VIRAGO

dalliance

dalliance (n.) - a brief love affair

The bell rang for first hour to begin and Ms. Dana Gordon shut the door behind her. She did not Mark student late if it was within reasonable time, but she closed it out of habit anyhow. She looked around, seeing her class fairly full.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen, how is everyone this morning? It's already Thursday!" She greeted pretty enthusiastically, and she got murmurs of greeting in response, which she expected for eight in the morning. She scanned the faces and found the new girl, Samantha Reed, staring blankly ahead. She did not say anything, but she looked like she had not slept. Even after only two days she could tell that she was not herself. She went through the attendance list, calling names of people she still could not put a face to, then sat on her front table.

"So, yesterday I went to my first soccer game here at the school. Can anyone in here guess who's on the team?" She asked, and they all looked at one another, confused. She stole a glance at Samantha, who still seemed out of it. "I'll give you a hint, it's not who you think it might be."

"Ms. Gordon we have no idea." Robert chuckled, and she smiled, swinging her legs.

"Ms. Reed, how about you tell us how your game went last night?" She asked, and the girl snapped out of her daze.

"Oh, uh, we won two-nil." She answered, and they all looked at one another.

"Wait, they let girls on the boys team?" Jeremy asked.

"When they don't have a girls team and you've got someone looking to play college ball, then yeah." Samantha chuckled.

"You don't look like the soccer type." Alice commented, and Dana's glance went back to her new student. She truly did not - she dressed in a dark academia aesthetic, wore her hair nice and had her makeup done. Today she wore a tan corduroy skirt with a navy sweater and a pair of Doc Martens. She was kind of quiet but spoke her mind when need be. When she thought of an athlete, she thought of laid back, leggings and t-shirt with hair up in some way and loud. All of her other athletes seemed that way and that was the stereotype a lot of people have for them.

"I guess I'll just always keep you guessing." Samantha said softly.

"Well it was a great game, she's very humble and actually plays goalie. When I tell you she's amazing, she's better than the pros I swear." Ms. Gordon said to the class. "When's your next home game?"

"Not until next Friday at four. We're away the next three games." She responded.

"Y'all hear that? Next Friday at four. You all better be there, I sure will." She announced, and that was when she got a small smile from Samantha. "Alright, today we're finally going to dive into our short story book, so if we could get that out and turn to page one hundred and ten." She announced to the class, and they all got their books out, a couple students asking to receive them from their lockers, and they started to talk. "Alright, what can someone tell me about our author?"

"I've never heard of her." Jeremy commented.

"Me neither." Alice chimed in, and Dana looked around, hoping someone would know.

"Anyone?" She asked.

"Eudora Welty was an award winning short story writer and photographer from the 1970s to 1990s from Jackson, Mississippi." Samantha spoke up, and she smiled, glad to know she had good taste as well.

"Thank you Ms. Reed. Yes, Eudora Welty is famously know for her short stories such as this one, A Worn Path. It was published in 1994, and it was one of the last ones she had written before she passed in 2001. Now, we're going to go ahead and dive right in here, and after we read it, we're going to read it down, but we're going to break it down to see what it's about. Alright, who would like the start?" Dana explained to them all, but as soon as she offered up someone to read, they all looked away and did not want to. After a few awkward moments, Samantha went ahead and began to read, and she was impressed by how smoothly her voice flowed. As she read, she started to fidget with the page and tucked her hair behind her ear, and eventually played with her sleeves, where she noticed a large cut on her forearm. She was not going to stop her right then and there, but she wanted to make sure she was alright.