Bless Her Heart by Sally Kilpatrick

Author:Sally Kilpatrick [Kilpatrick, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2017-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

chapter 16

Wednesday afternoon I got the call from Ellery Elementary that I’d been hoping for.

Now, I sat on a stiff and too-tiny chair outside the principal’s office waiting to be interviewed for the first grade supply teacher position.

Ms. Varner herself stepped out into the hall and asked me to come to her office. She wore a tailored suit and wore her dark hair slicked back into a no-nonsense bun. To me, she looked more like a high school administrator than an elementary school principal. I wasn’t about to tell her that, though.

“Have a seat, Ms. Love.”

Fortunately, she had a couple of adult-sized seats in front of her desk. I sat down.

“I’m going to be honest, I was all set to hire you until I heard about some of your escapades last weekend.”

“I, ah, won’t let that happen again,” I said, willing my blush to subside. It didn’t.

“I would hope not. Seems my options are down to you and an older lady who sometimes falls asleep when she’s substituting. Last time, a fourth grader drew a mustache on her using permanent marker.”

I winced. “I don’t plan to fall asleep.”

“And you have some classroom experience?”

“It’s been a while,” I admitted, “but I completed my certification and my student teaching, and I’ve kept my certificate up to date.

For the next twenty minutes, Ms. Varner quizzed me on IEPs and curriculum standards and integrating technology in the classroom. Much had changed in ten years, but I did well with her scenarios about how I would handle certain disciplinary problems because, well, kids were still kids.

“I need to think on this,” Ms. Varner said as she leaned back in her chair. “But I have to make the decision sooner rather than later, so you’ll hear back from me one way or another by Friday.”

“I, uh, have my portfolio from when I was a student.” I pulled out a binder from my college days that contained sample lesson plans and all of my test scores as well as my original certificate.

She did me the courtesy of flipping through it, but, of course, I had no recent experience and was ashamed to see that some of the pages had yellowed in what had once been my pride and joy. She handed it back to me with a thin smile. “I’ll be in touch.”

And just like that I was dismissed.

Next I had to go to the Public Safety building for a background check. Getting my fingerprints inked took longer than the interview with the principal, and having someone else ink my fingers and press them on the paper made me uneasy even though I knew I hadn’t committed any crimes.

Yet.

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t go on that shopping spree.

It’s not a crime if you’re authorized to use the card.

That shoulder devil sure could twist things around.

I’m kinda with her, my shoulder angel said. So much for her integrity.

Even so as I stood outside the Public Safety building with my floral dress flapping against my legs in the brisk March wind, I knew I needed a different wardrobe.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.