Maggie - It’s nice to have a friend
For my first day of school meetings, I left a little early so I could treat myself to a Starbucks iced coffee and croissant.
When I finally pulled into the designated teacher parking lot, my mouth dropped open.
This couldn’t be right …
I checked my phone again to make sure I had the right address. I figured I’d be driving up to a single school, not a beautiful campus with multiple, beautiful brick buildings with shrub-lined sidewalks. The main building sitting in the center had a huge, intricate clock tower resembling something you’d find on a college campus, not a K-12 school.
Staring in awe, I accidentally tipped over my iced coffee. The cold liquid poured down my button-down, making the silky material stick to my skin.
“No, no, no,” I whimpered out, my hands shaking in panic. “This cannot be happening right now.” I searched my car for napkins, but had no luck.
Immediately hopping outside, I balanced my backpack and coffee on the hood of my car, then tried to fan out my shirt in the dry heat.
“Hey, y’alright over there?”
My neck snapped up to see a girl around my age with blonde hair fluttering behind her and a bright smile. Her smile immediately dropped into a frown when she saw my shirt.
“Wait here, one sec!” she called out before scampering back to her car.
A second later, she was marching back over to me– with incredible speed for someone so short– holding a cardigan. Just the sight of a potential solution had my chest loosening.
“This should cover the stain,” she said, handing me the soft sweater. “I’m Kelly Kent by the way, the new second grade teacher around here.”
“Uh, hi… Maggie, art teacher,” I responded. “Are you sure?” I asked, holding her sweater.
“Definitely. Us new teachers have to stick together,” she said, her smile brightening. “Assuming you are here for the new teacher meeting too?”
Before I could respond, the rest of my iced coffee slid off my car hood and splattered on the cement next to me, making me jump to the side.
Kelly burst out laughing. “Jeez girl, bit of bad luck on the first day, huh?”
“You have no idea,” I said with a chuckle, despite my face burning up.
“C’mon, let’s get moving,” she said, breaking into a power-walk.
As we headed to the library– the designated meeting spot– she rattled on about her move from Alabama this summer. I liked her enthusiasm because it practically melted away my social anxiety. As a teacher, I was great with talking to kids, but with other adults I was usually an awkward mess. To make matters worse, my pale skin would light up like a fricken traffic stop, alerting the other person of my nerves.
“Do you know if we’ll get to see our classrooms today?” she asked suddenly. “Mark suspects we’ll be seeing them the second half of the day. He gets all the inside information because he’s an assistant coach for the football team. The VP is the head football coach, of course.” She rolled her eyes. “But decorating is my favorite, and I need to see the layout before I can make decisions!”
“Wait, who’s Mark?” I asked with a laugh, trying to mentally catch up. Her bubbliness was kind of contagious. The second graders who had her as a teacher were lucky kids.
“Oh!” Her eyes brightened. “He’s a new teacher like us, so he should be coming. He teaches high school History.” She scanned the parking lot and then gave a big wave to a tall athletic-looking guy in slacks and a red polo. The guy started jogging toward us.
She cocked her head and whispered to me, “That’s him. We met a week ago at Chippers– it’s a local bar that all the teachers hang out at every Friday afternoon during the school year. Some still hang out during the summers, so I gave it a shot and went. You should come tomorrow, you in?”
I gave an eager nod. I couldn’t wait to branch out and start meeting new people, and it was always nice not to go places alone. For as much as Kelly thought Mark had the inside scoop around here, it seemed like she was already figuring everything out as well.
“Perfect. Anyways, I kind of have a teensy crush on him,” she said, scrunching up her nose. She held a hand over her eyes for shade so she could watch him jog toward us.
“Hey y’all,” Mark said, coming to a stop in front of us, slightly out-of-breath. He brushed his fluffy brown hair back. His eyes fixed on me. “New girl, hello,” he said with a kind smile.
“This is Maggie,” Kelly said, “She’s an art teacher and our new friend. C’mon guys, let’s go. I don’t wanna get a bad seat.”
Mark laughed. “There’s only like ten new teachers, and we’re prolly the first here, Kel.”
She just waved him off and started again for the library at a breakneck pace.
Before reaching the library’s beautifully ornate wooden double doors, Ben shot out a few feet ahead of us to open them for us.
Inside, the building was absolutely breathtaking, with perfectly lined bookshelves, wood worktables, and comfy-looking couches. There was even a moving ladder attached to the bookshelves on the walls. But I couldn't get over the natural lighting let in from the paned windows– it would be amazing for painting.
I almost plopped at a random worktable, but then I noticed each spot had a laptop and name tag.
Mark quickly spotted our names and moved the laptops and name tags so we could sit together.
I smirked as I watched him pick our table– the one at the back of the room. “We won't get in trouble for moving around?”
“Nah,” Mark said with a grin. “Everyone knows teachers make the worst students, and that the cool kids sit in the back. Besides, Mr. D owes me.”
Kelly rolled her eyes. “Maybe I should be a football coach, then I can call in favors from the admin.”
Mark barked out a laugh. “We wouldn’t mind your help, Kel, but you’d probably find a way to make it too soft.”
Kelly folded her skinny arms in front of her chest. “I already told you, if I see you bench kids this year, I’ma whoop your ass.”
Mark just shook his head in amusement. “It’s a part of the game.”
“But it doesn't have to be!” She reached across the table and flicked him upside the ear. He immediately reeled back to look at her in shock and rubbed the side of his head.
I just laughed at their antics.
The three of us fell into comfortable conversation about our previous jobs while the room started filling up. About ten minutes in, the Vice Principal of the middle school, an older bald man, walked in the room and introduced himself as Mr. Walker.
We spent the next three hours setting up our school emails, attendance lists and gradebooks for the start of the school year. Then we were given a school map and our classroom keys to spend the rest of the day setting up our classrooms.
Mr. Walker dismissed us with a reminder that tomorrow would be a work from home day in the morning and then we’d be allowed on campus in the afternoon if we still needed more classroom prep time.
When Kelly, Mark, and I all held our keys and maps, we bent our heads together to see how close our rooms were.
Kelly’s room was in a smaller building to the right of the main office which had a huge green plot behind it to mark the playground for the elementary kids. Mark was in a high school building on the far corner of campus near the baseball fields. I was smack in the middle of campus in a building with only two other rooms.
“Okay, so Maggie’s room is the meeting place,” Mark said.
A little bubble of happiness grew in my chest hearing that we’d be spending more time together.
“Cool cool,” Kelly said, tucking her map in her bag. “Sounds like tomorrow’s meeting is gonna be a breeze. I bet we’re just running through school policies and then they’ll give us time to do those online health modules. You guys are both down for Chippers after, right?”
“I’m in,” I said quickly.
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” Mark added. “You two lemme know if you need any help with your classrooms, alright?”
Kelly’s smile dropped into a frown. “You already got to set yours up, didn’t you?”
He just laughed. “Been set up for weeks, Kel.” He shot her a wink as he strode off.
Her cheeks were slightly flushed when she said, “I think I need to learn football.”
Now I laughed. “I’ll see ya tomorrow, I’m gonna go check out my room.”
Following my map, I walked to the brick building at the center of campus that resembled a beautiful, old, factory building.
I quickly used my new key to unlock the door and walked into the tiled hallway. The first classroom was clearly a photography room– it had a little square room attached labeled “darkroom” for developing film. The next classroom looked to be for ceramics. There were clay spinning wheels to the side, worktables, and what looked like a little kiln room.
The last room, the one at the back of the building, was mine.
I twisted the doorknob and pushed.
My body went still with shock as my eyes took everything in.
A beautiful black-paned window spanned the entire back wall, letting golden sun rays extend into the room. The view beyond the window was breathtaking– two large trees sat on the lawn in front of us, while the older school buildings were in the background and the mountains rose up in the distance. I could stand here studying the lighting and shadows all day– which meant it was perfect material for the kids to draw and paint. One of my first lessons would be those mountains.
Wow.
And it wasn't just the window that was impressive. The walls to the right and left were lined with cabinets.
I pulled a couple of the cabinets on the right open to find that it was mostly storage space and drying racks for kids' art projects.
On the left side of the room cabinets were filled to the brim with art materials. More than we could ever use. So many acrylic paints and watercolors and coal, and chalk and pencils. Different types of canvas and paper. Tears welled up in my eyes. For the first time in my teaching career, I wouldn’t have to fight tooth and nail for my kids to get materials.
At the front of the room was a large desk for me that overlooked the rest of the room and faced the huge, beautiful window. The rest of the room was filled with student work tables that sat two kids each.
This was… this was perfect.
I’d no longer have to send kids in the hall for more space– and then worry they were just goofing off. We had plenty of space right here.
And then my eyes caught on what was below the teacher desk.
The room had a state-of-the-art stereo system for music.
I shook my head in awe. This room was beautiful, and it was mine. My little home base. Standing there, I breathed deep and smiled. Because this felt special. For once in my life, it felt like I was making the right decisions. This felt… meant to be.
_______
Coming back to my apartment that night holding a bag of Chipotle for dinner, I almost tripped over something and it… snarled at me?
I quickly jumped back to see the ugliest, hairless cat I’d ever seen in my life sitting before me in the hallway. I couldn’t stop myself from pulling a grossed-out face at the poor thing.
The door directly to my side popped open and an old woman who had to be in her eighties with a white curly pixie cut smiled up at me.
“Hello darling,” she said with a watery smile. She was dressed in a pink, zip-up nightgown and had to be only four feet tall.
“Hi,” I said with a hesitant smile. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see your cat there.” I gestured to the animal that was still glowering up at me. “I kind of kicked her on accident. Just a little.” I cringed.
“Oh, she’s not my kitty,” she said, waving me off. She leaned closer to me like she was letting me in on a secret. “I think she’s a stray, but she somehow always gets in the building. I have these little bells on my door, see,” she said, moving out of the way and holding up bells on a string. “She rings these to get food.” She smiled sweetly down at the evil feline.
“That’s so… nice of you.” But it was actually pretty concerning that stray animals were finding their way into the complex.
“I’m Mildred,” she said, extending a withered, frail hand out to shake mine.
“Maggie,” I said with a smile, taking her papery hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too, darling.” She grasped both her hands around mine. “Would you like to come in for some tea?”
I hesitated.
“Please? Give an old lady some company,” she said, moving back and ushering me into her apartment.
“Uh… I don’t want my dinner to get cold,” I said, gesturing to my paper bag.
“Nonsense, eat it here with me! I have some rice on my stove right now for myself.”
I paused by the threshold, wondering if this was a terrible idea… But it was good to get to know your neighbors… right? And she seemed entirely harmless.
An hour later, my face hurt from laughing so much. Mildred’s stories were absolutely insane. She’d been married three times and all three husbands had died on her, and now she hated men– a claim that made me laugh so hard I almost snorted my tea.
“They’re quitters, that bunch. Us women are survivors,” she said, giving me a triumphant smile.
Part of me had to wonder if she did something to cause any of those husband deaths, but I waved that off– I’d been reading too many dark romances lately, maybe I needed to dip back into light and fluffy romcom land.
We actually bonded over our love of romance novels. She claimed her eyes were too bad to read anymore, but she loved movies. I offered to help her set up an Audible account so she could listen to audiobooks, and she looked so excited at the prospect that I knew I couldn't let her down.
Leaving her apartment, she invited me back to watch The Bachelor with her on Monday, and I gladly accepted. I smiled as I walked back to my apartment. I made another friend.
This move was getting more successful by the hour.