Chapter One

Ryan

She’s late. Why I am not surprised?

I checked my watch and realized that I have wasted 15 minutes of my time waiting for this new teacher, or as they call her, a volunteer. And for the life of me, I cannot seem to understand how can someone, in his right mind, willingly volunteer for babysitting children. Or maybe, she had lots of free time and is desperate for a job that she would try to delude these co-workers of mine into believing she is capable of pulling this thing off so easily. As if.

‘Hi’ a woman approached me. ‘Are you the instructor? Hmm...’ she has forgotten my name. Perfect.

‘Ryan..?’ I guessed.

‘Yeah’, she answered.

‘I am your instructor, Ryan. Remember the name or you will get lost around here someday’ I hope, I muttered under my breath and I didn’t care if she heard me because she seemed busy, registering the shapes of the similar buildings nearby.

‘If you will come with me’ I gestured to the right direction, ‘we will be done with this in no time’.

She turned around and considered me for a second and said, ‘I am the one who is supposed to be grumpy. It is not your first day here, is it?’

‘No’, I replied back, ‘less chatting and more touring, okay?’ When she didn’t say a thing, I added, ‘Come on,’ and walked off to lead the way.

It is going to be a very long day, I assured myself.

It took us merely two minutes to reach the second building which had the kids’ classes. We walked in silence till I broke it and explained the locations of all classrooms. She just nodded without further questions and I thanked god for that.

On the second floor, one of the classroom’s doors stood ajar that I pointed out as the kindergartens'. Without a word, she walked over to the class, introduced herself and began asking weird questions like, ‘what are your hobbies?’ and ‘do you enjoy drawing?’ I stared, gaping over her behaviour. Why did she care about their favourite colour and whatnot?

When I came forward, I noticed them responding back. She had made friends already, I guessed because they all gathered around her, forming a round circle, asking and answering questions. She, unlike me, seemed to be enjoying herself and laughing for the first time since I met her a while ago.

A teacher came in her class and was shocked to see an intruder. Sarah introduced herself again rather briefly, took permission and seated herself at the far end of the class. I wanted to get in but I was kind of relived to have a few minutes break so I quickly hit the cafeteria and ordered a snack. When the bell rang announcing the end of the lesson, I climbed the stairs in a hurry and stepped in my track the moment I saw students hugging Sarah and asking her if she would come back tomorrow. A bright colour of red rose on her cheeks as she said goodbye to her little friends. Spotting me over their little heads, she came forward and looked at me, waiting for my next sentence. I blinked repeatedly and said, ‘what was THAT all about?’ almost screaming.

‘What?’ she asked, innocently.

I wanted to yell at her for abandoning me because it’s my duty to have done so, yet, the stupid and innocent face she had on made it all the more impossible for me to even resume staring. ‘Nothing’, I fumed. ‘Where are we going next?’ she inquired almost immediately. ‘Over here’, I led the way again, past the main center to the third building on the left. ‘This the building of the older group of students’’, I repeated what I usually said, ‘aged 12 to 17’.

She nodded and we entered. The atmosphere here was a bit serious than the latter. It was quiet and I could sense the surprised look on Sarah’s face. I laughed and said, ‘They are supposed to be studying’. She didn’t seem to get the joke yet she smiled politely, showing the same dimpled, perfect smile of hers.

Her silence, I have to admit, was irksome for she wasn’t like the other teachers I have encountered before. They had asked about when the school day would come to an end, where are the meeting-halls, ladies’ room or if they would get to meet up with me a second time and they would flirt a little when asking, but all of this…doesn’t seem to interest Sarah in any way possible. Based on what I observed, she had this habit of staring at every corner, like she is contemplating mysterious beauty, which I found quiet fascinating.

‘Ryan,’ she interrupted my thoughts, ‘what are we doing here?’

‘Huh?’, I asked.

‘I mean, why aren’t we touring around the place?’

‘Uh-oh, I guess we have done that part already’. I shrugged.

‘Oh, then, what are YOU doing here?’ she asked again.

‘I do not know,’ I said ‘maybe I am your instructor and I am not supposed to leave you till you get the place, and that’s hmm, let see…a week from now?’

Author's Note

Ignore grammatical mistakes as English is my second language and I'm trying. Let me know your thoughts about the structure and the plot.