Five
I dropped Amy off at home, saying a quick hello to Dad before I grabbed a granola bar and hopped back in the car to get to Teagan’s before she got off the bus. I’d been watching her since she was a baby, and I didn’t know what I was going to do when I went away to school and couldn’t see her every week. She put things in perspective. When most people looked at me, their eyes scraped over my scars, usually skipping away to look at something that didn’t make them uncomfortable. Teagan never noticed them.
Hello. Jack was back.
“What’s up?” I felt like an idiot saying that, but I didn’t know what else to say.
Your sister is wise beyond her years.
“You heard that?” I knew he had. I pulled into the Collamore’s driveway and parked to the side of the three car garage. You could say that Teagan’s parents were wealthy, seeing as how they had enough money to pay me to babysit three days a week and several weekend days a month.
I hopped out of the car and unlocked the house, punching in my code to the alarm.
Something happened to you.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The bus rumbled outside and I dashed out to greet Teagan.
Should I go?
I had to think about it for a second. “No, you can stay.”
Teagan burst off the bus, carrying a huge piece of construction paper at arm’s length. She danced around me as I laughed.
“Anna, Anna, Anna, I made this for you!” I couldn’t tell if it was a giraffe or just a really long-necked dog.
“It’s beautiful. Why don’t we take it inside so it doesn’t get ruined?” She bounced next to me, her Disney Princess backpack banging against her back. It was so large it nearly reached her knees.
She has a lot of energy.
“No kidding,” I mumbled. Teagan was too busy babbling about how Sadie Perkins had stolen her snack and then made fun of her shoes to notice.
“That’s rough. Did you tell your teacher?” I picked her up and set her on the kitchen counter so she could help me make her snack. I got out a knife, a fresh bag of celery, peanut butter and a bag of raisins.
“No.” She unscrewed the lid of the peanut butter, her little face red with the effort.
“I really think you need to speak up. If you don’t do anything, she’s just going to keep doing it. You don’t want her to push you around, do you?” She shook her head, her curls springing everywhere.
“Can I have some orange juice, please?” We’d been working on please and thank you lately.
“Of course you can, Teacup. Thank you for asking.” She giggled, and I went to get her favorite sparkly drink glass. We finished making and eating her snack and somehow she managed to get peanut butter in her hair.
I sat her down with her ‘homework,’ tracing the letter M on a sheet of lined paper, as I listened to the radio. I’d read somewhere that classical music made your baby smart, so I always played the classical station for Teagan. She’d have years to listen to crappy pop music. Throughout it all, Jack hummed in the back of my head. I guess he was done facilitating for today.
Midway through reading The Berenstain Bears, Mrs. Collamore got home. She rushed in, threw down her briefcase and slipped off her heels. Much like my own mother.
“Hi Annabelle, sorry I’m late. My clients always choose to call with some crisis when I’m walking out the door.” Mrs. Collamore was a lawyer, mostly land disputes and civil cases. She came over and hugged Teagan as I got up to leave.
“Oh, before you go, would you mind staying late on Friday? Jim and I are going out to dinner.”
“Absolutely, no problem. We’ll make it a girl’s night, okay Teagan?” Her eyes lit up. That meant nail polish and girly movies and staying up later than she was supposed to.
“‘Kay.” Teagan tugged at her mother’s skirt, asking when dinner was. Mrs. Collamore rolled her eyes and sighed. She had a run in her pantyhose and her hair, once coiffed to perfection, had fallen limp.
“See you tomorrow,” I said, grabbing my keys.
“I’ll have your check tomorrow, too. Thanks again,” Mrs. Collamore called as I shut the door.
“Bye Anna!” Teagan called.
I blew her a kiss. “Bye, Teacup.”
Jack didn’t speak until I was in the car.
You’re good with her as well.
“Thank you. She’s the reason I want to go into teaching.” I’d never really thought about what I wanted to do post high school until I started watching Teagan two years ago. Watching her learn letters and numbers and counting and new words was magic. I didn’t know how excited I could get about 2+2=4 until Teagan had learned it.
You’re going to be a teacher?
“Yeah, I hope so.”
I didn’t expect that.
“What did you expect?” Why did he have expectations of me? He’d known me for a grand total of two days.
Nothing. You just keep surprising me.
The way he said it made me tingly again. That was twice he’d made me feel that way.
“Well, now you know everything about me and I don’t know anything about you except for the fact that you use the D word and you’re a facilitator.”
That is all you need to know. For now.
He was totally frustrating.
You’re adorable when you don’t get what you want.
“What?” I nearly hit a tree.
You should pay attention when you drive.
“And you should stop talking.” I hated, hated, hated how he affected me with only his words. Nora would punch me for being so moronic. I turned the radio on and blared the music, but I couldn’t find a good station.
Go back, I like that song.
It was Soul Meets Body by Death Cab for Cutie. I wouldn’t have pegged him as a Death Cab kind of guy. Also, it was kind of ironic.
“Yeah, me too.”