Kevin watched her from across the street. She had her “teacher” face on, barking orders at students, demanding they stay at least five feet from the street. She couldn’t understand why the chain-link fence had been removed. It made life a lot easier if all the students were corralled in there.
Maggie turned to go after two girls who were roughhousing with a few of the boys. As she stalked towards them, she caught sight of Kevin. She waved, never once breaking her purposeful stride. He chuckled to himself, imaging what she could be saying to the two girls who were complaining to her. One of them stomped off, Maggie said something to her, and the girl came back, her head down. Damn, she’s tough, he thought.
The parade eventually went off without a hitch. The student-made floats brought cheers from both schools. It brought back so many memories to him as each grade did their class cheer as loud as possible and the spirit stick was awarded. After the police car came through sounding its siren, the students filed towards the buses and cars. Maggie breathed a sigh of relief, making sure everyone left as they were supposed to.
Kevin called to her, running across the street. She waited, shading her eyes against the afternoon sun.
“Great parade, huh?” She asked.
“Oh, incredible. Did they really make those floats by themselves?”
“You are gonna ask that after the bear’s head fell off halfway down the route? I think it’s quite obvious!”
Maggie looked at her watch. She hated to rush away, but she still had a few things to do before leaving for the weekend.
“Am I keeping you from something?”
“Mmm, not really. I just have a few things to put into the computer. Grades are due before we leave. You can come in with me, if you want,” she offered, hugging her red gradebook to her chest.
“Really? No one will mind?” He inquired, looking surprised.
Maggie laughed. “No, Kevin, they won’t mind. It’s not like you can be given detention for being on campus after school anymore. At least, I don’t think you can.”
Kevin followed her into the old school and up the stairs to her classroom. It had been a long time since he had been in a high school classroom, but somethings never changed. The smell of the oil on the hardwood floors still permeated the air. The desks looked the same. He could have been in his old high school. Maggie sat at her desk and booted up her computer. She tapped her fingers on her desk impatiently, waiting for it to load.
He wandered around the room, looking at the posters on the wall. U.S. Presidents, U.S. documents, everything related to American History. He noticed a poster on the podium of the Globe Theatre and William Shakespeare. I knew it, he thought. He couldn’t remember any of his female teachers not liking old Willie. He stopped at a desk, reading the inscription on it. He laughed out loud, causing Maggie to look up sharply.
“What’s so funny?”
“This. Do you know you have some poets in your midst? Listen to this: ‘If you’re in your room, dancing with your honey, and your nose gets runny, you may think it’s funny, but it’s snot.’”
“Eww. That’s just disgusting. I told her to get that off there. That desk is on loan from another room. Someone came in one evening and swapped it out. Don’t touch my stuff without me in here.”
He sat in a desk in the front. He had to stretch his long legs way out in the aisle. Maggie glanced at him, snickering.
“You like your job, don’t you?” He observed.
“Sure do. It’s something to be able to come back to the school you attended and teach.”
“You went here? I didn’t know that,” he told her, propping a hand under his chin.
“Oh, yeah. K through graduation. I’m doomed to live out my life in this place. It’s like that hotel in the song. You can check out, but can never leave,” she told him, smiling wryly.
“It’s something like that. You were really good out there with those kids earlier.”
“How? I had to yell and be mean to some of them. I wouldn’t have had that problem with them if they had been my students. They belong to the woman under my room. For some reason, I get the feeling she doesn’t like me. Don’t you have fun with your job?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I figure if you ever get to the point where you’re not having fun, it’s time to leave. If you’re unhappy, those around you will be too. Trust me on that. I can’t believe it’s homecoming already,” Maggie sighed, leaning back in her chair.
"I remember my homecomings. I had to play in the games. That was fun. All the people in the stands screaming for you or at you. Then the dances after the game.”
“I had this friend at my first teaching job who was a cheerleader in high school. She said she used to love the dances when the football players would come in, smelling like soap and cologne right from the shower. She said it was the best. I never knew about that.”
“Why? Weren’t you a cheerleader?” He asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
“No,” she laughed. “I wasn’t. My parents didn’t see much of a reason for that. Oh, I got to go to the games and dances if I wanted, but they always said we didn’t have enough money for all the cheerleading stuff. There! Finished! I’m ready to go.”
She shut down the computer and fished her purse out of her desk. She stood at the door, waiting for Kevin to untangle himself from the desk.
“I’m in the mood for a pizza,” she told him, flipping off the lights and closing the door. “You want to join me?”
“Yeah, but there’s not a pizza joint around here.”
“I know that, silly. I’m talking about one of those good frozen kinds from the store. Guaranteed to give you heartburn. You can ride with me.”
**************
Maggie maneuvered the grocery cart through the local store. “You have to know how to drive to get anywhere in here,” she informed him, looking back to make sure he was still with her.
She felt the impact before hearing the sound of the two buggies clanging. She looked to see whom she had run into. Smiling apologetically, she backed up and started again for a check out aisle.
“You know how women drivers are. Always yapping when they should be looking where they’re going,” Kevin said, shrugging his shoulders helplessly as he walked by the man.
“You need to watch where you’re going,” he told Maggie when he finally caught up with her.
“Women drivers, huh? I’ll get you for that,” she said, slapping playfully at his arm. “Ooh, let’s see what’s going on with the celebrities.”
She grabbed a tabloid from the rack as she waited her turn to be checked out. “Look, Kevin. Bigfoot’s baby is really an alien who is going to run for president in the next election.”
“Put that back, Maggie. You don’t want to waste your time and money on that trash.”
“Hey, this might not be trash. I thought it had to be truth if it’s written in black and white,” she teased, pulling the paper out of his reach. “Eh, this is trash. Let’s get to the good gossipy stuff.”
She picked up another tabloid, this one in blazing color. Kevin felt the blood drain from his face as he caught sight of the picture and screaming headline: “Backstreet Boys Calling It Quits! Kevin Richardson walks away from tour and he hasn’t been heard from since. Read all the details on pg. 24.”
He reached and snatched the paper from Maggie’s hand. “Hey!” She exclaimed. “I was about to read how one of the ribs Cher had removed was in the same museum as the Elephant Man.”
“It’s your turn, Maggie,” he said, nodding to the cashier who was waiting.
“You didn’t have to be so snatchy,” she told him as they were getting into her truck. “You’d think something was in there you didn’t want me to read. Honestly, Kevin, you are so funny!”