Sian was bored.
It was Sunday, the most boring day of the week, and she was stuck in the house with nothing to do. Her parents were both “busy,” they said, which meant they couldn’t take any time to give her a lift anywhere interesting, and none of her friends were free either.
She’d spent the morning reading her book, an uninteresting “supernatural romance” novel that all her classmates had been raving about recently, but which she was finding deathly dull. She had a mental block that prevented her from leaving a book unfinished once she’d begun, however, so she figured that a boring Sunday was as good a time as any to get some of it out of the way.
She had tired of the book, though; she frequently found her mind wandering as she read and had eventually given up. She tried listening to some music, but she couldn’t sit still. She tried playing some games on her phone, but suffered the same problem; nothing was engaging her brain and keeping her occupied.
Sighing to herself, she opened the door to her room and decided to try fluttering her eyelashes at her parents one last time. Surely they couldn’t expect her to stay cooped up here all day while they did… whatever it was they were doing sitting at their desks at opposite ends of the house. She wasn’t worried about them; they always did this, and they’d been married for a long time now, so it obviously worked for them. It frustrated her, though.
Her father was predictably dismissive of her attempts to convince him. He had a whole stack of email to get through, he said, and it needed to be done right now. He did, to his credit, apologise, but Sian didn’t feel particularly appeased by his half-hearted “sorry, Sian.”
Her mother, however, surprised her.
“Why don’t you just take the bus into town?” she said. Sian was taken aback for a moment; normally her parents weren’t at all keen on her going out by herself, so this was an unexpected development — so much so that she had to check what she had just heard.
“Are you sure?” said Sian. “I mean…”
“It’s fine, dear,” she said. “Your Dad and I were talking earlier, and we figure it’s time we let you be a bit more independent. You’re sixteen, after all, and you can probably handle going to town by yourself.”
At last, Sian thought, but didn’t say it out loud. Her friends had been “independent”, as her mother put it, for many years now, but she had always felt like a shut-in. She had fought with her parents on numerous occasions about it, but had never been able to prevail; what had changed?
It didn’t really matter to her; she was finally getting to go out without a chaperone, and the reasons were unimportant.
“Here,” her mother said, handing her a five-pound note. “Get yourself a treat while you’re in town.”
“I have money, Mum,” said Sian, but graciously accepted the note regardless. Her mother chuckled.
“Go and have fun, Sian,” she said. “Don’t be back too late. Send me a message or give me a call when you’re on the way back.”
“All right,” Sian replied. “I’ll see you later.”
She wandered out into the hall, threw her coat around herself and fumbled in her pockets to make sure she had everything. Keys, purse, phone — yes, that was everything.
“See ya,” she called from the front door.
“Bye,” said her mother. She heard the sound of her father getting out of his chair and coming down the stairs, but decided to leave before he came down.
The door slammed behind her, and she was free.
* * * *
Town was surprisingly busy, despite the fact that there was a chill in the air. Sian zipped her coat up to her chin and hid the bottom half of her face inside the collar. Now she was here, she wasn’t sure what to do.
Coffee, she thought to herself, glancing a nearby café. That ought to warm me up.
She strode purposefully over to the cafe and entered. The air inside was warm, and the smell of freshly-ground coffee beans was invigorating. She ordered herself a latte and a cake to treat herself, and paid with the five-pound note her mother had gave her, plus an extra pound from her pocket since it wasn’t quite enough. She knew it was extravagant, but she didn’t care right now; it was just nice to be out and about.
As the barista passed her her latte, she glanced around the café in search of a place to sit, and was surprised to see Miss Charles sitting by herself in a window seat. She didn’t seem to have noticed Sian; in fact, she didn’t seem to have noticed anything at all, since she just appeared to be staring out of the window into the middle distance.
There was a table not far from Miss Charles’ table, so Sian decided to sit there and observe what her teacher was up to.
Not much, as it happened; her initial assessment was correct, as Miss Charles did indeed appear to be doing little more than staring out of the window, occasionally turning to her table to sip her large, black coffee. She still hadn’t noticed Sian.
I wonder if I should go and talk to her, Sian pondered to herself. No, she probably wouldn’t want that… but she does look sort of lonely. Maybe I…
Her phone chimed loudly and interrupted her thoughts. It was a chat message from Jasmine.
ey babes what u up to? x it read.
Not much, Sian tapped out in response. Just in town for a bit. She chose not to mention that she was staring at her music teacher and was contemplating going to sit with her.
She sipped her coffee and returned to gazing at Miss Charles.
She doesn’t look at all happy, thought Sian. I really think I should…
Her phone chimed again.
“Oh, for fuck’s…” she muttered, this time flicking the switch onto silent. She always felt embarrassed when her phone went off in public, even though she knew her ringtone was far less obnoxious than some of the ones she’d heard.
im free now, came the reply from Jasmin. wana meet up for a coffee or sumat? x
Sian was about to tap out a response in the affirmative, but paused for a moment, frowning to herself.
Sorry, she eventually replied. I have a few things to do, then I have to be back soon. Another time. My folks finally seem to be cool with letting me out of the house by myself, she added.
k x came the reply after a moment. Sian always felt a little bad when she received a blunt response like that from Jasmine, even though she knew that it was just the way she was. She hoped that Jasmine wouldn’t mind being turned down, but she had something on her mind right now, and wanted to see if she could resolve it.
She picked up her latte, leaving the crumb-covered cake plate on her previous table. Then, feeling a little nervous, she pulled up the chair opposite Miss Charles and sat down.
“Oh!” said Miss Charles, suddenly snapping free from her reverie. “Um. You’re… Oh, Sian? Are you all right?” Sian could tell that she was switching into “teacher mode,” obviously trying to sit up straight and look a lot more prim and proper than she was a moment ago.
“It’s okay, Miss,” said Sian quietly. “We’re not at school now. I just… I just wanted to come over and see if you were all right.”
“Yes, I’m all right,” said Miss Charles. “I’m just having some quiet time.”
“Sorry to interrupt,” said Sian with a gentle smile. She swallowed, then took a swig of her latte before she continued. “I, err, was a little worried about you.”
Miss Charles’ eyes widened a little, and she stared directly at Sian.
“You… were worried about me?”
“Yes,” said Sian. “Friday was… not very nice for anyone, was it?”
“No,” said Miss Charles with a slight sigh. “No, it wasn’t. I’m really sorry about that. It put a real downer on things, didn’t it?”
“It couldn’t be helped,” said Sian. “You hadn’t… dealt with Edward before, but we all know what he’s like. Seriously, it’s not you, it’s totally him.”
Miss Charles gave a weak chuckle. “Yes, well, it doesn’t—” She trailed off. “Anyway, I hope it didn’t upset you too much.”
“Not at all,” said Sian with a smile. “I’ve seen people handle Edward much worse than that, believe me. A lot of people really can’t keep cool when he’s being a di— when he’s being like that. Sorry.”
Miss Charles chuckled again. She seemed to be loosening up a bit.
“Thank you for coming to talk to me, Sian,” she said. “I appreciate it.” She hesitated for a moment, apparently unsure of whether she should say any more. “It’s… difficult,” she added after a moment.
“I bet,” said Sian. “I don’t envy you at all. Sometimes I just want to give those kids a good slap.”
“Yes, well, we’re not allowed to do that, unfortunately,” said Miss Charles. “N-not that I want to.”
Sian laughed. “Well, we’re not really allowed to, either,” she said. “I sometimes think it would do some of them good, though.”
Miss Charles smiled slightly uncomfortably, apparently thinking the same thing but being unwilling to actually say it out loud.
“Look,” said Sian. “I’m sorry for interrupting your Sunday like this, but, well, you looked kind of sad, and I just wanted to see if I could help.”
Miss Charles took a sip of her coffee, then closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
“I don’t know if you can help, Sian,” she said. “I’m not sure if anyone can. But… well, I appreciate that someone like you is trying.”
“We’re not all bad,” said Sian. “Some of us are even human beings, believe it or not.”
“So are we,” said Miss Charles. “Teachers, I mean.”
“I know,” said Sian, laughing.
Miss Charles set down her coffee cup and sat forward, suddenly looking a lot more youthful.
“You know,” she said. “I always hated that big divide between teachers and students, even back when I was at school.”
“Yeah,” said Sian. “I do too. Some of the kids in my class seem to feel obliged to just… I don’t know, fight against the teachers or something. You’d swear school was some great oppressive regime or something. It’s just… weird.”
Miss Charles chuckled. “Yeah, I get that feeling,” she said. “I haven’t been in the job for very long, I know, but I think it’s always been that way.”
“Okay,” said Sian. She swallowed, unsure of whether or not she should say the next part, but pressed on regardless. “How about… how about we be friends, then?”
That wide-eyed look again. Sian immediately regretted saying what she’d said.
“I’m sorry, Miss,” she stammered. “I didn’t mean… I’m sorry, I…”
“N-no, Sian,” Miss Charles replied. “It’s fine, I just… that’s a really nice thing to say.”
“Oh,” said Sian. “Whew. I thought I’d crossed a line.”
“You probably have,” replied her teacher, laughing. “We probably both have. But you know what? Right now I just don’t feel like it matters. All right, Sian, let’s be friends.”
“Okay, Miss,” said Sian.
Miss Charles raised an eyebrow.
“If we’re going to be friends,” she said with a slight smile, “I’m going to have to insist you call me Kristina, or Kris.”
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