Dreaming of You and Me

by Kristy Tate

  From Nora's Dream Journal

  CHAPTER 5

  “My name is Ms. Tomas.” Nora wrote her name on the dry-erase board. “Like Thomas Edison, but without the H.”

  She turned and faced her freshman class—the first class of the day. She always found it amazing how teenagers matured at different speeds. Although they were all clearly about the same age, some of the girls could pass off as adults—just give them a baby stroller or a briefcase—while a few of the others looked like they’d just stepped off the elementary school playground. And although they all wore the same tartan uniform, they all filled out and accessorized it differently. And the makeup and hair! A few looked as if they’d spent hours primping while the majority looked as if they’d just rolled out of bed. Nora wondered why the girls would bother getting dolled up for class, until Cole stuck his head in the door and she noticed how several of the girls’ expressions lit up like they were squirrels who had just stumbled upon a cache of acorns.

  “Mind if I interrupt for a moment?” Cole asked.

  “No, not at all.” Nora waved him in.

  He looked good in his soft dark brown corduroy pants and baby blue button-down shirt. She could tell from the way the girls perked up in their chairs that they liked what they saw, too.

  “I just wanted to take a moment to welcome everyone to Canterbury for a new school year and to introduce Ms. Tomas.” Cole draped his arm and around her shoulders and pulled her into a sideways hug. “Ms. Tomas is new to teaching, but she has impressive educational and work experience.”

  While Cole talked about her degree and work at Apex, Nora found it increasingly difficult to focus on what he was saying. Standing so close to him reminded her of when he’d fallen on top of her, taking her breath, leaving her shaky and so hungry for him. She reined in her thoughts. She had to be a good example for these girls. She couldn’t be distracted by Cole. Maybe a relationship with him—and his mom—had been her sole reason for coming to Canterbury, but what she now wanted was nothing like what she’d had in mind when she’d first applied for this job. She blinked and realized that all of the girls were staring at her and Cole had stopped talking.

  An awkward silence fell, letting Nora know that everyone was waiting for her to say something.

  After a moment, Cole stepped away from her, leaving her suddenly cold, and said, “I’ll let you get back to your lesson. But if any of you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop by my office.” He smiled at her. “And that includes you, too.”

  The class seemed to collectively sigh when Cole left.

  Flustered, Nora went behind her desk to consult her lesson plan. Suddenly, Of Mice and Men seemed extraordinarily sad and depressing.

  By the end of the last period, Nora was weaving on her feet. Nerves had kept her awake the night before and the long day of teaching had made her throat itchy and her legs achy. After the last of the girls filed from the room, Nora sank into her chair with a sigh, slipped off her shoes and rolled her ankles. She looked up when she heard a knock on her door.

  Irena poked her head in. “How’d it go today?”

  “Good, I think. I’m too much of a newbie to know.” She laughed nervously. “I guess you’d better ask the girls.”

  Irena came in and settled her butt against Nora’s desk. “So, what do you think? Will you like teaching?”

  Nora thought back over the day. Most of the girls in the front had listened and watched her with curious, eager eyes. A few hung in clusters, obviously more interested in each other than in anything Nora had to tell them. But those in the back, the ones with sullen expressions and slumped shoulders, those were the girls Nora wanted to reach. “Yeah,” she said to Irena, a little surprised with herself, “I think I will. Would you like to look over my lesson plans?”

  “Of course.”

  “You’ll recognize a lot of it,” Nora said as she swiveled in her chair to face the computer and pull up her plans. “As you suggested, I copied a lot of it from Steven Clyde but I added some things as well.”

  “Wow. This looks great. I’m impressed.”

  Nora flushed from the praise. With Irena so close, she was tempted to ask her all the questions chasing around her head, but as Irena talked about the girls, letting her know about those she worried about and why, Nora forgot about herself. Teaching hadn’t been her sole reason for coming to Canterbury, but she realized now it should have been. The girls deserved a teacher who was one hundred percent tuned into them. She was suddenly struck by her own selfishness.

  “And how about the play?” Irena asked.

  Nora pressed her hand to her chest. “I don’t really know a lot about theater, but I have a friend... I think I told you about her, Chelsea Moore? She runs a small community theater in Shell Beach, and she said she’d love to come and give me a hand.”

  “It looks like you have everything covered.” Irena stood and patted Nora’s shoulder. “I love what you did with the room, by the way.”

  “Thanks.” She loved it, too, but she was too modest to say so. Her chairs, ottoman, and rug gave the room a homey feeling. She’d hung Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Jane Austen quotes throughout the room, but her favorite was from Anonymous: We lose ourselves in books. We find ourselves there too.

  Even after just one day, she was beginning to think she could lose herself in teaching. But teaching wasn’t why she’d come here. She’d come to meet Irena. And Cole. And Cole’s sister—her sister— Talia. That she now felt an adrenaline kick from teaching was nothing more than an interesting side note.

  Or was it?

  BARRY APPROACHED HER in the teachers’ lounge during her lunch hour. “You’re going to join us on the soccer field next week, right? We need you.”

  Nora looked up from her salad, her fork poised in the air and her eyebrows raised.

  “The game? Teachers versus students?” Barry prompted. “Surely, you’ve heard about it.”

  Nora took a bite of her salad and glanced around at the expectant expressions of her fellow teachers. “There’s what, thirty of us and more than four-hundred of them? The odds are seriously against us.”

  “Plus, they’re younger,” Darrel put in.

  “We almost won last year,” Barry said.

  “When is that tennis guy due to arrive?” Darrel wanted to know.

  “Not soon enough!” Barry nodded at Nora. “We need you.”

  “I’m not much of a soccer player.”

  He made a point of looking at her long legs. “You’ll be great. Did you play any sports in high school?”

  “Tennis and golf,” she said and immediately regretted it because she read the disdain in his expression and practically heard the words he was probably thinking: white privileged girl.

  Nora stiffened and resolved to clean up Barry on the soccer field—even if he was on her team. And, just to make him mad, she’d wear baggy sweats. But first, she’d have to find some. After wiping her mouth with her napkin, she said to Barry, “I’ll be there!”

  After school, she headed for the gym and found Chad gathering up balls. “Dodge ball isn’t for sissies,” he told her. The gym smelled of damp socks and Chad looked as sweaty as the gym smelled. He pushed his hair off his face. “Is there something I can help you with?”

  Nora nodded. After the long day, she was as exhausted as Chad looked, so she didn’t want to waste either of their time. “Is there a lost and found? I need something to wear to play soccer in the students’ versus teachers’ game.”

  “You don’t have workout clothes?” He seemed scandalized, and she imagined him mentally drawing up workouts and diet plans for her.

  “I do, but I don’t want to wear those.”

  “Ah.” Comprehension dawned on his face. He held up his finger. “I’ve got just the thing for you. Follow me.” He led the way to his office. He pulled open a closet and lifted the lid off a large blue plastic bin. “Spirit wear,” he told her. “Borrow anything you like and turn off the lights and lock the door
behind you.”

  After Chad left, Nora rummaged through the bin, looking for the biggest and rattiest workout clothes she could find. She selected a pair of pants and a sweatshirt. Holding them up, she considered the pants. The sweatshirt would float around her, but it would at least stay on. The pants she wasn’t so sure about. They were big, the elastic waistband shot, and even though there was a drawstring, she didn’t know if it could hold the pants up. After a quick glance at the closed door, she stepped out of her skirt. She had the sweatpants up to her knees when the door opened.

  Cole.

  Shock registered on his face. “Excuse me,” he said before quickly closing the door.

  Nora pulled up the pants only to find that she’d been right—there was no way she could play soccer and hope to keep these pants from falling around her ankles. She stepped out of them, debating. She needed to go after Cole to make sure he didn’t get the wrong idea. What would he think? Would he assume something was going on between her and Chad? No. That would be ridiculous. Right?

  After stepping back into her skirt, she glanced back at the bin, picked up her second choice of sweatpants without even trying them on, and hurried out the door to try and to catch up with Cole.

  “I’M SO INTO HIM,” NORA whispered into the phone. She stood on what the other teachers called Signal Hill—the one high spot on campus that actually got cell service.

  “Why are you whispering?” Darby asked.

  Nora explained the cell hill situation to her. “No one can know.... It’s so twisted.”

  “He’s not your brother,” Darby insisted.

  “And this horrible thing happened with Chad.”

  Darby didn’t respond for a moment, making Nora wonder if she hadn’t heard her. “What about Chad?” Darby said in a strained voice.

  “Okay, well, I went to his office to borrow some clothes to wear to play in the teachers versus students soccer game tomorrow and Cole walked in on me while I was changing.”

  “And that was horrible because he saw your panties?” Darby’s voice was thick with laughter.

  “He probably thinks there’s something going on between me and Chad!” Nora forgot to whisper.

  “But there’s not, right?” Darby’s voice sounded strained again.

  “Of course there’s not!”

  “And there’s really nothing going on between you and Cole either, right?”

  “But I want there to be...even though I don’t.”

  “You need to find out if Irena is actually your birth mom.”

  “I know. You are so right. I’m thinking about hiring a private investigator.”

  “Or you could just talk to your dad. That would be a lot less expensive.” Darby paused. “Do you even know how to play soccer?”

  “I’ve spent the last few hours reading the rules and watching soccer games online. I should be okay if I stay in the back corner. I think that’s called the left back person.”

  Darby laughed. “Yep. You’ll be great. But I gotta warn you, I don’t think a students versus teachers game is going to be textbook. Is Cole playing?”

  “I think so. Maybe we could trip over each other, or something.” She sighed. “Forget I said that. What am I thinking? I’m really out of control. I’m so out of my league! I always had Blake! I never had another boyfriend...and as far as I know, neither did he.”

  “But now he does.”

  Nora dropped down onto the wet grass. It would probably leave stains on her jeans but she didn’t care. She picked up a dandelion and, flicked off its fuzz and watched the seeds float into the air.

  “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” Darby said. “Why don’t I come up and pretend to have a fling with Chad?”

  “What? You would do that?”

  “Sure, it’ll be fun. And it will prove to Cole that you aren’t into Chad.”

  “Do you want to do that?”

  “Absolutely. Chad’s gorgeous.”

  “But what’s he going to think?”

  “I think he’ll be okay with it. Remember, he has a girlfriend, so he’s completely safe.”

  Nora dropped her voice back to a whisper. “You don’t want to lead him on just for a gag. That would be mean.”

  “It won’t be a gag, and I promise I won’t be mean.” Darby paused. “But his girlfriend Jessica won’t like it if the staff at the school think he’s fooling around, and he might not like them thinking he’s a cheater, either. I don’t know. Is this a bad idea?”

  “What if you brought Chelsea with you?”

  “Chelsea? Why?”

  “She said she’d help me with the play.”

  “Great idea!”

  “You’re the best,” Nora breathed.

  “I know,” Darby said.

  THE FOLLOWING WEEK, several of the girls cheered when Nora ran onto the field in her baggy sweats. “Woohoo! Ms. Tommy!”

  Barry clapped and whooped as well, but she caught him looking at her garb with puzzlement. Cole flicked her a quick glance before looking away.

  The girls had a team of about a hundred and they all gathered around Chad on the opposite end of the field.

  “Wait! What?” Nora pointed at their huddle. “We don’t get Chad?”

  Cole threw her a dark look. “He’s the soccer coach.”

  “Which is exactly why we need him,” Nora said.

  “We have this discussion every year,” Barry told her.

  “You might think this is about winning,” Cole said to Barry, “but it’s not. Remember, this is about building and strengthening relationships.” He dropped his voice to a growl. “It’s supposed to be fun.” He held up a paper to show it to them. “Here’s your positions.”

  Nora sucked in her breath when she saw it. “I can’t be that front person!”

  “Barry told me you watch soccer,” Cole said. “I just assumed that meant you played.”

  “I watched soccer once! To get ready for today!” She scowled at Barry. Had he been spying on her? What else did he know about her? Had he been listening to her conversations? Had her overheard her talking to Darby? She flushed with anger. “I want to be that person!” She pointed at the stick figure in the back-left corner of the diagram.

  “Nope, that’s me,” Darrel said. “That’s where I always play.”

  “‘Play’ might not be the right word,” Barry said.

  Darrel placed her hands on her hips. “Okay, wise guy. That’s where I stand.”

  “Maybe it’s time we shake things up,” Nora suggested. “Maybe you should let me stand there.”

  “We’re playing, not standing,” Cole said.

  “I thought this isn’t about winning,” Nora reminded him.

  Cole sighed and rolled his eyes.

  In the middle of the field, Chad held a soccer ball tucked beneath his arm and blew a whistle.

  “What? Now he’s the ref?” Nora asked.

  “Stop obsessing over Chad,” Cole said through tight lips.

  Nora balled her fists and placed them on her hips. “I am not obsessing.... I just think it’s more than a little skewed that the girls’ coach is also the ref. Could this game get any less fair?”

  Cole gazed at her with ice-cold eyes, making her flinch and wish that Darby would hurry up and get there already. “I’ll just go and stand over there.” She pointed at the line drawn down the center of the field. When Cole twisted his lips, Nora corrected herself, “Play over there. I’ll play over there.”

  Chad blew the whistle again and everyone lined up. Nora found herself directly opposite of an Amazon of a girl with gorilla-long arms and a mass of curly hair. Nora recognized the girl from her fourth-period class—a mix of seniors and juniors—but she couldn’t remember her name.

  Cole was directly to her right and would be the first to kick the ball. He was supposed to pass it to Barry, who stood on his other side. She was to not catch the ball but take it from Barry and pass it to Cole who would run down the field toward the goal. She still thought she’d be bett
er at staying out of everyone’s way if she could stand in the back, but Darrel had that same idea. She bounced on her toes and tried to look fierce.

  “Whoop! Go, Tommy!” Darby called.

  Chelsea and Darby stood in the front row of the stands, waving and smiling.

  Nora smiled and waved back, wondering how her friends had already learned the pet name the girls had given her.

  The whistle blew and Cole sent the ball spinning rolling toward Barry. Nora jogged after Cole and tried to keep the gorilla girl away from him. Barry toyed with the ball with his toe, waiting for the girls to stop crowding around Cole, but the girls had him surrounded. They hovered as close as they could get without actually touching him. Cole tried to weave and break free, but the girls had formed a tight circle. Barry scowled before kicking the ball right at Nora’s chest. She caught the ball in her hands.

  Chad blew the whistle and jogged toward her.

  Nora dropped the ball.

  “Boo! Get a clue, ref!” Darby called from the stands.

  “Sorry,” Nora said to everyone frowning at her. “I forgot!”

  Chad grinned at her, picked up the ball, and jogged back to the center line. Cole grimaced and even Barry gave her a dirty look. The gorilla girl smiled, and for the first time seemed genuinely happy to see her.

  After that, no one ever passed her the ball again. She might as well have been standing in the back corner with Darrel, or sitting on the sidelines, or in the bleachers. But when the game was tied, seconds away from ending, and the girls had the ball, it popped up in the air, bounced off Barry’s head and landed at Nora’s feet. She was all alone. Taking aim, she kicked the ball as hard as she could. It whistled past the goalie and she scored.

  Darby and Chelsea screamed with delight. The girls stared at Nora with open mouths and shocked expressions. The gorilla girl sprinted toward her, long arms swinging. Barry ran over, picked her up, and placed her on his shoulders. While everyone gathered around her, cheering. Cole watched her with an unreadable look in his eyes.