by Linda Huber
Her good mood disappeared as she glanced at the kitchen clock and called to Hailey again. The child had been up since seven and she was still pottering around upstairs.
A twinge under her ribs made Jennifer’s breath catch. She was getting bulkier by the week, and standing around like this was uncomfortable. She stood rubbing her back with both hands, forcing herself to relax. There was still plenty of time.
Hailey wandered into the kitchen as Jennifer was pouring boiling water into a mug. Wisps of hair behind the child’s ears were still damp, and the blue and white of the uniform skirt and blouse seemed to swamp her. Jennifer pressed her lips together hard.
No matter how much she tried, there was always something to do with Hailey that wasn’t quite right. Jennifer found herself fighting frustration at some point every day and it wasn’t good for her, or the babies. It was so important that Hailey made a good impression on her teacher today, but here she was looking as if she’d thrown her uniform on. And her appearance would become even messier as the day progressed; Jennifer was under no illusions about that. She mulled over the fact that she would have no control whatsoever over the child all the time Hailey was at school. The realisation was unsettling. She wouldn’t be able to tweak Hailey’s blouse into place. And the hair... it was just all wrong.
Pulling the child into the downstairs bathroom, Jennifer wielded a hairbrush, tutting as Hailey whimpered. The length was fine and the colour was good now too, the spray had seen to that. Recently Jennifer had been trying camomile tea in combination with the lemon juice, because the smell of the spray was much too chemical for school. Hailey’s hair truly was golden brown like it had always been, but the dryness was worrying. In spite of all the conditioner Jennifer lathered the child’s hair with, it just didn’t look good, and today it was so important that Hailey looked her best.
‘You can wear the hairband,’ said Jennifer, sliding the uniform blue band over Hailey’s head and settling it over the child’s scalp. That would do very nicely. It was hiding the thin parts and pushing the bulk of Hailey’s hair to the back of her head, nicely out of sight when anyone was face to face with the child. It had been a good idea to get the broader band meant for older girls and then shorten it. The only problem was that Hailey hated the band; they’d tried it out on Saturday and the stupid girl had pushed and pulled at her head until she looked like some kind of ragamuffin. That wouldn’t do today.
‘You are not to touch this band, do you hear?’ said Jennifer sternly. ‘I’ll notice if you do and you’ll be punished severely. Now come and have some breakfast.’
‘Yes Mummy.’
Jennifer glanced heavenwards. Hailey had forgotten her smile yet again.
‘I wish there wasn’t a uniform,’ she said, sliding a piece of toast onto the child’s plate. ‘You’d look much prettier in a nice dress. Hurry now. We’ll leave at half past.’
Silently, Hailey began to eat, and Jennifer sat down with her tea.
‘Please can I have some apple juice?’
Jennifer closed her eyes for a moment. Was she to have no peace at all this morning?
‘Of course not. You don’t want to have to go to the bathroom every ten minutes on your first day, do you? And for heaven’s sake remember to go at break time. You can have a very little milk.’
Jennifer set a small glass in front of Hailey and tucked a few hairs back into her elegant chignon. She needed to relax here, everything was going to be alright. Mothers were always nervous when their children started school. It was a pity she’d had to give Hailey a pill to make her sleep last night; they made her so dopey the next morning too. Still, the teacher would surely make allowances on the first day.
‘It’s time to get ready,’ she said, plucking the remainder of the toast from Hailey’s fingers and pulling her away from the table. ‘Go and do your teeth, and remember to leave that hair alone.’
At exactly half past eight, Jennifer reversed her BMW out of the garage. Her mood swung upwards again as she drove down through the village. Polpayne was lovely - a charming little fishing village nestling on and between sturdy North Cornwall cliffs. Their new home was near the top of the cliff and the view was magnificent. A steep lane wound down to sea level, where the area round the noisy fishing harbour was the heart of the village.
Jennifer smiled happily. Phillip was going to love it here. It was such an ideal place to bring up their family. Surely Gran couldn’t last much longer, the cancer seemed to be everywhere now. They would soon be a wonderful little family of five.
A baby kicked, and Jennifer patted her bump. Such a lot of surprises for Phillip. The downside was it was getting more and more difficult to keep all her lovely secrets. Phillip did know about the house, of course, so she had at least been able to talk about how the work was progressing. But that was finished now, and she couldn’t tell Phillip that she was spending her days teaching Hailey to smile politely and print her name ready for school. That would ruin everything.
The signpost for St Mary’s Castle loomed up in front and Jennifer jammed on the brakes. The BMW swerved across the road, which was fortunately deserted. She’d driven right past the lane up to Polpayne Castle Primary. Frustration filled her yet again and she struggled to control herself, glaring down at the child beside her.
‘Why didn’t you say we’d gone past?’ hissed Jennifer between her teeth, her anger fuelled by the fact that Hailey was now cowering in her booster seat. ‘You can be absolutely hopeless sometimes, you really can.’
Her jaw tight, Jennifer pulled the car around, forcing herself to breathe calmly. It was just nerves, this was such an important day. She glanced down at Hailey’s trembling lips and over-shiny eyes.
‘Oh for heaven’s sake, it’s alright. We’re in plenty of time. Let’s practise talking to your teacher again. I’ll be Miss McLure.’
She switched to a haughty, Oxford English accent.
‘Good morning, and what’s your name?’
Hailey’s voice was thick with tears, but she replied clearly enough, even remembering the smile.
‘I’m Hailey Marshall.’
‘And your address?’
‘Four Castle Gardens, Polpayne.’
‘And what’s your date of birth?’
‘The fifteenth of August. And I’m - five.’
Jennifer smiled brightly. The fifteenth of August, such a special day.
‘Good,’ she said in her own voice. ‘Just remember not to mumble and you’ll be fine. Now blow your nose, we’re here.’
The sun was shining hazily now, and Jennifer looked up at the school - beautiful red sandstone with two hideous concrete extensions. Three tall ash trees were waving in the wind at the side of the main building, two coaches parked beneath them. The air rang with shouts and high-pitched laughter as blue-uniformed children ran round them and into the building. Hailey, standing beside the car with her schoolbag, looked very small and very young and very frightened. Jennifer pulled out a tissue and scrubbed the little girl’s face.
‘Come on now,’ she said, giving the child’s arm an impatient shake. ‘And remember your manners, please.’
She pushed Hailey towards a door where a middle-aged woman was standing with a clipboard.
‘Hello. And you are?’
‘Hailey Marshall.’
Hailey’s voice was clear and the smile was gorgeous. Jennifer beamed proudly. The woman ticked her list.
‘Excellent. My name’s Mrs Wilson and I’m the Juniors’ matron,’ she said. ‘You and Mummy can go down the corridor to the first room on the right. Alison the classroom assistant is there, and Miss McLure will be along in a few minutes. See you later!’
Jennifer poked Hailey’s back.
‘Thank you,’ said Hailey obediently, and Mrs Wilson smiled and nodded.
‘There! You see? You’ll be fine,’ said Jennifer, striding along the corridor.
She turned back to Hailey, her pleasure vanishing as she looked at the child trudging along with her s
choolbag. Hailey looked so young and lost, and her lips were trembling again. Maybe school hadn’t been such a good idea. Maybe she should have waited with that, after all, they’d only just moved to the area.
But it was much too late to go back now. And Hailey was five years old for heaven’s sake, she had to go to school. She would get used to things. The other children in her class were all new too. Yes, everything would be fine in a week or two. Of course it would.
Her confidence returned, Jennifer put a hand on Hailey’s neck and propelled her briskly into the classroom.
Chapter Six
Katie grabbed her handbag and hurried towards the staff loo, pulling out her comb. The school buses were arriving, and today a good number of children had come in private cars too. Nora and Alison were busy greeting her own class right now.
‘You’ll be fine. You look great!’
Jeanette McCallum passed by, and Katie grinned. The other teachers had laughed at her, going to do her face and hair for the infant class, but Cornish winds and weather had wreaked havoc with both and the kids definitely didn’t need to start their school lives with a teacher who looked like Snow White’s wicked stepmother.
Katie stared at her reflection. Her long dark hair hung loose and her make-up wasn’t quite hiding the anxious expression. She was a teacher, though - she could act.
There was a murmur of voices coming from inside her classroom and Katie hesitated at the door. Fifteen five-year-olds were waiting for her to appear, plus however many parents had decided to come along. She pushed herself through the door.
Instant silence fell as soon as she stepped inside. About forty people were sitting round the big crafts table near the door, parents behind the children, and they were all staring at her with expressions ranging from interested and welcoming to just plain scared. Most of the parents were mothers, and Katie felt her eyebrows rise as she looked round the assembled women. Every single one of these women might have stepped out of a glossy magazine. The dads looked a little more neutral, and the children seemed all sizes, from a big, burly boy head and shoulders above the rest, to a frightened-looking waif of a child wearing a large school headband. This must be the newest addition the Head had talked about.
‘Good morning, everyone!’ In spite of her nerves Katie’s voice rang out confidently. ‘Welcome to Polpayne Castle Primary. And now... let’s get started!’
She fetched the pile of folders from her desk and sat down at the table, smiling round the group.
‘My name’s Miss McLure, and I’m your teacher,’ she said, deliberately addressing the children only. ‘And this is Alison, our classroom assistant.’ She nodded towards the student who was completing a work placement at the school.
‘Now, I have a folder here for each of you. I’d like to know your name and where you live, and maybe if you know any of the other children. Who wants to tell me first?’
There was a second’s pause, then to Katie’s relief, the child sitting beside her waved a hand in the air and said, ‘I’m Julia and I live at St Mary’s Castle and I’m five and I know Ian and Martin and Amy and Melanie and Aiden.’
The mentioned pupils giggled self-consciously and the adults all laughed, including Katie. These were the children who’d come from the pre-school section, and thank goodness, a little light relief to start them off.
‘Well done, Julia,’ said Katie, handing over the folder. ‘Let’s just go round the table, shall we?’
The next child was the slight little girl with the headband. Her mother, heavily pregnant and looking very uncomfortable perched on the miniature chair, leaned towards her daughter.
‘Hailey Marshall 4 Castle Gardens Polpayne and I’m five and my birthday’s on the fifteenth of August,’ the child said in one breath, smiling shakily, her eyes sliding up to her mother’s face. To Katie’s surprise, the woman frowned at her daughter.
‘Very good indeed, Hailey,’ she said quickly, pulling out the child’s folder. ‘Do you know any of the others?’
Hailey shook her head.
‘We only recently moved to Polpayne,’ said Mrs Marshall, looking more relaxed, and Katie nodded.
When they had been round the entire table, Katie took the children to their desks and left Alison to help them put stickers on the folders while she went back to the parents. The fifteen mothers and seven fathers had reassembled round the big table, and Katie grinned at the group.
‘This first term is very much a settling-in time for the children,’ she said. ‘We want them to be happy here, and learn to work in a relaxed atmosphere. They’ll have homework in their folders most days, but please don’t let them spend more than fifteen minutes on it. Messages from the school will be in the folders too so it’s a good idea to check them each day. Now, I know you’ve all seen the school’s prospectus, but are there any questions?’
She spent the next ten minutes answering the usual questions about sport, computers, lunches and so on. The children were in her line of vision, and Katie noticed that both talkative Julia and the biggest boy had problems sitting still. Little Hailey sat with huge, unblinking eyes fixed on her mother most of the time. We’ll have tears there when it’s time to say goodbye, thought Katie wryly. Good job she had plenty of tissues and a couple of good games at the ready.
To Katie’s surprise, however, it was Derek Cameron, the biggest boy, who howled when the parents left, not Hailey. The little girl didn’t speak for the rest of the morning, but she seemed quite happy to sit matching fish cards with three other girls.
At lunchtime, Katie watched as Alison took the children to the dining room, then headed towards the staffroom.
Mark was sitting at the table with a packet of sandwiches. ‘How was it?’ he asked.
Katie poured herself a large mug of coffee.
‘Intensive. We have Julia who never stops talking, Hailey who opened her mouth exactly once, and Derek who was inconsolable when his mum left and has spent the rest of the morning shoving people out of his way. And a few others too. How about you?’
He grinned. ‘I gather I’m the first male teacher they’ve ever had. No-one uttered a squeak uninvited.’
Katie laughed. ‘That’ll soon change!’
She opened her own lunch and sat chewing silently, thinking about her new class. First impressions could tell you a lot, and her first impression of this class was that in Derek and Hailey she had already identified two children who might need more than the ‘normal’ amount of attention. Mind you, nervousness might well be the reason for both Derek’s aggression and his terrible stutter, and Hailey’s shyness.
That afternoon she read The Rainbow Fish to the children before letting them choose if they wanted to play or draw. Only three children chose to draw, quiet little Hailey and two boys who were soon giggling away over the same sheet of paper. Even after less than a day, Katie could see that Hailey wasn’t a child who made friends quickly, but she couldn’t let her smallest pupil draw all by herself for the next half hour. In the end she sent Alison to sit with Hailey and went to oversee the others in the play area.
Ten minutes later the assistant was back at her side.
‘Hailey’s fallen asleep.’
Katie looked over to the craft table and grinned. Hailey was sprawled over her drawing, out for the count.
‘Tiring business, starting school. We’ll give her half an hour.’
At half past three she called the children together. Hailey was awake now, looking more than a little rumpled. Quickly, Katie straightened the child’s headband, a whiff of lemon reaching her nose. She smiled round the group.
‘Well done, everyone. That was a very good first day at school. We’ll finish with a song now, and then the bus people can go with Alison, and Graeme and Hailey, you stay with me until your mums or dads pick you up.’
Most of the children knew ‘I’m a Little Fish’, which fitted in well with the first term’s theme of The Ocean. Katie led them through it twice, noticing in amusement that Julia sang the l
oudest and Hailey didn’t open her mouth. Trends had been set already. The children gathered round to say goodbye, and Katie realised that exhausted or not, this was definitely what she wanted to do in life. Teach little kids. She waved the bus people off before taking Graeme and Hailey out to the car park, where Graeme’s dad was already waiting.
Hailey’s face was bleak as she watched Graeme running to his father, and Katie patted the little girl’s shoulder.
‘Don’t worry, your mum’ll soon be here too.’
The little girl looked up with startled eyes. ‘My mum’ll soon be here,’ she echoed slowly, and stood staring expectantly down the drive. Katie smiled to herself. Hailey looked as if she was waiting for a bus that should have arrived hours ago.
The Marshalls’ BMW appeared at the bottom of the driveway, and Hailey turned to Katie, tragedy written right across her face.
‘It’s Mummy,’ she said, her voice trembling.
Katie hid another smile. You didn’t often see a child look so completely gutted to be going home from school. She certainly hadn’t expected it of this child.
‘It is indeed,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, Hailey, you’ll be coming back to school tomorrow. We’ll have lots of time to play and learn things, you’ll see.’
She hurried Hailey across to the BMW and bundled her in before her poor pregnant mother could struggle out.
Katie stood waving as the big car set off down the drive. Well, her first day as infant mistress had gone pretty well, all things considered. She grinned at Nora and Alison, who were waiting inside.
‘It’s nice when they don’t want to go home, isn’t it?’
Nora laughed.
‘Definitely one of the perks of having a class of fresh new five-year-olds. It won’t last.’
Katie grabbed her jacket, aware that all she wanted now was to cuddle the cat on her sofa and watch something unchallenging on television.
