could – today they were learning about dinosaurs. In the corner of the classroom, she’d made a model featuring all the dinosaurs the children had learned about – the diplodocus and the brontosaurus, the triceratops, and of course the frightening T Rex. Turning to the white board hanging behind her desk, she started to point out the differences between them.
A giggle alerted her to the mischief that was happening behind her. The back of her neck tingled – Teacher Sense, as Principal Sawyer called it. The head of the school maintained that every natural teacher could feel trouble coming before it arrived, and if the itching on Ember’s spine was anything to go by, there was definitely something going on.
She turned to see Carter Davies out of his chair, holding the model T Rex, running over to Sally Johnson. Just as he arrived at her desk, he let out a roar – a fair imitation of what a dinosaur might sound like, Ember thought – and then shoved the T Rex toward her.
“He wants to eat you,” he said, giggling as Sally leaned away. “He forgot to have his breakfast this morning.”
“Carter, put the T Rex back,” Ember called out, but Sally was already taking matters into her own hands. She grabbed the toy dinosaur from Carter, and stomped away, leaving the boy staring at her open-mouthed. He clearly hadn’t expected that.
“Carter, please sit down.” Ember put on her stern face. She’d learned in her first few weeks on the job that showing any weakness at times like these could lead to mayhem. She tried not to remember her first week of teaching, when Principal Sawyer had ended up in her classroom almost every day trying to calm things down. “And Sally, put the dinosaur back on the table, please.”
“But he’s hungry,” Carter said. “I heard his tummy rumble.”
“Toys don’t get hungry,” Sally pointed out. “They don’t have insides, do they, so how can they eat food?”
Ember bit down a smile. Sally always had an answer, no matter how much Carter tried to rile her up.
She wasn’t sure who was happier when recess arrived – herself or her students. As soon as the bell rang, chairs scraped across the tiled floor as the level of chatter increased, and the children lined up at the door, waiting for her to open it and let them out.
It was her turn to supervise the playground, along with Rachel Foss, the kindergarten teacher. Ember grabbed them both a coffee from the staff room, then hurried out of the back door to join her friend. Rachel was leaning on the fencepost, watching the play area, when Ember joined her and passed her the cup. She immediately lifted it to her lips, closing her eyes as she swallowed a mouthful of coffee. With a deep sigh, she reopened them.
“You’ve no idea how much I needed that.”
“I’m pretty sure I can guess.” Ember flashed her a smile. “Tough morning?”
“I’ve had two bathroom accidents, a bucketful of tears, and somebody’s taken my favorite pen. Remind me why I wanted to be a teacher again?”
