It turned out Miss Morgan’s voice wasn’t any louder with Mr Fitzpatrick out of the room. Anarchy descended upon the classroom before she’d even got halfway through the register. The other children were talking and laughing over Miss Morgan’s voice without a care.
“Can you believe this lot?” Nadia said, turning around to face her friends. “We would never get away with this. I mean look at her! She’s absolutely dying out here. I feel so sorry for her. Poor thing. And she’s so pretty as well.”
“Yeah,” Ash said, drawing out the word as he leaned forwards, his chin rested on the heel of his hands. He had a faraway, dreamy look on his face. “She is pretty, isn’t she?”
“Oh, yes,” Tomma said, nodding with enthusiasm until he noticed Jess glaring at him.
Nadia bit her lip to stop from giggling. It was as though Miss Morgan had cast a spell over them with her beauty. Nadia admired her for that alone.
Shame she couldn’t do that to the rest of the class, Nadia thought.
The other pupils in the room were obviously used to teachers such as Mr Fitzpatrick, strict teachers who weren’t like normal people, possibly weren’t even human. Not real people like Miss Morgan. She was the kind of teacher they came across all the time in modern-day Hickley School. The class didn’t always behave very well for them, especially if they were still in training and had no idea how to act towards a bunch of teenagers, but they would have at least let them get as far as taking the register.
Nadia’s anger increased as the volume went another step higher, memories of humiliation in front of a class of unforgiving children came rushing back to her. Before she could stop herself, she had pushed back her chair and stood up, banging her hands on the desk in annoyance at their disrespect.
“Oi, you lot! Shut up, will you?”
Even as the words were leaving her mouth, Nadia wondered what on earth had possessed her to behave like that. They were, after all, guests in this time and should really be lying low, but her words were drowned by the throng of chatting and laughter and no one took any notice of her anyway.
By this point, Miss Morgan was looking red-faced and flustered, as she tried, in vain, to get everyone to calm down. This caused Nadia to reach boiling point, such was the outpouring of empathy towards this beautiful young woman, and she got on to her chair, ignoring Jess’s wide-eyed expression of horror.
“SHUT UP!”
Achieving the desired effect, the classroom fell deadly silent, but it meant all eyes turned to identify the source of the outpour. Before she could do anything about it, Nadia found herself stood, frozen on the spot, looking down on the rest of the class who were both puzzled and amused. It was quite clear, judging by her tight, pinched features, that Miss Morgan was neither of these things.
“Excuse me, what is your name?” Miss Morgan asked, as she came out from behind her desk and started to walk towards the door with purpose.
“It’s Nadia, Miss.” Nadia held her head high, jutting out her chin.
“Might I have a word outside, Nadia?”
Nadia nodded and stepped down from the chair, ignoring the burning gazes from around the room. She kept her eyes straight ahead as she moved along the row of desks towards the front, where Miss Morgan gestured for her to go ahead before closing the door behind them. Nadia shut her eyes and took in a deep breath. From inside the classroom, the noise started up again, the pair of them seemingly forgotten.
“I thank you for stepping in on my part just now,” Miss Morgan said. “But it really wasn’t necessary, in fact, quite the opposite. In doing so you have undermined my authority and made me look completely incompetent.”
“That’s not what. . . I didn’t mean for that to happen, Miss. It was just they made me so cross. I mean, why did you let them get away with acting like that? They were embarrassing you,” Nadia said.
Miss Morgan smoothed down her already smooth jumper and shook her head. “I never expected it would be easy. I know not all of these pupils are here to learn and many of them feel they are biding their time until they can leave. We’re also all extremely tired, hungry and cold. Times have been difficult since the War and with this winter we’ve been having, well, it’s just too much for everyone. The thing is, Nadia, this is my job and whether I like it or not, I will have to find a way of earning their respect. I can’t do that if I need one of my pupils talking for me. Do you understand?”
“I’m sorry,” Nadia said. “It’s just, well, how will you get them to listen?”
Miss Morgan shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I will have to try standing on a chair and shouting.” She smiled. “Look, don’t feel sorry for me. They don’t. It’s not about me. It wouldn’t matter who was standing up there trying to teach them. But, it can be terrifying for whoever does. You’re responsible for making an impression on a room full of impressionable young people, so it matters what you do and say. But there is only one way to deal with your fears and that is to face them head on.”
“I guess so,” Nadia said, thinking of the eulogy. Her motto was more along the lines of ‘run and hide,’ but she didn’t say that.
They went back into the classroom and as they did, a magical silence descended. Everyone stared at Nadia, their expressions eager to know what it was Miss Morgan could have said or done to her. She kept her head up and her eyes straight ahead, as she tried to walk with confident strides back to her desk.
“What was that all about?” Jess whispered, as Nadia sat back down.
“I’ll tell you later,” Nadia said.
Miss Morgan perched on the front of her desk and looked at the class. “Now, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. Today is my first day, and I’m told some of you are here as visitors because of the flooding at nearby Whitley School, so I’m sure you will appreciate what it’s like being in unfamiliar surroundings. It’s not going to be an easy day for many of us, but I feel we got off to a bad start. My name is Miss Morgan and I am your new teacher. Today’s first lesson will be mathematics.”
The children began to shuffle around in their desks and bags getting out books and equipment, but Miss Morgan held up a hand.
“Just one moment,” she said. This time her voice carried around the large room and everyone stopped and looked at her. “We don’t need workbooks for this exercise. It’s rather cold in here, isn’t it? I think we need to warm up first.”
Some confused faces broke into smiles at the prospect of doing things a little differently.
“Right then, students, if the sum I give you is equal to the value of 10, you stand up. If it does not equal 10, you stay seated. Is that clear?” Nods and chatter spread around the room in waves. “I said, is that clear?”
“Yes, Miss Morgan,” the class chanted.
“That’s better.”
The game began and at first it was easy, with obvious additions or subtractions such as 7 + 3 and 15 – 5, but it increased in difficulty until it became obvious who were the clever ones among the group, Nadia being one of them.
Miss Morgan smiled and the prickly atmosphere in the room had evaporated. Nadia marvelled at how well the young teacher had managed to recover her position of authority, even gaining their respect. When the bell rang, there were even some moans of disappointment that the lesson had come to an end.
“Break time class,” Miss Morgan said. “Stay warm.”
As they filed out of the classroom, Nadia paused by Miss Morgan’s desk and they nodded at each other in understanding. Right at that moment, Ash shoved her aside and stood in front of the young teacher holding out his hand. Miss Morgan shook it, giving him a warm smile.
“Bye Miss, see you soon,” Ash said, holding on to her hand for what seemed an unnecessarily long time. Nadia grabbed him and pushed him ahead of her.
“Behave,” Nadia hissed.
“Aw, why? She’s even lovelier close up,” Ash said. “Did you see those big eyes and those lovely perfect teeth . . . and. . .”
They began to laugh as they made their way out of the hall and down the corridor to the main yard, but stopped with an abrupt halt as they bumped straight into a group of boys who were pushing another boy out of the way. One of the gang punched the boy and knocked him straight to the floor. The others spat on him as they walked away.
“Scum.”