Chapter 5
Jake had been waiting impatiently for the lift doors to open. He’d begun to sweat. Despite appreciating Faye sorting his tie, he’d had to loosen it. He hated confined spaces, and had done ever since the skiing accident the previous Christmas.
Jake did not want to think about that. He’d followed Faye into the lift that morning without thinking; he always took the stairs. The lift jerking to a stop on the floor below hadn’t helped, although he had appreciated the unexpected upside – Faye being thrown into his arms. He could have held her in his embrace all day.
Free of the lift, Jake headed straight for his desk in the staff room, while Faye hung back, removing her coat and placing it on the rack behind the door. Jake sat down and glanced out of the window at the early summer morning.
Mondays were good.
Work was good.
He reached for the first exercise book, ready to start marking the ever-increasing pile. Faye sat down opposite him. He wondered why she hadn’t gone straight to her office, although the Monday morning staff meeting was due to take place in the staff room, so he imagined that was why she’d followed him in.
For a long moment, he watched her looking out of the window and wondered what was on her mind. Something about her demeanour told him he’d better not ask. Besides, he knew she wouldn’t tell him – they weren’t speaking. At least, she wasn’t speaking to him.
He sighed and turned his attention to the exercise book. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Time was limited; they were due to start lessons soon after the staff meeting, and he always endeavoured to return the previous day’s work to his students marked. He had never spared a thought for how much paperwork was actually involved in teaching, with every lesson bringing a deluge of paperwork. He had honestly thought he had left his desk-bound, pen-pushing days behind him.
Jake reached for his pen. He looked up. It wasn’t there. He drew the plastic pen-holder closer and peered into the little rounded compartments; the pencils, eraser, sharpener and ruler were all there in their appropriate places, but somebody had borrowed his silver Parker. Jake looked around the staff room. It hadn’t been long, and the room had quickly filled up with teaching staff. They all had their heads down and were quietly catching up on their paperwork, preparing for another working week.
At the far end of the room, a young male teacher caught his attention. Jake watched him whisper something to his colleague, a woman who, like Jake, had started Initial Teacher Training. They both looked in Jake’s direction. He caught their eyes flickering to Faye, and then they whispered something else, clearly about them.
Jake sighed. With Faye sorting out Jake’s tie in the lift, one could easily mistake them for a couple who had come into work together. Everyone knew they weren’t together – didn’t they? Had the head said something? He couldn’t imagine it, but then perhaps because of the many times he’d babysat over the last few weeks, it was giving them something to talk about, like the possibility that babysitting was just a euphemism for something else – an excuse to spend time together.
One of them, the young man, gave him a thumbs-up. The young woman saw the gesture and frowned.
Jake sighed heavily.
‘What is it?’ hissed Faye across the table.
Hoping Faye hadn’t seen the little exchange, Jake tipped up his pen-holder for Faye to see. ‘Somebody stole my pen!’
Faye whipped a biro from her pen-holder and held it up. ‘Will this do?’
‘That’s not my Parker.’
Faye leaned forward and slammed the pen down on top of Jake’s desk. She held it there. ‘It’s a pen. Do you want it?’
‘Yes,’ he said meekly.
She lifted her hand from the pen, sat back in her seat and resumed looking out of the window.
Jake stared at her for a long moment before reaching for the pen. It was quite a nice biro, as biros went, but he still wanted his Parker. Jake took another look around the staff room only to find more heads were now turned his way, more eyes were on them both. The two members of staff who had been talking about them exchanged a glance, raising their eyebrows. Jake imagined they were going to have a field day now it appeared that they were lovers who were having a little tiff.
Jake made one more sweep of the staff room, wondering which sneaky person had stolen his pen, before starting to mark the exercise book with the biro. No sooner had he put pen to paper than his mobile phone rang. Jake looked at his watch. He couldn’t imagine who would be phoning him on a Monday morning – or any morning, for that matter. He’d stopped working with the Ross Corporation, and anybody trying to get in touch with him should know that by now. Either that, or it was the wrong number. In any case, he chose to ignore it. He got the phone out of his pocket and swiped the decline icon. Whatever it was, he was no longer their man. Besides, he needed to get his marking done before the school day began. He knew he should have taken the exercise books home with him at the weekend.
His phone rang again. This time there were murmurs of disapproval in the staff room. Jake wasn’t the only one furiously catching up with work before the start of the school week.
Faye took a file from her in-tray, throwing him a Well, aren’t you going to answer that? look.
Jake answered his phone. He didn’t bother leaving the staff room because he knew he wouldn’t be on the phone long.
‘Yes – who is it?’ he said curtly. He did not recognise the number. But he should have.
Jake listened and sighed heavily; he could well do without the call.
‘No, I haven’t seen him, Lydia.’
Faye looked up from her paperwork.
‘Just calm down and tell me what happened.’ Jake glanced at Faye, then leaned back in his chair and swivelled it to face the window. He closed his eyes and listened.
‘I’ll call you back as soon as I know anything, Lydia.’ Jake turned his chair round to his desk.
Faye looked up from her paperwork as Jake put his phone in his pocket and stood up. ‘I’ve got to go out.’
‘What – now?’
‘Yes.’
‘But Jake, what about the staff meeting?’
Every Monday morning at eight-thirty was the time the staff all met the head for a briefing.
Jake closed the exercise book and tossed it back on the pile. He looked at his watch. He didn’t have to be in work so early. Officially, the working day hadn’t begun yet. ‘I’ll be back for the staff meeting, I promise.’
Jake plucked his jacket from the back of his chair.
‘But where are you going?’
‘I’ve got to find someone.’
‘Who?’
‘It’s personal,’ said Jake without thinking.
Faye returned her attention to her paperwork without comment.
Jake hovered for a moment, wishing he hadn’t said that. He didn’t have time for this. He headed for the door, fishing in his pockets for the key to his padlock. ‘Damn!’ Jake halted abruptly – there was no key. He checked both jacket pockets and his trouser pockets, then cast a glance over to his desk. What did I do with it when I hurried after Faye? he wondered.
He glanced over his shoulder at Faye; she was still at the desk, studying a file. Jake reluctantly retraced his steps. He leaned on the back of his chair, staring intently at his mentor.
Faye didn’t look up. ‘I thought you were off out?’
‘Faye, I can’t find the key to my padlock.’
She shrugged. ‘Maybe you left the key in your padlock.’
‘I never do that.’
They both turned to look out of the window, even though they wouldn’t be able to tell from where they were whether Jake had put the padlock on his bike and then left the key in it. It was very unlikely; it was an expensive bike, and Jake was fastidious with locking it up.
As that moment, they both saw someone in a hoodie riding Jake’s very expensive bike out of the entrance gates.
‘Is that your bike?’ Faye asked evenly.
‘Oh, you have got to be kidding me!’ Jake exclaimed.
They weren’t the only ones staring out of the window. Someone else commented, ‘I think someone stole Jake’s bike.’
‘Well, that’s what happens when you ride a bike like that in a neighbourhood like ours.’
Jake slapped his forehead. Of course, they were right.
She looked at him. ‘Aren’t you going to call the police?’
Jake didn’t care about his bike – or rather, he did, but just then he had a far more urgent situation to deal with.
‘Faye, can I borrow your car?’
‘If you need a ride, call a taxi.’
‘There isn’t time.’
Faye put her pen down, and said in a hushed voice, ‘What is it? What’s going on?’
‘All right, people,’ a loud voice interrupted them. ‘As you’re all here, I thought we might as well start the meeting early, which will give you a bit more time for lesson preparation before the day begins.’ The head clapped his hands. ‘Let’s gather round.’
Faye closed her file and got up as everyone else started to take a seat at the large oval table towards the front of the staff room.
Jake didn’t make a move.
Faye shrugged her shoulders and headed for the table.
Jake glanced at the car keys on Faye’s desk. He looked up to see the other teachers filing past him and Faye already seated at the table, staring his way. On a push bike, he could have cut through the traffic, but with his bike gone, as he’d told Faye, he didn’t have time to wait for a taxi.
Jake looked back at the car keys.
‘And that means you too, Jake.’ The head was standing at the table, watching Jake.
‘Damn,’ said Jake under his breath. He quickly helped himself to a coffee from the machine in the corner, like everybody else, and then reluctantly took a seat.
‘Right, people – are we finally all here?’ Jake was aware that the comment was specifically directed at him.
‘Okay, folks, let’s look at the minutes of the last meeting.’ He ruffled some papers and looked at his deputy, who was sitting next to him.
Faye passed him the minutes.
Jake hoped the meeting would be over quickly; then he might have time to nip out before the school day officially started at nine.
The head scanned down the minutes from the previous week and then tossed the sheet aside. ‘We’ll come back to that later,’ he said. ‘The first thing I would like to talk about is professional development days.’
There was a collective sigh.
‘Yes, I know you don’t want to hear it, but some of you are not exploring all the available opportunities for improving your skills and abilities in the classroom, and I realise most do not want to be away from the chalkface even for a day, but if it carries on, and you don’t make use of them, you’ll have saved up so much you could retire on it.’
It was a joke, but nobody laughed.
The head continued, ‘I can’t have two-thirds of the school disappearing at the same time if you all decide to pursue the same course, so by the end of the week, I want all required professional course days applied for. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Crystal,’ somebody said from the back.
The head gave him a second look, unsure whether he was being sarcastic.
Jake was relieved the professional days didn’t apply to him as a trainee. Taking time off away from work was not Jake’s favourite topic.
‘And remember,’ the head continued as he picked up the meeting minutes again, ‘not more than one day at a time.’
‘And not at the same time as others in your year group,’ the staff all chanted in unison, having heard it a million times before.
The head looked up in surprise. ‘Well, not that you’d actually go off with your colleagues.’
There was a snigger behind Faye.
Faye turned and looked at the young man who Jake was positive had been talking about him and Faye earlier. Jake looked at his shoes.
‘But you all know your year groups and who you cover for, so when one’s away …’
‘The other stays,’ somebody said wearily.
‘That’s right,’ the head said to no one in particular. ‘Now, let’s get down to business.’ He held up a piece of paper. ‘Before we get into the minutes from last week, has anybody got anything new to raise since last Monday?’
Someone raised their hand and said, ‘Jake’s bike was stolen a few minutes ago.’
Jake had been staring out of the window. He fixed an annoyed gaze on the colleague who’d spoken. He did not want the meeting going on any longer than necessary, and certainly did not want the issue of his stolen bike raised.
The head looked at Jake. ‘Is that right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Have you phoned the police?’
Jake shook his head.
‘Why ever not?’ He held up an exasperated hand, indicated the door. ‘Go.’
Jake said, ‘Pardon me?’
‘Go – make that call. Do what you have to do.’
Jake slowly got out of his seat. Was the head seriously letting him go early from the meeting?
‘Right now!’
Jake sighed in relief as he closed the staff room door on the head, who was looking at the minutes and saying, ‘Let’s start with absenteeism …’
Jake swiped Faye’s car keys from her desk as he passed by, ensuring nobody was looking. Then he made a show of getting out his phone as he left the room, just in case the head was eyeing him as he walked out. But he wasn’t calling the police – he was calling Lydia to say he was on his way.