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“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Jake said. “OFSTED, school inspectors, they just make sure everything’s up to scratch. But like I said, teach to the lesson plan you have and you’ll do just fine.” He paused for a second. “Hope is here, isn’t she?”
“In the copy room.”
His face cleared. “Well then, it’ll all be alright. I’ll talk a bit about it in the staff meeting tomorrow. But really, I’m sure they’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, being new and a foreigner and all.”
Ava wasn’t at all sure she wanted the benefit of the doubt, or that she wanted to be inspected, or that she really understood what was being inspected and why. But before she could ask any more questions, the headmaster had gone and she could hear his shoes clopping down the corridor outside.
She was still worrying about what had just happened, and was busy googling OFSTED, when Hope returned holding her photocopies.
“You look like the world’s about to end,” said Hope.
“What’s OFSTED?”
Hope put the pile of papers down on the desk. “It’s the government department that oversees standards in education, you know, makes sure we’re teaching the kids to read and write and not to, I don’t know, hold their breaths and dive for pearls or something.”
“They’re inspecting me.”
Okay, so she hadn’t wanted to show any further weakness in front of Hope, but she didn’t have much of a choice just at the moment. It occurred to her that the inspection involved Hope just as much as herself. Maybe Hope was just as shit-scared.
Hope shrugged. “They do it every now and again. It’s not a big deal. Well, I mean it is if you’re a failing school, but we’re not.” She stopped. “You’ve got a lesson plan, right?”
Ava nodded.
“Then don’t worry.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Ava snapped, irritated that no one seemed to be taking her concerns particularly seriously.
“Well, I’m not the one being inspected, am I?”
“Very helpful. And totally unnecessary,” Ava said.
“Sorry, I’ve been too busy lecturing my cat about using the toilet outside to keep up with my etiquette lessons,” Hope said, one hand on her hip.
Ava rolled her eyes. “Are you ever going to let that go?”
“Are you?”
“That rather depends on whether or not your cat appears in my garden again.”
“See, I thought we were going to separate our home and work lives.”
“You were the one that brought this up,” Ava pointed out.
“I did,” agreed Hope. Then she cocked an eyebrow. “Are you still dwelling on that inspection?”
Ava frowned. “Well, no, but—”
“Then distraction achieved,” said Hope, picking up the purse that was hanging on the back of the closet door. “Besides, you have nothing to worry about. I’ll be here.”
And with that, she walked out.
Ava shook her head and wondered if she’d ever met anyone quite as irritating as Hope Perkins.
THE EVENING WAS warm and Ava enjoyed the feeling of being outside. She enjoyed the feeling of being in Whitebridge, if she was being honest. Not that she’d made herself part of the community yet. But it was nice to be somewhere small for a change.
And nice to be somewhere where she could walk home past a nice bookstore, she thought as she saw that The Queens of Crime was still open. She needed something new to read, something to distract her and take her mind off the disaster that was her personal life and the potential disaster that her professional life was becoming.
She clinged through the door and a blue head immediately popped up from behind the counter.
