Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Nelly clutched the coffee in her hand and tried to stay awake while she went around the classroom, each student giving their homework answer.
They had switched papers and were correcting them in class.
Nelly didn’t do that often, but she was exhausted today and wasn’t sure whether or not she would be able to correct anything after school tonight.
Especially with the emergency churchwide meeting that had been called.
Apparently, someone had realized there was no Christmas play scheduled for this year.
Nelly desperately wanted to be involved in that, and she wanted to pretend that she wasn’t so tired that she was struggling to stay awake.
“Miss Bushnell?” one of the students closest to her desk whispered to her.
She realized that the classroom had been quiet for a while.
“I’m sorry,” she said, lifting the coffee to her lips and taking another sip. It was almost time to go home—she would be wired until midnight. Or…the way she felt, she would be hard-pressed to go to the meeting without taking a nap first.
She looked around the classroom. “Everyone, figure out how many questions the person you corrected missed and then give them their paper back.”
She continued on with math class, embarrassed that a student had noticed her inattention. She prided herself on keeping her personal feelings completely separate from anything that had to do with school.
She had to remember that just a few moments later, when Roland McBride arrived to collect Robert from her classroom.
She pasted a smile on her face and remembered that Robert had given her an excuse to leave slightly early for a dentist appointment.
Apparently his uncle was taking him to the dentist appointment.
She could be nice, she could be kind, she could interact with this person that she intensely disliked.
She walked over, as she would with any other parent, and greeted him. “Good afternoon. Robert will be ready in just a moment. We were just a bit late with math class today, and we’re running slightly over. Let him get his things gathered up and put in his book bag.”
“Sure. We’ll just be late for the dentist, that’s all,” Roland said, sounding casual, but his words were anything but. It was a passive-aggressive swipe at her, saying that she wasn’t a good teacher, and she was going to cause them to be late.
“I said I was sorry,” she said, using her best professional teacher’s voice and her best professional teacher’s smile.
The kind of smile that she would smile at parents that she knew weren’t doing the best things that they possibly could for their children but were instead handing them off to the school to babysit every day.
And who didn’t really give a flip whether their children learned anything or not.
Those were her least favorite kind of parents.
Probably it was her physical exhaustion that caused her to work even harder at being cool and collected.
“You always did have trouble being on time,” Roland said. “But at least you got the right student.”
It was a dig at the fact that she had given her valentine to the wrong person.
Actually, it really hadn’t been her fault.
The only thing she could ever figure out was that she had put Tommy’s valentine in Roland’s envelope, but she never could confirm it.
She had been too shy to go to Tommy and ask if he had gotten a valentine from her.
She had given Roland one that basically said “you stink, but have a happy Valentine’s Day anyway.”
It was the nastiest one she could find, which was saying something, because most of the valentines were pretty nice and benign.
“I guess some people just hold onto the past and can’t ever let it go, can they?” she said, her smile not slipping an inch.
“Boy, that’s someone to talk—someone who had a rivalry over a valentine the entire way from third grade to twelfth.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, lifting her chin and giving him a superior look.
“I’m talking about the fact that you had your friend spy on me so that you knew every single grade that I got and made sure that yours were higher. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Nelly was aware of her students and their curiosity about the visitor and their conversation even though they were supposed to be practicing their handwriting.
“That is an unfair accusation, Mr. McBride. But you’re used to being wrong, aren’t you?”
“I doubt I’m used to it as much as you are, Miss Bushnell. But wrong, late, whatever.”
She didn’t get to say anything more, because Roland said, “Hey, Robert. Glad you got your stuff gathered together. I’m here to rescue you.”
“We like to encourage our children to enjoy school and not use such language that would make them think that there was something wrong with being here.”
“I’d do that too, but I don’t like to lie to kids,” Roland said.
She wanted to stamp her foot in frustration. She really, really loved Robert, and he had so much potential. Roland was going to ruin it all because of some stupid competition.
But even as she thought that, she knew the competition was all her fault.
She lifted her chin as Roland turned his back, put his hand on Robert’s shoulder, and walked him out the door.
She truly wanted the best for the children, and if she had to bite her tongue and smile at Roland in order to do it, she would.
“I’m sorry, children, let’s make sure we’re doing the best we can as we practice our cursive Zs.”
She arrived at home later that afternoon, and thankfully, Grandma was having a good day.
She had been talking to her colleagues about how long she should try to keep her grandmother at home and what her options were.
She couldn’t stay home from school and watch her every day, and she wasn’t sure she could hire someone to stay there all day long.
But she didn’t want to send her grandma to a home if she could help it.
The idea made her sad and also made her feel like she wasn’t being a very good granddaughter.
Regardless, she and Gram had a good meal together, and she even caught a nap before she headed to the meeting.
Marjorie McBride was there, and while she knew that Marjorie was Roland’s mother, she loved the woman completely and sometimes had trouble believing that the two of them could be related.
She was greeted by her and several other people as they walked in.
Pastor Connelly apologized for the short notice and explained that that was why a lot of people couldn’t make it.
“But I felt like we had to take care of the situation immediately. I’m sorry that I’ve been distracted by my wife’s illness and haven’t been on this like I should.
I was hoping, Nelly, that you would volunteer to head it up.
I know you’re very busy with your school and classroom, but no one does the job the way you do. ”
“Yes. Absolutely. I’d love to do it,” Nelly said honestly.
She really did love working on the school play and figured that she could probably fit that into her schedule.
Although, it was going to be an intense four weeks of practice, since the church play usually was done the Sunday after Christmas.
“That’s wonderful. My son, Roland, told me on my way out that he would be able to help as well. He was going to be a little late to the meeting, but he wanted me to volunteer him, because he had to take his nephew to the dentist, and he had just gotten home as I was walking out.”
Nelly about swallowed her tongue when Marjorie started to talk. She would be having to work with Roland? She could hardly take her volunteering back. That would be very un-Christian of her.
“I see. Well, it looks like we have our two directors lined up. Now, let’s talk about dates and refreshments.”
She realized that what was in her heart wasn’t what was coming out in her actions. Her heart was black and wicked and didn’t want to have anything to do with Roland. But here she was, pretending there were no problems. She needed to fix her heart, not back out of working with Roland.
The meeting was almost ready to wrap up when she noticed that Roland slipped in the back door and sat down beside his mom.
His mom leaned over and whispered to him, and Nelly almost laughed out loud at the expression on Roland’s face.
She looked away quickly as his eyes started to lift—she was sure that he would be searching the crowd looking for her.
Pastor Connelly noticed his late arrival and announced from where he stood at the front, “Looks like Roland has arrived. Just want to let you know that your mom volunteered you, and you are now working with Nelly Bushnell to direct the play. We’ve been talking about budget constraints, and the expectations of the play, and also the fact that we’re going to have to have some extra practices during the week.
I hope that will work with your schedule? ”
“This is a busy time of year at the Christmas tree farm,” Roland began, almost as though he were going to try to gracefully back out of it, but then—she didn’t know whether he remembered that he had told his mom he would do it, or whether she pinched him where no one could see, but he pasted an obviously fake smile on his face and said, “but I’m happy to help out wherever I can.
That’s what I told my mom when she left, and whatever she volunteered me for, I’ll keep my word and honor her commitment. ”
Nelly wanted to put her arms over her chest and pout. She didn’t want to work with Roland. And she didn’t want to have to explain why. Because she couldn’t. She really had no idea.
The rest of the meeting passed without her paying a whole lot of attention. It would be up to her and Roland to set the practice schedule and figure out exactly what they were going to do. That meant she was going to have to talk to him after the meeting adjourned.
She wasn’t looking forward to it, and she wanted him to come to her.