Chapter 36: More School Hijinks

We were surprised to find that less than a third of the desks in the classroom were filled when we filed into the room of our German class. Jessica and Kelsey grabbed seats in one row and immediately started pointing to the seats around them. I started to walk around Jessica to the far side of the room, only to have Matti grab my shoulder and drag me to the seat in front of Kelsey.

Jason sat down next to me. He shook his head as the others arranged themselves in the seats around Jessica. "They don't let you go do they?"

"You caught Letty, does she let you run free anymore?" I asked.

Jason laughed. "Run free? I'm lucky if I can sneak out to the corner store to grab a soda. She watches me closely."

"Part of that has to be fear that you'll get picked up when she is not around," I pointed out.

"True," Jason said. "And I don't mind that. She is very affectionate normally, but she's a bit of a tigress after I've been away."

I smiled thinking of the kisses I had received from Lenore after her work shifts. The second bell rang indicating the end of the break period. At this time everyone was sitting down and looking at the front of the classroom looking for a teacher. I was going to ask a question when a woman swept into the room.

She was wearing a white blouse and a dark tan skirt that came down to her knees. She was wearing glasses and had light brown hair in some kind of bun, so it was impossible to guess how long it was. Jason groaned. "Oh god, she's beautiful."

"Down boy," Jessica whispered from behind us as the woman tossed her purse onto the desk that took up the front part of the room. She turned to the class with a flustered expression on her face.

"Sorry," the woman said with a strong Germanic accent. "My name is Jana Kirke, and I'll be teaching first year German for you this school year."

"Are you a new teacher?' I asked.

The woman blushed. "I received my teaching credential last summer, and spent last year as a substitute teacher in several districts. This is my first year as a full-time teacher at one school. I may make a few mistakes."

"A few?" Jason asked. "I can think of two you made so far today."

Jana looked a bit surprised. She stared at my friend. "You seem to be the expert. Tell me the mistakes I made."

"Three," I heard Jessica whisper in my ear.

Jason held up his right index finger. "First, you never tell students that you are new. Students are like sharks. If they sense weakness they will attack it. By admitting that you are a first year teacher you threw down a challenge to us to see how much you'll let us get away with."

Jana appeared dismayed by this. "I merely told the truth," she said.

"A truth you should not have needed to tell us," Jason said. "Which is point two. You ran into the room after the bell and were obvious about your haste. A good teacher never shows that level of weakness, because again, students will attack a weakness."

Our teacher frowned. "I had some paperwork issues that had to be resolved before I could teach. Principal Franks thought it was all resolved, but yesterday afternoon the district lawyers called him and told him I needed to bring in some additional paperwork. A district representative was here this morning and helped me get the forms completed. It took all morning. Fortunately Principal Franks was able to cover my morning classes."

I was a bit surprised by this. Jana just shook her head as Jason sat back in his chair for a moment. "Well, not how I wanted to do the introduction," she said as she scanned the classroom. "As I said my name is Jana Kirke. I actually came to the United States a few years ago after I married a soldier who was stationed in Germany. He encouraged me to try going to college here and I obtained a credential to teach high school German. I was born in Germany and lived there for twenty years."

"So don't trust the textbook," Jessica whispered. "She'll want to teach us how German is really spoken rather than what's in the textbook."

Jana passed a clipboard to the boy sitting in the left most row of the classroom. "I'm passing around a seating chart. Please sign the chart. It will make taking attendance much easier in the future."

The chart started moving around the room. As it made slow progress Jana started to distribute textbooks to the class. This she started by handing me a stack of books and telling me to pass all but one to the person behind me. At that range I got a closer look at her face. She had expertly applied makeup that helped soften her features. Still there were some hard lines around her eyes that puzzled me. I was trying to figure this out as she moved over to Kelsey to hand her a second set of books.

"Are you still married to your soldier?" Kelsey asked innocently as she accepted the books.

Jana stood up. The fingers of her right hand started massaging her left hand's ring finger where an engagement and wedding ring should have been. "No," our teacher said sadly. "I'm afraid we got a divorce just after New Years. The marriage didn't work out."

Jana proceeded to ignore the follow on questions of several of our classmates as the distributed textbooks to the remaining rows of students. I set the book in front of me and watched the clipboard move through the rows, heading toward me. When it reached Jason he snorted.

"The first boy to pick up the clipboard must have thought he's cool or something. He included his CAP score with his name," my friend said.

"Is it a good score?" Jessica asked.

"Six point five," Jason said. "And the funny thing is everyone else in the class followed his example. All the names have CAP scores next to them."

The girl sitting behind Jason nudged him in the back. "Hurry up," she said. "Let's get this over with."

My friend scribbled something onto the seating chart and passed it to the girl. I watched as her eyes widened as she scanned the paper. She quickly filled out the form and passed it behind her. Then she loosened a button on her blouse and leaned forward. "So Jason, what kind of girls interest you?" the girl purred.

Jason smiled at the girl for a moment and then shrugged. "That's not a simple question," he replied. "There are more than a few factors I have to consider."

The seating chart was coming back up the row I sat in. I tried to figure out why it missed Kelsey's row and looked back. Several chairs in that row were empty. Our teacher was now writing something on the board.

"Class," she said. "I know most of you have not encountered German much. It's not the most popular language. However, I can promise you that if you put some effort in, I can make you fluent in three years. We will be working hard though. Most language classes I sat in on during my studies failed to really push the students."

"Won't going fast increase the difficulty?" I asked.

"I am going to use an immersion method for many of our lessons. I have several German language television programs recorded. We will be watching them and seeing how much you can grasp. Also there will be days when all conversation will be in German," Jana said firmly.

Jessica poked me in the back and then handed me the clipboard with the seating chart. I took a look and had to laugh as I discovered that every student had included their CAP score with their name. I glanced at the list and found that three other students had CAP scores better than six point four. All were male, but I did not recognize any of the names. I filled out my information and then handed the clipboard to Kelsey.

"Fine, I'll be last," she said with a loud sigh. Her pained expression did not last and she giggled as she filled out the form. "My guy is tops in the class," she added as she held the clipboard out for Jana.

Our teacher accepted the clipboard back. She scanned the names as she walked back to her desk and pulled out the class listing. Her pen darted over the class list, checking off that every student had shown up. She made notes by a few of the names as she worked her way through the seating chart and then looked at the class. "It looks like everyone who is supposed to be here has shown up."

Jana's gaze settled on me for a moment. Her look was intense and full of a hunger that made me more than a bit uncomfortable. I turned around to look at Jessica. My friend shook her head at me. "You shouldn't have put your CAP down."

"Water under the bridge and it's not like people weren't going to find out," I replied in a whisper.

Our teacher appeared prepared to say more when the bell rang. Most of the students jumped to their feet as Miss Kirke held up her hands. "Everyone, read the opening chapter and be prepared for a quiz on the words in the chapter tomorrow." she cried over the thunder of the students bolting for the door.

I stood up along with Jessica. We started to move to the door as Jason headed toward Miss Kirke. "Jason?" I hissed.

He looked back with a smirk on his face. "She is hot and appears to be interested in a high CAP boy."

"I'm telling Letty," Kathy called out as the rest of us left the room. We paused in the hallway.

"Home economics next," Matilda said. "I get to watch my brother look like a fool."

"Ashley will be there," I reminded her. "Let's go."

All the girls giggled as I dodged around them and led us through a set of doors leading into the main building of the school. The hallways inside were quiet as we headed to the home economics classroom. Ahead we could see Letty and Ashley waiting by the door.

Ashley ran forward to give me a hug. She held the embrace, making it seem as if we had not seen one another in days rather than just a single period. I laughed and hugged her back as the rest of the group slipped inside.

"Where's Jason?" I heard Letty ask.

"The teacher we had for the last period seemed interested in everyone's CAP score. Jason stayed behind. I'm betting he was going to try to chat with her briefly," I admitted as Ashley finally relaxed her grip so we could hurry inside.

Inside the classroom was divided up by several large tables. Each one had five or six chairs surrounding it. Jessica and her group had already claimed one table while Kelsey was defending the empty chairs at a second table. Ashley and I walked over to join her as Letty shuffled her feet and followed.

"Why didn't he talk to me first?" Letty asked

"Because I wasn't sure how much time I'd get before a dozen other boys tried to make themselves noticed," an out of breath Jason said as he ran up behind Letty and offered her a brief hug. "Besides, this was just to greet her and see if she might be interested."

"Well?" Kelsey asked.

Jason smiled. "She is definitely looking for the right man to take her from this planet, and is willing to meet Letty. I told her about the courtyard where we met for morning break. That's where we are having lunch right?"

"A lunch we will make ourselves soon," I said. "That's why we are taking this class."

Jason looked around the room. There were only two other boys in the class along with more than twenty girls. He frowned for a moment. "This is a girly class," he muttered.

"So?" I asked. "It's a chance for you to be with Letty and to enjoy something with her. We are on the football team and doing well, don't worry about what people might think."

Letty gave Jason a kiss on the cheek. "My hero," she said lovingly.

An old woman stood up from the back of the room. She looked at the filled tables and smiled. "Greetings, I am Brigid O'Neill. I will be your instructor in home economics. Which basically means I'll be teaching how to do things in a kitchen. This is not women's work and if you boys in this class call it that you'll be sent to the office and transferred to auto shop class. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Mrs. O'Neill," Jason and I caroled back. The other two boys in the class sat quietly as she looked around the room.

She nodded. "Good. Now I'm going to take roll. I don't use assigned seating so please respond. Usually after about four weeks I can recognize you and it will go faster. Adams, Kathy?"

Kathy responded. I allowed my mind to wander as our teacher worked her way through the class list, responding when Ashley elbowed me in the side. My friends giggled as I sputtered out my response. Finally she had called out every name and nodded.

"We don't use traditional textbooks in this class. They would be meaningless," Brigid said. "Instead I'll tell you of recipe books that you might find useful, or you can use the internet. Just about anything we try cooking here will have recipes posted on the internet."

One of the other students raised a hand and Brigid immediately waved towards the girl. "Let me finish, I'll probably answer your question before I'm done," our teacher said gruffly. "I'm always here before school officially starts. If you want you can bring any ingredients from home for any of the recipes we will be testing. If you don't bring your own, you will have to work from the communal supply. This supply tends to be limited and you'll end up having to partner up to complete tasks. I do grade based on taste and look so fresh ingredients are key. If you bring them, I recommend a labeled plastic container. Most students get a Tupperware style container. I put them in the refrigerator in the class and only I will take things out of the refrigerator. Please note, that I do not open it in the second half of a class or during lunch, so don't ask me to store food for you to eat at lunchtime."

The girl lowered her hand. I saw her frown. One of the boys raised his hand. "But what if the preparation time for the dish we are making means we can't complete it during class."

Mrs. O'Neil smiled. It was more of a smirk than a smile. "Oh, if you want to wait for something to cook I won't stop you. If you leave it for me to pull out of the oven, use a timer to indicate that it is done and I will be here during lunch. But I won't save it for you. If you aren't here to pick it up after the taste test, any food will be taken to the teacher's lounge."

"In other words, we provide lunch and dessert for the teachers if we aren't here to claim our dishes." I observed.

"I can live with that," Ashley said.

I could see Millicent whispering something to Jessica. Matti leaned over to our table and smiled. "Millicent is offering to purchase all the ingredients for us."

"That's nice of her," Letty answered. "And I guess I can offer to help everyone. I mean, I was helping my mother in the kitchen for years. This should not be too difficult."

We all smiled. Meanwhile, Mrs. O'Neil started talking about how she broke up the school year into segments. The first segment was going to be cookies and other baked goods that could be simply prepared. Later classes would add cakes and the decorating of them. For those Mrs. O'Neil assured us that we usually could find some volunteers to help take cakes out of the oven and move them into storage so they could be decorated the next class.