Rosie's POV
Kennedy left the room to find Evie , leaving me with a group of now very excitable year 7's.
"Miss where did Evie go?" Freddie shouted out from the 3rd row.
I leant myself against my desk and crossed my arms over my chest.
"If I knew , Freddie , I would've gone and found her myself.." I replied , resisting the urge to roll my eyes at the only-eleven-year-old child.
Shelby pipes up from the back , "Why can she go find Evie but Tommy can't?"
By 'she' , Shelby means Kennedy.
"Yeah why can't I?" Tommy joins in.
"Because , as you said yourself earlier Shelby , Kennedy's one of the older ones.." I told them.
"Why isn't that girl wearing uniform?" Daniel asks , rather shouts out.
I sigh , "Because if you decide you want to stay at this school after you turn 17 , you don't have to wear uniform anymore.." I said , growing tired of the questions.
"That girl was really pretty.." Shelby gossips to Isabel sitting on her left. "Miss don't you think that girl was pretty?" Shelby starts again , practically burning holes into me with her unfaltering intense stare.
I sit down at my desk and pull my legs up onto my chair ; sitting cross-legged has always felt the most comfortable to me , even during teaching hours.
"Yes Shelby , Kennedy is a very pretty young lady.." I told her nochalantly.
"Aw you think so?"
I looked over to the door and saw Kennedy stood in the doorway, Evie in her arms trying desperately to lick her face.
Giggles from kids in the class erupted around me in response to Kennedy ; I smiled at her whilst rolling my eyes , standing up from my desk to go and retrieve my dog.
Kennedy smiles at me, "You know this is the second time I've found your dog in only a matter of days.."
I cross my arms , raising one eyebrow slightly. "What do you want?" I ask her , my tone frank and straight to the point.
She grins , "Oh , nothing..." she answers, with an intentionally forced tone of innocence.
I can't help but smile ; shaking my head I take Evie from her arms and hold her against my hip.
"Thank you for the dog , I think Miss Adams will be wondering where you are.." I say , dismissing her last comment.
Kennedy smiles , "I'll see you later , Miss Foster.."
I roll my eyes once more , "Bye Kennedy.."
Kennedy stroked Evie once more across her head before heading back out into the corridor , shutting the door behind her as to lessen the chances of Evie escaping again.
——
The end of day bell sounded and I almost let myself experience that last period relief , that was until it hit me that I still have the A Level revision session to orchestrate with Cate a few classrooms down.
The session isn't due to start for another ten minutes , allowing the kids time to get here from various other buildings over the school site ; our campus is pretty big considering we're only a public secondary and sixth form , nevertheless , from the furthest block to this one , it's quite the trek. That being said , I gathered my bag , my laptop and my dog , before unlocking the office and plonking my stuff down in there where it was more secure. There was already a cup of tea waiting for me on my desk , undoubtedly at the hands of Cate who is quite possibly one of the sweetest humans I have ever met.
Cate moved to this school from another comprehensive about 3 years ago. I'm always weary of new colleagues , especially those who come to the school taking on a high up leadership role like Cate did ; it sounds like a petty teenaged thing to say , but even mature adults can walk into a new job thinking they own the place because of their position , without any consideration for their coworkers around them , some of which have been at the place for a decade , sometimes even longer. Cate however , is the complete opposite of the arrogant prick I just described. Although positionally she's higher up than the rest of us in this department , she doesn't take advantage of or misuse her position. Her sense of humour is unparalleled , and even outside of the workplace , she is one of my closest friends.
Anyway , as the minutes went by , I heard a constant flow of students' footsteps heading past the office and down the corridor to Cate's room.
The clock eventually ticked to ten minutes past three , and although Cate was the one taking this revision session, we estimated we'd have a larger number of kids than that who could fit into a single classroom , meaning I'd most likely have to take a group into my classroom too.
Chugging down the last few sips of tea , I then stood up and made my way down the corridor to Hi2 , where Cate had just begun giving the students instructions.
Upon reaching the door , our estimates were proved correct as the classroom was packed full of kids , more kids than this classroom could sit. All the rows of desks were full , and a line of standing kids spanned across the entire back wall of the classroom.
Leaning against the door way , i crossed my arms and peaked my head into the room , knowing my assistance would inevitably be needed.
Kennedy's POV
I called the hospital. They told me not to come and visit mum today ; apparently she's not been resting well lately and was only now getting into the new hospital routine and properly settling in. I don't want to disturb her rest , so I decided to make a productive use of my time and stay behind for this revision session for history.
I was one of the last ones to arrive at Ms Wilson's room , all the seats were already taken and there was already an excess of other kids all stood around against the back wall of the room.
I snuck in just as Ms Wilson began giving everybody the debrief for the afternoon.
"Okay I've got to admit, myself and the other history teachers weren't anticipating this many of you to turn up this afternoon..but it's perfectly fine , if you're already sat down you can stay that way , all of you that are stood up go with Miss Foster to her room" Ms Wilson announced , looking over at Rosie who was nodding in agreement in the doorway.
I smiled to myself slightly , any time I can spend with Rosie is time I'd happily take.
Myself and around 15 other kids followed Rosie to her classroom ; the group of us included kids from all three different history classes , and I don't think I'd talked to any of them. Upon entering the room , I sat down in my usual desk in the middle of the second row and pulled out my notes on the topic we'd been studying since the start of the year.
Rosie briefly left the room before coming back with a cup of tea , Evie , and her laptop.
"Okay you lot.." , Rosie began , sitting on the edge of her desk with her legs crossed and hanging off of the side of it.
"The longest I'm gonna have you all stick around is an hour and a half. I'll spend 45 minutes teaching you the content as a recap , and then I'll give you an independent task to do for 45 minutes so I'm not just lecturing at you the entire time..That sound alright?" she asked and was met with an array of mumbling in response.
"Your excitement is just overwhelming.." Rosie responded sarcastically , causing me to let out a giggle.
Rosie flashed a quick and soft smile in my direction before continuing, projecting the course onto the white board before then starting to explain the content chronologically.
———
Rosie's POV
"That was until the Reichstag Fire of 1933" I concluded , a group of bored and unamused faces staring back at me.
Clicking the off button on the projector's remote, I sat back down at my desk and sent the notes i needed to hand out to the printer in the office.
"While those are printing, I need all of you to get into groups of two. You're going to embrace your former 11 year old selves and work together in creating a mind map of knowledge from the notes I'm about to print for you all. Go on , move the desks around.." I told them , which added a bit more excitement to the atmosphere as this now meant they could talk amongst one another.
After picking up sheets from the printer, I returned to the classroom to see all of the kids grouped up with their mates..almost all of the kids.
Being the new girl to the school, let alone just the class , I assumed it would be hard for Kennedy to immerse herself in already pre-formed friendships. My assumptions were proved correct upon entering the classroom and seeing Kennedy sat at a desk on her own in the back of the room.
She didn't look particularly upset by the situation nor did she look at all sorry for herself in all honesty , however, she did look lonely.
I handed out the printed notes to the rest of the groups and then came to Kennedy last of all of them. She'd already started the work and it didn't really look like she needed the assistance of her peers. Nevertheless, after placing the sheets down on her desk , i pulled up a chair and sat myself down next to her.
She looked up at me , her face wearing a slightly confused expression.
"Have I done something?" she said , sounding marginally panicked.
I smiled slightly and shook my head at the girl , "No don't worry you're fine , you just looked lonely.."
Kennedy raised her eyebrows slightly as she smiled , "I'm okay , really , my feelings are still in tact.."
I smiled , "Too late , I've already decided I'm helping you with your mind-map." I told her.
"You don't ha-" Kennedy began but I cut her off , pulling out two coloured pens from my pocket and holding them up to her.
"Sshh and pick a pen , blue or purple?"
"Purple.." she responded whilst rolling her eyes.
"Too bad I want the purple , you can have blue.." I replied bluntly.
Kennedy laughed , taking the pen from my hand whilst giggling and gently shaking her head. I smiled , her laugh can be so beyond contagious at times that it's hard not to crack even a small smile.
"I thought you weren't coming tonight, what made you change your mind?" I queried whilst simultaneously writing different subheadings down onto the paper.
Kennedy's eyes remained focussed on the page as she responded.
"It's too long an explanation, but the place I thought I had to be I found out earlier I couldn't go to today." she replied , her tone emotionless as if she was purposely not trying to give too much away.
I nodded to myself before saying, "If you ever want to discuss anything, you know my door is always open." I told her casually, as I did all my other students.
She nodded and looked up at me with a soft smile , "I know thank you , right now though I'm honestly perfectly fine." she said , her words were reassuring yet part of me still ceased to believe her.
Nevertheless, I pushed my nosiness aside and let the topic of conversation be.
"What year did Hitler become Chancellor?" Kennedy asked staring down at the gap in her notes, changing the subject.
I raised my eyebrows slightly, "Oh come on , that's GCSE you know the answer.."
"But the thing is, I don't know." Kennedy replied with a pleading smile.
"1933." I conceded , chuckling softly.
Kennedy pursed her lips , "Okay you're right, I did know that.."
I laughed , shaking my head at this girl who had a habit of making me laugh a lot recently. She's just easy to talk to , and it catches me out every single time.
———
Kennedy's POV
"Reichstag Fire of 1933." I mumbled to myself aloud as I scribbled that final note down onto the paper.
I put the lid on the pen i was using and set it firmly down onto the desk triumphantly.
"Fair do's to you , love.." Rosie began. "You actually do know the content."
I smiled ; I know it's just her universal term of endearment for all of her students, but her calling me "love" always does something to me.
"Why do you sound surprised? Believe it or not I do pay some attention in your lessons." I replied still smiling.
She chuckles, "I didn't mean it like that , but seriously you'll be fine for this assessment."
I smile , pulling my phone out from my back pocket to check the time. It's almost 5 and my shift at the pub starts at 5:30. I anticipated going to visit mum at the hospital after school during the time in between , so I packed my work clothes in my bag anyway to change into while I'm there. Looking at the time it's going to be a stretch to go home before my shift so I may as well change here and head straight to work instead.
I looked back up at Rosie and saw that was also checking her phone. She noticed it had been the full hour and a half and so stood up to announce the end of the revision to the rest of the class.
Everybody began packing up , as did I , gathering my notes and sticking them in my folder before swinging my bag over one shoulder.
"You all worked hard , feel free to go." Rosie said , above the noise of everybody tucking their chairs in and moving the desks back to their original positions.
"Bye Miss Foster.." I said to her as I approached the classroom door.
She looked up at me from her laptop with a soft smile , "Goodbye Kennedy.."
I smiled to myself as I then left her classroom and made my way to the toilets just down to the right of the corridor.
Every stall was empty, not that it would bother me anyway if there was already other girls in here , and so I chose the one on the end that looked the cleanest to get changed in.
I was already wearing black skinny jeans which are appropriate enough for work , and so I left those on whilst I changed out of my blue flannel and white t-shirt , and into my black long-sleeved button down linen shirt , making sure to leave the top 2 buttons undone as to show a bit of boob as well as so I didn't look like a 1940's business man. I tucked my shirt into my jeans , leaving a little bit of slack , and tied my apron around my waist, as I wouldn't have time to get myself sorted when I get there. I was already wearing black boots which I'm pretty sure fit the pub's staff dress-code , and so now I was in my uniform , I packed my other clothes back into my bag and left that grimy bathroom stall.
I ran my hands briefly through my hair infant of the mirror , inspected what was left of the light makeup I put on this morning , and then left the bathroom making my way towards the humanities block exit.
Just as I turned the corner at the end of the corridor , I physically bumped into somebody walking in the opposite direction. I immediately knew who it was by the sound of their voice recoiling after being caught off guard ; I exhaled heavily as I looked up and met Rosie's gaze.
Briefly , yet not so subtly , she looked me up and down with her brows slightly furrowed.
"A spontaneous wardrobe change , Miss Matthews?" she said , smiling confusedly.
I smiled and shook my head , "Funnily enough no , I have work in like twenty minutes.." I told her.
Rosie nodded , "Ah I see , where do you work?" she questioned , seeming genuinely curious.
"I waitress in a pub in town.." I replied , to which she nodded once again.
"I wouldn't want to make you late for your shift, have a good evening and I'll see you in tutor tomorrow.." she said.
I smiled , "Thank you.." I said , before leaving her presence for the second time this evening.
A/N : I'm sorry this chapter is quite chaotic in that it switches POV's i think 4 times , but I hope you enjoyed it anyway , please do let me know what you think of the story so far.