Chinese Food
At first, I was unsure about my new boss. Kasey and the assistant principal, who had been in the school district just a few years longer than me and had worked for my mother, seemed to be changing everything that my mother worked hard to build.
The first few weeks of the new school year were pretty hard for me. I had a sweetest class and was on fire for teaching ELAR, but I felt a different moral in the school. I could tell other original teachers missed my mom as well. The new bosses seemed like a click of mean girls trying to prove something. Everyone was edge. I felt they would pick at and be ugly to others that didn't share their same views, but my mom said that the district needed these types of knew attitudes to keep people in line. So, I didn't let them get me down. I knew my mom had molded me into a great teacher, and wasn’t going to let them get me down. But then, one Tuesday in September happened. I'll never forget it because of the way Kasey looked at me, and it was probably the first time I really started to notice just how beautiful she really was.
“Natalie I need you to work late tonight… we need to work on the fall data plan based on last year's scores. We’re going to meet after school till about 7ish...Thanks!” Kasey said as she popped her head into my room one September morning. Does she not know that I have kids and that I’m a single mom? I thought. I immediately texted my mother. “Is this really happening? Overtime on a school night?”
Mom told me to go with it, and that she and dad could watch the twins. She said not to worry about things right now and see where Kasey was going with her after school meetings.If things continued with no progress, then she would get involved. Mom was Kasey's mentor and had warned Kasey that her contract was probationary...if the data wasn’t there, then she would be out of a job. So, at 4:00 after a long day, I groaned into the conference room.
“Where is everyone? “ I asked as she sat down.
“ we are just going cover 4th ELAR… since no one else could really stay.” Kasey smiled.
I was furious! Why was I the only ELAR teacher dumb enough to stay 3 hours after school?!?
“ I ordered Chinese for dinner.” Kasey smiled again. Her brown eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked at me. “ I thought you could help me go through your moms methods and ideas.”
I thought she was crazy. She wanted to use me to make herself look better in front of my mom! And nobody else showed up. She probably didn't even tell anyone else!
“Ummm..shouldn't we just reschedule?” I asked.
“Well… I thought we could go through some things and come up with a plan. Then, I’ll meet with each team next week.” Kasey explained. “ Your mom said you liked lo mein and Sesame chicken.” She smiled.
I was very irritated. Kasey put on her glasses, and we poured into the data and strategies. We didn’t speak much, only about our work. I shared some of my mom's ideas and charts with her. Kasey said that she kept glancing over at me, but I didn’t notice, I was still pretty pissed off.
“Foods here...let’s take a 30 minute break.” Kasey finally said after a couple of hours. I was annoyed and just assumed to keep workin in order to get finished early.
Then, I got a whiff of the amazing Chinese food. The same kind mom orders when we do Chinese take-out together. I peered up from my paperwork and watched Kasey bring in the food. Kasey carefully pulled each Chinese take-out container out of the bag and neatly lined them up, then she grabbed napkins and chopsticks for them. Her long brown hair flowed around her as she leaned down to make sure everything was perfect for dinner.
“She’s so beautiful,” I thought as I watched, “but why...why did she think that?” Kasey and I locked eyes for a moment as I put my paperwork down, and we smiled at each other.
“Let’s dig in!” Kasey grinned.
“It smells really good...thank you for dinner.” I said feeling more calm now and almost felt excited to eat dinner with my boss. Dinner actually went well. We laughed and talked just like we did back in the summer when we had met at the bar. I was actually pretty impressed with Kasey, and the handle she had on things. She seemed to love and enjoy her job and to be taking it seriously. The night wasn’t nearly as terrible as I had predicted. Now that we've talked about it, Kasey said that at the time she really enjoyed my company just like the night we had met. There was something special about me that she liked, but she just couldn’t let anyone else know it. She said it was almost like a little crush.
“I can’t find my pencil.” I said as we got back to work. I looked on the ground and under all my papers. “I know it was right here…”
Kasey grins and leans over and pulls the pencil out of our of my messy bun that I had made when the food had arrived. “This pencil…” Kasey says as she holds it out. Then, we locked eyes for a moment and felt a spark. BUT I snapped out of…
“Oh...geez…” I laughed. “Thanks...it’s getting late… I’d better get the girls.”
“ OH..Right yeah..it’s already 7:45. We can pick this back up another time. Thanks for doing this.” Kasey responds. I hurried up and left. I didn't know what that was or where that had came from and neither did she. But had no idea just how far things were about go!