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The Teacher’s Assistant
Chapter Two
“Hey Lauren how’ve you been doin’?” someone asked. It was the end of the first week and to celebrate the fact they were still alive the eight Student teacher’s had all gone out for the evening.
“So far so good, except I’ve got this one kid.”
“Wait; let me guess…Steven Long? Yeah I heard some of the teachers passing around a plate yesterday. They’re betting on whether you’ll give in to him or not.” Ben said taking another swig of his drink. They’d all gone for some good hard liquor since it was a Saturday night and they could be buzzed the next morning no problem.
“Jeezu are you for real? They passed a plate?” Lauren knew that her having Steven in her class was a big talk around the faculty but she didn’t think they would be so…immature.
“Well actually they passed a piece of paper and people wrote how much they were willing to bet. Mark and I bet on hundred on you.” One of the PE coach’s said raising a glass.
“So glad to hear I have support. What exactly is this bet all about? For some reason they don’t tell me about these things in our teacher meetings.”
“Well they say that every year at least one student teacher gets something started with this guy. Apparently the last one went a little too far and he was suspended and she was dismissed, don’t know her name though but they say she’s at Lake.”
“Hmm, well all I can say is that he’s going to be disappointed when he get’s sent back to the back of the classroom on Monday. I’ve decided that the worst students sit in front from now on so I can keep an eye on them easily. From the first paper he turned it I can see what kind of student he is. He’s sort of like me only I had some really shitty grades my senior year, four C’s and two B’s, and people thought I was a genius in high school.” She mixed up her cider and took a good drink feeling the alcohol go to her brain and giving her a slightly light headed feeling. It was great having a Student ID that allowed her to do all kids of things even though legally she’d have to wait several more years.
“For such a terribly academic in high school you sure get some good grades in college. I worked in records I saw that nice four point O of yours. And that nice check you get every semester? Man I wish I were stupid like you.” Darryl said. His half Asian background contributed to his inability to hold alcohol and everyone could see it. Not that any one cared very much since they were planning on at least two more rounds.
“Cheers to that!” Ben agreed raising his glass. “To being Stupid!” they all clinked glasses and finished off their glasses and ordered their fourth round of everything.
“Darryl what is the meaning of this behavior? For a dean you sure aren’t setting a very good example for the boys here.” The boys Dean lectured that afternoon. He got the worst end of the stick because he lived on the high school campus while the other boys were in the college dorms and walked over for their classes. Caroline had gotten off with a talking to about being sober and treating your body like a temple.
“Sorry Sir, we all went a little bit over in celebrating last night. It won’t happen again I promise. It’s just that all this pressure and I’m trying to graduate next year so I have an extra large class load and the boys in the dorm have been giving me nothing but Shit in the way of behavior.”
“I understand Darryl but alcohol is no way to solve your problems. I will let you off this once but if it happens again I’m going to have to talk with the Principal and maybe even the board. That will cause problems for the other student aid’s and teachers if you get kicked off the staff.”
“I know Sir, but like I said it won’t happen again.” Not that you’ll know anyways, he said to himself. He’d had enough of people telling him what to do. He left the office and walked over to the college campus to hang out with Ben and the guys.
“You got in trouble huh?” they asked when they saw him.
“Fuckin’ right I did. Dean Taylor had to go and tell me all the crap about being an example and shit. I didn’t even want that position. I wanted to teach history with Lauren but the stupid teachers would write me any letters. No offense to Lauren, but why the hell did she get the job when everyone knew I wanted it? It’s not like her ideas are so out of this world that no one can compare.”
“Well hey she was hoping for English but only the history lesson plan passed the board’s inspection so she took it. And you think I wanted to teach a bunch of retards how to add and subtract?” Ben didn’t like the way everyone always had something bad to say about Lauren when she wasn’t around, even the girls sometimes.
“Yeah well at least she got something she at least sort of wanted. Here I go stuck with Mr. Tightwad and a pile of boys who are wrecking my life. If it hadn’t been for whichever one of those little shitheads who told on me I wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. And speaking of Lauren we’re going out tonight.”
“You are?” Mark seemed a bit hesitant to ask how Darryl had bagged a night out with Lauren.
“Yeah, I told her we’re just going to the book store so she agreed. Maybe I can get her to do some coffee to and re check her plan to stay a virgin her until she gets married.” Ben really didn’t like the way that sounded, it was something like what those boys in her class were doing only worse.
“Hey don’t try anything with her if she doesn’t want to. I’m not in to her or anything but she’s a nice girl and you could get in some deep shit if you push her, you know that.” Brian warned.
“No I won’t force her or nothin’, but she’s got to give in at some point right? I mean she’s only human.”
“That’s debatable; did you read that piece she wrote in the school paper about her own personal devil? She’s not one of those kinds of people but man that piece blew a lot of people when they read it, she’s got some weird stuff in that head of hers.” Mark whistled and pointed at his head.
“Yeah but she’s a woman and women want sex deep down under all that shit about love and caring. And Lauren is definitely a woman if I do say so myself.”
“Darryl you’d better shut up now because I don’t want to hear any more about Lauren and you’re plans for her. She’s my friend and I wouldn’t want to see anything bad happen to her ‘cause some guy thought she was a ‘woman’.” Ben put a stop to the conversation when Darryl had spread his legs and caressed the curves of the air with a look that definitely didn’t say ‘I love and cherish you’.
“Fine, Dork. Just ‘cause you ain’t getting’ any I’ll have pity on you. When you were little did you dream of numbers doin’ it?”
“Hey shut up! Both of you.” Mark put his hands up. Being the bigger or the four of them he had a bit more leverage in the decision making of the group. “You’d better both quit it now or get out of our room.” Ben and Darryl did shut up but both of them knew they weren’t going to agree on the subject.
“Yeah, the guy has no sense of what it means to be young and alive. I really wish I had gotten a spot with you in history.”
“Yeah, but hey beggars can’t be choosers right? The schools a little messed up if they won’t let a little music into the classroom that involves singing and was written after eighteen eighty five. I had a good English class set up, it required thinking and development. But I guess they just aren’t interested in that sort of stuff here. A cookie cutter class to make cookie cutter citizens, whatever happened to being an individual?”
“You’re right.” Actually he had no idea what she was talking about but he sure didn’t want to say that in front of the girl he was trying to get with. After all what woman wants a man who doesn’t understand what she’s saying? The things men do for women and they don’t realize it.
“It’s been nice talking to you Darryl, but you know it’s never going to happen.”
“What’s never going to happen? Sorry I must’ve missed something.”
“Yeah, the part where I told you I’m not planning to hand out free ice cream to first nice guy who listens to me. I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me and I really don’t like it Darryl. You have no idea what I just said a few minutes ago do you?”
“I do! And why are you accusing me of such a thing? Who said I was trying to get with you like that? All I did was ask you out for books and coffee ‘cause I know we like both so why not do it together?”
“And what about what I just said?”
“Well what you were trying to say was that people aren’t able to be themselves anymore.”
“Wrong, but I commend you for trying. You know if I say something you don’t get I have no problem explaining what I mean. It doesn’t make you any less of a ‘man’ to me if you do.”
“Well I thought I did know. Tell me then Lauren what did you mean?” Darryl had lost face in her eyes but only because he had tried to pretend rather than being honest and asking. And he did it again three times more the rest of the evening but she didn’t say anything. Since he obviously wasn’t going to change his bad habit tonight she had a little fun taking him down many paths that he had no idea what they were about.
“Well thanks for the coffee Darryl I appreciated it.” Lauren said outside her dormitory.
“No problem it was fun to just chat for a while. You have class tomorrow?”
“Of course. You have kids tonight?”
“Yes, curfew in half an hour. So good-night then?” he was hoping for at least a hug to end the evening. But not luck she just waved and went inside.
“You in kind of late aren’t you?”
“Hey Tina, did I wake you?” Lauren hadn’t meant to turn on the lights but she’d done so out of habit and accidentally woken her roommate.
“Nah I just got into bed myself, I have a quiz tomorrow so I was doing a little extra studying. Who were you out dancing with?”
“Darryl, and we weren’t dancing thank god. Just coffee. Oh and new books!” Lauren pulled her two new books out of her bag and handed them to her roommate who sat up in her bed. Lauren walked over to her dresser and pulled out some pajamas while her roommate looked at the addition to the already huge pile of books at the end of Lauren’s bed.
“You know for someone everybody thinks is some sort of genius you sure read some childish books. If I’m not mistaken this looks like some sort of romance novel with witches in it. Very grown up.”
“Hey! Just cause I’m smart doesn’t mean I’m old. And besides I have to read all that literature for class already I need some crap to fill all that empty space in my brain.”
“Lauren only you could have empty space in your brain after all that work you do. And now you’re teaching next door too. I don’t understand how you do it.” Tina handed the books back and lay back down shaking her head. Lauren liked her roommate. They’d shared a room the last year and decided that they could stand each other enough to stay roommates for another year.
“And who says I understand it myself? You don’t question when a good thing is given to you. I’ve got a big brain what can I say? But even big brains need to be flushed out every once in a while. Speaking of which I have to teach tomorrow and I have four of my classes around it. Good-night.”
“Good-night Lauren.”
“You know Mark this must be every guys dream. To watch a pile of high school girls run around it shorts sweating…man I love life. Too bad everyone else is stuck inside teaching boring subjects huh?”
“Yep, but on top of that we love sports so what’s better than being able to coach the soccer team? Seeing as we didn’t get to be on the team this year.” They’d both been disappointed, Brian because he just hadn’t made the cut and Mark because of a leg injury during a practice game last season.
Once the girls had finished running their laps they did some more stretching exercises on the grass. Yes it was a very tempting scene for the two men watching those bare legs but they weren’t interested in that sort of thing. The girls were good and behaved, most of the time, so they all had fun.
“Okay Girls good work today. Wednesday we’ll have a practice game so be ready. By the end of next week we’ll have the list to see who’ll be on the official roster.” Mark said after they’d finished their drills. There were thirty girls now and they would only have half that many for the official team.
“Brian, I have to go. My math class starts in ten minutes!” Mark suddenly realized looking at his watch.
“Better run then. I’ll see you at dinner?”
“Yeah, see ya.” Mark grabbed his backpack off the bench and ran back to the college campus. He had to stop running so hard but kept moving fast as he reached the commons between the two campuses and then onto the path towards the science building. The teacher was just starting to write on the board when he got in.
“So good of you to join us Mathew.” The teacher said pleasantly. The teacher wasn’t usually mad as long as students didn’t walk in after she’d actually started teaching new material. Matt pulled out his notebook and copied down the title of the new chapter and set his mind to ‘copy-down-everything-now-and-study-it-later’ mode.
Matt was a good enough student academically, he always tried his best even if he had no idea what he was doing. But sometimes he just got a little sidetracked, like when a girl walked in halfway through the class. He knew who she was, he’d seen her around campus quite a bit, but she always sat in the back so he never saw her much in class. But this time he watched her saunter into class without a care in the world and for some reason he found that…attractive. She saw her seat had been taken in the back so she sat on the side instead.
All she had on her was a purse which contained only a small notepad and a pen. She pulled it out but took very few notes considering how much valuable information the teacher was writing on the board for their convenience. And speaking of taking notes Matt wasn’t taking complete ones because every few minutes he’d look over at Patricia and wonder why she just didn’t care.
“Okay, I’m done torturing you all for today. Remember our first test is on Wednesday so be ready.” Matt packed up his stuff and zipped up his back pack.
“Hey Matt!” one of his other friends said walking by him. “How’s the teaching going? Haven’t seen you around lately.”
“Yeah, I’m trying to get good grades this year so I’ve been studying a lot in my spare time trying to keep up. But the teaching’s going real good so far Brian and I are loving it.”
“Brain’s doing it too? He did tell me that. You have something after this?”
“Yeah I have another class in a few. One of my psychology classes.”
“Well I’m headed that way.” He shrugged.
“Cool. So how do you like this math class? Seems almost the same as the last one so far huh?” Matt thought all maths was the same since it really wasn’t his best subject and he wasn’t able to differentiate the different areas.
“Sure, can’t wait to be finished though. I’ve been talking to a friend of mine who’s working on getting me in to that company his dad works for, the computer one I told you about before. What are you planning to do after next year? Teach?”
“Maybe, I mean I wouldn’t hate my job if I taught.”
“Hmm, teaching a pile of kids how to throw a ball just isn’t my idea of a great job, not that it’s a bad job it’s just not for me. Well I guess I’ll see you around huh? Maybe I’ll stop by and see you at the academy one day.”
“Sure that would be fine. See you later.” They split up as they entered the building and Matt headed over to his next class.
James got up and took the stack of index cards from Lauren and began to hand them out.
“Now this paper is not going to be graded on your writing skills, unless of course you write so terribly that I don’t understand what you write. It’s a five page paper and I expect it to contain the following…” she began writing out her list of requirements out on the black board.
“Wait so we have to write all this? That’s a lot of information for one paper.” Someone commented. The students had slowly become more relaxed around Lauren over the past three weeks and she was glad they weren’t up tight around her so much anymore.
“That’s why I said that I don’t expect the paper to be well written, I only expect all the information be there. As long as you have all this information and the papers organized enough that I can understand it I really don’t care how bad your grammar is, at least for this paper anyways. So are we clear on the paper? You have until next Monday, that’s one week, plenty of time to get all the information you need.”
“What sort of details do you want? Do you want general information or like little details? Are we going to need this information for something else or what?” Steven asked from the back row. He was dreadfully disappointed when Lauren had put her class in order from worse to best, and he was definitely the star student in school.
“Um… okay I forgot about that part let me think. Okay well let me just tell you what this is for and then we’ll try and figure out the rest from there. Next week you will be starting a simulation and during the simulation you will be the leader of the country you do your paper on. You will have to do some very detailed research later on so a guess more general information is okay for this paper. But nothing ‘The religion in such and such a country is Catholic’ you need to be specific because no country completely conforms to the original religion they almost always add cultural aspects to it and you need to know that because it usually affects the entire population. The bulk of this paper will most likely be, and this isn’t for all countries, culture and religion and geography. For instance in Asia you never where your outside shoes inside while in American you can its no problem. So when an ambassador goes to say…Indonesia and doesn’t take of his or her shoes when they enter someone’s house it a sign of some disrespect.”
“So you want us to write about shoe habits? How is that going to help us get anywhere?” Steven scoffed.
“Once you understand a countries culture you can understand why people do the things they do. Islam for instance. Why are people so upset when they here things about the Holy Koran being burned? Well in America it’s like burning the flag or the Bible, it will have a similar reaction. So before you can understand why people are doing things, like if someone is waging war on you because some radical did something you had no control over you need to know why. So you don’t necessarily have to write about shoes but you need to know how the culture affects the people. Does that answer your question?”
Steven just nodded. He found Lauren interesting. She actually was a really good teacher. He’d had four classes now from university students since his freshman year and not one of them had been much good. They may have known their material but they were absolutely lousy at presenting it. Usually they would try to do some kind of project that was meant to be interesting and a fun way of learning but is usually ended up being a shitload of work with no information retained. But Lauren seemed so calm up there and she was a natural at speaking up front. He had been upset that he’d been sent to the back but knowing it meant she felt he was above average intelligence made him feel better. He listened as she gave another example of things they would need to know for the future but he wasn’t really listening anymore. He’d taken down all the notes he would need for the paper.
“…So that’s what I’m looking for. And with this paper I’m requiring at least a ‘B’ because it’s so important. I suggest you do a good job researching the first time because I promise you you will have problems later when you’re trying to redo you’re research and having to do more homework. There’s only five minutes left of class so I’ll let you go early if there aren’t anymore questions.” Lauren waited a couple seconds but no one raised their hands. “Okay, you are all free from my clutches. Have a good afternoon everyone.”
A clattering and scraping of desks occurred as soon as she announced the end of class and the students began to file out the door. Steven stayed behind hoping for a chance to make his move. When he was the only one left he walked up to Lauren’s desk at the front where she was collecting her stuff so she could head back to the campus for her own classes.
“Hey, um…I was wondering about the research. Can we do a lot of cutting and pasting and then cite stuff or do we have to read the stuff and then rewrite everything?” Steven asked feeling a little bit nervous for some reason. Yes girls made him feel awkward but he wasn’t going to let that funny feeling in his belly stop him.
“I would prefer that you read and rewrite as much as possible. But if you go over seven pages I don’t mind a lot of quoting as long as there is writing with it that explains stuff and makes connections. And I forgot to mention it, I’ll say something tomorrow but since you’re here, but whatever country you have using their embassy website and any governmental websites for information is highly suggested.”
“Okay, it sounds like a cool project. I’ve never had a teacher like you, you’re actually interesting, and it’s great.” Steven said sounding nonchalant about the whole thing. Lauren knew he was trying something. He sounded just like Darryl had last night trying to sound all suave and intelligent. As much as Lauren knew she couldn’t be more than a few months different in age compared to Steven she felt weird knowing that he had some sort of alternative reasoning behind talking to her.
“Thanks, I need to head so I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lauren swung her bag over her head and shifted the weight on her shoulder.
“See ya.” Steven said as he headed out the door. Lauren followed right after him shutting off the light and closing the door. She walked quickly down the halls towards the side door that was closest to her next building destination.
“I don’t get it, why can’t you do that?” George, the kid at the board who had just caused the majority of the mental anguish Ben was now going through, was still holding the piece of chalk and standing in front of his very wrong problem. Ben was about to lash out at him when the bell rang.
“Forget it, tomorrow we’ll have to work on it all over again. Tonight’s homework is to go back over the last chapter for tomorrow. And don’t forget to study the problems!” Ben had to shout the last sentence over the crowd that had swelled up from their seats and were migrating towards the door. He wanted to break their necks for being stupid. He also wanted some food, he hadn’t eaten anything yet that day and he could feel his head starting to feel light and uncomfortable. He grabbed his things off the desk and then headed out to his car. He didn’t feel like going alone if he could help it so he decided to see if Lauren was out of class yet. He needed someone to talk to who understood how it felt to have a pile of stupid kids with thick skulls.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Lauren, it’s Ben. Wanna grab something to eat real fast?”
“Sure, I’m in the dorm. You don’t mind if I bring some work do you?”
“No I have some too, I’ll be there in like ten minutes I need to grab something from my room first.”
“Sure I’ll be here. Bye.”
“See you in a bit.”
Ben closed his phone and drove towards the main dormitory building. Because of space part of the dorm was for girls and another part was for guys. The school didn’t have enough money yet to building a new building they’d been saving up for so for now guys and girls were together in the same building. Girls had the third and fourth floors while the guys had first and second. Ben went up to the second floor where his room was and changed into something more comfortable. Unlike Lauren he didn’t feel right walking into class looking like he was fifteen. He wanted to be in charge and he figured that the best way to achieve that effect was to look like a proper teacher. Too bad his kids were to stupid to care.
After grabbing his wallet out of his other pants he left the room and run up one flight of stairs to find Lauren. Technically he wasn’t supposed to be upstairs without permission but the deans didn’t seem to care too much as long as there wasn’t any trouble. Guys and girls were always swapping floors and having big coed get togethers and the deans didn’t do anything unless someone got hurt or a girl got bothered.
“Hey Ben, Lauren just went to the bathroom real quick she’ll be right back.” Tina opened the door so Ben could come into the room.
“I haven’t seen you in a while Tina. How have you been?” Ben asked standing in the middle of the floor looking around. He’d been in their room before but he always like how you could tell which side was Lauren's and which side was Tina’s. Lauren was definitely a genius with bad handwriting, perfect grades, and a knack for making a mess and not cleaning it up. They’d been lab partners once and Ben had been the one allocated to do the cleaning and mixing because while Lauren may have known the exact amounts and the right steps by heart she would always end up breaking something or leaving acids on the counter.
“I’ve been fine; Lauren’s been telling me about you guys and your student teaching. My experience wasn’t too great but I know Lauren is having fun.” Ben was going to tell Tina about how he was also having a horrible experience but Lauren came into the room.
“Hey Ben, you ready to go?”
“Yeah, Tina do you want to join us?” Ben offered.
“No you two don’t want me to come with you.” Ben raised his eyebrows at the suggestive comment. “I have class in half an hour I can’t.” Tina laughed, smoothing things over.
“Okay, I’ll see you tonight before dinner?” Lauren asked. Tina nodded and Ben and Lauren left the room. They walked back down to Ben’s car and hopped in.
“So you want anything special?” Ben asked as he started up the car.
“I just need something big and good. What did you have in mind?”
“You remember that small diner we went to with Darryl, Matthew and Brian? I was thinking that would be nice? Do you need to be back later this afternoon or are you finished for the day?”
“I’m done, but I just got a new assignment. Its only five pages but I have to start ordering some books so I need to do that tonight.”
“I we won’t be that long. I just really need to get out of here for a while. If my kids ever turn out as stupid as some of the kids in my class I’ll disown them.” Ben drove slowly through the campus towards the main road out while he explained to Lauren about his bad day.
“I actually had a rather good day. My class is going better than I expected. But then I’ve got the smart kids not the delinquents. Your fault for choosing math.” Lauren shrugged. She didn’t like math much. She was pretty good at it which made people think she must love it. She was good at so many things like science and math that a lot of people wondered why she’d chosen something like history or English education. While her advisors were thrilled her family had rather hoped she would utilize her intelligence more.
“What about that kid, Steven? Has he been causing you any trouble?”
“Not outright, he came up to me today and asked me about an assignment. I know he wasn’t going after more information ‘cause his last paper was just about perfect. He understands everything I say in class and yet he still finds something to ask me about after class when we’re alone. It’s kind of creepy because of how young I am. That and the fact that in normal society I am allowed to date and flirt with this guy. In all fairness I would if we had met under different circumstances but we didn’t, I’m his teacher. That whole fact makes me feel a little weird. I’m guessing you don’t feel weird.”
“Well I do, I wasn’t planning to teach for at least another five years after I had my masters. But then I’m about five years older than most of my class while you’re what, five months? Honestly if I was in your shoes I’d still be in high school with those kids just ‘cause I would miss my friends and hanging out with kids my own maturity level. I’m not saying that you’re not my friend and that you’re immature I’m just saying that in my case I wouldn’t be able to do what you do.”
“Yeah well I like have friends who don’t make fun of me for my intelligence and also know what I’m going through. If I were to still be hanging out with kids my own age while teaching I would be so stressed out. With you guys I feel so much better because of the fact that I can talk to you about what’s going wrong and you can help me.”
“And what about dating? I know Darryl’s been on your case lately. How’s that going?”
“No where. I don’t like him like that. He’s a nice guy but I just don’t think I could do anything with him. He’s a little obsessed about sex and being in charge if you ask me. I don’t think we’ll be going out like that anymore.”
“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to hear your opinion about him. Damn I’m hungry! I haven’t been able to eat all day.” Ben’s stomach was rumbling and squeezing making him push on the accelerator just a bit.
“Hey, hey1 let your brain drive not your stomach. You going fast enough Ben.”
“Sorry.” Ben apologized while slowing down just a bit. They were almost there and as soon as they pulled into the parking lot Ben was out of the car and headed straight for the door. After ordering just about half the menu they got some drinks and waited for their food.
“So you’re kids are stupid?” Lauren started the conversation she knew Ben wanted to have. When Ben got stressed he liked to talk about it.
“Oh my god their complete idiots! I never knew there were people out there who were so stupid. Do you know how to teach mathematics too or are you only ‘B’ student at the subject?” Ben sulked in his seat as he took another swig of his drink.
“Oh now you’re just being mean. I can do mathematics but I most definitely cannot teach it. You’re great at teaching it. Remember all those times I had to come to you for homework help? It just so happens that they gave you a bunch of retards to teach instead of kids who can actually learn. Maybe you could talk to the board and ask for a switch. With you’re skills it should be no big deal.”
“I have this sinking feeling that all these nice things you’re saying are being said to make me feel better rather than an actual portrayal of the truth. No don’t take them back! I like hearing them. Thanks for the great pick me upper.”
“Your welcome.” Lauren wasn’t sure what to say now. He hadn’t eaten in a while which was obviously making him grumpy so she let the subject drop for a while. They talked about food until their orders arrived. For some reason it helped Ben to talk about the thing he needed so Lauren kept the conversation up even though it made her even hungrier.
“Hallelujah praise the lord god all mighty!” were the first words from Ben’s mouth when the waiter came with their food. Lauren just smiled and said thanks to the waiter who smiled back laughingly.
The food tasted so good to them that they didn’t even talk during the first half of their meal. To some it may have felt awkward but Ben and Lauren had known each other for almost three years now and had gotten used to eating in silence together when they were this hungry. After they had tamed that hungry beast inside them they slowed down a bit and were able to do some talking while they finished the last half of their food off.
“My mother is pregnant.” Lauren started. Ben actually stopped eating and put his fork and knife down.
“Excuse me? For a moment there I thought I heard you say your mother is pregnant.” He asked trying to be calm. Lauren wasn’t old but she was old enough that her mother shouldn’t be getting pregnant.
“Yeah, she and her new husband are having a baby. They told me a couple days ago and you’re the first person I’ve told.”
“And how do you feel about being a big sister?”
“Lousy, I wish she could have just kept all that stuff to herself and been happy with having a younger husband. Do you know how sick it feels to know how you were born? The thought of your parents having to have sex to make you? Yeah well think about knowing you’re mom is having sex with someone else to make another baby. I’m sure the kid will be cute but still I won’t be able to look at it without cringing.”
“Wow, you know I never thought about that. Now I feel weird about being born. Way to make me feel like a sin Lauren.”
“Sorry, I had to tell someone though and you were just sitting there.” Lauren kept eating. Ben picked up his silverware as well and continued eating but he was still a bit put off.
“So how long has your mom been married to this guy again?”
“Almost a year, didn’t take them long did it?” Lauren rolled her eyes. The new information had really been eating away at her since her mom had called her. She had seemed s excited about the news and had hoped Lauren would be too. Lauren wasn’t excited however. Not having any brother or sisters of her own from her parents when they were together had made her want them. But with her dad now single and her mom off having babies with another guy Lauren wasn’t too thrilled about the idea any more.
“Nice, sorry you don’t like the idea. I love my brother’s and sisters a lot. But I guess yours aren’t going to get to see you during break are they?”
“No I’m going to my dad’s. My mom said she wanted me to come visit her over break and my dad said it was okay but there is now way I’m going to go home over Christmas and watch my mom kiss that looser husband of her with her big belly.” Lauren stopped eating, she was full. But more than that she was angry. She hadn’t wanted to spoil the meal but it was too late. She’d had to tell someone and she knew Ben would listen and understand more than any of her other friends. She hadn’t told Tina yet because she wouldn’t understand and she would just try to tell her how much fun it was to have a new baby in the family. In Lauren's mind there was no family. There was her mom and her family and there was her and her dad. Sometimes her dad was just his own person and Lauren was by herself but she didn’t tell anyone that.
“Hey are you done, we can go if you’re finished.” Ben could have eaten more but he thought Lauren might need to go back to school. She wasn’t looking to great. There was a sort of scowl on her face and she was staring at her plate.
“Only if you’re done, I’m actually not quite ready to go back.”
“You want to go grab something to drink before we go back, I could use some good coffee before grading the homework I got back today.”
“Yeah, coffee good.” Lauren cheered up a little. She pushed all the thoughts that were plaguing her mind down as far as he possibly could and tried to focus on something else. She liked coffee, coffee helped almost as much as alcohol did. She decided no alcohol tonight though because she still had to teach and go to class tomorrow. Ben tried to find some lighter topics for discussion over coffee. Lauren was just as willing to change the subject form her messed up personal life and talk about movies and classes and teachers. The rest of the afternoon went well and by the time they go back to campus they were both ready to grade and study.
