January Teacher Work Day: Mr. Howard's Office...

As Leah sat in her room that day preparing for the semester the front secretary’s voice came on the intercom and called out Leah's name.

"Hey Leah." Amber said, she would normally have said Miss Williams but since it was a teacher work day it was all a bit less formal.

"Hey-whats up?" Leah asked skeptical.

"Busy?" Amber's robotic sounding voice asked. Leah could hardly lie--it was a teacher work day, no one really had shit going on that couldn't be pushed back.

"Uh....no..." Leah said waiting for the inevitable.

"Mr. Howard said he needed to see you. Come on up!" Amber said with a pep in her voice that Leah's could not begin to match.

"O...kay..." Leah said with a hint of dread in her voice that Amber could not detect through the intercom.

As she reached the front office she saw Amber greet Leah with familiarity, as if they were two old friends meeting up at any local bar.

“Hey girl” Amber said “Mr. Howard told me to call you down. You have a good Christmas break?”

The two caught up on the gossip for a few moments before Leah headed into Mr. Howard’s office.

As Leah walked into Mr. Howard’s office he stood up from his desk and greeted her warmly, “Hey Leah! Uh Miss Williams. Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

“No problem.” replied Leah tightly.

“Please, take a seat.” he motioned to a chair opposite his desk before closing—and locking—the door.

“So what’s this about?” Leah asked hesitantly, expecting him to make demands on her again.

“Always business first? Eager for the new semester?” Mr. Howard chuckled as he sat in his chair.

“I guess you could say that.” Leah said as she shrugged.

“Good—because we need someone eager to help out with some of our extracurriculars this year.” He eyed her.

“Extracurriculars?” Leah asked raising an eyebrow “Which ones exactly?”

“Glad you asked!” Mr. Howard said with an overzealous shit-eating grin. “Well, Mr. Freeman retired so the Chess club needs someone to run it. We also need some help with the Swim team as Mrs. Turbot is on Maternity leave. And of course, there is the student council, they need a new advisor.”

“You don’t expect me to do all three of those do you?” Leah asked genuinely concerned.

“Oh hell no. ha ha that would be way too much. But if you could help out with one of those it would help the school out a LOT…and would really go a long way in proving your tenure too.” He gave her a look. “So what do you say?”

Leah thought about it for a moment, her face wrinkling at the idea of more responsibility. Chess club...a bunch of nerds. She wasn't all that great at chess. She knew the rules but that was pretty much it. Swim team? She liked to swim but had never done it competitively. And the Student Council...they were responsible for lots of things at school like the prom committee, fundraisers, and other school spirit things. She might refuse...but she knew it would probably impact her chances greatly if she didn't help out when asked.