The Special Teacher

Chapter 2
A Bright Future

The classroom was incredibly quiet once all the oversized rugrats were gone. It looked massive too, without all the extra bodies. Jackson and Ethan cleaned up the scattered toys as best they could. The cleaners could deal with the pee-stained carpets, again, but everything else was the teachers’ job.

“Can you believe this?” Jackson asked, chuckling derisively as he picked a well-worn teddy bear off the floor.

“What?” Ethan replied.

“We have degrees, we both spent five years at university, and we’re picking up after a bunch of nose-picking pants-wetting morons. I mean honestly, is this where you expected to be in your late twenties?”

“I’m not late twenties yet old man,” Ethan chided his co-worker, knowing he was all of 11 months older than him.

Jackson rolled his eyes, tossing the bear towards the toy box and missing, shrugging as it bounced off the wall and landed on the floor. “You know what I mean mate. This isn’t what I did uni for and I don’t think you did either.”

Ethan shrugged. “It’s a job.”

“A job in Ngatea,” Jackson retorted, almost spitting out the name of the town.

“You’d prefer to be back in Auckland, where the average house price is about to break a million dollars? On a teacher’s salary of 50k?”

“Nah mate. I’d rather be across the ditch in Sydney. Y’know what they pay teachers there? Starting salary round eighty-grand.”

Ethan hated whinging. “So what’s stopping you?”

Jackson paused and frowned. “Need two years’ experience first, then I’m out of here, believe me.”

“Well you’ll just have to put up with Ngatea for a bit longer then. We’ll be out of here in a few weeks anyway, with a reference.”

Jackson kicked a barbie doll across the floor like it was a soccer ball. “Oh I know, believe me I’m counting the days. Cleaning up moron’s messes, wiping their snotty fingers, I’ve had enough of it for a lifetime already. And I’ve seen way too many dudes’ junk! I swear to God I want to tape Billy’s shorts and undies onto him.”

“You’ve also seen a fair amount of boobs,” Ethan pointed out.

“I didn’t say it was all bad,” Jackson chuckled. “But seriously, you can’t be enjoying working with these empty-headed retards.”

Ethan hated people using that term. His aunt had Down Syndrome and he didn’t like it when people took the piss out of conditions like that. But he kept his cool, he had several weeks left working closely with Jackson.

“I feel pretty bad for them actually. Don’t you?”

“Oh yeah, of course I do. I didn’t mean that,” Jackson insisted. “It’s just, they have no shame, they’re always such a mess, so oblivious. They run around with those filthy feet, runny noses, wet pants. I get that they aren’t embarrassed, but I’m embarrassed for them.”

Ethan understood that sentiment a lot better. “Yeah, I feel the same way. But remember it isn’t their fault. They just don’t know any better.”

“And isn’t it weird how this whole little town is just cool with them. I mean they’re all over the place and everyone just… I dunno, it’s just weird right?”

“They’re just used to it. We’re new here. We’ll adjust too.”

“I don’t want to adjust Ethan, I want to do my time and go back to Auckland. You aren’t thinking of trying to stay on are you?”

Ethan shook his head quickly. “No, of course not.”

But Jackson looked at him suspiciously, putting down the box of crayons he was packing away. “You haven’t found a girl here or something have you?” he asked slyly.

Ethan forced a laugh. “No way,” he assured.

Jackson didn’t look convinced. “You sure about that. Because I can’t think of any other reason someone would want to stay in this ass end of nowhere little town. Only people living here are farmers or retards who don’t have any say in where they live.”

Ethan flinched at the r-word again. “There’s no girl, not yet anyway.”

Jackson shrugged. “Okay, if you say so buddy. But just be careful if you do pull a farm girl. They aren’t like Auckland girls, they want a bit more long-term commitment.”

“Yeah, yeah, steer clear of ‘em, I got it.”

Jackson laughed. “Nah mate. You just gotta pretend you’re in for the long haul too. That’s how I got Sarah. You should see her face light up when I talk about our future. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

Ethan pretended to be particularly engrossed in cleaning a stain off one of the tables and Jackson got back to his own work. He didn’t want to say anything he couldn’t take back.