Luna Skylar

Chapter 4 - Heartache

Abigail's face lit up, immediately seeming both excited and grateful for my presence. "Oh yes! We've been so excited for your arrival, Miss Skylar. This is my second year teaching, and unfortunately I'm the most experienced teacher we have now. We had a couple of our elders retire last year, and one battling a chronic illness. It's been rough trying to run the school by myself."

My heart ached for this young woman. While I certainly didn't have decades of experience, I had amazing mentors back home who I credit for all of my success in teaching as well as a few more years of experience under my belt. Expecting a second year teacher to run an entire school on her own is simply way too high of an expectation.

"I can't even imagine how stressful that must be," I told her sympathetically. "How about we start going over lesson plans today. You can let me know what you and the other teachers have in mind, and I'll help plan them out appropriately. Tomorrow we can start getting the classrooms set up based off of what kinds of lessons we decide to plan."

Abigail smiled brightly again, "That sounds wonderful! Thank you, Alpha Gavin, for bringing Skylar in. I can already tell she's going to be a huge help."

Gavin nodded to her with a smile before excusing himself, allowing me to take over from here.

Several minutes later a pack member showed up to drop off some water bottles and Gatorade for me. I thanked them before cracking open a bottle of water and nearly downing it in one gulp. Once I felt properly hydrated, I took a deep breath, and then followed Abigail to her office.

We immediately got to work, sorting out lessons and required curriculum for each subject and every age group. Once we got a good organizational system going, things moved along faster. Abigail told me some processes that they'd implemented the previous year, and I offered suggestions for tweaking them so that they'd be more beneficial for both the students and the teachers. Overall, I felt we were making great progress.

Around noon, a couple more pack members showed up with packed lunches for both Abigail and myself. By this time I was completely famished, so we decided to take a quick break to down our food.

Several hours later, I felt we had a good outline of lessons for the school year for each teacher to follow for their classes. I smiled proudly as I looked at our work spread across the large, rectangular table, and then I looked over to Abigail to see her beaming with pride as well. Honestly, I felt like that was the best part of this – helping a fellow teacher feel empowered and confident going into the school year.

By the time we wrapped everything up, it was around five in the afternoon. I told Abigail goodbye and promised I'd be back first thing in the morning to help set up and arrange the classrooms. I was feeling rather sluggish after hours of hard work, so I thought I'd go back to my room to relax before I ventured out for some dinner. My hangover was still making its presence known. Although my headache had subsided, the intense fatigue had not, and it was really making me regret missing my morning cup of coffee.

But tomorrow would be a new day. I'd go to bed early tonight, and tomorrow I'd wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day. I'd be able to take my time getting ready, enjoy some coffee, and even have a proper breakfast. One bad night didn't have to ruin the entire trip.

Once I made it back to my room, I plopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. A nap sounded lovely, but I worried that it would prevent me from going to sleep at a decent hour tonight. Regardless, my eyes ended up fluttering shut. I told myself I'd just rest for five minutes.

Much to my dismay, a loud knock on the door startled me as soon as I was beginning to feel relaxed.

Thinking it must be Alpha Gavin inquiring about how things went today or perhaps even summoning me for dinner, I quickly jumped up and made my way to the door, opening it without hesitation.