Teacher's Pet [Elvis]

Chapter 4 - It's Always Because of a Woman

October arrived, and that meant cooler weather. It was odd, it being cool outside come October. In Arizona, it was warm clear until November, and even then, it was around seventy degrees. Sometimes, my family had Thanksgiving dinner outside on the lawn, and we would sometimes do a barbeque like on the fourth of July. And speaking of Thanksgiving, where would I have it this year?

I made some friends here at the school, aside from my students. Maybe one of them would invite me to their place for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, after all the school Christmas events were over, I would be able to fly home and have Christmas with my family.

I blew air out of my mouth as I sat at my desk. Once I got more furniture, I rearranged my apartment. I finally got a sofa and TV set, and I had my kitchen table and chairs, a couple more shelves, as well as decorative wall art and end tables and lamps. My little apartment was finally becoming homy. I moved my desk to my bedroom, and I mainly worked there, grading papers and planning lessons. That is, when I didn't do it at school. There were days when I would stay clear until nine at night working on a lesson plan. I had become friends with the evening janitor because of that. His name was Harvey, and he was a sixty-five-year-old man that was affectionately called Grandpa by everyone.

My stomach rumbled. I had been grading papers since I got home four hours ago, and it was already almost eight. My students had to write an essay on their favorite historical composer, four pages typed or written, preferably typed. I pulled up Elvis's essay that was typed and let out another breath. He got a D on it. It was four pages, but he went off on tangents often, not really talking about Mozart. No wonder he grimaced when he turned it in.

He was trying, but since my talk with his mother, he hadn't really improved. What was I doing wrong? I was giving ample opportunity to stretch his wings a bit, but he just didn't want to. He performed for his classmates twice since that first time, and there were little assignments that he did well... Those were the only things keeping him above water. I felt like I was failing him as a teacher since he was almost failing the class again.

My whole body rumbled because of my stomach this time, so I got up and made myself some spaghetti—something simple. I brought out my students' papers and my lesson plan and worked on those through my dinner and on until I had to go to bed.

Yeah, my life was humdrum as far as my routine—I would get up, go to school, be there until 3:30 or four, come home, grade or work on a lesson plan, eat as I did those things, then I would go to bed. The only difference would be me working at the school until late, then coming home for a late dinner then go to bed. My weekends were usually filled with prepping lesson plans and creating and grading assignments.

Maybe I should have a student teach every once in a while for a whole class period. I had to give them a project that would end this unit, so this could be it. I would announce it in class tomorrow. No doubt Elvis would be thoroughly against it. Well, he had get out of his bubble.

I still had yet to hear him sing. He never wanted to sing when I gave the option for the weekly performances. Several of his classmates had, and most of them were decent singers, with one girl who could make a living as an opera singer later on. I doubted Elvis had an opera voice.

"Stop thinking about him," I ordered myself as I was in bed and staring at the ceiling.

But it was hard not to. I was paying more attention to him than to my other students.

~ ~ ~

Thankfully I never had to park where the students parked, since that area of the parking lot was always a mess with students before school. The teachers had their own designated area. I could see into the student parking, though, and... I spotted Elvis leaning against his car, talking with his friend. The guy left, and Elvis remained there, but then a girl approached him, one I didn't know the name of since she wasn't in any of my classes, but she was most likely a sophomore... and very pretty. And blonde.