Chapter Twenty-six
Sylvie headed to class before the kids came streaming through, but was still a bit shell-shocked by the staffroom.
Marion had thought she was a stripper? Although actually, so what if she was?
It would be her choice how she earned her money and bugger all to do with anyone else.
Presumably a possible career in exotic dancing meant she wasn’t ‘good enough’ for Alex in Marion’s book.
She didn’t know why she was getting so riled up over such a stupid conversation. Marion was obviously Marion, there were lots of things Sylvie wasn’t too keen on about her as well. Why was she letting this particular interaction get to her?
As she crossed the hall she had heard Alice, Class Four’s teaching assistant, discussing the upcoming Bonfire Night assembly with Pippa from Class One and how she didn’t understand why Rosy didn’t just outright ban her as well after last year.
Sylvie was itching to join in and get the details; she could only guess at the her but it was a fairly secure one, plus she knew Pippa didn’t have any problem holding back and was great fun to get into conversation with, especially when she was riled.
But Sylvie did hold back and knew her own barely simmering fury with Marion this morning could mean she would be way too venomous, and venomous was never a great look in a new workplace.
After the register was taken and the children had marched into the hall, Sylvie plopped herself on the floor with Jade.
She felt sorry for the girl and had noticed she often tended to fidget badly in assembly, leading to Mrs Adams dragging her out and the whole day spiralling downward from there.
With Sylvie next to her she managed to hold it together for a little bit longer, thus avoiding the wrath of her class teacher and having a much better day overall.
The eldest sat down first and watched as the young ones trooped through.
The school held a Bonfire Night celebration and fireworks display every year and today’s assembly was the last one before the event later that night.
Rosy stood at the front smiling her gentle head teacher’s smile as the children filtered through and took their places.
As soon as all were settled she raised her hands for silence and began to talk about how exciting it was to have Fireworks Night come around again, as Marion jigged around from one foot to another, hair perfectly set, beaming out at the children and waiting for her bit.
Oh God! Watching her there, all jittery in her mustard dress with magpies on it and matching espadrilles, was making Sylvie’s temperature soar.
With all of this ‘… so close to Alex’ nonsense, Marion was going to screw everything up.
As soon as Sylvie had got herself some measure of happiness and security outside of Lovage Farm, Marion bloody-mustard-magpie Marksharp was going to screw it all up!
‘Now, Mrs Marksharp – and I know you all know her and have seen her around the school – is going to quickly talk to you about her plans for tonight. Marion.’
Sylvie watched as Rosy shot the head of the PTA a Very Stern Look.
‘Right, my darlings. It’s a very exciting day today and I have asked all the teachers to collect the best work you have done to celebrate Fireworks Day and the fifth of November, whether that be the beautiful paintings from Class One, or the interesting historical discourse from you older ones.’
‘The what?’ Jade turned to Sylvie.
‘Your history work,’ Sylvie whispered back.
‘Well, why doesn’t she say that then?’ Jade muttered under her breath.
Oh, she normally has no problem saying what she means, flitted through Sylvie’s head and the panic set in again.
She would make sure she was out on time today and get to Alex first. Surely if she had a whole firework display to micro-manage and parent helpers to terrorize, she wouldn’t have time to put a grenade in Sylvie’s first decent adult friendship in years? Not until teatime at least.
‘So, I’ll be coming around your classrooms to choose the best of the work on offer. No scribbles and I want lovely joined-up writing from you older ones. We will be showcasing Penmenna at its best. We want winners at Penmenna, none of this taking-part-is-all-that-counts nonsense, eh?’
Sylvie’s eyebrows went through the roof and she felt vindicated as Rosy glowered at Marion and interrupted, ‘As you know, Mrs Marksharp, we celebrate everyone who tries their hardest here.’
‘Well, of course we do.’ Marion beamed at Rosy and then, where the head teacher couldn’t see, turned around and mouthed, ‘Joined up,’ at the children and gave them a jolly thumbs-up as she nodded to reinforce her point.
‘Now, Mrs Adams used to deliver the safety advice for Fireworks Night but I think we all remember last year,’ Rosy said as she avoided making eye contact with the rest of the staff, who all suddenly became very interested in their shoes.
‘She was terrifying,’ Jade whispered. ‘Three of the little ones cried. She told us all we’d burn our fingers off and not be able to hold a pen or use a computer ever again if we didn’t all wear gloves.
Lara only had mittens so she refused to come and said her mum got really cross and rang the school to complain. ’
‘Jade James!’ Mrs Adams barked.
‘Sorry,’ Sylvie whispered across to the teacher. ‘That was my fault. She was answering a question I asked.’
‘Miss, did you just fib?’
‘Oh, um, well, yes. Now shush,’ Sylvie hissed, and then as an afterthought, ‘Doesn’t mean you ever should!’
As Rosy started to outline the main points of the fireworks code, getting the older children to join in and pulling up volunteers to act out what to do, Sylvie felt herself zoning out as she put the finishing touches to her plan.
She would just get to Alex and make it really, really clear that she wasn’t interested in him before Marion could get there with her tuppence-worth.
Alex would be relieved; after all, she was fairly sure he valued the friendship as much as she did and all should be OK as long as she didn’t get distracted by his arms, shoulders, hands, eyes, smile, legs, upper thighs…
Oh, for goodness’ sake, she’d have to speak to him with her eyes closed at this rate.
She would need to remain focused, hope he didn’t give her that look that he had started giving her when he saw her, the one that melted her tummy and made her feel she was going to disintegrate into a puddle of lust. Yes, as long as he didn’t do any of that, she’d be fine.