The Only One Who Needs to Know

At the sound of her alarm clock bleeping, Cali groaned loudly into her pillow before leaning over and turning it off. She turned over, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before pushing herself up and out of bed. She sleepily made her way to the kitchen where she made herself a mug of coffee and eggs on toast before heading to the shower.
Feeling more awake with the caffeine boost and a revitalising shower she made her way back into the kitchen to make another mug of coffee.

“Bloody hell, what the fuck has got you up at this ungodly hour?” Cali asked at the sight of Rachel eating breakfast.

“I know, I’m pretty shocked with myself, maybe I’m still on London time or something.” She replied in between a mouthful of whatever cereal she was eating.

“Yeah maybe, or it might have something to do with the fact that you slept for most of yesterday and your stomach needed feeding.” Cali replied pouring them both a mug of coffee.

“Maybe.” Rachel replied through another mouthful of her cereal.

“So are you ready for your first day?” she asked. Cali nodded as she took a sip of her hot coffee.

“Yeah, I think I am, I’m a bit nervous though, maybe because I know what I was like when I was a teenager, I know what kids can be like with the new teacher.” She replied.

“Yeah, we used to wind up new teachers, tell them the wrong names and stuff like that, it was well funny.” Rachel replied with a giggle.

“Thanks Rach, that’s made me feel a whole lot better.” Cali replied standing up.

“Oh sorry Cal, I’m sure you’ll be fine.” She replied realising what she had said hadn’t helped Cali’s nerves at all. Cali rolled her eyes and nodded as she finished her coffee.

“It’s ok, I better get ready.” She said turning to head back to her bedroom.

Cali walked into her bedroom and took out the outfit she’d picked out for her first day when she’d first found out she’d got the job. As soon as she’d had the phone call to tell her that she was the new foreign languages teacher at Huntington Beach High she’d gone shopping with Rachel to pick out a whole new closet suitable for the job.

She got dressed, did her hair and makeup and checked herself over in the mirror before grabbing the box full of teaching aides she’d put together.

“Wow, well, you’ll definitely get the attention of your male students.” Rachel said as she walked into the living room where Rachel was no slouched on the couch flicking aimlessly through the channels.

“Thanks Rach, again, that’s not quite what I wanted to hear.” She retorted walking over to the table where she’d left her keys.

“I’ve gotta go, I’ll should be home around three.” Cali said as she opened the apartment door.

“Bye Miss!” Rachel called with a chuckle as the door slammed shut.

Cali walked up the steps of the school’s main entrance without any idea as to where she needed to go. She refused to ask any of the students who passed her and chose to follow the signs towards the office.

“Well, I’m assuming you’re our new Foreign languages teacher?” a male voice caused her to stop and turn.

“How did you guess?” Cali asked the tall, smiling man who had stopped behind her as she turned.

“You look a little lost and you’re way too smartly dressed to be one of the students here.” He replied taking a step closer to her. His smile was contagious and Cali found herself smiling to as she took in his appearance. He was dressed in sports wear, jogging bottoms, polo shirt, trainers, obviously a PE teacher. He was muscular, with a few tattoos, green eyes and short light brown hair.

“Cali Hetfield.” She said shifting the box she was carrying to rest on her hip so she could extend her hand.

“Andy Farley, Phys Ed.” He replied shaking her hand, Cali giggled.

“I kinda guessed that.” She said pointing to his apparel.

“Come on, I’ll show you to your classroom and then take you to the teacher’s lounge.” he replied with another smile.

“Thanks.” She muttered as she began to follow him down the corridor.

“So, is this you’re first teaching job?” he asked as they walked along.

“Yeah, I qualified in June; I’ve been studying in Europe for the past five years, but it’s nice being back in the states.” She replied.

“You a California girl then?” he asked as he held open a door for her.

“Yeah, born and bred.” she said as he led her into a classroom.

“Here you go your first classroom, drop off the box and I’ll take you to the teacher’s lounge.” he said, again with another smile that she couldn’t help but mirror.

They continued to talk as Cali followed him through the corridors to the teacher’s lounge where she briefly met some of the other teachers before having to return to her class for her lesson.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, remember it’s their first day too so they don’t know it’s yours.” Andy said as they stopped outside her classroom again as seventh graders began shuffle nervously in and take their seats.

“Good point, thanks.” She replied.

“No worries, I catch you at lunch.” He replied with a wink before turning to leave. Cali turned towards her classroom door, took a deep breath and walked confidently into to take her first class.

Cali was relieved to finally be able to sit in the teacher’s lounge with a mug of coffee. Her morning classes had gone well with only one attempt to wind her up which she quickly shot down.

“How’s your first day going?” a young female asked as she sat down opposite Cali.

“Pretty good really, I was expecting some of the kids to be rough with me cos it’s my first day but they’ve been good as gold so far.” Cali replied.

“Your lucky then, when I started last year I think there was a kid in every class who tried to be smart and get the better of me.” she replied.

“So you’ve survived the morning” Cali jumped as Andy suddenly appeared, sitting down next to her.

“Just about.” Cali replied with a smile.

“So the kids haven’t scared you off yet then?” he replied and Cali shook her head.

“Good vacation Andy?” the female teacher asked smiling broadly. As Andy answered Cali couldn’t help notice the sparkle in her eyes as she listened intently to every word he said.

“So I’ve got to ask.” Andy began turning his attention back to Cali, much to the disappointment of the other teacher. “There’s a rumour going round that you are in fact a relation to a famous rock star.” He said. Cali rolled her eyes as a small smile appeared on her lips. She leant forward and placed her coffee mug on the table in front of them and began to roll up her left sleeve to reveal her tattoo.

“Awesome.” Andy exclaimed, gently taking hold of her arm to study the portrait of her father.

“Thanks” she replied rolling the sleeve down again.

“He is an all time hero of mine.” Andy said still staring at her arm.

“Sorry guys, but who is he? And why would you want his face permanently tattooed onto your arm?” the other teacher asked.

“Sorry Cali you’ve got to excuse Vicki, she’s not a big rock fan.” Andy said. “It’s James Hetfield, from Metallica.” He added turning back to face Vicki.

“He’s my dad.” Cali added seeing the confusion still on her face.

“Oh, Ok, cool.” She replied nodding slightly.

“So how come you’re not a music teacher then?” Andy asked and Cali shrugged.

“Because you already have a music teacher here and I’ve spent the last five years in Europe actually speaking the languages I’m teaching.” She replied.

“Fair enough I guess.” Andy replied with a shrug.

“Oh well, it was nice meeting you Cali, but we better head for our afternoon classes.” Vicki replied getting up.

“She’s the teacher’s pet.” Andy whispered watching as she walked away.

“She like you too.” Cali replied quietly with a smirk as she too got up and walked over to put her mug in the dishwasher.

“I know…” he began to reply as he followed her with his own mug. “She’s not my type though.” Cali turned to face him, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He said as he held the door open for her.

“She seems nice enough.” She replied as they walked down the corridor.

“Yeah she is, but she’s just not my type.” He replied and again Cali rolled her eyes.

“Whatever, I’ll talk to you later; right now I’ve gotta go teach Spanish to a bunch of tenth graders.” She replied, smirking as he winked at her as she turned towards her classroom.