Six Ways to One Day

Chapter 6

You walk into the school building on Monday to complete the cleanup of your classroom. As you walk towards your room, you see your colleagues already there, doing the same exact thing that you're planning to do today. You can hear music drifting out from some of the classrooms. You notice that a couple of them are playing songs that would be considered completely inappropriate, if the kids were still in school. A few of your colleagues are there with their own children, helping them take apart their classroom and getting it ready for a deep cleaning for the coming September.

After the late-night soiree with your friends on Friday night, you felt like absolute crap for the rest of the weekend. It wasn't until around dinner time on Sunday, that you actually started to feel like a whole human being once again. Thank the good Lord, that you are feeling back to your old self this morning.

Since you and your friends left Amanda's on Saturday afternoon, you haven't heard from any one of them. As everyone was leaving Amanda's, she was starting to get ready for her date with Charlie that evening. You thought, "The stamina on this girl is impressive. I would rather die than to have to go out on a date right now."

You had briefly thought about texting Amanda last night, but you figured she'd be dead asleep from two full days of activities, albeit all fun. You know that several of your friends are slated to come in today for classroom clean up but aren't sure who will be here. You'd figure you'll finish your tasks for today and see if you can go find them before you leave school for the summer.

When you get to your classroom, you open up all the windows, turn on all the lights and survey everything. You make a list of things that will need to be completed. Then unlike your other colleagues that have opted to play music aloud, you put in your tiny headphones with noise cancelation and get the work started. You know this won't take more than two to three hours at most. In a pair of sweatpants that are too old and too big for you, and a fitted T-shirt on top, you put your hair in a ponytail and start taking things down from the bulletin boards and the walls. Your office door is closed, and you hum along to your music.

About halfway down your list of tasks, you decide to take a quick break and check your phone. Some unimportant emails, but nothing else. You look at the clock on the top left corner of your phone screen and it reads 12:10. You think, "Everyone should definitely be up by now," and decide to send out a text to your friends to see how everyone is fairing.

You:
Hey... ladies.
How are you all feeling this Monday afternoon?

You put your phone away in your sweatpants pocket and decide to head to the teacher's lounge for a much-needed cup of coffee. When you walk in, you see a couple of your colleagues with the same idea, already there with their cup of coffee. As you walk in, the two men that are sitting at one of the round tables, look up at your direction and greet you.

The first one to say hello is Thomas Gallo. Tom is a part of the foreign language department. He is actually the only one that teaches Latin. He teaches Latin 1 through 4, honors and AP. He is one of those quiet and unassuming men that often go unnoticed by women. But Amanda has told you, more than once, that Tom is one of the funniest people she has ever met and that he is truly a kind human being. Tom is a hair shy of six feet, but the man is painfully thin. Like, if he was hit with a swift wind, he'd break in half, kind of thin.

You offer, "Hi Tom, how's it going?"

Tom sighs and says, "It's going. Better now that I have some time off."

You reply, "Tell me about it."

The second man to greet you is Scott Bertram. You would describe Scott as a lumberjack type. He teaches computer science and business, but the man is sort of the opposite of Tom. Scott sports a full beard and is in jeans and a gray T-shirt. He stands well over six feet, perhaps Six-two or three? And the man has thighs that are the size of tree trunks. Scott is one of those men who have somewhat rounded bellies, but in a pinch, he probably could lift a Volkswagen by himself, if you needed him to. The hair on Scott's head is dark, but his beard is ginger, and his mien is almost always stoic and professional. But today, Scott looks more relaxed than you've ever seen him and even has a big smile on his well quaffed hair and face. You figure it's most likely due to something Tom has said.