Finding Beauty

[23] - Chapter Twenty-Three

As soon as I approached the school, I had plenty of time before school started which meant that I could talk to Mrs. Rial today. Walking through the empty school hallways that smelled of paint and school supplies, I took a deep breath and told myself that this would all blow over soon.

Walking towards my first period classroom, I noticed that the light was open and through the window I could see Mrs. Rial sitting at her desk typing away on her computer. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door and then I opened the door and stepped halfway inside, “May I come in?”

“Sure thing, Miss Canton,” Mrs. Rial replied tossing me a smile as I walked all the way inside and closed the door behind me. “How can I help you?”

I walked closer to her until I was standing in front of my desk and nervously twirled with my braided hair. Clearing my throat, I replied, “I’ve been having some insecurity issues, Mrs. Rial and I was um wondering if you had any advice?”

Mrs. Rial smiled at me and nodded, “Of course, if you’re very insecure then you should always rely on someone else since getting rid of your insecurities is easily done. Insecurities don’t taunt you and cannot hurt you either; you just need to know how to deal with it. And to do that, you need someone to look up too and someone to be. Then, all of your insecurities will vanish.”

I just looked at her to see if she was serious because what she just said didn’t make any sense. They were exactly the opposite words of what Mary Anne told me and something felt a bit off. Her lips were pursed and her eyes were staring in a serious matter, I guess she was.

“Okay,” I spoke up a moment later, “Anymore advice?”

“Finding confidence and beauty always comes from others,” She informed me as she begun to type on her computer again. “You can never find beauty in yourself if it’s not even there, you know?”

No, I don’t know. “Yes,” I lied as I nodded my head, “I understand completely.”

She stopped typing again and leaned back in her chair, “That’s great and I hope this helps you.”

“It does,” I lied again adding what I hope was a convincing smile, “thanks for the advice.”

“No problem,” She told me with ‘I’m happy to help’ expression and then went towards her computer again. “Now if you excuse me, I have to conduct some business.”

“Of course,” I mumbled as I backed away from her desk and towards the door. As I was walking, I thought to myself that Mrs. Rial seemed very off. Why would she tell me the wrong definition of confidence? That’s when I remembered that Mary Anne did say, not to trust everybody and that’s when I knew she may be a suspect as well.

 

 

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During first period after Mrs. Rial taught us a lesson and left the last minutes of class to finish homework, Dean decided to talk to me. Running his fingers through his hair, he asked me, “Do you want to know more about Mrs. Rial and you know who?” I looked the chair next to see that the person sitting was doing homework with his friends on the other side of the room so I stood up and sat beside him.

“Sure,” I replied.

“Well, not only did Mrs. Rial flirt with Kale but she let him not do his homework and she should give him a 100 percent. If he failed a test, she would give him a 100 percent. This was before they even dated, it was like she wanted him to like her,” Dean explained sighing. “He had her last term along with Scott who realized what the teacher was doing. It was weird though, why would she try to get his attention?”