In a Class of His Own (14 page)

I
considered my reply carefully. An urgent meeting with
the big bosses meant only one thing to me but there was no need to
worry the other members of staff – just yet.

“I
don’t know Mona but I’m sure Jack will fill us in as soon as he
can.”

“Poor
man,” she replied and tutted. “He works far too hard as it is. By
the look of things I suspect he’s been here most days since the New
Year.” She gave me a sly look. “What he needs is a nice young
woman. To take him out of himself.”

Of all
the moments for Mona
to suddenly become gossipy, she had to choose this one. I smiled
vaguely at her and hurried past her into Jack’s office.

I
arranged a couple of
bowls of bulbs on Jack’s desk, mulling over the news that he’d
been called in to the local authority. Pre-occupied as I was, it took
the edge off the embarrassment of having to face everyone again.

Slightly.

As
people began to congregate in the staffroom most came up to me and
wished me a happy new year
and then grumbled about how quickly the holidays had passed. But
Janice couldn’t resist a dig. She sidled up to me with a grin and
handed over a packet of aspirin, asking if I needed some. No one else
mentioned my misbehaviour at the Christmas gala. I began to breathe
more easily. It was over three weeks ago, after all.

When
everyone had got a coffee and settled down, I forced a smile and
launched into the agenda. I had forgotten the other targets
for staff gossip. As I made my way through the first items, I was
very aware of Ann’s eyes glued to Rupert and of his devoted gaze on
me. What a mess.

I was
half way through arranging how we were going to support some of the
less able Year Six pupils when Jack strode into the meeting. It was
an echo of the last time he walked into a training day in some ways.
It became obvious that those teachers who had previously been
listlessly staring out into the rain, hardly listening to me, were
suddenly ready to pay attention.

Everyone sat up. Janice
patted her hair into place and gave me a bawdy wink. My heart started
to thump uncomfortably.

Jack’s
ski tan hadn’t faded. His white shirt shone against his skin. The
miserably cold weather outside had given his cheeks a healthy glow
and the tip of his nose looked pink with cold. Raindrops stood
proud on his black coated shoulders and through the fug of the room I
could smell the fresh winter air he’d brought in with him. As he
shrugged off his long overcoat I was positive I could hear a hormonal
sigh drift around the staffroom. Or perhaps it had just been me. He
looked as divine as ever. I could feel every nerve and sinew stiffen
as I steeled myself to face him. I needn’t have worried, however.

He
didn’t give me a glance as he sat down on the seat next to me. He
simply looked tense. I felt a blast of pure love shoot through me,
blushed unbecomingly and looked down at my diary, much as I had done
on the previous training day,
back in September, but for completely different reasons.

“Good
morning everyone. I trust you all had a relaxing holiday.” He
sounded apprehensive and spoke rapidly. “I’m sorry I’m late, I
was called into the local authority early this morning.”

At
this an uncomfortable murmuring spread through the group.

He
nodded in my direction briefly but didn’t meet my eyes, “Thank
you Nicky for starting the meeting off.” He looked around the room,
cleared his throat and spoke without further preamble. “The bad
news is that we are to be inspected this term, after the half term
holiday. The good news, if it can be regarded as such, is that it
will be
conducted by a team from our local authority.”

There was a pause.
Everyone was listening intently now.

“So
only patch inspectors then?” This was from Ann, who was looking
anxious. I saw Rupert swallow and remembered that this would be his
first inspection. Janice had lost some of her jauntiness and Helen
looked stricken.

“This
time. But as I’m sure you’re all aware an inspection of this kind
often precedes an inspection from Ofsted.” Jack smiled slightly at
her and then scanned the rest of the group for reactions. “I’m
sorry to start the new term with such gloomy news but wanted you all
to be informed as soon as possible. I want you to remember that this
time they will concentrate on how the school is managed. So Nicky,
Ann and I will bear the brunt of the inspection.” At this there
were a few nervous giggles. “However, with the school’s recent
history, they will be observing some lessons as well. I want you to
be prepared for that.”

The giggles stopped
abruptly.

Jack paused, seemingly to
consider his next words. “I also want to say that the hard work you
have all put in is having real results. I am very pleased with what
this school has achieved in a very short space of time and I believe
we have nothing to fear from an inspection of any kind. I think we
should all be extremely proud of what we have done.”

As a
morale boosting speech it had some effect. Helen looked a little less
pinched and Janice was some way to being mollified. Rupert
though, still looked slightly green.

Fatuously,
I suddenly had an image of Jack as Henry V rousing his troops before
the battle of Agincourt. I stifled a giggle and forced my self to
attend to the serious matter in hand. My infatuation for this man had
already got me into enough trouble. I realised Jack was speaking
again and tried to focus.

“So,
with that in mind, I suggest we begin planning how we might best
prepare.”

The staff looked at one
another numbly and got out their notebooks.

It was
much later on in the day that I felt I ought to clear the air between
Jack and me.
As he had shown no inclination to come in my direction, I made my way
nervously to his office.

“Hey,
Nicky! I’ve just found out that when Word spell checks ‘Ofsted’
it comes out as ‘Ousted’. Just about sums them up, doesn’t it!”
Rupert had obviously recovered some of his natural joie de vivre. He
grinned at me as he passed me in the corridor.

I tried to smile back
wishing I could have fallen for someone as uncomplicated. He so
clearly liked me, was good fun and great looking. But he lacked one
thing. He wasn’t Jack.

I
knocked,
with more confidence than I felt, on Jack’s office door.

“Come
in.” He didn’t look up to see who it was. He was poring over what
looked like the print out of the current budget. When he saw it was
me he cleared his throat and irritably ran a finger around his
collar.

“Nicky!
Erm, what can I do for you?” I thought he sounded nervous and was
reminded of the meetings we’d had in this room at the beginning of
last term. That he was nervous made no more sense now than it did
then.

I straightened my
shoulders and located my stiff upper lip. This was going to be hard.

“I
thought I ought to apologise,” I began. I faltered under his
penetrating gaze. He didn’t reply immediately and his brows knitted
together into one of his forbidding scowls.

“There’s
absolutely no need,” he muttered eventually and returned his
attention to the budget.

Silence.

I continued, as he didn’t
seem to want to respond further. “You know, for my behaviour at the
gala. Before Christmas.” I took a very deep breath. “I’m very
sorry if I caused you or the school any embarrassment.” I exhaled
and blew my fringe. It was done.

“I
don’t think there was any lasting damage done.” Jack’s lips
thinned. “I think most people were in a similar state. And I
understand you have already apologised to Angus.” He gave a curt
nod, as if to dismiss me. Pompous arse. I tried hard to dislike him.

And failed.

But I couldn’t go
without mentioning my behaviour at the flat. I just couldn’t. I
took another very deep breath.

“And
I’m really sorry for how I behaved back at the flat. I’d like to
thank you for looking after me and being a perfect gentleman.” I
crossed my fingers behind my back at the lie, “I hope you’ll
disregard anything I might have said under the influence of alcohol.
And thank you for my Christmas present. I’ll treasure it.” I
finished in a rush.

He gave a twisted smile
and rubbed the back of his neck in a weary gesture.

“So
I’ll just go then,” I muttered. “If there’s nothing more to
be said.” I turned to the door, frustrated by his silence.

“Nicky?”

“Yes?”
I turned back to him hopefully.

Jack
gave an enormous sigh. “I’ve been thinking,” he said with
obvious difficulty. “After some reflection,
I think it would be best if we kept our relationship on a strictly
professional basis, don’t you?”

No!

I nodded. “Yes Jack.”
I turned to go before he could see the tears which threatened.

“And
Nicky?”

I looked around
cautiously but he was looking down at the print out again.

“You
made a very sweet drunk.” He glanced swiftly up at me and his eyes
crinkled in a vague semblance of a smile.

With tears in my eyes I
left with a bitter smile of my own dancing around my lips.

If I
thought I’d worked hard before it was as nothing to the hours I was
putting in now. As Easter was early,
the half term was short and we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare
for the inspection. To my disappointment the twice weekly staff
meetings resumed, as we had so much to discuss and update everyone
on.

My
workload was heavy. I had responsibility for the curriculum and there
was a lot which needed to be done. Policies needed to be drafted,
agreed and shared, lesson planning needed to be tightened up and a
hundred other details needed to be finalised. But I wasn’t alone in
working long hours. Jack and Mona often worked well into the night as
well. The other teachers too were pulling together to make the
inspection a success. And, although everyone was working extremely
hard, there was a new atmosphere of working towards a shared goal,
which hadn’t been evident during much of last term.

The amount of paperwork
was overwhelming. Over the next few weeks I worked with the subject
co-ordinators, making sure they had their policies and resource lists
up to date and that they had done lesson observations to monitor the
quality of teaching in their subject.

I had
planned on meeting each co-ordinator in turn and was gradually
getting through them. When I met Helen however, to discuss science,
our meeting flowed over into a Saturday afternoon. I was seriously
worried about how she was going to cope with an inspection. She had
been teaching for nearly twenty-five
years and inspections were sometimes hard on more experienced
teachers. Confident in the classroom she went to pieces when her
practice was challenged and when she was observed in a formal way.
And yet I knew her teaching was good. She was a worrier but the end
results were fantastic. Her pupils loved her and she put huge effort
into planning exciting lessons. Despite Helen’s vow never to have
live creatures in the classroom ever again, they currently had some
chicken eggs which they were trying to hatch.

One
Friday evening a few of us collapsed in the staff room after a
particularly busy week. We were consoling ourselves with some
Kit-Kats that I’d brought in. I really needed the chocolate fix.
I’d had an unpleasant encounter with Spencer’s father who had
been extremely abusive about a pair of lost football boots and it was
still preying on my mind. On top of everything else several members
of staff had gone down with a nasty virus which was spreading like
wildfire through school. I’d been without Carol, my irrepressible
teaching
assistant all week and I’d really missed her. I coughed painfully
and hoped I wasn’t catching the same bug.

A
screech from the corridor outside had us rushing to see
what was going on.

Irene
was pressed comically against the wall as Rupert
could be seen manhandling a life sized skeleton through the main door
of the school entrance.

Mona
came out of her office and peered over her half moon spectacles.
“Good Heavens Rupert what have you got there?”

“It’s
Charlie from the Resources Library,” panted Rupert and flipped his
long hair out of his eyes. He grinned. “I’ve just been to get
him. I thought he might be useful for the Year Six SATs revision.”
Then he saw me and beamed, “Hi Nicky!” He struggled to right
Charlie against the wall as the skeleton threatened to escape his
hold. It grimaced evilly as the skull flopped forward.

Irene flinched away. “Is
it real?” she gasped.

“No,
it’s just a model,” Rupert answered scornfully. He wiped a hand
across his brow. “I had one Hell of a game getting him here in the
Mini. I had to take his frame off and sit him in the passenger seat.
Got some funny looks I can tell you!” We all laughed, except for
Irene who was still looking horrified.

“Try
Charlotte rather than Charlie” Helen said caustically, as she
peered at the pelvis. “It’s a female skeleton. And what’s
happened to her mandible?”

“His
what?” Rupert looked blank.

“Her
jaw-bone, Rupert,” Helen explained, as if to someone hard of
understanding. “Charlotte’s missing her jaw-bone.”

“Oh
God,” he looked frantically about him. “I must have dropped it in
the car!” He looked so bewildered that I took pity on him and
offered to help carry Charlotte to her final destination.

I
helped Rupert
carry our new team member into his classroom and we set her up in the
corner, hooking her back onto her frame. Charlotte looked
horrifyingly realistic in the half-light so, laughing like the
children we taught, we tried to cover her up with a cloth. With one
skeletal hand dangling beneath she looked even more nightmare-ish so
we uncovered her again.

“The
look on Irene’s face when you brought her in!” I giggled as I
tried to pose the skeleton in a less sinister manner. “Do you
really think she thought Charlotte was a real skeleton?”