Teacher's Pet

She nodded. “Oh? I didn’t know you had a brother.”

“Yeah. He’s a professional skateboarder. He invited us to visit him in Paris.”

“I’ve never been to Paris before. My mom’s been a bunch though, before I was born. She really liked it.”

“Well, I told him it might be something we could do some day.”

Tessa came over and sat down next to me, draping her legs across my lap. “If I can ever get all this schoolwork done,” she said, “there’s nothing more I would rather do.”

It was a little strange—but in a good way—to have feature writing class and be there at the front of the classroom, Tessa sitting amongst the sea of faces that made up my students. Every so often, I would look over and see Tessa watching me, and we’d exchange a tiny smile. I caught Kristin looking at us once, but she didn’t say anything.

Was it Kristin that was sending the letters? It seemed possible that she would have figured something out, b

ut the letters didn’t make sense. Rather, what the letters wanted didn’t make sense—Kristin wouldn’t have someone else write her papers. There was no possible way. She took her schoolwork much too seriously and would never stoop to the level of having someone else complete her assignments.

But who, then?

There didn’t really seem to be an obvious suspect. After class got out, Kristin was getting her stuff together.

“How’s it going?” I asked.

She gave me a weird look. “What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “I mean exactly that. How’s everything going with you?”

“It’s fine,” she said slowly.

“I mean, not just with this class, but how are things going in the rest of your classes? Do you feel like you’ve got too much on your plate, being a teaching assistant and all?”

“I’ve got a full course load, if that’s what you’re asking, but no, I don’t think I’ve got too much on my plate. And I actually really enjoy getting to be a teaching assistant.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I can tell that you like it. You’ve done a great job this semester.”

She zipped her backpack up. “Well, thanks. I appreciate the vote of confidence.” She slung her bag over her shoulder and was about to leave but then stopped. “What about you?” she asked. “How’s it going with you?”

“Things are good.”

“Are they? Because—and don’t take this the wrong way or anything—you don’t really seem like you like teaching that much. I’ve kind of always wondered why you’re here. Not that your students aren’t learning from you, but it’s always seemed to me like you want to be somewhere else.”

I leaned back in my chair, a little surprised that she had picked up on that. I thought I’d done a better job at hiding it. “You’re not totally off base,” I said. “Teaching wasn’t what I envisioned myself doing. But, it’s kind of how things have worked out, at least for right now.”

“I’m not saying you’re a bad teacher or anything like that at all,” she said. “It just seems like this isn’t your first choice.”

“Well,” I said, “thanks for letting me know I’m being a little more obvious about it than I thought I was.”

“It’s not like it’s too late for you to do something else, you know,” she said. “Something that you actually want to be doing. Whatever that might be.” She smiled. “Anyway. I better get going. See you next class.”

“Later,” I said.

After Kristin left, I sat there for a few more minutes, even more certain now that it wasn’t her who was behind the letters. Which left me with no real clue as to who it was, though I realized I’d be able to figure it out eventually. The final assignment they wanted Tessa to do was an article for the Daily Journal, and I’d be one of the people going through the submissions. All I had to do was look for the article she’d written, and the name would be right there on the top.

That evening, Tessa went down to the Haymarket to study with Lindsey, so I met up with Jack at the Corkscrew. I figured I might as well break the news to him about Tessa now, in person. It’d be better than him randomly stopping by one day to find Tessa there, in a T-shirt and underwear.

“So, I’ve got something to tell you,” I said.

“Do you?” he said, and he sounded anxious, as though he expected some sort of bad news or something.

“Yeah. And I figured it would be better to tell you in person.”