Teacher's Pet

by Briar Lane

  But the second I got inside I realized it most definitely would not be relaxing.

  Ever since I lost my job I had managed to avoid running into any students or their parents, which I was grateful for. I did not want to have to explain why I was no longer with the school or why I’d been fired.

  But when considering my trip to the nicer grocery store, I didn’t think about the fact that it was in my old school’s district. I was significantly upping my chances of running into someone I knew by going to that side of town.

  And as soon as I grabbed my cart, I heard a voice call out.

  “Miss Andrews!”

  I turned around, forcing a smile, but my stomach was really in knots. I did not want to do this right now. I came here to avoid thinking about losing my job.

  I recognized the mother immediately. “Tina, hello,” I said to her. “How are you?”

  “I’m good!” she said. “How about you? How are you holding up?”

  Shoot. So the rumor did get around that I was fired. I mean, obviously parents would know that I was no longer teaching their children, but I was hoping there would be a question in their minds about whether I was fired or if I’d left willingly. I supposed if Tina thought I’d left willingly, there would have been no reason to ask me how I was holding up.

  I could feel my facial expression sinking, but I did my best to hold a smile. “I’m… doing well,” I told her. “I’m doing really, really well.”

  “Oh, good for you,” she said, rubbing my elbow gently. She had a bunch of grocery bags in her hands and had been headed out the door, but she still managed to reach out and make physical contact. “You know, I think it’s awful what they did to you.”

  Wow, okay, I had no idea how to respond to that. Not only did she know I was fired, but she also knew why? How the hell did that info get out?

  “You… you do?” I asked.

  “Yes! You were a fantastic teacher and you did nothing wrong! Do you not have the right to date like the rest of us?”

  “Uh… yeah. I mean, thanks. I appreciate it.” I had no idea how to respond. My mind was still reeling while I wondered how she knew all of this.

  “I’m going to do all I can to get you back!”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Well, uh, I don’t think there’s much that can be done,” I told her.

  Tina looked confused. “We’re still going to fight though, aren’t we?” she asked.

  Aren’t… we? Like, she was including herself in this? I was so lost. I had no idea how to respond. But I knew I wanted to get out of this conversation as quickly as possible.

  “Right, yeah.” I nodded.

  “Well, I better get going. But I’m rooting for you!” she said as she started making her way to the door.

  “Thanks, I appreciate it,” I said.

  And I did. It was nice to know there were some parents who also thought the whole thing was ridiculous. I just had no idea where she got all the information from and why she thought there was something that could be done. I was fired. That ship had sailed.

  I pulled out my phone and found a response from Katie.

  Can’t tonight, babe. I have plans, I’m sorry. Tomorrow?

  Wait, she had plans? I knew she had been hanging out with me less than usual these days, but normally she just said she had extra work to get done at home. She had actual plans tonight? It was the middle of the week. What would she be doing that she couldn’t invite me to?

  I replied. No problem. Just had the weirdest conversation with one of my students’ parents. Can’t wait to tell you about it. After your plans, maybe? What time will you be done?

  She replied instantly. Should be around seven. Come by after that.

  Will do, I answered.

  I decided to shop anyway. I’d use whatever I got for tomorrow night instead. Besides, I knew I could really use the shopping time to clear my head.

  I had almost finished grabbing everything I needed for a seafood pasta when my phone buzzed again. I grabbed it, expecting to get another text from Katie. But I didn’t have a text at all. It was an email.

  It was from one of my students’ parents. Not the same one I had just seen… but another one. What were the chances I was going to hear from another one of them on the same day?

  “Quick Question” it was titled. I clicked it and found just a short message inside.

  What time are we supposed to arrive tonight? Should we get there a little early to finish any signatures?

  I was so confused for a moment…

  And then it all made sense.

  17

  Katie

  My heart started beating fast when I got Lana’s reply about having a weird conversation with one of her student’s parents.

  Had she figured it out? Did somebody accidentally spill everything?

  Well, I supposed it wouldn’t have been an accident since I didn’t exactly tell anyone to keep my plan a secret.

  But it was a secret. I didn’t want Lana to know.

  After my meeting with Principal Byron I had got straight to work trying to organize something for the next PTA meeting to try and change the rule about teachers being able to date parents if they so please.

  And man, had it been a lot of work. For weeks, my time was filled with organizing petition drafts, answering questions from other parents, and planning my PTA speech for tonight. Not to mention stopping by before and after school to talk to other parents and collect signatures.

  Originally, I planned to tell Lana that I was doing all this. I mean, why hide it? I was trying to do a nice thing for her, after all.

  But then I remembered how she cried to me the day she got fired. Her heart was broken. I knew that if I told her there was a chance she could get her job back, then I could get her hopes up. I didn’t want to do that if there was a possibility that I would end up crushing her all over again.

  I wouldn’t do that. I wasn’t going to put her through that twice. So I had to hide everything I was doing, and that was hard because we spent a lot of time together. Now that she had no job she wanted to see me all the time, and I was constantly trying to come up with excuses for why we couldn’t. Our relationship was still fairly new, so in all honesty, I’d much rather have been having fun with her than organizing this mess of paperwork… But it would all be worth it if I really could get her job back for her. And if I was confident that I could, I would have told Lana. But I wasn’t. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

  As hard as I’d been working to convince other parents of my view prior to the PTA meeting, Mrs. Taylor was working just as hard to convince them of hers. And she knew way more parents than I did.

  Some parents weren’t on her side because they saw it the way I did… That there was nothing inappropriate about a teacher dating another consenting adult, regardless of whether the student attended the school. But there were quite a few other stuck-up, pretentious parents who cared more about ‘the rules’ than what made sense. And it was hard to get a grasp on how many people she’d actually convinced.

  The whole school knew there was a rivalry going on between me and Mrs. Taylor, and the expected turnout for tonight’s PTA meeting was higher than it had ever been before. That only served to make me more nervous than I already was, because I was not one for public speaking.

  On top of my worry about tonight, I was also worried that Lana had found out about everything. And on the day of the meeting, too? I had managed to hide it from her for weeks, but of course she had to find out on the very night that everything was going down.

  I pushed down my anxiety. I wasn’t even going to see Lana before the PTA meeting. It was likely better that way too. I could keep my focus on the task at hand.

  The workday dragged on. I used all the free time I had to look over my speech and tweak it. I was still making adjustments on my final draft, which only made me more nervous.

  When it was finally time for me to leave and go pick up Alex, I was in full-blown panic mode. And Alex co
uld tell.

  “Mom, what’s wrong?” she asked in the car.

  “Nothing, baby.”

  “Then why are you tapping that way?”

  I hadn’t even realized I was doing it. I was anxiously beating my fingers down on the steering wheel.

  I sighed. “Mom is just a little nervous about something she has to do tonight,” I told her.

  “What do you have to do?” she asked.

  I hadn’t fully explained the situation to Alex for the same reason I didn’t tell Lana. Alex was distraught when she found out Lana would not be her teacher anymore. Although we tried to hide the reasoning from her, she was a smart kid and she remembered how angry Josh’s mom had been the day before. She completely blamed herself.

  We lied to her and told her that wasn’t the reason at all, but it was no use. Alex was convinced that the reason Lana was fired because she had gotten Lana ‘in big trouble.’ It broke my heart that my daughter had that weight on her no matter how much I tried to alleviate it.

  Honestly, my doing this was as much for Lana as it was for Alex. I adored Lana and was madly in love with her, but I loved Alex even more. She was my little girl and she was hurting when she shouldn’t be at all.

  This wasn’t her fault. Lana and I had never told her not to tell anyone about our relationship. We didn’t know we were even doing anything wrong. Alex shouldn’t have been going through any guilt and I would do anything I could to alleviate it.

  God, I really hoped this worked.

  When we got home I did some cleaning while practicing my speech in my head until the babysitter came. Alex definitely noticed my agitation, but she just quietly sat back and let me clean anxiously.

  I left her sitter with instructions and my number and then headed out to the PTA meeting.

  On the way there, I started getting nauseated… and that nausea did not subside upon arrival. In fact, as I took a seat in the front row, it only intensified.

  Plenty of other parents who really loved Lana and were adamantly on my side sat next to me. That did help me a little bit. That was, until Mrs. Taylor sat in the front row on the other side of the aisle.

  Being head of the PTA meeting, she made the entire schedule. Though this was really the only thing on the schedule for tonight, she had organized it so she was first to speak on the issue. That seemed a little backwards to me. I thought the opposition should probably go after the initial statement, but it didn’t bother me too much.

  If anything, I figured I would have an advantage in going after her. I could tailor my speech to her arguments.

  I glanced around the room as it began to fill up. Thankfully I saw that almost the entire staff of teachers, including Principal Byron, had come. The teachers were on my side, I was confident of that. All of Lana’s coworkers adored her.

  I watched the clock and took a deep breath as it approached 5:00pm. You can do this, I told myself. Though with each minute that passed, I was less sure.

  When it finally hit 5:00, Mrs. Taylor stood up and walked to the podium in the front of the room. I didn’t know how she did it, but she even managed to look a little snobby just while walking.

  She cleared her throat and then spoke into the microphone. “Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming. Wow, what an amazing turnout!” she said with a smile. It was as if she thought it was somehow because of her that everyone came out. Like it reflected on her being a good PTA leader or something. “I think we’re all here tonight, so let’s just get to it.”

  I could feel my palms beginning to sweat a bit and I put them on my lap, hoping the fabric of my pants would soak up any moisture that was there. I steadied my breathing as she began to speak.

  “Obviously, I’ve made my feelings very clear on this issue. I feel that it is wholly irresponsible for a teacher to begin dating the parent of any student. In my eyes, it is an abuse of power. It’s unprofessional. As the highest rated school in the district, I don’t believe that we need to settle for teachers who don’t take their professionalism seriously. We should have purely the best of the best teaching our children.” She nodded as she spoke, before finishing with a simple “thank you.”

  I raised an eyebrow. Was that it? Was that her whole speech?

  It was almost as if she didn’t think she had to come up with anything particularly good to say. Like everyone was already going to vote on her side regardless of what came out of her mouth…

  Which meant my speech needed to be amazing.

  The pressure was on.

  “Now, I’d like to welcome another parent who would like to speak her piece on the matter to the podium.” Mrs. Taylor looked directly at me and motioned with her hand for me to go up there. “Katie?”

  I nodded, forced a smile, and walked up to the podium as she began to take her seat.

  My heart was pounding in my chest. It was like I couldn’t even hear myself think.

  I had a set of cue cards in my hand which contained my entire speech. I didn’t need them, though. I had been memorizing it all week and the whole thing was in my head. I just had to say it.

  “Hello, everyone. Many of you probably don’t know me. I’m the parent to a kindergartner here. A fantastic, lovely, sweet girl who was in Miss Andrews’ class before she was let go. It was a class she adored when Miss Andrews was teaching it.

  “In the favor of full disclosure, I should announce that I am the parent who started dating Miss Andrews. I am the reason she was let go, and though I had no idea we were breaking any rules at the time, I can’t say I wouldn’t have chosen to date her anyway.”

  This got me a few raised eyebrows and had me doubting that line. Maybe I should’ve seemed more remorseful. Well, it was too late to overthink it at that point. I had to continue to plow through.

  “That’s because Lana Andrews is, by far, the most amazing woman I have ever met. I’m a single mom. I’ve had a hard time dating, and before Lana came into my life, I thought nothing was going to fall into place for me. I adore my daughter, but she was the common struggle in all my dating endeavors. I refused to date anyone who didn’t adore my daughter just as much as I do, and I’m sure all of you parents here tonight would do the same. My daughter and I are a packaged deal.

  “And that’s what opened me up to Lana. Because she does love my daughter as much as I do. And I could be confident of that because I know she loves all her students. She absolutely adores every single one.

  “Before Lana was let go, she would come home after school and tell me random stories of all the kindergartners in her class with the biggest smile on her face. I have never seen someone so passionate about her job. She is here for these children. You can know that when your kids were with Lana, they were being cared for by someone who treated them as her own kids. Her passion for teaching runs as strong as I’ve ever seen.

  “So when Mrs. Taylor says that we want the best of the best teachers at this school, I can wholeheartedly say I agree. Which is why I’m fighting for Lana Andrews to be reinstated as one of our kindergarten teachers. Because she is the best of the best. I don’t know better.”

  I looked right at Mrs. Taylor when I said that, and, to my surprise, she looked like a deer in headlights. I didn’t think what I’d said had been that shocking but if she was taken aback, I was going to roll with it.

  “In fact, didn’t you yourself think that Lana was a fantastic teacher, Mrs. Taylor?” asked“Didn’t you say as much to her?”

  Mrs. Taylor looked around and then back at me, clearly not expecting to be questioned. I wasn’t going to let her off the hook though.

  “Well, yes, but—” she stammered out.

  “But what?” I asked. “But she’s dating a parent so that negates just how brilliant of a teacher she was?”

  “It’s unprofessional!” she argued. “She’s in a position of power!”

  “And she never abused that position!” I argued back, before returning my gaze to the rest of the audience. “Lana didn’t use the fact that she was teachin
g my child to get to me. She didn’t hit on me when I came to pick up my daughter. She was nothing but professional on these school grounds. There was nothing held above my head. In fact, do you know what made me fall for Lana in the first place?”

  The crowd was dead silent.

  “I was having a really bad day and my car broke down. Though I always pick my daughter up exactly when school gets out, I couldn’t make it that time. And Lana, who I had no connection to other than the fact that she was my daughter’s teacher, offered to take her home for me. Yes, she cared enough to take time out of her day to continue to watch my child even when she wasn’t getting paid to. And on top of that, she helped take me to the auto parts store and even fixed my car for me! She did all of that for no reason, other than the kindness of her heart.

  “That was the moment I realized not only was Lana an incredible teacher, but she was an incredible person. I wanted to befriend her outside of school. I didn’t want to date her then, I just wanted a friend. And I needed that kind of support in my life. I needed someone who cared as much as she does. And she was a great friend to me. That friendship then blossomed into a relationship—all outside of school, and all above-board!

  “Lana handled the delicate issue of explaining our relationship to my child so well. We waited months to tell her we were dating—a fact that my daughter is thrilled about, by the way. The only thing she isn’t thrilled about is the fact that Lana is no longer her teacher. In a way, she feels responsible for Lana no longer working here because she was the one who accidentally alerted Mrs. Taylor to our relationship. We never told my daughter to keep the relationship a secret because, as I said, we had no idea it was even against the rules.

  “So, please, I’m asking all of you to change this outdated rule. Don’t stick with rules for rules’ sake. Take our actual situation into consideration. Consider that Lana Andrews is an amazing teacher. Consider that she loves all of our kids and that she never has, and never would, use her position for romantic gain.