Oh, Haaaayell No

Viola started the day off with more talk about the weekend and the boys being crushified, and me being, apparently, the anti-ice-princess. We spent almost our WHOLE prep period talking about it-- and she kept saying, "I know you didn't mean to, BUT..." And I kept saying, "Lesson learned, I feel mortified, I will be a firm, stern teacher from now on, I get it." I was really hoping to just move on from the whole thing, so to spend almost an entire HOUR talking about it again was so not a fun start to the day.

Then this weird situation came up with a girl who had come in to talk to me before school-- she had some heavy stuff on her mind, and then she ended up crying during 4th period... When she tearfully left after class, she lingered outside our door, and mentioned to several of her friends that she had talked to me about things earlier in the day. I was torn-- should I have gone to talk to her? Or should I be the Teacher-With-A-Clear-LINE, and just let the girl fend for herself? Complicating things further were the dynamics with Viola-- this girl and her have known each other a long time, and I worried that I would be "stepping on Viola's toes" to try to counsel this girl instead of letting Viola take care of it.

I was all stressed and bothered and worried.

Finally, 6th period-- musical-- rolled around. Jane and I took most of the high-school kids into the auditorium to start working on "Who Will Buy," one of the show's big songs. As she was standing up front, I noticed Aaron-- the naked-chested-hallway-chaser-- madly texting from his seat on the edge of the auditorium. I walked up to him and held out my hand for the phone.

"Why don't I hang onto that for the rest of the class?" I asked.

He pulled up the waistband of his sweats and threw the phone into his pants. "Whoops! How'd that happen?" he said. Then his phone dinged and vibrated with a return text. He closed his eyes halfway and grinned. "Ooooh..."

I was FLOORED.

ALL the pent up furies from the weekend and the subsequent talks and lectures rallied together in one single furious expression on my face, and one single enraged tone of voice.

"Aaron that is UNBELIEVABLY inappropriate!" I hissed. "I don't EVER want to hear that kind of crap from you again!!"

He looked surprised, and chastened. Then he grinned and said half-heartedly, "Sorry."

"No. I can't believe you just said that Aaron, SHAME on you. Don't you EVER pull that crap with me again." And I walked away, still fuming.

After class, he walked out in front of me, Leon tagging along at his heels. I called after him with a voice full of nails. "Aaron, I really hope I never see anything like what you pulled in class today again," I said.

"Greta, I'm sorry," he said, looking genuinely apologetic.

"That was so rude," I said.

"I'm sorry Greta!" he said. He sounded upset. I'd really made him feel bad!

"That was unbelievably rude," I repeated.

I told Viola about the interchange and she gasped. "Yaaaaaayyyy!" she crowed. "That was EXACTLY what you needed to say! I'm glad you came down so hard on him, he NEEDED that! And he wants you to like him, Greta, so I bet he feels really bad-- he'll probably never do anything like that again! Good jooooob!"

It was another prickly day all around, but I felt like I'd gotten one thing right. At least the teacher instincts are closer to where they need to be than they were this weekend.

Still-- at this point...?

I AM SO READY FOR SPRING BREAK.