Toronto Collection Volume 3 (Toronto Series #10-13)

by Heather Wardell

  It took about ten minutes to go through the list of students and label everyone, although it would have taken half that if I hadn't let them choose their own sticker. Still, it gave me time to get to know them a little bit, to see who was loud and who hung back to see what the others said and who only wanted to please me.

  In the end, my sheet of twenty-five stickers still had two left, and I checked the attendance sheet I'd been marking off and realized I was missing Khalid the attention-seeker. Probably not a bad thing for my first day.

  Since they'd been pretty well behaved during the naming extravaganza, I said, "I'll tell you three things about Canada now since you were so good. First, we do have snow but I couldn't bring it to you. Who knows why?"

  They looked at each other, then my pigtailed friend, now labeled Muneera, raised a tentative hand.

  "Yes, Muneera?"

  "It would melt?"

  "Exactly," I said, and she grinned.

  "And I have seen polar bears but you can't keep them as pets because they're wild animals, and yes, I have eaten maple syrup. It's very sweet. Sometimes they make it into sugar, into candies."

  "Miss, can we have some?"

  I raised my eyebrows at one of my three Mohammeds, not wanting to spend the rest of the year having him shout out every thought that crossed his mind. Before I could figure out how to say so, though, he sheepishly raised his hand.

  A surge of happiness washed over me at my accidental success and I said, "Yes, Mohammed?"

  "Do you have any candy for us?"

  "Not today, I'm afraid. But if you're very good maybe I can get some sent from Canada. Only maybe, though," I hurried to add, since I had no idea whether I could import it.

  He folded his hands on his desk and gave me what was probably supposed to be an angelic smile. "I'll be good, Miss."

  I ran my eyes across the rows of silent perfectly-behaved students and smiled. "I can tell that you're all good."

  "Not Khalid," a boy muttered. He'd pronounced the name with the emphasis on the first syllable, Ca-lid, where in my head I'd been saying it Ca-leed, but two others said, "Yeah, not Khalid," and pronounced it the same way so I assumed they must be right.

  About the pronunciation, anyhow. I couldn't let them get away with speaking about their classmate that way. "All of you," I said firmly. "I haven't met Khalid yet but I'm sure he'll be good too."

  They didn't speak but I could feel their collective disagreement. It made me nervous but I pushed it aside. No time to worry about Khalid, regardless of how I pronounced his name. "Now, let's get started on our math, shall we?" I didn't even glance at the lesson plan. I didn't need it. "Page ninety-seven, please. Who can give me the answer for the first homework question?"

  With their name tags on it was easy for me to call on each child by name, and though they didn't all have their homework done they did at least pay attention.

  Once the homework was taken up, I said, "Let's all make sure we have our homework done for tomorrow, okay? It's important."

  "Why, Miss?"

  Again Mohammed. The same Mohammed. I assumed applying his name tag over his mouth would be considered inappropriate, so instead I ignored him and began explaining how to add fractions. Luckily I'd done a lot of that in combining pigments to make custom cosmetics so I didn't feel too nervous about teaching it.

  After a moment, Mohammed raised his hand.

  I cut myself off to call on him so he'd see immediate success by doing what I wanted.

  "Miss, why is homework important?"

  I ran my eyes over the group. "Who can answer that?"

  Nobody could. Muneera hesitantly said, "Teachers like it," but couldn't tell me why.

  "Well, I think it's important because it's practice," I said eventually, hoping to hell that was even close to why teachers assigned it. I'd never been quite sure myself. "We can do a few math problems here together, but until you try them on your own, how do you know if you get it? That's the point, after all. That you really understand it."

  An awed silence hung over the room, and at that moment a knock came at the door and Janet stuck her puffy-haired head in and said, "Mind if I watch for a while?"

  "Of course not." I smiled at her, thrilled that the kids had been quiet and well-behaved when she arrived.

  She smiled back, then took a chair by the door and said, "Pretend I'm not here."

  The kids and I had trouble with that at first, but as we kept working on math and then moved into a science lesson on the layers of the earth's crust first they and then I did indeed forget Janet's presence.

  When the bell rang to signal recess time, I was mid-sentence but the kids all jumped up at once and began talking.

  "Freeze!"

  They did freeze, staring at me, and I said, "I haven't said you could get up."

  "But the bell--" Mohammed began.

  "The bell isn't in charge here," I said. "Sit down, please."

  They did, and I counted slowly to three in my head then said, "You may line up for recess."

  I dismissed them once they were lined up, then jumped at the sound of slow clapping when they'd all left.

  "I'd planned to spend the morning watching you to make sure you were okay," Janet said from behind me.

  I turned to her and she grinned. "But I don't think that's necessary. You're a natural, Larissa."

  *****

  At three o'clock that afternoon, I sat in my chair slumped over onto my desk trying to muster up the energy to call the taxi company. I'd never been so tired in my life. The way I'd felt after the flight? Like waking up from a blissful twelve-hour sleep compared to this. Even my hair felt exhausted.

  The kids hadn't been any more difficult as the day wore on, but somehow the pressure of always being in charge of them, of always needing to be alert to what might be happening when my back was turned, had worn me down to a degree I'd never have expected.

  A knock at my open door startled me upright.

  "Sorry." Leon, wearing a dark grey dress shirt and sleek black pants that looked made for him, stood lounging in the doorframe. He smiled at me. "Didn't mean to wake you."

  Some guys have the knack of making the most innocent comment sound sexual, and Leon's words made me blush. "I'm awake. Barely."

  He chuckled. "Hard day?"

  "Actually, they were great." I took a deep breath then made myself get up and begin tidying the room. "Nice kids. I just found it tiring, that's all."

  "Hmm. I never have."

  Thanks a lot. I kept tidying, not sure what to say.

  "But I'm a big strong man," he said, and I looked up to see him striking a ridiculous body builder pose.

  I laughed. "And I'm not?"

  His eyes swept over me, not lingering anywhere but somehow making me feel like they had. "You are not. Definitely not." He looked back at my face. "Strong, sure. But you are no man."

  Feeling stupidly happy that he'd noticed, I gave my skirt a tug. "Good thing, or this would be a weird outfit."

  He laughed, and Omar appeared beside him. "Well, Larissa? How did the afternoon go?"

  Omar had come to check on me at recess, then again when the kids had gone to lunch, and I appreciated it. I smiled at him. "Great, thanks. I'm beat, though."

  He smiled back. "I remember my first day of teaching. I fell asleep on my desk after the kids left."

  If Leon hadn't arrived, I would have too.

  I glanced at Leon and he winked at me.

  I blushed, knowing he was thinking about his "big strong man" comment and excluding Omar from that group. I didn't like it, even though Omar had no idea what Leon had said. "Well, I should finish cleaning up then get home. Early night tonight for sure."

  Both guys burst out at once to say I shouldn't just go home after my first day.

  We all laughed and I said, "What should I do instead?"

  "Get ice cream with me?" and "Go to the gym with me" were said at the same time.

  I laughed. "Gym? I think not."

&nb
sp; "I'm always so energized after," Leon said, his eyes locked to mine. "Nothing feels as good as a great workout."

  The heat in his eyes said he was thinking of the kind of workout one didn't do at a gym, and it embarrassed me even though I liked that he was thinking that way while looking at me. "Well, I bet ice cream comes close. And it's nowhere near as tiring." I turned to Omar. "You'd go with me?"

  His cheeks reddened. "Absolutely."

  "Okay, fine," Leon said, as if I'd been begging him. "I'll eat ice cream and then go work it off."

  I couldn't figure out how to say we didn't need him to come along, and he didn't give me a chance anyhow. "I'll drive you there. Omar drives like a little old lady."

  Omar blushed further and I felt irritated. "No, actually I think I'll go with Omar. We need to talk about the rest of the week at school."

  Leon rolled his eyes. "I'll see you in an hour then, once Omar manages to get you there."

  In fact, Omar stayed only two or three cars behind Leon all the way to the ice cream place. We chatted about the kids, laughing together over their hopes that I owned a polar bear, and agreed to see if Katherine could meet on Thursday after school to coordinate what we'd be doing for the next week. I had a feeling Omar might have a bit of a crush on me, but his utter lack of pressure and sexual innuendo meant I didn't feel remotely uncomfortable with him.

  As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw Leon leaping from his car and hurrying to the front door, where he stood looking bored. I rolled my eyes. "You drive just fine, Omar. I don't know what Leon's problem is."

  He smiled shyly. "Thank you. I... you know, Helena was a nice girl."

  I blinked, confused by the transition.

  "I think she and Leon were involved. Then she left overnight."

  "Oh?" I said, not sure why he was telling me this.

  "She was very sad her last two weeks here. Very sad." He parked the car and turned to me. "I wouldn't want to see you very sad too."

  "Me either," I said, then made myself lay it all on the table. "Do you think Leon made her sad?"

  He flushed at my forwardness but said, "I think he could have. I think he is capable of making a nice girl sad."

  I looked at Leon leaning against the wall, at his long sexy body and the strong bones of his gorgeous face.

  I thought Omar was probably right.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "So." Leon leaned back in his chair and smiled at me. "Happy Thursday. You survived your first week."

  "Not a full week. I started on Monday so I only did four days."

  "Whatever. You survived."

  "Define 'survived'."

  He laughed. "You're still here and you still look great?"

  "I'm still here, anyhow," I said, liking that he thought I looked great and also uncomfortable with it. The more I saw of Leon, the more I thought he was what Lydia called a 'sexy guy', one with charisma and charm to spare but not so much in the way of reliability and supportiveness, and Omar's warning was adding to my doubts about him. But he was funny, and so easy on the eyes with his Kegan-like looks, and his self-confidence drew me 'like a maggot', as my dad had always said.

  Remembering that particularly goofy and gross saying made me smile, and Leon said, "You're even prettier when you smile. Now, when we went out for ice cream on Monday you were so happy. Exhausted maybe, but happy. Are you tired of the job already? If so, I'm impressed. It took me months to get bored."

  I had to laugh. "Trust me, my classroom's too crazy for me to be bored."

  He tipped his head to one side. "Janet's been raving to anyone who'll listen and many people who won't about how well you had those kids under control right away. It wasn't crazy at all. What's changed?"

  Khalid. His arrival had changed everything.

  The second day of school he'd walked in an hour late, delivered by a nanny who'd looked at the floor instead of making eye contact with me while mumbling that Khalid had refused to get up and get dressed, and by recess I'd understood why the kids had doubted he'd be good. They spent their time either trying to gain his favor or trying to keep away from him, so they were distracted from listening to me and in turn I was distracted from what I was trying to teach. The calm focused feeling of Monday's room was gone and I didn't know how to get it back.

  I didn't know what to do with Khalid either. The kid talked constantly, not seeming to notice or care what I was trying to do with the class, and when he wasn't talking he was trying to get his neighbors to play games with him or to let him have their homework so he could copy it.

  That last, which he'd done in front of me that very morning, still enraged me. I told Leon, ending with, "I have worked with world-famous models and photographers, people with egos justifiably ten times their height, and nobody has ever acted like I matter less than that kid."

  Leon laughed. "Every class has one like that. Not worth your time to worry about. It just makes the job even more annoying, getting yourself tied in knots over one kid. What did Janet do with him?"

  I blinked, and he said, "You didn't send him?"

  "Nope. I figured he was my responsibility."

  He shook his head, with a 'you foolish little girl' expression on his face. "No wonder you were smashing the tennis ball so hard today." He winked. "When you hit it, that is."

  I'd smashed it hard out of frustration, true, but not entirely because of Khalid. On Tuesday Leon had come by after school and suggested I join his gym. I'd done it, because I liked the idea of seeing my hot coworker exercising and I'd hoped he had invited me for the same sort of reason.

  Once I was signed up, though, he took me to the club's roof for a game of tennis. I'd only played occasionally before, but Leon was pretty good, and I soon realized I hated tennis even more than volleyball. I did my best, but of course it wasn't enough, and Leon spent more time running to pick up balls I hit out of bounds than running to return my shots.

  I'd hoped he would decide he didn't want to play with me any more, but instead he'd arranged for a buddy and the buddy's girlfriend to play doubles with us today. The girlfriend was worse than I was, which I hadn't thought would be possible, but she hadn't cared at all, giggling and tossing her hair when one of her balls bounced into the net or rolled out of bounds. I did care, since both Leon and the buddy flinched when one of us messed up, and my vicious attacks on the ball had been driven by anger at my own ineptitude.

  When I didn't speak, he said, "I like it, though. We just have to work on your accuracy, but you've got power. You're no girly girl on the court." His eyes skimmed over my sleek black pullover top before returning to my face. "Or anywhere."

  His tone made it clear he meant this as a compliment, but after a week of comparing my neutral outfits to Katherine's rainbow of pastel colors, which nearly always included at least a splash of pink, his words made me feel even more boring and wrong. But dressing like Katherine would have made me feel wrong too.

  I sighed, and he reached out to pat my hand. "Come on, Larissa, don't worry. And don't be a hero. Talk to Janet. That's what she's there for, dealing with the kids you can't be bothered with."

  His warm skin against mine felt great but his words made me almost not notice the contact. "Can't be-- it's not that I can't be bothered, it's that I don't know how to control him."

  "Punishment," Leon said flatly. "Nail him to the wall."

  I stared, and he laughed. "Not literally, Larissa."

  I rolled my eyes and withdrew my hand. "I know that. It's just..."

  I didn't know how to explain what it was, that I so didn't want to have a confrontational relationship with my students. I'd had teachers who ruled their rooms like dictators and they'd crushed all the fun out of learning. Of course, I'd also had teachers who couldn't have kept a starving man on track toward a hamburger and they'd let all the learning slip away. Somehow I needed to find a middle ground. I'd thought I had it, on that one lovely day before Khalid showed up.

  "Talk to Janet," Leon said again. "That kid is new this y
ear, and Helena bawled over him nearly every night. Don't let him ruin you too."

  I was on the brink of asking more about Helena, since Omar's suggestion that she and Leon had dated made me want to know more about her, but Leon looked past me and smothered a snicker. "Don't look now, but I think the big boss, emphasis on 'big', has a boyfriend."

  I didn't like the emphasis, but at the same time it was true that Janet was pretty big. "Really? I want to look."

  He laughed. "You women, always so curious. Okay, she's facing away so go for it."

  I spun around in my chair and looked at the foyer of the Lebanese restaurant to which he'd suggested we go, "just the two of us", to celebrate my first week. Sure enough, the fluffy brown hair and loose black dress I recognized told me the woman was Janet, looking up at and deep in conversation with a friendly-faced man who was a few inches taller and maybe fifty pounds heavier than her.

  Leon laughed again, and as I turned back he said, "She found herself a guy she can't squish in bed. Hard to believe."

  I smacked his hand, harder than I probably should have. "Don't be a jerk."

  He grinned, unconcerned. "Sorry, but come on. If you look up 'sexless' in the dictionary you'd find Janet."

  "Charming. Makes me wonder what you say about me when I'm not around."

  He leaned forward, his green eyes glowing. "Trust me, Larissa, I don't say anything bad. And that's not where I'd find you in the dictionary."

  I couldn't resist his flirty tone. "Where would I be then?"

  His eyes searched my face. "With all the good words. No doubt."

  I gave a lighthearted laugh, though I still didn't like how he was talking about Janet. She'd been so good to me. "Very specific."

  He laughed too. "Hey, I haven't even known you a week yet." He leaned in again. "I'll get you figured out eventually, don't you worry."

  I rolled my eyes. "'Sexless', here I come."

  He brushed his fingers over the back of my hand. "I guarantee you, not a chance."

  My hand kept tingling as we finished our meal, and by the time we were in his car going to my place every part of me was tingling too in anticipation. My aborted encounter with Greg had stirred my body but hadn't come close to satisfying me. I didn't want to sleep with Leon tonight, since as he'd said we barely knew each other, but a few good kisses might change my mind. What better way to get to know him?