First day

How did Lynn end up in this school of monsters? Read and find out the events that brought her here.

 

First Day

Oh, God! Oh, God!  I MUST be absolutely insane!  How can I do this?  Why am I doing this!   Grrrrr.  OK, time to suck it up and open the damn door.  I watch my own hand as if it is a foreign creature out of a horror flick.  It trembles as I reach for the door latch of my Mazda Miata.  OK, pull the latch, I tell my hand.  Just pull it!  My hand finally pulls and the door pops open.  The smell of the exhaust from the diesel engines hits me like a tidal wave, one that I would surely love to run from, but I think someone switched my high heeled shoes for cement galoshes!  My ears are assaulted by the constant rumble of the bus motors, and now the sounds of four hundred monsters voices.  At least they sound like unnamable and untamable beasts to me, but I am sure that their mothers would not agree with me.  Does any monster’s mother think that her offspring truly is a monster?  I have yet to see one that does!  I take a lung full of air in what is my last seconds of freedom for the next four months.

I grab my purse and double locked black briefcase that was my passenger on my trip from the house I’d been staying in for the past three weeks.  Swinging my legs out the door, I take a quick look at this early morning perfectly azure sky.  The weatherman on channel twelve’s morning news said that it was supposed to be a totally clear for the whole day, if one can actually trust a TV weatherman especially here in Michigan.  The saying, “if you don’t like the weather here, wait five minutes… it will change,” has some basis in fact.  Should I trust the weather guru, or put up the black soft top on my sleek white chariot?  The car is a second baby for me; my first also has horsepower, but is an actual living being.  This is the first car I bought that wasn’t a piece of junk.  I liked to keep it clean and polished, which totally amazes my parents and boyfriend.  My last road chariot, a F.O.R.D, Found On the Road Dead, only got attention when it was ABSOLUTELY necessary.  No one could have been more delighted to get a whopping five hundred dollars for it when I finally found the car I wanted to drive, and had the necessary credit to buy.  The little Miata is a blast to drive.  Yeah, it is a chick kind of car, but it handles so well, and hell even though my job is traditionally a guy’s, I am still a chick. 

Leaving the top down, I give the car a sad little look of forlorn longing.  Damn, I just want to jump back in and drive away from the monsters and this coming imprisonment.   My chariots gleaming sides taunt me “remember you have a car payment, and student loans to pay back now.”  Damn car, why did it have to remind me that now I’m supposed to be a responsible adult? Sucking in a trembling breath of air, I push the door lock button on my key remote.  Yeah, probably kind of stupid to lock a convertible, but no one would be able to start the car if they wanted to steal it with the locks engaged.  Not that there was much likelihood of the car disappearing from this parking lot in this tiny agricultural town. 

Time to face the horde.  Will they devour me?  Chew me up and spit me out?  Will the lessons I’ve learned and been preparing for these past 4 years, make it so I can lion tame at least some of these wild, bellowing, howling creatures?  With dread, I begin my death march across the graveled parking lot. 

The herd of monsters is congregating at the front of the building, and I am not ready to walk among that horde just yet.  With my keys in tightly clutched in hand I decide to skirt around and away from the mingling throng.  I head toward the greenhouses to the south of the brick building that will contain the creatures.  I walk past the 3 greenhouses to a metal door inset on the side of the building, and insert my key in the lock I first used six weeks ago.  “Here I go!”  I murmur to no one.  I am sure I will encounter at least a few monsters once I open this door.  All I’ve done is avoid the thronging mass.  I open the door and spy two monsters, both unfamiliar to me.  I know my 110 monsters faces, even though I may not remember all of their names.  I sidle past these two and head toward another door, wooden with a vertical insert of glass on it.  It yields to the probing of my key labeled ‘Property of Capac Community Schools Do Not Duplicate’.  I blow a sigh of relief as I walk into the short corridor that opens up to my prison.  No monsters here… yet…  I turn to my left and unlock the door to my sanctuary, my office.

I place my brief case on the desk and remove my class syllabi.  This is my first day of school where I am the only teacher in charge of the classroom.  Left behind, six months ago, is the comfort the security of student teaching.  I no longer have Floyd to go to for answers to my questions.  I know that he thinks I am ready for this, but I am nervous.  I wouldn’t have this opportunity to be in the position of taking the job all other Ag teachers in the state envy me for, if it weren’t for Floyd and Frank.   This is the job I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of winning.  It still amazes me and feels dream-like that phone call from the retiring Ag teacher to me in April. 

I remember vividly hearing Tim’s voice asking “Well, Lynn do you want to know the results of the interview here in Capac?”

I laugh, knowing full well that there was no way that I would get the job.  This was something I was certain of before I ever even applied, or was called to come two and a half hours away for an interview.  Hell, I did the interview for ‘s***s and grins’ practice.  There were over forty applicants for this one opening, and twenty of them came from my college graduating class.  Another twenty came from teachers who already had a job and were looking to ‘up grade’ to a teaching position that was supported by the community.  It wasn’t that this was the highest paying job available for a new graduate, or for an established teacher.  It was the simple fact that this program is seen as the third best program in the whole state of Michigan and a top one in the US.  It is going to be a long wait in a cold day in hell, before the other two positions above of Capac would ever come open.  I am so fortunate to have gone to high school myself at the program seen as number one in the state, and then even more fortunate to have done my student teaching at number two.  So when the call came, I was sure Tim was going to tell me “good going but we hired …blank.”  Fill in the name.  When the phone rang that April afternoon I knew who was calling before I ever lifted the phone.

So I tell Tim, “hit me with the bad news, I am braced.”

His warm friendly voice chuckles and he says, “Lynn?”

“Yeppers.”

“Congratulation.  You’ve got the job!”

“Alright Tim it is NOT funny to kick a gal while she is down.” I scold.

“Lynn, I am not kidding.”

I refuse to buy into this joke.  “No way, Tim either Jim or Anita got the job.”   I didn’t stand a chance in hell against a teacher who had been the president of the Michigan Ag teachers Association and had the fourth or fifth best program in the state.  Nor could I win out over my friend Anita, who graduated from Capac, plus her father was on the school board.  She had also been a State Officer, and had two years classroom experience.  I am a new grad, for god sakes.  This joke was just a bit cruel.  I never thought of Tim Harrimens as a cruel person, but I am considering it now.

“Lynn, you have the job.”  His voice echoes.

“Yeah right, you guys picked Jim or Anita.”  I growl.  Ha! Ha! Funny, let’s punk Lynn!  Runs through my mind.

“No, seriously.  We decided on you.”

By now the barest of hopes begins to flame in my heart.  “Yeah right, Why?”  If he is going to continue the joke I want him to be uncomfortable too.

“Well, because we felt you would do a better job than any of the others.  I am sure that you will meet or exceed every record I’ve set here within five years.”  His rebuke carries across the phone line.

“Oh boy, you sure know how to lay it on thick don’t you?” 

At this he laughs.  “No really, the job is yours if you want it.  You do want it don’t you?”  A note of concern begins to tighten his voice.

“If you are really offering it to me, of course I do!” 

“Well, the superintendent will be sending you your contract to sign.  You start July first.”

“I’ll have a summer program then? Cool!”

“Yep.”

“Wow, majorly awesome.  Do you have any FFA meetings already on the calendar for the summer?” Now, that I am beginning to actually take in the possibility of getting this plum job, concern plagues me.  How will I start work and call or send out some sort of announcement to all of these kids that don’t know me from ADAM, and try to keep the chapter active over the summer?

“Yes. The June, July and August meetings are set for the third Wednesday at seven.  Do you want to come to the June meeting and meet some of the kids?  It maybe a way for you to ease into the job.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there,” I hung up the phone and go into the living room where my absolutely gorgeous boyfriend of three plus years is studying.

“Who was that?”  Bryce asks.  Looking up at me from an arm chair his mother had given him for his apartment that now resides in my duplex.

I must have looked strange because he questions, “Are you OK?  Lynn, Lynn, are you here?”  I guess I must look like I’ve taken a mental vacation.  He unfolds his 6’3” lean frame from the chair to wave a hand in front of my face.  Gathering me into his muscular arms he asks, “What was that call?”

I give a humongous “Whaaa!”  and jump up on him, wrap my long legs around his waist, throw my arms around his neck, I screech, “I got it!  You are not going to believe this, but I got IT!”

He holds me tight to the hard frame of his broad muscular chest.  “OK, you got it.  What-- it?”

“Capac!”  I squeal.

“Wow, Really?  Congrats!  That’s the one you were sure you wouldn’t get!”  He lightly thumps my back.  “So you didn’t blow the interview after all!”

“No, I guess my cavalier attitude was something they liked.”  The memories of that day flit through my mind.  I was so sure that I didn’t stand a chance with that job, that I went into the interview with ‘oh what the hell’ attitude.  It was the one interview where I didn’t have any nerves, even with the retiring teacher, High School Principal and the Superintendent grilling me for an hour.  That was thirty minutes longer than the interview was scheduled for!  Wow, I still can’t believe it.

“So are you taking the job or waiting to see how the other interviews you did turn out?  You know, pick out the best offer?  Right?”  Bryce’s piercing blue eyes scans my face as he holds me out away from his chest to see me better.

“No.  I just told Tim that I’ll take it.  If I don’t, they’ve lots of others who will jump on it.”

“You really should be given a couple of days or a week to weigh all the offers.  That would only be fair.”

“It doesn’t matter!  I’ve got the job I want but never thought I’d get!” I yell.

“OK, OK I can see you are just a tiny bit excited about this.  You never saw this happening?”

“Hell no, you know it doesn’t work like that.”

Boy, do I wish I HAD seen all of what was coming as a result of that one simple decision.

 

Author's Note

be cruel, wicked with this! I need to know what to fix/improve on here!

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

your humor in this is awesome. I'm so embarrassed as I read this, my son is one of those monsters - a teacher eating demon...why I don't know, our other child is quite amicable...but I know the mid school lounge has a dart board with my son's pic on it....I can't prove that but I believe it in my heart. I hope you continue this story.

[Lena M. P.]

Spoken like a teacher of experience! The story is little and humorous. You have done well at hitting the age and inexperience of the new teacher. I liked that the teacher wasn't "out to save the world" or seeing themselves as setting the world on its ear. She sees them as "little monsters" which I loved. I think the piece about when she is offered the job drug on too much causing me to want to skip over some there. Good storyline so far though.

[Daiku Maryu]

"Will they devour me? Chew me up and spit me out?"--sudden switch of register here. I'd write "will they eat me alive?" to keep it informal.

"hit me with the bad news, I am braced." --change "I am" to "I'm". Your character is speaking informally here, isn't she? In fact I'd change the "I am's" in the narrative to "I'm's"--the narrator generally sounds fairly informal so the "I am's" are somewhat jarring.

If Bryce has a "lean frame" would he really have a chest broad enough that it's worth mentioning in the narrative?

Generally, I didn't see much stylistical or grammatical mistakes here. Your characters seems like an uncertain young teacher, who heared too many horror stories about kids in school; that's an interesting change from all those stories where the protagonist is a pupil and all teachers are monsters.

Is the part about her car necessary, though? Is the car important for the story? Do we need to know this much about it? If not, ditch the part--at least some readers (like me) will end up wondering what happened to it and why it isn't mentioned again. Just stick to what is neccessary for the plot or to show Lynn's mood.

I find it interesting that Lynn got hired despite her relatively low experience. This sounds like it might lead to some trouble.

[anneliese]

i dont quite understand the italics, they confuse me, other wise good job.

[Kloud_Nine]

Hey, Lyndie, long time no talk, I know I've been busy with school starting again, getting into that mode (thank god I've found it)

Anywho so I've finally found the time to stop by the caf� for a few reviews and this story caught my eye. After reading it, I've discovered a few things, nothing big (like a plot mix up or anything) just small stuff. Now, please bear with me, I'm no master critic or anything so its not going to be perfect, but it is something.

Ok, first off I like the story thus far, I especially like Lynn her personality is the type I like to see in woman, so that's defiantly a keeper. Here Are just a few things that really aren't mistakes just things I believe would really enhance this chapter.

"�I take a quick look at this early morning sky. A perfectly clear blue sky greets my eyes." This part seemed somewhat repetitive to me, you mention sky in both sentences. I would try combining both sentences somehow, that or replacing the word sky in either the first or second sentence.

"The herd of monsters are congregating at the front of the building, and I am not ready to walk inside that throng just yet. With my keys in clutched in hand I decide to skirt around and away from the mingling throng." Just a suggestion. Replacing the word "throng" in the last sentence with another word might make it sound a bit more fluent. Mob, perhaps?

That's all that really stood out to me, among other things that I'm sure there were just caught-in-the-moment mistakes. A few digits here and there that should be spelled out, spelling, grammer, again, all things that could be fixed with a little revamping. Also, like Sylas pointed out earlier: italicizing Lynn's thoughts would help some.

Again, I enjoyed the story, and I'm interested to see where Lynn's interesting personality takes the story or where the story takes Lynn. I'm especially curious to see how these "monsters" play a role. So far so good, Lyndie, keep it up. 

[Joanna Maharis]

I love this story. Everything flows so beautifully. It's just a clean read overall.

[Jarrett]

Hmm... I would make the character's personal thoughts italic, so you can differentiate between thoughts and description.
also, I thought the conversation where Lynn refused to accept that she'd gotten the job was a little strained.
Other than that, I'd say just run through it with the fine-toothed comb once again- it's a good opening.

[Leah]

I love it, I think it's really funny (especially the F.O.R.D. part!)

However, the verb tenses change. For instance, you say "I lilt, he says, I scold" and then later switch to "I echoed, he growled, I said".

But other than that, it's a great beginning!