4. Eden
4
EDEN
E den stood in the teachers’ lounge, waiting for a fresh pot of coffee to finish brewing, and smiling as she listened to her gossipy colleagues fill the cozy space with their murmurings.
She’d been hearing the teachers’ whispers in the halls all day. Apparently, there was a new volunteer coach for the flag football unit they were doing in gym. And it didn’t take long for word to get out that basically everyone thought he was really cute.
“Then he started doing one-handed push-ups ,” Maggie Sullivan was saying softly now, as if she were afraid he might appear in the doorway and overhear her. “It was… impressive.”
A few of the other teachers made sounds of adamant agreement, and there was even some giggling.
Mr. Travers, one of the fourth-grade teachers, rustled his newspaper and when Eden turned she saw that he was practically hiding behind it.
The women were just being silly. They didn’t mean anything by their gossip. But Eden tried to put her mind someplace else. She certainly didn’t need to hear about anyone drooling over a man. She had put her own drooling days behind her.
Besides, she had plenty of other things to think about. It had been a great day so far. Her kids were down in gym now, but when they came back up, they were going to share their short story ideas with the class, and then begin work on their outlines.
“Well, I saw him in that game against Springton Valley back when he was in high school,” Mrs. Hastings said. “He threw that Philly Special touchdown to Ian Cassidy, and we all just about lost our minds.”
“Won the district championship with that one,” Mr. Travers chimed in, lowering his newspaper.
“What’s a Philly Special?” Eden asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. The name immediately made her think of a cheesesteak with extra fried onions, but she knew that wasn’t right.
“That’s when the offense fakes out the defense on a fourth down,” Mrs. Hastings told her. “The quarterback moves behind the offensive line and the center snaps the ball to the running back. Then the running back pitches it to the tight end, that was Axel Williams. And the quarterback, Ian Cassidy, was wide open in the end zone, so Axel shot it straight into his hands for a touchdown.”
“Textbook Philly Special,” Mr. Travers said approvingly. “Though it wasn’t called that back then—it was just a fancy trick play, and one that none of us had ever seen before. Williams and Cassidy were unstoppable.”
Eden nodded, but her mind had gotten so hung up on the name Axel Williams that she hadn’t fully followed anything that came after it.
The gorgeous man who brought me a coffee is the new football guy?
She winced at herself for thinking he was gorgeous. Hadn’t she just been mentally chiding all the other women for being silly by whispering about some good-looking guy? What he looked like wasn’t important.
But it was important that he had been thoughtful and kind.
“He’s still so focused,” another teacher said admiringly.
Someone else giggled in agreement and Eden felt an unexpected little jolt of displeasure that was almost like… jealousy. Though of course she had no claim over the poor man. She was just annoyed that they wouldn’t stop talking about him.
What’s going on with me? I’m not a judgmental person. I love my co-workers.
“I’d better get back,” she said to no one in particular, and hurried off to her classroom without her coffee.
Once she was back in her room, she reminded herself that she was really looking forward to hearing what her students had planned for their stories. Maybe that was why she had gotten antsy in the teachers’ lounge. She decided to look over tomorrow’s lesson plan while she waited for them to come back.
At least the children wouldn’t be gossiping about Axel Williams. She would have a chance to put her mind on something else .
She sat at her desk and pulled the planner out of her satchel, opening it up to tomorrow’s date.
But the three tiny, splotchy brown circles on the corner of the page had her thinking about the man all over again. He had done a good job cleaning droplets of coffee from her stuff, but that little souvenir remained.
She flipped the page quickly and started brainstorming fun math practices, determined not to see any of these events as a sign .
It was quite a coincidence that the man who accidentally bumped into her was now volunteering at the school, but Trinity Falls was a very small town.
Besides, as her mom used to say, signs were for people who were looking for an excuse to do what they wanted to do in the first place. All Eden wanted was to be a good mom and a good teacher.
I felt the east wind blowing yesterday morning…
But that was silly too. She wasn’t even sure where the thought had come from. She honestly wasn’t even really sure which way was east in her new town. It had just been a funny feeling. It was nothing.
She buried the train of thought and got right to work. Soon her mind was racing with ideas, as she tried to think of a way to incorporate things the children had done well with the concepts that were more challenging. She had just come up with something promising that she thought the kids would love, when the bell rang.
There was just enough time to slip the planner away again and take a quick sip of water from her mug before little footsteps rained down on the hallway tiles. And just a minute later, the first of her students began coming in .
“That was awesome,” Addy Baker yelled, high-fiving Matt Gray.
Matt began running in place with his knees super high, as if he were demonstrating something.
“We had gym with a real football player, Miss Wilder,” Dylan Roberts crowed.
“He did so many push-ups,” Matt panted, his high-legged running-in-place demonstration apparently over. “It was epic.”
“He made us do push-ups too,” Addy said, a little less enthusiastically. “But then he let us run all around the gym.”
“He taught us drills, ” Dylan added. “Real football drills.”
The other kids were joining in now, and Eden thought for a moment that she might be losing her mind. Why couldn’t she get a break from thinking about?—
“ Axel Williams pulled off a trick play in the district championship,” someone called out. “ He’s practically famous. ”
“Okay, children,” Eden said, standing and using her clearest, loudest friendly-teacher voice. “Let’s take our seats and get ready to talk about your short story ideas.”
That got everyone’s attention. The kids loved creative writing, and they scrambled to get their notebooks and pencils and find their seats.
As least I’ll get a break from all this football talk, Eden thought to herself.
“I’m changing mine to be about football,” Matt whispered to Addy as he slid into his desk.
“Me too,” Dylan added from behind them.
Time began flying by as soon as the kids were in the zone talking about their stories. Eden loved hearing all the things they were passionate about—the subjects that inevitably made their way into stories for kids at this age.
By the time class was over Eden was feeling very proud of her students. Of course, several of them wanted to write about football now. But when she challenged them to refine their plots and talk about a beginning, middle, and end, they all went in different directions—none of which were specifically following the adventures of a certain young man who was coaching them.
As class was wrapping up and the kids were preparing to go to the art room for their last period before dismissal, Eden couldn’t help noticing that some of them still looked tired and sweaty.
Is he pushing them too hard? she wondered to herself suddenly. He’s not an actual gym teacher…
Jack had gym next period, and Eden had a planning slot since her kids were in art class.
I’ll just run down and check on Jack, she thought to herself. And if I happen to stop and thank Mr. Williams for the coffee, that’s only being polite.
Once all her students had headed to the art classroom, she headed downstairs, satisfied with her decision, ignoring the impulse to just run a brush through her hair and put on a little lip balm.
She heard Jack’s class long before she reached the gym. The squeaking of sneakers and kids yelling encouragement drifted halfway down the hall to greet her, the sounds amplified as they bounced around in the big space .
When she reached the open door, she slipped inside and stopped to take it all in.
The kids were doing some kind of drill. Orange cones were set up all over the place. Some of the students were running forward and backward in patterns between the cones, while a group about the same size cheered them on, and the rest ran laps around the gym.
It was honestly pretty impressive. Third graders were still prone to wandering off, mentally or otherwise, when they weren’t engaged. And when they were engaged, it was almost impossible to stop them from yelling things out.
Somehow, this man with absolutely no teaching experience had set up a series of activities that was keeping them both mentally and physically occupied, and actually encouraging them to blurt things out when they weren’t running around.
Nancy Higginbottom floated up to Eden with a smile, her hands holding her big belly like she was afraid it might try to escape.
“Did you organize this?” Eden asked her, realizing maybe that was it. Maybe he was just following the lesson plan of a seasoned teacher.
“None of it,” Nancy said, shaking her head. “He just jumped right in. Hey, if you’re here for a second, do you mind if I run to the bathroom? He’s supposed to have a real teacher in here with him.”
“Of course,” Eden told her. “Take your time. My kids are in Art.”
“Thank you,” Nancy sighed happily, patting her belly. “This little guy is active today. ”
Nancy hurried off toward the bathroom, and Eden turned her attention back to the children. She had spotted Jack right away. He was one of the kids running laps and he looked just fine, but she was glad for the excuse to stay a little longer. Jack’s friend, Rocky Webb was in here too, and Rocky had asthma.
“Hey,” a deep voice said suddenly.
She looked up to see that Axel Williams had spotted her, and was heading her way.
His exercise gear fit snugly enough that she could see the sinuous movement of his muscles stretching and contracting with each step, like the big cats at the Philadelphia Zoo.
“Hello,” she said, looking up into his eyes and deciding she wouldn’t look at the rest of him again. “Thank you for the coffee yesterday.”
“My pleasure,” he told her, his brown eyes so serious. “I’m sorry again for making you spill the first one.”
“That’s okay,” she said.
They gazed at each other mutely for a moment, and a shiver of electricity seemed to pass between them, sending a burst of warmth through Eden’s chest.
“ Mr. Williams, Mr. Williams ,” Donny Brown whined, trotting over from inside the cones. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m gonna throw up.”
Donny was a good boy, but definitely not one to push himself.
“ Excellent,” Axel yelled back to him encouragingly. “If you think you’re going to throw up, then you’re doing it exactly right. ”
That didn’t sound like something they should tell the children.
She glanced over at Nancy, who had come out of the bathroom and was sitting on the bleachers watching over the activities. Nancy shrugged and smiled back at her with a what-are-you-going-to-do expression. Eden turned back to see Donny prancing back to the kids around the cones.
“I’m going to throw up,” he yelled happily, his thin chest thrust out in pride.
Rocky Webb was in that group, and he looked like he was doing fine, his cute little face stretched in a big grin as he shuffled between the cones.
She glanced around for Jack again and found him still running. He had a grim look on his face like he was pushing himself, and she felt a familiar twinge of discomfort.
“ You can go faster than that, Jack ,” Axel yelled out suddenly from beside her.
Jack put his chin down and impossibly began running faster.
“This is kind of… intense,” she said carefully.
“Yup,” Axel agreed. “Discipline. It’s what they crave. And it’s what they need to cultivate if they want to be happy in life when they’re grown up and on their own. ”
He had turned to yell at a pair of kids who must have been running too close and knocked each other down.
“Teammates lift each other up, they don’t knock each other down,” he yelled. “Now get up and keep running.”
He strode closer to the kids, as if to assure himself that they were going to do as they were told, and Eden took the opportunity to slip out.
Axel had the activities organized, and he was definitely paying attention to the kids. It was honestly going a lot better in there than she could have imagined. But the way he was pushing them just didn’t sit right with her. What if one of the children got hurt?
She wondered if maybe she should stop by Principal Tucker’s office to have a word with her.
Nancy Higginbottom has been in there with him all day, she reminded herself. If it gets out of hand, she’ll say something. She knows what the kids can handle. Going over her head now would be really insulting.
Nancy had looked awfully pleased from her spot on the bleachers. She was probably just thinking that Axel was cute.
Eden felt another annoying little flame of unwanted jealousy licking at her chest, and she turned on her heel and marched off in the direction of her classroom.
I’m being ridiculous, she thought to herself, her cheeks heating in shame. This has nothing to do with me. If gym class is out of control, another teacher will say something to the principal.
And maybe I can actually make it through the rest of the day without anyone talking about Axel Williams.