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Two sheep were fighting over a red lego brick, one wise man was crying whilst another was standing on top of a desk with a He-Man sword in hand, the virgin Mary had cut her own bangs the night before and Joseph had wet himself. Again.
Ava clapped her hands. “Enough!”
Twelve pairs of eyes swiveled to her.
“Everybody to the reading carpet,” she said. “Now.” Obediently the children trotted toward the carpet until Ava spotted the flaw in her instructions. “Not you, Daniel,” she added to Joseph, whose white robe sported a yellow stain. “Go to the office.”
“Yes, miss,” Daniel said.
It was her own fault. As long as she stayed observant and watched out for wiggling she could catch Daniel before he had to go. Rehearsals for the nativity were driving her insane though. Put a kid in a costume and suddenly said kid thought he or she was invincible, invisible, and, in Ava’s opinion, infuriating.
“Sit down, hands in laps, please,” Ava said.
“Are we going to have story time?” asked Clara, her bangs slanted across her face in a way that made her look slightly cross-eyed.
“Because it’s not really story time,” added Alice, who had a package of frankincense tucked under one arm, a bag of gold coins circling her wrist, and a bottle of myrrh tucked in the cord of her robe.
“Why do you have all three gifts of the Magi?” Ava asked.
“What’s a Magi?” piped up Nathan.
“It’s a wise man, stupid,” said Carter Edwards.
“Well why didn’t she just say so?” asked Nathan with a sigh.
“Because Adesh and Sara can’t be trusted with their presents,” Alice explained.
Which was probably true, given that Sara was mopping her eyes and Adesh was currently ferreting a finger inside his nose, but that wasn’t Alice’s decision to make. As mature as Alice was, Ava sometimes worried that she was too mature. “Let’s return the gifts to the appropriate Magi, shall we?”
Alice huffed but tossed the frankincense to Sara and then threw the myrrh at Adesh, neatly hitting him on the head, his finger so far up his nose that he didn’t have time to extricate it to catch.
“Story time,” Ava said firmly.
For the last thirty minutes of the school day, the children managed to sit quietly and listen to a chapter of Stig of the Dump. When the bell finally rang, Ava let out a sigh of relief. Not that the day was over yet, far from it.
“Remember, everybody needs to be back here at six o’clock sharp,” she said. “That gives us plenty of time to get back in costume and get ready for the play. Understand?”
Twelve heads bobbed up and down, but Ava knew better than to trust a six-year-old’s word. She’d had Hope send letters home to parents and knew that everyone would be more or less on time.
The children scattered and Ava was left alone. Hope had taken the last hour or two to stay in the school hall and set up chairs and decorations for the Christmas Concert.
Ava stayed on her chair and closed her eyes, letting the empty classroom echo around her.
It was almost her last day, almost the last time that she’d sit here. And despite what Quinn had said, despite agreeing with her, she still hadn’t taken any risks. Maybe because she thought she didn’t deserve Hope.
Maybe because she was afraid.
Maybe because even though she’d looked she couldn’t bring herself to commit to moving to the UK. Not right now. Not to a whole new place, not again.
Which was stupid and ridiculous and foolish and all she wanted was an excuse to stay here.
Her heart told her she didn’t need an excuse, her brain told her she might not need an excuse, but she definitely needed a job and a place to stay wouldn’t go amiss either.
But she was going to take a risk. She’d promised herself that. She’d promised herself that come what may she wasn’t going to let Hope walk out of her life forever. Alright, so they might not have the kind of relationship that she wanted, but they could be friends, couldn’t they? They could write emails and have phone calls and maybe, one day, the world would align and they’d come together.
Or, said the little voice in the back of her head, you might never see each other again and you’ll lose this forever.
Not helpful.
