Angels Everywhere - Debbie Macomber [135]
Ever since the incident with Emilio she’d been subjected to an attitude of mistrust. It was as if she’d fallen from grace in the eyes of her students.
“First off, don’t put your name on the top of the page.”
“You don’t want our names?” This clearly came as a surprise since she’d so often instructed them to remember just that.
“No names,” she reiterated. “Now I’d like each of you to write one hundred and fifty words.”
“We gotta count them?”
“That’s about a page and a half,” Brynn explained. “The subject of your paper is this: If I could kiss anyone in this classroom, who would it be, and why.”
For a moment the entire class looked at her as if they couldn’t believe what she’d said. Someone smothered a giggle and catcalls echoed across the room.
It didn’t take anyone long to get involved in the project. Soon heads were bowed over the paper, and her students wrote feverishly. Brynn liked to involve her students in some type of writing assignment, often on a daily basis. She did this for a number of reasons, but first and foremost was an effort to require them to clarify their thoughts on certain subjects. She attempted to balance a serious topic one day, followed by a lighter one the next.
Although she’d been teaching the class for a number of weeks now, whenever they were asked to write, her students put up a royal stink. Often they bombarded her with silly questions or employed other delay tactics in an effort to forestall the assignment.
Not this time. Looking at them now, writing as fast as their hands would allow, one would think the first student finished would be excused for what remained of the quarter.
“When you’re done writing, please bring the papers to my desk.” The class was both cooperative and silent. The cooperation part was a welcome relief. Brynn was beginning to feel like a salmon swimming upstream. Every inch was a struggle, every day a challenge.
One by one, her class delivered their papers to her desk. Before long Brynn had accumulated a tidy stack.
Curious whispers followed.
“Aren’t you going to read them?” someone asked.
“I will later,” she promised, as if this were a normal assignment.
“Wait a minute,” Emilio said, slouching down on his seat. “I gotta right to know how many women want me.”
Several of the girls booed, suggesting he wasn’t the one on their list.
Emilio planted his hand over his heart and looked deeply grieved by their lack of appreciation for his obvious charms.
“Did anyone put me down?” Modesto demanded. “Emilio’s got a point, you know.”
“One thing’s for sure, no one picked Mike,” taunted a boy in the back of class.
Mike was a loner and rarely contributed to class discussions. He suffered from a bad case of acne and kept his distance from the others. Brynn had never seen him talk to any of the other students. In many ways her heart went out to Mike, and she struggled to reach him. To have someone taunt him now was cruel and unnecessary. For the first time Brynn wondered about the wisdom of her assignment. It had sounded like such fun when she’d planned it.
“Don’t be so sure,” Brynn said, and reached for the stack of papers. Her relief was great when she saw that one of the first papers mentioned Mike’s name. “Here’s a paper for Mike.”
“You gotta be kidding.” This came from Modesto. The youth sat up and turned around to stare at Mike.
Brynn walked down the aisle and handed Mike the paper.
“How come he gets to read his and I can’t have mine?” This came from Emilio.
The corners of Mike’s mouth turned up and revealed a brief smile when she laid the sheet down on his desk.
“I’ll get to you soon enough,” Brynn promised.
“If anyone chose him,” Yolanda joked.
“Do bears shit in the woods?”
“Emilio,” Brynn admonished. “I won’t have that language in my class.”
“Sorry, Miss Cassidy.”
“Careful,” Brynn heard someone say under their breath. “She might get you suspended again.”
The next paper listed Emilio’s name. She handed it to him and he let out a triumphant cry and punctured the air with his fist. “What did I tell you?” he shouted. “Women are crazy about