‘Rosy, please. And don’t misunderstand me: your private life is your private life and absolutely none of my business. It really isn’t. But as a potential friend as well as a colleague, I felt I should warn you that things do get talked about. Trust me. You may want to tread very carefully.’
Kam wasn’t quite sure what to do with his face, his hands, his feet. In fact, his whole body shifted awkwardly in the chair. He knew this was a gentle warning rather than an out and out reprimand, a reminder that, as the teacher, it would be both unfair and unprofessional to try and take his friendship with Pippa any further. And that he was being watched. And that what he did could well impact on whether or not he was considered for the permanent position soon available.
‘Now, let’s talk about the assessments we need to start next week.’
Kam had never been so relieved to hear such mundane words in his life.
Chapter Fourteen
At the end of the week Pippa and Kam took the class to Penmenna Hall to see how the vegetables were growing in their absence. It was a long-term project and last term the children had sown all their seeds and were hoping to see that their shoots had grown into proper plants.
Rosy had told Kam and Pippa before they left that the rocket and the radishes should be ready to harvest now and, if they were lucky, the rhubarb in its most glorious, pinkest state could also be ready to pull. This meant that even the littlest pair of hands should be able to do some harvesting if they really tugged hard, and the whole outing would tie in beautifully with The Enormous Turnip, their literacy topic for the week.
Normally Pippa would stay in school during the Penmenna Hall trips to care for the children who remained, the classes being split into two. But this morning Rosy wanted her to go along with Kam so that the children had a familiar face alongside their new teacher. Plus, it would be unfair to leave him entirely at the mercy of the parent helpers, which Pippa took as code to mean Marion.
Hence this morning Pippa had dressed appropriately in a headscarf, boots and trademark slash of red lippy. Pippa reckoned she would have made a brilliant Land Girl and was more than ready to help the children pull the vegetables from the ground. Plus, her whole family had clubbed together to buy her some vintage Fendi knee-high wellies for Christmas last year and she didn’t get to wear them as often as she wanted. They were so beautiful she would happily sleep in them (but even she drew the line at boots in bed).
Whilst waiting for Matt Masters to appear (the gardener who ran Penmenna Hall and was the presenter of Green-Fingered and Gorgeous, the gardening show that was filmed there), Kam led the rest of the children, with Pippa bringing up the rear, to the raised beds by the orangery that were set aside for the children’s segment of the show. As they reached them, Ellie ran up to Kam and slipped her hand into his.
‘Hello. I’m going to be your friend today.’
‘Okay, that sounds good. How are your harvesting skills?’
‘Oh good. I’m good at everything. In fact, my daddy says I’m too good for my own good. I don’t know what that means but he smiles when he says it so I think he agrees that I’m good at nearly almost everything.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yes.’ The brevity of her answer indicated she believed it to be utterly true; however, she called over her shoulder to her friend to provide more evidence. ‘It’s true isn’t it, Sam?’
‘Well, you’re good at lots of things, but—’ He didn’t get to finish his sentence.
‘See, told ya.’ Ellie looked up at Kam and smiled. Pippa hid her own grin as she watched the teacher look like he had fallen a little bit in love. Mind you, Ellie wasn’t hard to love. She was adorable – sparky and confident and full of mischief – and when you knew her back story, it kind of made you love her even more. This child was a survivor.
‘Why are you holding his hand? That’s just stupid. You can’t be friends with teachers,’ Billy (whose position had been usurped as Ellie had broken the line) shouted at her from behind them. Billy had never really understood the concept of a gently pitched conversation and shouted absolutely everything. Pippa had been trying to teach him about an indoor voice for a while now, but as they were outside she decided not to muddy the waters.
‘Of course, I can.’ As they all stood around the raised bed, Ellie’s little face scrunched up and Pippa took a couple of long strides to get to her. Kam hadn’t seen that facial expression before, but she very definitely had. It normally resulted in injury to those Ellie considered had thwarted her.
‘Mr Choudhury!’ Pippa shouted across to try and warn him, but Ellie was too fast and her hand went straight into the raised bed beside her, grabbing a handful of dirt. Billy towered over her but Pippa knew that wouldn’t matter a jot to Ellie.
Kam realised what was going on and moved like the wind to grab Ellie’s hand just as it reached up, a millisecond before she rammed the earth into Billy’s mouth.
Phew. Pippa didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened if Billy had found himself with a mouthful of mud and worms.
‘Ellie!’ Her best friend Sam gave her a stern look. He was very practised at those.
‘He d’served it. I can be friends with who I want. I’m friends with Miss Winter and Matt, they live next door to me so I can be friends with Mr Choudhury too.’
‘They live next door to me.’ Sam said, his furrow getting deeper.
‘And your home is my home – your mum always says so – so they live next door to me too. You have your things at mine so it’s fair.’
That logic seemed to satisfy Sam who nodded matter-of-factly at his friend.
‘Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Penmenna. Now, I’ve got an action-packed afternoon ahead of us, so listen up and let’s see how much we can fit in.’ Matt Masters, who had popped up from behind a raised bed, addressed them all, his curly hair blowing around his head in the springtime breeze. His dog barked at his ankles, jumping up and down in excitement, presumably at having all the children back again.’
‘Hello, Matt darling,’ Marion who was accompanying them, along with a couple of other parent helpers, was in leopard print again. For a woman who had never really worn it before, she was fully embracing it this term. Pippa half expected her to break out a pair of fur-trimmed knickers any minute.
Matt smiled and waved before setting the children a whole heap of gardening jobs. Pippa kept Ellie close to her side for the rest of the day but couldn’t stop sneaking glances at Kam as he dealt with the children outside of a formal classroom setting. He was smashing it.
Not only did he get down and on with the jobs in hand, letting the children take the lead where appropriate and encouraging the shyer ones to participate as fully as the more confident ones, he also managed to stop Alfie trying to saw a worm in half to see if it made two worms like his big brother had told him it would. He prevented Billy from eating the entire crop of radishes before they could bring them back to school and he also gently challenged gender stereotypes when Alfie refused to harvest the vivid hot-pink rhubarb in case Harry teased him for being girly.
Pippa was aware that she was in danger of having her mild crush turn into a massive one if she didn’t rein herself in and concentrate on her work. The time she was spending with Kam on a day-to-day basis wasn’t helping much. Secretly she half expected each day to reveal something that would paint him in a less golden light, something she didn’t like. Did he eat messily or pick his nose when no one was looking and smear it on the furniture? But alas, so far there had been nothing. He just got more appealing rather than less as each day passed.
She was also beginning to notice Rosy watching her watching Kam around the school and as much as she loved the headmistress, she didn’t want to be in trouble at work. How embarrassing would it be to be outed as that girl, the one harbouring the inappropriate crush? She was fairly sure Marion would be the first to dob her in to Rosy, should she make ridiculous cow eyes at Kam today. It was just that she didn’t always realise she was
doing it.
The class finally packed up all their bounty and clambered back onto the minibus excited about what they would do in the classroom over the next few days with the vegetables they had harvested. They planned to make a great big crumble and also a salad for snack time. It was remarkable how so many of the children wouldn’t touch a vegetable when they first joined the school, but they would happily munch away with the alacrity of Peter Rabbit, after growing and harvesting them.
They pulled into the school grounds and Pippa was proud of herself for reining in her lustful glimpses at Kam all the way home (even though she had just seen him digging and looking properly manly, a little bit sweaty and great with the kids all at the same time). She wanted to try and put a little bit of distance between them with the intention of throwing Marion off the scent, but when she looked out of the minibus window, her heart sank and despair took over.
There, right outside the front of the school and parked on the great big yellow do-not-park zigzags was a shiny bright red convertible that screamed ‘Look At Me!’ and a couple of other things besides.
There could only be one person responsible for that.
Chapter Fifteen
Kam had had a great day, he had known there was something special about Penmenna School upon his very first visit but today was unreal. These children were so lucky to have this opportunity. And what’s more, despite never having explored gardening in his entire life, he realised he might rather enjoy it. It was satisfying having your hands in the earth and eating what you pulled out. Admittedly. it had just been the one radish that Billy insisted he tried but still, there was a satisfaction to it that he hadn’t expected.
And working with Pippa was so much fun. Her facial expressions were often so outlandish he couldn’t fail to laugh at her. The way she crinkled her nose when someone said something she didn’t like, and the way pure sunshine beamed out of her face when she was happy. He didn’t think she realised quite how transparent she was. On top of which she didn’t stop singing or humming little ditties all day, slightly off-key and not fazed by it at all. And he rather liked it.
Mia, his last girlfriend, had been so inscrutable he had never been sure what she had been thinking, and consequently was taken by complete surprise when she left saying she couldn’t put up with his stupid jokes and hamster cheeks any longer. He had spent the next two weeks eating nothing but green vegetables to see if he could lose the weight on his face and make himself more chiselled and handsome. Then as he glanced around the table during a family dinner, he realised he was fighting a losing battle and it might just be better to accept his rounded face and find a partner a little less judgemental.
The break-up had proved to be the motivator to finding the courage to tell his parents that he was leaving the family business and using his degree to train as a teacher. They were not happy to lose him to begin with, but when he qualified and they realised he was looking for teaching posts outside of Middlesbrough they were incandescent; their disappointment seeped out of every glance, every meal cooked, every parental pore. If you looked at it in a kind of roundabout way, he supposed he had Mia to thank for him meeting Pippa.
He knew his decision was a good one; today for example he had had so much fun that he would have willingly done it for free. To be paid for it and to be part of these children’s lives had to be the best job in the world.
The minibus pulled up at the school where the parents were already hovering so he jumped to his feet to get the children ready for their mums, dads, grandparents or childminders – one of which had parked their car on the no-waiting lines. There was always one!
He looked across at Pippa to exchange a really-who-parks-like-that look, but she didn’t catch his eye, although was also looking at the car in despair.
He instructed the children to remove their seatbelts and then slowly counted them off the bus, ready to be lead back to class and then handed to their parents. They were a little bit later than three o’clock, but he had never been on a school trip that was back on the minute – children were far too unpredictable for that – and, in this case, Ashleigh had needed the loo so desperately that she had started to do that cross her legs and bounce on the spot thing while lining up to get on the bus and return to school. Kam was never sure how that helped, but it was definitely a favourite move of all young children. If he had tried it he was fairly sure his mother would have smacked the back of his legs with a spatula.
As the children were all standing outside the minibus, the very good-looking (in an over-privileged wealthy kind of way) man who had parked on the zigzags leaned out of his car’s window and started waving frantically in their direction.
‘Come on, darling, do hurry up. Time is money!’
Kam wondered who on earth he was addressing, until he saw that Pippa’s face looked like thunder. No, surely not. Darling? He would never have thought Pippa would date someone like that. Someone who thought that saying the phrase ‘time is money’ was a good idea, let alone actually meaning it.
‘Pippa, it’s fine. You can go. We are a bit late.’
‘No, I’ll see the children into class, but thanks.’ Pippa’s scowl was a picture. She looked as if someone had just stolen all her favourite things and replaced them with rocks.
The man in the car beeped his horn. Three times.
Every parent in the vicinity turned their heads. Pippa was looking so cross, as if she were contemplating serious violence.
‘Go on,’ said Marion, ‘He’s obviously in a bit of a hurry. We can get the children back. I do love a romantic adventure!’
Pippa muttered something Kam couldn’t quite catch, but as he nodded his agreement she handed Ellie and Alfie over to Marion to take them back to the classroom, and walked quickly towards the car. Kam, like everyone else, couldn’t drag his eyes away as the man leaned over and kissed her cheek after she had yanked the passenger door open with some force.
‘Childhood sweethearts, you know,’ Sarah, one of the mums who had accompanied them to Penmenna Hall, stood behind him and addressed Alison, Ashleigh’s mum. ‘Best friends all throughout primary, inseparable. Susie was in the same year as them. And then he broke her heart when he went away to university, but look, now he’s made his millions and come back for her. It’s so sweet, a real Cinderella story. All those years yearning for him to return and he does, and in a Maserati too. She is one lucky girl. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were married within the year. So handsome. Obviously devoted. She won’t be a teaching assistant for long, that’s for sure.’
Chapter Sixteen
Pippa sat at her kitchen table, goggles on and drill in hand as she made tiny holes in the bits of mermaid’s glass she had been collecting for her Mum’s birthday. It was a month away yet, but with such tricky work she knew it was always worth starting early.
The other advantage of doing this now was that it was helping her to calm down after this afternoon’s nonsense. She knew herself well enough to know that with a drill in her hand then her irritation at James would subside as she’d have to use all her energy to focus on getting this right. That had to be better than dwelling on how cross she was about this whole situation.
‘Hiya.’ Lottie came into the kitchen and threw her handbag and tablet onto the table, grabbing it up again as she saw what Pippa was doing. ‘Oops, sorry. That’s pretty, what’cha making?’
‘Present for Mum, I’m pretty chuffed, I’ve only split one piece so hopefully I’ll still have enough to make a birthday bracelet. If not, you’ll be with me scouring the beach at the weekend.’
‘Okay, anything in for dinner?’
‘Oh yes, I was meaning to speak to you about that.’ Pippa lifted her goggles up and lay the drill down. ‘It would appear that we have stoat for dinner!’
‘Hahaha, you found him then.’
‘Hmm, I didn’t and normally I’d be furious with you because it is pretty gross, but in this instance James did. I’m hoping that will finally do the trick and p
ut him off me. He’s decided that now he has “won at life” – his phrase – he needs to come and get the girl he’s always loved to “complete the package” – again, his phrase. So, I pretended the stoat was mine.’
‘Harsh.’
‘Well, keeping dead animals in the fridge tends to be a red flag at the start of a relationship.’
‘And again, ouch. I’ll forgive you but what on earth was James doing in our fridge? Oh wow! Are those some of your mum’s biscuits?’
Pippa raised an eyebrow as Lottie pounced on the tub and peeled the lid back.
‘Hahahahaha, she didn’t!’
‘She did.’
‘Did he see them?’ Lottie asked as she rammed a heart-shaped biscuit, iced pink and decorated with an intertwined J and P, into her mouth. ‘Tastes good though,’ she mumbled through the crumbs.
‘Yes, he bloody did. He insisted in coming in. It gets worse. Mum’s interfering doesn’t stop at baking. Apparently she’s asked him to consider the name Janette for our first born; she reckons it’s due a resurgence.’
‘Hahaha, that’s even better. You’re going to have to talk to her.’
‘I know, but you know she’s not going to listen, like really not listen. She’s convinced she know what’s best for me. My plan is to annoy James so much that he gives up and sods off again.’
‘I love your mum, but she’s nuts.’
‘Truth. With her encouragement, James turned up at school and made a complete tit of himself. I was so embarrassed, turning up in some brash bloody car and making sure everyone saw him.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Cup of tea? Did Rosy see?’
The Cornish Village School--Summer Love Page 8