Page 31 of Delayed Penalty

“Oh,” she says quietly, almost a hint of disappointment in her voice. “Well, thank you again for the soup.”

Ialmostask if she wants me to stay, I mean. it’s been weeks since I’ve really spent time with her, but I don’t. I just smile and say goodbye, wave at the kids who are now playing in the living room and head back into the city. Because I know one thing about this girl and it’s that if I scare her, she’ll be gone for good. If I want any chance at her giving me another shot, I know damn well it needs to be her idea.

Or she at least needs to think it is.

Chapter Twelve

Avery

“What fresh hell is this,” I groan as I lay in bed the first full week of summer break. When I imagined what my first summer break as a teacher would be like, I definitely didn’t imagine spending it horizontal in bed, with my only company being a box of saltine crackers and ginger ale that I’m desperately praying will be my salvation from whatever bullshit sickness this is.

When I left work last week after waving all the school buses off with the rest of the teachers, I had hoped to be at a park with a Stanley cup filled with Pinot Grigio and a steamy book to keep me company while people watching nearly every day of the summer. Not whatever this hell is.

Being a teacher definitely has its perks, including a small chunk of summer without work. This may have only been my first year with my own classroom, but I was raised by teachers so I’m well aware of the misconception that teachers have a full summer off—at least, not anymore. Slowly, school has started to get out later and our yearly professional development has started to creep earlier leaving us with July and half of August.

It’s a nice break but damn, I wish it were longer. Or that we were actually paid for the hours we work… including the actualhours spent planning and prepping because that sure as hell isn’t able to happen in the measly forty minutes a day we get to plan. Especially because that’s also supposed to be our time to prep, grade, and collaborate with our grade level team.

So, to be spending today home sick, it feels like a cruel and unusual punishment. I started to feel crummy last week but usually once I ate breakfast and had my coffee I was fine. I figured it was just exhaustion from the end of the school year. I slept the first couple of days we were done but was hoping I would be feeling better by today. Unfortunately, the second I woke up this morning, I was throwing up before I even brushed my teeth.

Kelly

YEAR ONE IS DONE!

Are you still up for meeting at the park to celebrate your first year done?

My sister is a single mom,has been since she split with their dad when her son was one and her daughter was five, and somehow time has been a thief and he’s already five and she’s nine. She works as a nurse, but luckily at a place where they work as a team, and they’ve been very flexible if she’s needed to move things around because of the kids. Once she split from their dad it became challenging, especially because he lives like six hours away and makes her drive most of the way to pick up and drop the kids off each time. That’s where the kids are right now which has been nice because I’ve been able to steal their room while sick.

Not a chance.

I’m still dying.

I see the dots start…then stop… start… then stop until finally she responds.

Kelly

What’s going on now? Fever? Cough? Do you need medicine?

Mom mode activated.

No fever, just the same shit I’ve had all week.

Kelly

Still nauseous?

Yeah…pretty much all the time right now. I think it’s the stomach flu.

I was finally able to hold down a few crackers now though.

It was nice that I was home alone last night, when I got back home from running errands, I didn’t have to do anything for anyone else. I didn’t have to make sure the house was clean, that I was presentable, hell, I didn’t even have to fake being interested in talking to anyone. I was able to take a bath and crawl into bed where I slept like the dead for fourteen hours.

Kelly

That’s how it’s been all week, right?

Yeah.

Kelly

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