White Fur

Chapter 1

Skyler’s POV

“Hey Miss McCarthy, Mrs. Johnson wants to know if you can still work the crafting booth?” My student Ryan asked.

“Yea of course” I turn to Ryan to answer him. Ryan is from my Algebra 2 class and I knew that he had Mrs. Johnson’s art class for his last class of the day. Ryan was a junior with rough black hair and piercing green eyes. He’s had a tough time in high school but things have been looking up for him. He started to join sports teams and connecting with other students. It made me proud to know that he was getting along with other students. I knew he had to report back to his other class to confirm my plans. Mrs. Johnson probably was the one to send him over. “Tell her that I hope Jared feels better.”

Mrs. Linda Johnson’s son Jared ended up getting the flu, so Mrs. Johnson had to leave right after school and was having to back out of running the crafting booth at our school festival.

It’s the end of the school year and the school likes to put a sort of street festival together to celebrate. The festival ran from Thursday, the last day of school, until Sunday. Tickets are cheap to participate in the booths and the proceeds either go to the school or homeless shelters in the city. The homeless shelter is one of our main sponsors and helped with the festival so they get a part of the proceeds. The city’s goal to provide for the homeless is just a front, the politicians currently in office usually just scoff at the homeless. But the homeless shelter we partner with really strives for excellence and it’s been great working with them at the festival. I think we should provide our kindness to those who need it which is why I’m happy some of the proceeds go to the homeless shelter, it’s a really great way to give by to the community and it’s something the students all look forward to at the end of the year.

This is my third year teaching math at this high school. The high school is an inner-city school that lacks a lot of opportunities due to the nature of the city. That’s why I always volunteer a helpful hand when needed, so I’ve been helping with the festival for as long as I’ve been here. I love teaching at this high school and helping with the festival, life in this big city can be rough so providing a positive light for students is very rewarding. I know that’s cheesy, but it’s true. I’ve always wanted to teach, but actually doing it is a whole different experience and it’s been so rewarding since then.

As the last bell of the school year rings, I hear chatter in the hallways. Even some cheers, probably from most likely the seniors that are graduating, along with papers being thrown in the air. I giggle to myself a bit at the commotion in the hallways remembering the day I graduated from high school, and then college, and most recently my teaching credential program. I was lucky to go to college and pursue my dream and I was even happier to find out that some of my students were going to follow my path. As I was reminiscing about the past, I gather my stuff into my big brown teacher bag. I take one last glance around my classroom, making sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. I could always come back if I did leave something but I wanted to enjoy my summer break as soon as possible. I look around, mentally checking off boxes in my head and chuckling a bit when my eyes scan past my still broken window. Once I was certain I had everything I turned off the lights and walked into the hall, locking the door behind me.

“Ms. McCarthy.” The vice principal Mr. Rodriguez almost shouted at me while he was strutting down the hallway. Mr. Rodriguez always reminded me of the nursery rhyme I’m a little teapot, because he was short and stout. He somehow always made me feel uneasy too. I’ve tried having conversations with him in the past and it was like talking to a brick wall that has the power to end your career. The lack of communication between us and his position always made me nervous.

“Yes sir?” I asked not fully comprehending why he called on me.

“Are you still able to come to your contract review next Thursday?” He asked with all the strictness he held as an assistant principal. I felt my nervousness bubble up and I really hoped he couldn’t tell that I completely forgot about our meeting for a moment.

“Yes, of course. I’ll be there at 10am as planned.” I nodded and put on a big fake smile. Mr. Rodriguez slightly nodded his head and grunted a bit before walking away. I took a deep breath in, there was always something about that man that made me anxious, the broken window in my classroom didn’t help, but I felt this way before that. Just so many nerves.

“Skyler!”

I turn around to see Andrea running, trying to wave me down in the hallway.

“Glad I caught you.” Andrea says while moving her red hair away from her face and trying to catch her breath. “Thank you again for covering for Linda. When she got the call about Jared being sick, I got worried we’d have to close the crafting booth.”

“Of course, I’m glad to help. Jared’s health comes first. Besides the ticket booth doesn’t need two teachers to supervise.”

Andrea Semintal is my best friend, we went to the same college to get our teaching license and have been together ever since. We have been together for so many struggles that life has provided that we are inseparable now even though both of use are old enough to act better or at least more mature. Andrea is about 5’ 10”, perfect model height, with super curly red hair and has dark brown eyes. She had a perfect body that most women would die for, every curve in just the right place. Not a single imperfection on her. Actually there was a brand or a tattoo of some kind on her neck towards her collarbone, she says it matches her boyfriend’s but when I try to ask her more about it she tends to go quiet. She could be a supermodel if she wasn’t being a teacher, or at least a body builder. I don’t know how but my bestie was strong. We once went to a self-defense class and she flipped the instructor over her shoulder. I was shocked but she has always been so strong emotionally that I thought maybe she trained up physically too. She always had a good head on her shoulders.

This year she decided to foolishly take on the duty of running the end of the year festival. This is funny to me because she always seems like she’s off in her own little world. She kind of mumbles to herself frequently and zones out. So when she decided to take on the role of being in charge of the festival this year I first laughed hysterically at the news, then thought it would be a disaster.

“Oh why was Mr. Rodriguez talking to you?” She raised and eyebrow up at me, trying to get all the dirt. Little do most people know but schools are filled with so much drama and there’s something new everyday. I’m shocked there aren’t more tv shows based off of teachers and schools.

I let out a big sigh before answering her. “He wanted to remind me that he’s probably going to be firing me on Thursday.” I shrug at the unfortunate possibility.

“They won’t fire you, the students love you and you have proved that your a great teacher every semester.” She was trying to reassure me but I was filled with dread at the thought of my meeting.

“That was before the new budget cuts. And it doesn’t help that I broke a window a couple months ago. Let’s face it, I’ll be under close watch next year if they let me stay.” I sigh again and I see Andrea start to mentally come up with a lengthy speech to cheer me up, so I decide to switch subjects on her. “Is everything ready for the festival?”

Andrea glares at me knowing what I’m doing but she ends up going with it and starts complaining how everything seems to be going wrong. We talk for a bit longer about the festival and the end of the school year before we split ways. I can’t believe I’ve been teaching for 3 full years.

I walk out of the school’s main building and start walking down the street to where the festival is being held. I take a deep breath as a summer breeze blows by. The wind blows a couple strands of my dirty blonde hair into my face, but lucky me, most of my hair is still in the French braid I attempted to make this morning before school so most of my hair is still restrained. But still a couple strands make me push the hair behind my ears as the one of the early summer suns tries to disappear behind the clouds.

I’ve always liked this time of the year. When the season is changing to and from being summer. It’s no longer too cold that I’m forced to wear a thousand layers but it’s cool enjoy that the sun doesn’t melt you into a puddle. The school year always ended at the best time, this way everyone on break would have a week or two of this perfect weather. I smiled to myself thinking of how perfect the day has been going, students telling me that they’ll miss me and visit me next year, that is if I still work there after next Thursday. I let out a big sigh and I decide to focus on feeling the sun on my face through the skyscrapers.

I start walking down a couple blocks to the small park where the festival will be held. The school decided it would be best to have the summer festival in a place wherever everyone could go, which I agreed because it offered an equal opportunity for all. As I walk, I look at all the skyscrapers, I know some of them are apartments but most of the ones by the school are actually businesses. I’ve always wanted to go to the top of these buildings and look down at the city but I’ve never found the time. When I was a kid my family went to the Empire State Building and it was so amazing to see New York City from up there. All the cars looked like the toy race cars I had as a kid and all the people were tiny dots moving around from place to place. There was one building I wanted to go to the top of, the Boterea building, but I never had the guts or the time to go to the top.

Memories of my childhood always make me feel a little bittersweet. I had a great childhood but later in life it got complicated. When I was about 13 my mom got pregnant and I was so excited about being a big sister. But there were many complications and both my mom and baby sister didn’t make it, leaving just me and my dad. My mom and sister’s death was really difficult for my dad, it turned him cold to where he would only focus on work or alcohol. He avoided me at some point so I learned to take care of myself a bit more. I couldn’t completely blame him, his favorite person was taken from him and the potential of having another person to love was ripped from him too. And I just happen to look a lot like my mom and my baby sister would have probably looked like me too. I was the ghost of both of them, I reminded him too much of the love of his life that he couldn’t protect and too much of my sibling that he didn’t get to keep.

Alcohol was his coping mechanism and I endured it to try to relieve his stress, but it didn’t work. Before I went off to college we had a huge fight and we haven’t talked much since. That’s why I ended up moving here to the city. Or at least it’s one of the reasons.

I took another deep breath hoping to push back the bittersweet memories of my life. I kept walking down the street towards the festival. Luckily the school is only a couple blocks away from the park where the festival is being held. I enjoyed the last three blocks to myself before spotting the bright and flappy tents at the festival. The park that held the festival was three by three blocks of grass so there was plenty of space. We had a dunk tank, face painting station, and game booths, we even had a Ferris wheel this year.

I was in charge of the arts and crafts booth this year. Mrs Johnson was the art teacher but I volunteered to help out when her son got sick. I was extremely lucky because this years crafts were lanyards, paper bag hats and dream catchers, which was as sophisticated as my crafting skills got.

Andrea made her rounds at the festival and gave me a thumbs up with a bit of panic on her face. “We’re all good here.” I let my teacher bestie know with a wink. She relaxed and chuckled at my fake confidence before continuing into the next cluster of tents.

She was extremely organized and born to be a leader, I was truly surprised when we hit it off so well. She has always been so supportive of others that it makes you believe in yourself. For example, when I made a mini roller coaster to show off how quadratic functions relate to physics and it ended up with me breaking the window, she was there to justify it’s educational meaning. Andrea was the best friend anyone could want, but she just happened to be my best friend. Maybe I’m the reason she mumbles to herself and zones out from time to time.

Promptly at 5:00pm, the end of the year fair began. Many younger kids came up to my booth trying to make the best paper hat possible. I couldn’t help but indulge in the game and came up with a giant paper hat that seemed to have sprung flowers at the brim. I decided that this hat would be the hat to get me through this festival. I wore that hat for at least 2 hours when Ryan and his new football friends came up to the booth.

“Hey Ryan would you and your friends like to make the most glorious paper hats?” I questioned as I waved my hands in circles trying to present the paper hats like it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Ryan and his friends chuckled at my enthusiasm. “No, I didn’t think so.” He said, which I returned with a fake pout on my face. “Can I at least interest you guys in dream catchers?”

All of their eyebrows raised at the mention of dream catchers, but none of them moved. I feel like they wanted to make a dream catcher but their ‘I’m too cool for this’ pride got in the way. So Ryan answered for them.

“Nah, I think we’re good, Ms. McCarthy. Thank you for offering.” Ryan said with a sweet boyish smile. With a smile like that I was shocked at how lonely he was. I would guess he’d have his pick of girls but he was almost always alone. His parents died when he was young and he was left in the care of his sister. His sister worked almost constantly from what I heard so even at home he was alone. He seemed to be doing alright but I always thought he deserved more for having such a rough life.

“Alright, good luck at football camp this summer, I know you’ll do great!” I waved goodbye to Ryan and his friends as they walked off to continue to explore the festival.

I walked around the tent checking up on the different kids and their creations. Then I felt a tug on my dress. I turned to see a cute little girl, probably about 5 years old, with pigtails. I gave her a big warm smile and bent down to her level.

“Miss, do you have anymore blue glitter?” That when I noticed her hands covered in a rainbow of glitters. This meant that now I have a rainbow of glitter on my dress too and since it’s glitter it’ll never fully be gone.

“Yes, I do. Let me go get you more.” The little girl bounced at my response. I turned to the extra bins at the back of my tent and grabbed the extra glitter. The little girl thanked me and ran back to her creation. I chuckled to myself at her excitement.

I decided to clean up some of the empty space at the tables to make sure there was room for extra participants. I picked up some extra pipe cleaners and put them back into my extra storage boxes where I found the glitter earlier.

I turned to start walking back towards the front of the tent when I ran face first into a wall.

“Ow.” I said under my breath. My eyes were closed as I rubbed my now slightly painful nose. Just my luck, I would be the person to run into a wall.

Wait…… why is there a wall in my tent all of a sudden.

I slowly opened my eyes, hand still on my nose, to see a white button up shirt that’s doing it’s best to contain the muscles under that shirt. The navy blue blazer is also trying its best to cover up its owner but it’s obvious that the owner is a well built wall of muscle. My eyes slowly work their way up to a jaw that could cut glass. My attention is drawn to a few strands of dark brown hair that were blown in the light summer breeze. When the wind dies again, my eyes lock with this man’s beautiful, mesmerizing hazel eyes. I audibly gasp at the sight of this 6’7” tanned god in front of me. I gasped so loud that I almost missed him say one word in his deep voice.

“Mate.”