Teachers Tapestry

Thirteen

Two weeks have passed since my dad came home. Nothing is the same.

Colton is still staying with us downstairs in the guest room. I keep telling him that I can handle everything here just fine but he insists that I need someone to take care of me too.

I feel bad keeping him away from Aaron. And his life away from us. It was all supposed to be just a month, now it's a month and one week.

It feels unfair.

My dad has been...okay, I'd say. It's only happened three times in the last two weeks. And each morning he either pretends it never happened and avoids my gaze or apologises. Both of which I've become numb to.

The huge downside is at school it's all weighing on me. I'm still my happy self but I'm finding it hard to actually keep up.

I feel like the world might be moving faster than me and I don't like it.

On the upside, me and miss Fairbourne have been...talking. Every chance we seem to have, there's always a small conversation we have, each day. And it brightens my day each time.

I've gotten to know her more I think. But each lesson she's grumpy or has a cold face on but when she talks to me, she's soft.

I can't decide whether or not I like it.

I'm sitting in english at the moment, I'm supposed to be going through some of the poem in the odyssey and picking out a quote which we'll talk about later on.

I read this once before my mom died. She loved Greek and Roman history and everything that led in its path.

"Alright, have you all found your quotes?" Miss Fairbourne spoke up in her usual cold tone which I've grown accustomed to hearing when we aren't alone.

Almost everyone in the class looked up signifying they had at least found something.

"Great, we'll move left to right. Say your quote and I'll write it on the board so we can talk about it." She said to all of us.

Another thing I learned about her was her hands move faster than anyone can comprehend. You can say one word and it's already on the board before you've finished saying it.

So many good quotes were shared by the time it had gotten to me, I felt like mine was so useless. Like it held no meaning.

"Collette." Miss Fairbourne pointed at me.

"A faultless body and a blameless mind." I said.

This is the quote that stood out to me. It felt like everything in me was put into words.

I knew I had no fault. I knew I was blameless.

But why was it every time he told me he was sorry, it felt like my fault. Why did it feel like every time he said I looked so much like her, why did I feel like I was the one to blame.

Miss Fairbourne looked at me like she was surprised for a moment, before turning to the board, she didn't do the same for everyone else. Just me.

"Zoë." She said refocusing back on the lesson.

"Earth sounds my wisdom and high heaven my fame." Zoe said and it was already written on the board when I looked up from writing it.

She went round the remaining students and then wrote their quotes down and once that was done.

We talked about some of the hurt that some quotes held, the meanings of friendship and love and passion in the others.

I have to seriously take back that her classes were boring. They were the opposite. She was strict and cold yes but each class I felt like I left with a new found understanding for whatever it was we were learning.