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“Stop it, Terry,” she said, pushing him away. “I’ll keep my phone on vibrate.”
Standing at the chalkboard, she wrote out the letters.Ms. Thebideux. The baby moved, rolling around in her belly. In the September heat, she wasn’t even going to try hiding it, wearing a loose, sleeveless dress. She was clearly farther along than four months; they got married in June because she was already pregnant. She must have been more than a month. Her due date was a fabrication. When the baby arrived, the truth would come out.
Sister Gertrude made rounds before the students arrived and the teachers were in their homerooms, ready.
“Mrs. Marco! Welcome back. Did you have a pleasant summer?”
“It was lovely, Sister. And you?”
“Oh my, yes. I visited the Vatican with my sister and brother and their families. It was a glorious experience. What’s with the maiden name?” she pointed to the chalkboard.
“We decided I’ll keep using it professionally.”
Grimacing, Sister pointed to her belly. “I’m not sure that’s in the best interest of Saint Anthony Padua’s,” she said.
“Everyone knows I’m married, Sister. I’m a good Catholic teacher but I’m afraid I get to choose the name I’m going to use in the classroom. There’s nothing in my contract that says otherwise.”
“This is true,” she said. “How far along are you?”
“Almost four months,” she said, lying, scrambling. She got married in June and it was September. Was that the right answer? She’d deal with the blowback later.
The bell rang and the nun scurried out, waving goodbye, the conversation over as the classroom filled with students, most of whom she’d had in class before during her student teaching and first year, but a few new ones. They were seniors, not much younger than she was.
Around the corner from Ashlie, Mr. Spencer’s homeroom filled up, a classroom full of tenth graders who were so excited to be starting high school after three years of oppressive middle school. He didn’t want to squelch their enthusiasm, but once the second bell rang, Sister Gertrude would have the closed-circuit videos going, watching like a hawk.
“Attention, please!” he called out, walking around to the front of his desk. “Look up to the right corner of the room, near the ceiling. See that little white thing with the blue light on it? Video camera going right to Sister’s office. She’s watching every move we make so be on your best behavior when you’re in this classroom.”
A student raised his hand. “Name, please?”
He gave his name. “Are there cameras in every room?”
“Yep. So watch it. Detentions can be brutal here. I once had to sweep the entire gymnasium with a whisk broom, on my hands and knees.”
“You had to go here, too?”
“Of course! I bet seventy-five percent of the teachers here also were students here. It’s a great place to be. “Does everyone have their schedule for the day?”
There was rustling of paper as they looked through backpacks, and then the next bell rang. “Have a good day, everyone. See you back here at eight a.m. tomorrow morning.”
He had a first period class, Senior Physics. Looking out his window across the courtyard, he could see right into Ashlie’s classroom, so he pulled the blinds, not wanting to give in to the impulse to see if he could get a glimpse of her.
Somehow, he’d gotten through the summer without contacting her, as powerful as the urge was to just say hi. He’d had a few dates, but nothing that he particularly wanted to repeat. His sustenance over the summer was the daily poolside chats with Katy Theriot. He’d just realized he thought of her daily since she returned to San Diego. So, the key was to get through the first meeting with Ashlie and be civil.
He loved his job and didn’t want an altercation to disrupt his relationship with the superiors at the school, especially with Sister Gertrude.
During his morning break, he had his back turned, getting handouts ready, when he heard the door open.
“You got a second?”
“Sister, for you, always.”
She sidled up close to him and whispered conspiratorially, “Welcome back, young man. I wanted to tell you if you didn’t already know, Ashlie is pregnant.”
Stunned, Adam had to make a concerted effort not to take a step back from Sister Gertrude, who was known for having pungent halitosis because of herbal preparations she took for indigestion.
“Oh, wow, that was fast,” he mumbled, holding his breath.
“She claims to be four months, but I think she’s much farther along. I bet closer to six months.”
