Passion

Chapter 7

She was standing at her desk, stacking papers, when Brian walked in. Her door was open, so he took a moment to simply look at her. Dressed in another one of her prim, spinsterish outfits, her hair pulled back in a braid, she looked like the perfect teacher.And she was humming softly.

He felt something shift inside him. Never in his own school days could he remember a teacher like her, someone who actually wanted to help. He had always thought of Amanda as simply Britney's friend, a little odd, alot frumpy, but nice enough.

Now he had to look at her with a new respect.

Raising a hand, he gave two sharp knocks on the open door. She jerked, looking up at him with wide eyes and she was peering at him through the lenses of her glasses.

"They told me in the office where I could find you." He stepped in, looking around the room with interest. "Very nice."

She smiled with an obvious touch of pride. "Thank you, I try and make the classroom nice. It should be a comfortable place to be, an easy place to be. Do you know what I mean?"

Strangely enough, he did. The room was decorated in bright colors with plenty of the children's art work hanging on the walls. It was a thought provoking room. He walked toward a workstation that was filled with hands on activities. There were dominoes, rubber stamps, and numerous math games. The room gave an over all appearance of great activities. He smiled at her seeing that she was watching him cautiously. "You like to teach."

She straightened. "Yes, and I am good at it. Children respond to well to me."

She could be so damn confident, with no real provocation. "I'm sure you are. Your authoritative, but gently so. Children wouldn't be afraid of you."

Lowering her eyebrows she gave him a ferocious look, as if she didn't trust his sincerity of his words. He smiled back and waited.

Finally she nodded. " No child should ever be afraid. Certainly not their teacher. I do my best to make sure they are at ease to let them know they can talk to me if they need to."

Brian turned away. He didn't want her to see how she effected him. He could still remember being a kids himself, feeling defensive and hurt because his dad wasn't around, and his mother couldn't be bothered. His teachers hadn't cared about a kid with problems. Their idea of understanding was to send him to the office whenever he upset their lessons.

He certainly hadn't had a teacher like Amanda.

"What is it, Brian? Whats wrong?"

Her perception was uncanny, he realized he was holding a math paper one student had left on a desk, and he slowly laid it down and turned to her. "I have the greatest respect for teachers. For anyone having a gift with children. There are too many people out there who don't care about kids, even their own."

He knew he shouldn't of said so much the minute the words were out his mouth. Amanda was scrutinizing him carefully. He shook his head and wandered around the room surveying all the desk, laughing when he saw one that was over flowing with old papers. He straightened a chair, centered a book, replaced a pencil that had fallen on the floor.

Amanda began helping him tidy up. "The children may like me, but they are always in a hurry to leave when the bell rings." She indicated pointing at the desk. " They tend to be a little sloppy sometimes."

Brian refocused on her. " Do you have children of your own?" He discovered he was suddenly very interested in her.

"No."

Just that one word. He crossed his arms over his chest. " Your not married?"

"Mr Mead."

 He smiled, "Do you want children of your own someday?"