troubled teachers

Chapter 1

"Northumberland," Emma supplied.

"Right," Gold nodded. "So I trust you will all make her feel welcome and give her any help she may require. Welcome to Plymouth, Mrs Swan."

Emma walked into her new classroom and looked around. She had been in the previous week to decorate her room and now every available inch was covered in maps, diagrams, and beautiful landscape photographs. Hanging her red leather jacket on the peg inside her cupboard, she opened up her laptop and glanced once more over the list of students who would be in her tutor group for the year. She had always enjoyed being a tutor and liked the relationships she built between the children she spent time with every morning and afternoon. She had never tutored Year 11 before however and was curious to see how the eldest year group at the school would differ from her previous Year 8 class.

A commotion outside the door broke her reverie and before she could stand up, two tall boys bundled their way into the room, laughing and joking as they headed towards the desks at the back, shoving each other playfully.

"Er, boys!" Emma called out, getting to her feet. "This is a classroom, not a playground. If you're going to insist on behaving like monkeys, kindly do so outside."

The two boys sobered at once, unsure quite what to make of this new, young, beautiful, and yet authoritative teacher. The brunette boy's eyes fixated on Emma's breasts as his taller friend spoke.

"Sorry Miss -,"

"Swan," Emma supplied. "And you are?"

"Felix," the blonde haired boy answered. "And that's Peter."

"Well, Felix and Peter, it's lovely to meet you but I'd appreciate it if you did not use your new tutor room as a rough house. Unless you want to receive a month long ban from entering here during lunch times on the first day of term?"

Both boys shook their heads.

"Great," Emma said, smiling widely. "Then I suggest you go outside and wait until the bell rings, at which time you shall enter this room in a respectful and quiet manner."

The boys nodded mutely and left the room.

Emma smiled to herself. That couldn't have gone much better. It seemed the same discipline tactics and attitude she had used with her younger students in the north of England would be just fine on the Year 11s in the south too.

There were many things Emma worried about when starting a new school but her teaching ability was not one of them. She had graduated from Oxford University with a First Class Masters in geography and then gone on to study for her teaching certificate. From the age of 25 she had been in front of a class, inspiring young minds and nurturing passions for volcanos, river formations, tectonic movement, and population studies. So that day, seven years later, it was no surprise to Emma that her morning went as smoothly as it ever had in Northumberland.

She walked to the school canteen alone, head and shoulders above most of the pupils she passed and soon found her way into the lunch hall, despite only receiving a short tour from Mr Gold the week before. The room was loud, excited chatter and children's laughter bouncing off the tiled floor and concrete walls, a long queue snaking along one side leading to the food counter. Emma walked straight past the line and up to the serving area, politely excusing herself and squeezing in front of two Year 10 girls.