His Model Student: A Student-Teacher Romance

29. Bonfire night

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[RECAP: Sera was stunned to get a birthday kiss from Mr Marek last week. What was going through his mind?]

Black was the sky above, the bonfire burned their faces hot while their backs froze with cold. Sera was wearing gloves but her fingers still felt stiff. She watched the flames crackle and soar. It was an absolutely vast pyre.

"I love Bonfire Night," Lois was saying. "The frostier it is, the better the fireworks look."

They were high up on Romany Hill where a local farmer put on an annual pig roast and fireworks display. It was supposedly to commemorate Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, but Sera always felt it was far more primaeval than that. Beacon fires lit against the oncoming winter: a last defiant show of human spirit before the ice and cold and darkness closed in.

It was one week since her birthday and as she had come to expect, Mr Marek was blowing cold again. They'd also had to skip today's session because he had to sort things out for his father.

Sera hadn't told her friends about the kiss. She wasn't sure exactly why; perhaps it felt more significant to keep it to herself, hugging her secret inside herself.

Also there wasn't much to tell. Nothing had happened since, and maybe it didn't mean anything. After all it had been kind of perfunctory. Maybe it was just politeness, given she had requested it.

Though he had chosen to kiss her on the lips not merely the cheek...

Joel and Lois had gone off on a quest for more food and drink, leaving Sera temporarily alone. As she stood holding a sparkler, and realising she didn't have a way to light it, she spotted Janette from school.

"Hey." They greeted one another. Janette was wearing a bobble hat and a thick scarf, the firelight reflected in her glasses.

"It's a great bonfire, isn't it?" Janette said.

"Bigger than last year."

Janette gazed at the flames. "I love fireworks and fires," she said. "They're so clear and bright and colourful."

Sera had never liked to ask Janette about her vision problems but now she felt bolder. "I noticed you use a lot of colour in class. Do you find certain colours easier to see?"

Janette was happy to answer. "Bright things, yes. They're much clearer."

"I wondered what exactly your eye condition was?" Sera asked.

"Multiple things, since I was a baby mainly. The good news is that I got cleared for a driving license, thanks to these - " she indicated her thick lenses " - though I choose not to drive at night because it's much harder."

Sera was impressed by her spirit. It couldn't have been easy for Janette growing up and going to school with hearing aids and huge spectacles. Children could be cruel. Janette had only joined their school in the sixth form and Sera hadn't got to know her very well.

"If you'd like a lift back, feel free. Lois drove and there's plenty of room."

Janette smiled. "Thanks, but I already have a lift. I appreciate the offer. I loved your picture of Lois in class the other day. Do you know what you're going to do for your main project yet?"

Sera didn't, and it was something that she was starting to stress about. So much rested on it, her exam results and probably her whole future. "Not yet."