Arclight 1.5

 Drew expected a lot of things when he began teaching. 

Angry parents? Yes

Lack of attention span with students? Yes.

Body odor? Yes

But, he was surprised by the sheer amount of cartoon porn 

"You know I can see your screen, Dayvon," he looked up from his desk and across the top of his monitor. "Cut it out, please."

Dayvon sheepishly nodded but then smirked and shook his head. Drew did close the screen from his control panel and made a mental note of the web address to ask if it could be blocked. 

It was Friday and he couldn't blame the students for wanting to ease into the weekend. He didn't have a movie on but told his students they could free choice but had to be reading, writing, or screen time. But, while he watched on his screens. Most chose screens and idly passed time down Wikipedia wormholes or news sites.

He heard the ding of his phone. It wasn't a Slack message but an actual text. He no longer furtively hide it from his students albeit they better not pull out their phones. It was thirty minutes until end of the day on a Friday, anyway. 

"Another favor? Sorry, please." Then two praying hand emojis. He responded to Isabela with a quick "Sure"

"Can you put up the chairs in my room. Again. I know, sorry!"

The custodians had recently begun to chirp about rooms being too messy after school. Like any work place, this didn't happen directly, but instead in passive aggressive statements at staff meetings and all school emails It was the same energy as the curled and faded "Your mother doesn't work here. Clean up after yourself" print out on the fridge in the lounge. Drew sometimes struggled with this with hid middle schoolers, who made a point to throw trash into the wastepaper basket. Sometimes, if there was practice for drama class, the cafeteria would be booked and students would eat in their rooms. That left streaks of food, jam and sauce, against the walls that custodians argued wasn't their job. The debate raged on. Drew usually made his students do it but he had older ones and sometimes, ones planning to go to private schools for high school, were hungry to spin it as volunteer hours on applications. 

"Sure, no problem. You ok, right"

Five minutes went before she responded, the trailing ellipses on the message bouncing.

"Yeah. Just want to get home and sleep. Thank you! I owe you."

Drew responded with a thumbs up. This was the second time this week, a second day in a row. He wondered whether he should press. He thought about the potential (always hypothetical) scenarios if he said no or pushed: "Maybe try to get your students to help out?" But, he left those in his head. He had met her three years ago, his first year teaching, and he craved any second of her attention, even if just a passing wave in the hallway or heart reaction on Slack. His daydreams often centered on saving the day, something he found a lot of other men his aged shared, and these favors felt close enough

***

Drew dropped into Isabela's room around 3:30pm. He liked the relative quiet of Fridays with no clubs or after school activities to get some emails answered and grades in. Then he felt his weekends could really be his albeit he usually didn't plan anything exciting.  Maybe a new game or a longer walk in the Metroparks. 

She had 5th graders but chairs were same size as his 8th graders. But her tables and desks were lower so it did feel like tearing down someone's jumbled together apartment. Still, I didn't take long and he grabbed some scraps of paper and cheese stick wrapper thrown by her desk. He saw the push sweeper hooked onto the wall and took a few minutes to run it over her map of the world carpet. He liked the satisfying sound it made as its rollers ran over the threads. He doubted it did much but he had nowhere to be. Maybe would put her and him, by extensions, on the placid side of the fight with the custodians. 

Over the rollers he heard the familiar click of his principal's heels. May always wore dresses and always wore heels, albeit she had sneakers in her office in case things "got real." Something she shared during the new teacher orientation each year. His students could hear it coming down the hall and it straightened them to attention. He also found himself doing that. 

 May had to be leaving for the day and she turned to peek in the room when she saw Drew and waved and paused. She opened the door and smiled scanning the room for anyone else "Hey, are you lost?"

Drew hooked the sweeper back onto the wall and chuckled "No, just helping out. She had to leave early." He realized he didn't know the full story and erratically recanted "I mean like right after dismissal. I said I would help wrap up. I have nothing but time."

May slowly nodded and came further into the room "You and Isa seem like you are pretty friendly, right?"

Drew didn't know if he could really answer that. The word had always been loaded to him but he acquiesced "Yeah, I guess so."

"Ok. This question may sound weird." She threw up her hand and briefly waved it as it blocking an attack "And its totally ok to not answer but...is everything ok with her?"

Drew felt isolated. He was also curious but had no answer. Caught between both of them he felt meek. "Oh, I don't know. We are not that close. I think she may have a second job or something"

May pursed her lips and pulled an errant strand of hair behind her ear. "Ok. Well, was just curious since Ive noticed you in her helping a ton and just want to make sure its all fair and everyone ok." She looked at him and it cut through him. "Everyone is Ok, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, but I will let you know if anything."

May said her goodbyes "Ok, appreciate it. Just looking out for our girl, right? Have a good weekend."

Drew an embarrassed warmth in his chest and then waved goodbye back. He waited for the clack of her heels to die off in the hallways before he grabbed his bag and left.