Map Girl - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next few weeks that followed my authoritative breakthrough were all vaguely similar. Wake, endure 5 hours of school, meet with Mr Casey and organize my latest thoughts and incorporate them into my existing piece, go home and repeat. At the weekend, I was always left to my own devices. If Sophia was around then Pixie and I would wander to a dog friendly coffee shop and continue reading or writing. If Ben was alone then I would try to take some of the paternal load off of him so that he could relax too. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Sophia. It was that somehow I didn’t feel like she was best suited to our house. She never looked like she was at ease when she was here and she’d been coming here for quite some time now. I still felt like I was living a double life or undercover or something whenever I met with Mr Casey to discuss my work, as he, as far as I was aware, was still oblivious to the fact that I was living at home with no official guardian. I was apprehensive about his reactions if I informed him, so I decided that he was better off not knowing. The last thing I wanted was being placed into social care if the government decided that Ben was not a viable option for a guardian. Besides, it was less than a month until the Nationals and after that was over, and I so obviously wouldn’t win, we probably wouldn’t converse again unless I ventured an answer in his class.

The following Monday’s trajectory was like all of the other’s; Latin, Spanish, History, Math and then Mr Casey. I arrived at Room 101 exactly as he was emerging from the staff room with a mug of tepid coffee spilling over the brim. He paced in.

“Come, come, Lily, we mustn’t waste any time. Every minute we have together is precious.”

I cocked my head in a questioning manner. He emitted a small laugh.

“I meant for the sake of the competition. Can you imagine what would happen to me if you won this?”

He gently mocked me and playfully tapped me on the shoulder. Meeting him every day for well over a fortnight was starting to do concerning things to me now. I could feel myself getting flustered whenever we made eye contact for more than a second, felt my heart racing when he was more than 3 minutes late for our meetings. I had countless dreams about him; ones where he wasn’t a teacher and there was a more acceptable age gap between us. I knew it was perfectly acceptable and human for a teenage girl to get a schoolgirl crush on a teacher and most girls did experience one in their life. But I was turning into one of the giggly girls that gushed over him when he walked past in the hallway. And I had no way of preventing it from escalating. There weren’t exactly a range of boys to pick from in my grade that could distract me from Mr Casey’s perfect dimple that he got in his left cheek when he laughed. Or the sparkle that he got in his eye when he talked passionately. Or even the way that he used paralinguistic features to really emphasize how strongly he felt about something.

“Yeah you could put it on your résumé, and refer to it in college interviews. It could probably help you earn a scholarship if you decided to pursue literature at university. Oh wait…”

His good nature meant that he found my sarcasm charming and he laughed as he organized his notes with mine. He didn’t get further than analyzing my ideas from this week when Principal Houska came in. He was flustered and hurried to get his words out.

“Uh, bad news, Tom, Mr Casey, Sir, due to the increasing demand for this room after school and you only tutoring one student.” His accusations directed my way. “You are not entitled to this room any longer, you’ll have to find somewhere else.”

Mr Casey, not knowing what to say, slowly gathered the loose pieces of paper on the table.

“Uh, okay, this is kind of out of the blue? In previous years, I’ve been tutoring no more than four students on one occasion and have still been prioritised this study space because it’s especially for English students. Why the change?”

“Well, since the expansion in after school activities and Hispanic Studies being one, these students now need this room, as it is one of the only rooms in the building which accommodates the number of students in the class.”

Mr Casey held up his hands in defeat.

“Okay, fair enough, so what space have you allocated Lily and myself for the rest of the month?”

“Well…that’s the problem. We don’t have any more availabilities for the rest of the semester. There’s a lot of examinations and competitions coming up for this school and since Lillian Harvey is the only student entering the National Literature Competition she is not a priority at the moment. So it’s up to you as the teacher to abandon after school study or find a location elsewhere.”

Before Mr Casey even had a chance to object, Principal Houska had already backed out of the room mumbling apologetic excuses.

“I guess that settles that then.”

“Yeah, thank you for all of your help, Mr Casey, I seriously appreciate all of it and it’s sad that we didn’t make it to nationals but it’s what was meant to happen, I suppose.”

“Wait, Lily, what? No, that’s not the end, no, we’ll find somewhere off campus, it’s not a problem.”

“Really? Like you don’t mind having to make the extra effort just to help me prepare my piece?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I don’t. I was the one that basically forced you to get involved in the first place, so I feel responsible. Also, I’ve enjoyed the time we’ve spent so far. I kind of look forward to it at the beginning of every day.”

He looked kind of embarrassed. But not embarrassed in the way that he was spending time with me, just embarrassed that he was forced to admit it to prevent me from leaving.

“Me too, but where are we going to study because, no offence, but I don’t think my brother would be too happy about you coming to ours. I think in his eyes, it’d be frowned upon to let a teacher into our house.”

I tried to lighten the situation but Mr Casey didn’t smile.

“Oh, god, no, we wouldn’t go anywhere that personal! We could never resort to one of our houses.”

“No, no, it’s fine, we’ll go to a Starbucks or something. Like, yeah, we’ll stay on neutral ground.”

He deliberated it for a few seconds.

“Yes, okay, that seems like a good idea.”