HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, MISS KATIE!
She took out her phone and quickly snapped a picture, then looked across the street and saw two little faces peering out the window, with Sam standing over them, waving.
“Oh my God! Thank you! Thank you!” Katie shouted, then put both hands over her heart to indicate she loved it and blew all of them kisses as she got in her car and drove away.
She was still smiling when she parked in the school parking lot and walked into the building. According to the letter, all of the teachers were to meet in the cafeteria. Even though she remembered where it was, she could have found it blindfolded by following the aroma of fresh coffee and the chatter of voices. She was so focused on getting to the meeting that the long hallway and empty classrooms never registered.
She walked into the cafeteria, looked around for an empty chair, and left her things before heading to the buffet of coffee and doughnuts.
Susan Wayne had been watching for Katie, and when she saw her at the buffet table, she hurried over.
“Good morning, Katie! Are you ready for this year?”
“I am,” Katie said, and then pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and pulled up the picture she’d just taken. “Look what was on my front yard when I came out this morning.”
Susan laughed. “That’s awesome! Who do you think did that?”
“Oh, I know who did it. Sam Youngblood’s little girls, with some help from Daddy.”
“So, you’ve met the chief?” Susan asked.
“I live across the street from him,” Katie said.
Two teachers at the buffet looked up at Katie and groaned.
“Hi, I’m Justine. You said you live across the street from Sam?”
“Lucky you,” another teacher said, then smiled at Katie. “I’m Wynona, by the way.”
“I’m Katie, and it was none of my doing. I just leased a house long distance from Louise Parsons, packed up my stuff, and headed east,” Katie said, and then changed the subject. “The doughnuts look so good, and I skipped breakfast for them.”
“Get a couple,” Susan said. “There’s going to be plenty.”
“I won’t say no,” Katie said. She piled up a little paper plate with two big glazed doughnuts and carried them and her coffee back to her seat.
Wynona sidled up to Justine and lowered her voice. “Just look at those long legs and slim hips. Some people have all the luck.”
Susan frowned. “Looks do not signify luck. I think you’ll come to learn that she’s a most remarkable woman, and I expect every one of my teachers to be professional and kind to the newcomer among us.”
Justine flushed, and Wynona was immediately apologetic.
“I didn’t mean anything by it. I just—”
“Let’s take our seats so we can get started on time,” Susan said, and the day began.
By the time the meeting was over, they’d all identified themselves and what they taught, and then headed to their rooms.
Marcy Kincaid, the other first grade teacher, ran to catch up.
“Hi, Katie. I’m Marcy, your teammate.”
Katie had already spotted her across the room. It was the bright-red hair.
“Great to meet you in person,” Katie said. “Let’s do this.”
They chatted the rest of the way down the hall and then went their separate ways when they entered their own rooms.
The building was already coming alive. Voices echoed in the halls, and doors were banging. But Katie’s room was different enough from what she’d had that it wasn’t an immediate trigger. The furniture had been moved into the classrooms, and her desk and chair were shoved up against a wall. The basics were there. It was now up to her to bring it to life.
And so it began.
Day after day, one little thing after another was added. A braided oval rug for story time. A banner with all of the letters of the alphabet. Another banner with numbers from one to twenty. Bringing her collection of storybooks from home and filing them in a shelf in her reading center. Working on her bulletin board out in the hall beside her door.
And nearly every night, she spent a little time at Sam’s house, or he and the girls spent a little time with her. It wasn’t enough time to suit Sam, but he wasn’t going to ruin what was happening between them by pushing her into a commitment she was afraid of.
And Katie wasn’t just falling for Sam anymore. Evie and Beth were working their own magic on her—to the point that she began imagining herself in their lives on a permanent basis, and how that would be.
Then every day, she’d go back to school and add more to her classroom. Things that were both sensory and visual, and setting up the computer area, and then six child-size chairs for every tiny round table, until it was only two days before actual classes began.
Katie had the list of students who would be in her class, and as fate would have it, Beth and Evie were on the list, as was Donny Tiller, who was Rita the bowling buddy’s grandson.
Eighteen students in all.
And tonight was Back to School Night.
Time for the parents to bring their children to school to find out who their teacher would be for the year and where their classroom was located.
The fact that she and Sam were seeing each other had played heavily into her concern about the girls being in her class. But after talking to Sam, and then Sam talking to the principal, they all decided to leave the last as it was. The girls were already used to minding Katie, and she wasn’t the kind to play favorites. Sam knew she was going to be their teacher, but the girls did not.
He would bring them to see their room, and their cubby where their things would go, and the hooks where they would hang their backpacks and coats, and he, along with all the other parents, would get their own set of rules and a chance to meet the teacher.
Katie had been teaching long enough to expect at least one set of parents who demanded more of the school and expected less of their child. They would argue the child’s failures and expect instant gratification for their child, whether they deserved it or not.
She had on a new pair of purple slacks and a lavender long-sleeved blouse. She’d clipped her hair back away from her face, leaving the length of it hanging well below her shoulders. The lanyard around her neck identified her as Miss Katie, First Grade.
She was in her room and ready when the first wave of parents and students began.
***
At the beginning of entering pre-K, then kindergarten, Sam had informed the principal and teachers that his girls were never to be separated in different classes, that they functioned and listened and learned far better together than when they were apart. And since learning was the objective, that was his decision. So now the girls’ initial anxiety of being in different classes was no longer an issue.