On Tuesday, I was back to being a brave Little, and in the full swing of my morning ritual. The aftertaste of my morning breakfast shake blended well with Beouf’s coffee, and I was speed walking my way to the front office with Beouf and Tracy in our de facto formation.
“Mr. Gibson. Tracy,” our coworker, a Tweener, acknowledged us as she passed. “Mrs. Beouf.”
“Good morning,” I said, sounding my cheeriest.
“Mrs. Beouf. Tracy. Mr. Gibson.”
“Mrs. Springfield. Mr. Renner…” I hesitated. “Ms. Grange.”
All our colleagues walked right by us and on their way to their respective classrooms and morning duties. Yup. Everything was about back to normal.
My gut rumbled as I stood on tiptoes to clock in for the day. “Tracy,” I said. “How much longer before buses come out?”
Tracy glanced at her watch. “About five minutes.”
Damn. Not enough time to get to my room and back. And on the second day no less…
Raine Forrest literally swiveled her chair around and ignored a parent trying to get a volunteer form so she could look at me. “Don’t think you’ll make it to the bathroom in time?” An addict had just gotten a whiff of their favorite brand.
I would’ve thought she’d poisoned me, except I’d had only Beouf’s coffee as per usual. I looked down at myself. Yeah, that explained it. My hand was hovering around my belly, reflexively. A shark sniffs around for blood, soon enough it’s going to find some. Such was the case with Forrest.
“Not a problem,” I said, waving her off. “I’ll just go to the staff-”
In leaps and bounds that practically defied physics, the school secretary was out of her chair and running to the staff bathrooms. “Gotta go! Emergency!” I looked at the confused Tweener parent on the other side of the reception desk and just gave him a shrug.
Beouf shook her head. “I’ll be by the bus loop if you need me,” she called back. I gave her a thumbs up.
Casually, I walked to the mailroom. Tracy didn’t even need to ask me for help. Like was routine, she reached up into the mail slot and handed me whatever administration had left for me to sign, send home with the kids, or just toss in the garbage. I couldn’t help but notice her grimace.
“What?”
“Just look,” she said.