She answered almost proudly, “Yes.”
Velvet groaned. “You are the silliest gold digger I’ve ever met!”
Mairi didn’t bother answering, being used to Velvet’s rather twisted sense of humor. The worse her insults were, the more deeply she cared about that person.
“How do I look?” Mairi nervously smoothed out non-existent creases on the ankle length skirt of her daisy yellow dress. It was loose and high-waisted, just the way she needed it to hide her dreadfully generous curves.
“Sexy enough to eat.” Velvet snickered.
The answer had her gasping. “Velvet!”
“Oh, hush! Greek guys are very passionate. You should know that by now. So if you’re serious about nabbing yourself a Greek billionaire, you should be ready to let go of more than a few of your sexual inhibitions.”
Mairi couldn’t help but snort. “Like I’m going to take an advice from another virgin.”
“At least I already had my first kiss,” Mandy retorted.
She opened and closed her mouth. Mandy had a point, darn it.
“Sssh,” Velvet suddenly said under her breath. “Mairi’s bitchy supervisor is heading this way.”
Following Velvet’s gaze, Mairi realized with a sinking heart that Charity Fallon, the English rose who headed the school’s language department, was indeed walking towards her. What had she done this time, Mairi wondered uneasily. In the almost seven weeks that she had been teaching in GAYL, there wasn’t ever a day that the older woman hadn’t found something to sweetly berate her for.
Rose Thorn, the school’s headmistress, suddenly rushed past them, calling out, “Places, everyone!”
Mairi caught sight of Charity freezing at Rose’s words. Since she was one of the department heads, Charity was supposed to be in the frontlines and yet here she was, almost at the very back.
Rose clapped her hands twice. “Music!” On cue, the live orchestra inside the school started playing Beethoven in the background.
Charity recovered and hurriedly squeezed herself in between Mairi and Velvet.
Velvet leaned back far enough for Charity not to see her and rolled her eyes at Mairi as she mouthed, ‘I hate this little shit’.
Mairi choked. She was not going to laugh. Oh Greek gods, wherever you are, please do not let her laugh.
Around her, the silence had deepened while blank and professional expressions settled on the other teachers’ faces. Rose had divided the faculty into two groups, with the academic staff lined on one side while the extracurricular and administrative staff was at the opposite side. Each of them occupied every step of the majestic staircase leading to the school’s entrance.
To an outsider, they probably looked like stage cast members doing their best to set up a la-di-dah party scene. Unfortunately, the reason was a lot more mundane than that.
Today was Parent Teacher Consultation Day, and in GAYL it meant having to prove to parents that the school’s six-digit tuition charges were not for nothing.
“Are you nervous?” Charity whispered to Mairi.
She had to think really hard how to answer that one. The right answer should be no, but Charity sounded like she would rather hear Mairi say ‘yes’.
Don’t say yes. Velvet shook her head with a warning glare. She was always after Mairi to be more assertive.
But Mairi still heard herself saying, “A little?” She just couldn’t make herself start a fight – even if it was warranted.
“Awww.” Charity sounded terribly sad, but there was a gleam of unholy glee in her eyes.
Behind Charity, Velvet made a circular motion next to her ear. Psycho, her friend mouthed.
Mairi choked.
“Oh! Are you okay?”
“I’m, umm---”
Charity shut her down sweetly. “I hope you’re not coming down with anything, Mairi.”
Darn it. Charity’s oxymoron ways were just too confusing. She said weakly, “I’m not?” At Charity’s scowl, Mairi said hastily, “I mean, I might be?”
“Aww.” This time, Charity smiled.
The sight of it just made her head hurt worse. Charity’s smile had always been like this, half-friendly and half-nasty. Mairi had tried several times to replicate it without any success, tempting her to write to the Guinness Book of Records to report the phenomenon. And if Guinness didn’t want it, well, there was always Ripley’s.
“I know this is your first PTC so I totally understand if you’re nervous.”
Oh, how sweet. Charity seemed honestly concerned about her this time. Mairi began, “I’m actually---”
Again, the other woman cut her off with a pretty smile. “That’s why I thought you should stick to taking care of the girls in Class E and I’ll take care of those in Class A. I’m just concerned you won’t be able to cope with it. Class A parents can be so demanding.”
Velvet was exhaling loudly. Sucker, she mouthed when Mairi looked at her.
Mairi sighed. Drat it, Velvet was right. She had played the sucker. Again.
There she was, thinking Charity had finally discovered her nice streak. But instead all Charity cared about was making herself look good in the parents’ eyes. Class A girls had the highest marks in English while most of the students in Class E, which Mairi had taken over when another teacher quit mid-semester, had some of the lowest grades in their year.
Charity gave Mairi another one of her unique smiles, but this time she wasn’t as dazzled. “You understand, don’t you?”
Mairi squared her shoulders. “Well, I---”
“As you should know, most Greek parents prefer their children to be taught English by the British. And especially when they come with degrees from schools like Cambridge, where I took my masters---” With every word that came out of Charity’s mouth, her British accent became more and more obvious. It was really weird, the way the other teacher only sounded like Queen Elizabeth when she mentioned she was from Cambridge or that she needed to-mah-toes in her omelet.
Mandy was frowning hard at the ground. Mairi knew that look. It meant her friend was this close to laughing her head off. Behind Charity, Velvet was already doubled over, having long perfected the art of noiseless laughter.
Charity patted her sleekly styled hair, which curled becomingly against the expansive cle**age her strapless dress exposed. “Don’t take it personally, though. It’s just that they prefer their daughters to learn from those who really speak English.”
Mairi could only blink. What the heck did that even mean? That American English was some kind of fake version of English?