Matthew Sanders & Laney Newman
Zacky Baker & Harlow-Morrigan Burwick
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Matthew Sanders | The Teacher
First days, from the first day of preschool, to the first day of work it never got any easier. At least that's how Matthew felt when he'd woken this morning in his empty apartment. It had been a couple months since his ex, Elizabeth had moved out to move in with one of his friends. That had blown, but Matthew hadn't let that detour him from living his life. Before he would of turned to an overabundance of alcohol, but instead he'd hit the job search harder; until he found a job teaching at the high school down the road from his place. He was nervous, it was only his second year teaching and due to financial problems Matthew had been laid off of his last job. First in first out and all, had been explained to him. It had been a dark time in his life, Matthew had been laid out of his first teaching job, and he and Elizabeth had been on the fringes of breaking up. Perhaps that was contributing to Matt's jitters as he got out of bed.
Quick was the man to find a plain blue button up and a pair of khakis- paired with some nice shoes. The long sleeves hid his many tattoos, which were against the teacher dress code. Matthew had even managed to dig out one of the ties he'd gotten a couple months back and tied the damned thing a little haphazardly. The book which had been assigned for summer reading, The Color Purple, a book he thought was rather important. It focused on feminist issues and more specially black feminism in the thirties. He thought it would empowering to his female students before they went off into the world, and an eyeopener for his male students. The Summer Reading credit had been Go Set A Watchman. It was to him, a good read. It was a little bit of a letdown from To Kill A Mockingbird but still a good read. It had shown a whole new sides of the characters he'd fallen in love with during grade school. Especially Atticus, which had made Matt a little weary reading it. But such an eclectic inside look at the characters had made it worth Matthew's time to read.
The students were supposed to hand on their essays dissecting two themes in their summer reading books, ten pages for each essay. It was a difficult assignment he'd admit, but Matt wanted to gear them up for college. As he bustled about his small immaculate apartment, Matt made quick work of boiling himself some coffee in the machine, and pouring it into his thermos. He didn't have time to sit down and drink; and glancing down at his watch swore. It was nearly six-thirty and if he didn't haul ass now, Matthew was going to be late for work. So he jogged towards the door clutching his coffee and swooped down to grab his backpack which held all his lesson plans for the next week. It didn't take long to get to the parking lot of his apartment complex, sliding into his sleek red car and pulling hurriedly out of the lot. Outside angry gray clouds hung overhead, threatening rain. It made Matt wished he'd grabbed an umbrella from his home before leaving; but there was no use in crying over spilled milk.
Matt had finally pulled into school fifteen minutes before the doors opened- and after locking and parking his car ran to the doors, flinging them open and heading to the office. A few ladies were standing around, laughing and joking though when their eyes fell onto the new teacher they fell silent offering tight smiles. "May I help you?" Matthew nodded, "The class list, I need the class list and my password to the teacher's email thing." One of the ladies, must of been a teacher bade the sectary a sweet goodbye before shuffling out. "Alright, name?" The elder secretary's voice was weary already as if she was already tired of dealing with people. "Uh, Matt. Matthew Sanders. I'm teaching AP English to seniors?" Making a soft noise in her throat the woman clicked away behind the keyboard before she glanced back up at him. "Right, your class list is on your teacher profile. I'm Shelly by they way in case you need anything hon. You're going to be on the third floor in room eight."
Thanking her Matt turned and hurried from the office. The third floor huh? That would be a hike an that meant most of his students would likely be late. So, he slowed his jog down to a fast paced walk, taking long strides until he found a hallway which a staircase in. Soon he'd taken the three flights up and was wandering down the third floor hallway until he found his designated classroom. To his surprise a student was already sitting outside the door, her eyes glued to a book and muttering the words under her breath. It wasn't just any book, it was a language dictionary, and clearing his throat she looked up. "Hey, are you here for English? You're a little early but come on in." The muscular man bade, trying not to linger on how pretty she looked. That was entirely inappropriate. For a moment he fumbled in his pockets until he found the key to the door which had been mailed to him last week, soon the door was unlocked and Matthew was holding it open for the nameless beauty to walk in. "Right, I'm Mr. Sanders and obviously I teach English. Name? So I can mark you down on attendance?"
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Harlow | The Runner
She had known her husband since she was a small child, running about the green hills of her homeland Cork, Ireland. They had grown together, and never far from the other's side. The two were supposed to have an epic lovestory of which their small town would talk of for eons to come. Harlow and Finn had been each other's first of everything. First kiss, first crush, and first times. She had spent the past twenty years of her twenty-two years on this earth loving him. They had married straight out of high school, Finn going to work on his friend's father's fishing boat while Harlow worked at the local baker's shop. Harlow had always been pampered by her family; close knit with her mother, father, and grandmother- Rosie. For the first two years of their marriage, was the beginning of the end. After months at sea Finn would come home full of need and often wasting nights down at the pub. That had irked Harlow but she figured that it would pass. His drinking phase never did pass, and it was soon after he got home did his mother, the only living relative that he had left, passed on. Sage was a sweet woman, and the toll of losing his mother had brought out the very worse in Finn.
It started with a shove into the wall that dislocated Harlow's shoulder when she'd tried to comfort him after the funeral. He hadn't even apologized as he drove her to the hospital, and when her shoulder was snapped back into place- he'd left to go to the pub with his friends. From there his agitation only increased, as did his physical behavior. It was a month later when Finn had punched her for the first time. She had burned dinner, and he hadn't been pleased. And Harlow, possesed by something unknown had stayed. She stayed until her body looked like some twisted canvas, riddled with scrapes and bruises. She began withdrawing from her family's concern, and instead spent many days trying to appease Finn. "He's only upset. He'll get the anger out." She had convinced herself. The last straw had come a few weeks ago when Finn had broken her nose in a brawl. Her eye already sustained a nasty bruise from a fight a few days ago. It was then that Harlow began fearing for her own safety. Finn was due to go back to sea for the next couple months; and when he left Harlow had packed her things. It would be too easy if she went back to her parents- so instead she filed for a green card for America, where her grandmother Rosie lived. It was all done rather soon and a few weeks later Harlow found herself on a plane as a personal care attendent to her grandmother.
Though the woman could get on by herself just fine. When she landed, her grandmother had been waiting, and tearfully pulled Harlow in to a tight embrace before the two set off for her grandmother's home. All the way Rosie chattered how much Harley would love it there, how it was right on the beach and her neighbors were quite kind. Really Harlow just wanted to keep to herself. It made her heart break how every time Rosie cast her gaze to Harlow's face, the pale creamy skin broken by fine bruises, her grandma's eyes filled with a guilt. Upon getting back to the house, it turned out that her grandmother had a rather fat silver tabby cat called Mushu after the dragon from Mulan. It was cute, and Harlow began to settle into the home. During the days Rosie was usually gone into town helping prepare for the parade the was coming up in the next four months to celebrate fall. It was two weeks into her stay and her grandmother was gone did the day currently find Harlow frantically searching her grandma's garden.
The backyard was fenced off with high imposing fences that looked regal and gave Harlow a lot of privacy. Her grandmother had asked Harlow to go and pick the cucumbers from the garden so they could make salad later, and in her forgetfulness Harlow had left the door open. Mushu had taken the opportunity to bolt out of the house damned indoor cat and into the garden. "Mushu, here kitty kitty." Harley called, her voice pinched with panic. Rosie loved that fucking cat, and as if the universe was laughing at her, she heard a soft mrrow coming from above her head. With an inkling of horror Harlow raised her head, the sun glinting off her golden wheat colored tresses to find Mushu on top of the large fence, and before she could coax him down jumped into the neighbor's yard. Feeling there wasn't much else to do, Harlow began pacing and judged the distance. She could scale it. Setting to work, rather ungracefully hauling herself to the top of the fence she spotted Mushu by the neighbor's back door watching Harlow with a sick sort of amusement. This is why she was more of a dog person.
Glancing around, seeing no sign of life from the neighbor's yard Harlow carefully jumped from the fence into the neighbor's yard; though her movement had startled Mushu who took off round the side of the house. Without thinking Harlow gave chase, shouting at the damned beast. "Oi! Get back here you fecking arsehole!" Alright, maybe she'd lost her temper a bit. Under the sapphire skies, Harlow had rounded the corner to find a rather pecuiliar sight. A man, not much older than her with stunning emerald orbs and raven colored hair was holding her grandmother's cat, the thing purring in his arms; though when Harlow had rounded the corner of his home he'd glanced up watching her with amusement hidden by curiosity. "Er, hi. I'm not trespassing I swear- my Grandma's cat got out. Oh, right I guess I'm your new neighbor, Harlow." She began, motioning to the cat in his arms. The last thing that Harlow needed was this guy to call the cops for trespassing. Oh her grandma may have a heart attack if she had to pick her granddaughter up from the station.
October 13th, 2015 at 12:28am
