Peer Pressure (7 page)

He stood in the doorway, eating an apple. Jodie froze, not sure what to say. Indeed, what does one say when confronted with the new kid in school, gift basket in hand?

It was while pondering this question that she realized he was wearing a white t-shirt and was clearly the young man she had seen from her window.

“Jodie?” he asked, a slightly bemused smile on his face.

“Um, hi” she replied,

They both looked at each other for a moment, an awkward silence hanging in the air for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, Sean gestured towards the basket in Jodie’s arms.

“What’s that?”

A good question, but one Jodie had trouble finding the answer for, finding herself a little stuck for words.

“Um, it’s a gift basket to welcome you guys to the neighborhood.”

‘
Okay
,’ she thought, ‘
that sounded soooooo lame!’

Sean smiled, even chuckled a little.

“You live next door?”

Jodie offered him an almost apologetic tilt of the head.

“I’m afraid so, yes.”

“Well, that’s great. Thanks.”

Sean smiled and took the basket from Jodie’s hands. She suddenly felt an overwhelming awareness of her arms, not sure what to do with them now the basket was no longer there.

In her pockets? Crossed? In the end she just let them hang at her sides.

“Would you like to come in?” he asked.

Without even thinking, Jodie replied

“Why?”

Sean was a little taken aback. To be honest, he thought it was just the polite thing to ask, but now, because Jodie had questioned his offer, he was beginning to wonder if that had been polite or just creepy. He hadn’t meant to come across as inappropriate, but he knew how thin a line there could be sometimes.

Luckily, Jodie had sensed this too, aware that her response had been a little curt and reading the confusion in Sean’s eyes, so let him off the hook with

“No thanks, I’d better get back to my Mum. She needs...”

Except Jodie didn’t know how to end her sentence and in a haze of what would later surface as embarrassment she merely said, “...help,” before turning and walking back towards her house.

She didn’t even remember to say goodbye, not that it mattered at this point. Sean watched her go, a little bemused, wondering if the last minute or so had actually just happened or whether he had imagined it, before slowly going back into his house and closing the door.

Jodie slammed her front door and stood in the hallway for a few seconds, trying to compose herself. A barrage of questions spat at her from somewhere deep inside her brain.

‘
What the hell is wrong with you? It can’t be Sean. You’ve known guys like him all your
life and never had a problem speaking to them before. Was it the situation? The lame gift
basket? The next door neighbor cliché? What’s next? Asking to borrow some fucking
coffee? Will Sean make jokes about it at school? And if so, why do you care anyway?

Why has today been such a disaster?’

“So, what’s he like?”

The question came from the living room, from her mother to be precise. Jodie took a few moments to think. Had she been watching from the window? Was she being funny? In the end, Jodie played it safe.

“What’s
who
like?”

“Your new English teacher? What’s he like?”

Jodie breathed a sigh of relief, happy that her most recent awkward moment hadn’t been a spectator sport. She’d had enough of that today already. She entered the living room to find Katy lying across the couch, watching the news. She didn’t speak at first, trying to find the least interesting answer. If she’d been honest she would have said something like

‘He’s gorgeous. Really Mum, he’s the best looking guy I’ve ever seen. And he’s young
too. In fact, I’m pretty sure we shared a moment. His eyes met mine and there was a
spark that can only mean one thing. He wants me. And I want him too...and his hair’s
really pretty.’

Maybe not.

In the end, Jodie went with

“Oh, he’s nice, you know? As teachers go.”

“What’s his name?” Katy asked.

Then the doorbell went off and Jodie took the opportunity, the ‘saved by the bell’ cliché not entirely lost on her, to change the subject.

“Pizza’s here. I’ll get it.”

For all concerned, it had been a hell of a day.

Rob left Brushwood late that afternoon, feeling like he was, if not on cloud nine, then certainly not far from it. He found that, for all his anxiety the night before, for all his nerves and moments of doubt about a job that he hadn’t been one hundred per cent on, his first day had been something of a success.

As he drove home, passing a multitude of his students as he went, he felt free; like a massive weight had been lifted from him. It was a feeling that he was sure would carry him through this first term with a certain amount of enthusiasm.

It didn’t even depress him that while his students went home that day, to meals around the dinner table, surrounded by family, he was heading home to a small flat, bad television and a takeaway.

To an outsider, it would have seemed a lonely existence. Rob, however, took full advantage enjoying the peace and quiet, capitalizing on this feeling of being independent.

It reminded him a little of those first months living on his own during university. That novelty of eating whatever you want, drinking whatever you want, no parents, no consequences and, best of all, no complications.

When Rob arrived home, he jumped in the shower, drank a couple of beers and phoned for a Chinese. He sat in his small living room, watching his television, looked over some papers for the following day, before calling it a night at around ten p.m.

In the McPhee household, things were slowly getting back to normal also. The stress of the day had started to recede into the back of Jodie’s mind, and although she found that she could not stop thinking about Mr. Peer, the overall embarrassment of the day had almost completely gone. She and her mother sat in the kitchen, eating pizza and talking over plans for the weekend, as they tended to do on most weeknights and it was this routine that gave Jodie the most comfort. No matter how bad the day either of them had, at least this was a constant; something that nobody could touch.

It was while Katy was on the phone to her mother that Jodie decided to turn in, heading up the stairs to her room and closing the door. The light was off, but the glow of the street lights outside, bathed her room in an orange haze.

She flopped down on her bed once more, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what Mr. Peer was doing at that moment. She imagined he was probably out with friends, in a pub somewhere, or with some of her other teachers, talking about their students behind their backs.

She was wondering if he talked about her, if she had made a big enough impression. God knows she had embarrassed herself enough. Did that count?

Jodie sat up and turned her head towards the window. She could see Sean sitting at a small desk, typing on his laptop. She saw his father enter the room, a burly man with a beard like Santa Claus. They chatted for a while and although she couldn’t make out what was being said, she could tell that they were good friends even though they were father and son. It made her warm to her new neighbors a little. At least they weren’t freaks.

Katy returned to her desk at Stimson and Sons that next morning, happily sliding back into her routine. It felt good to be back to work; in a place where really Katy’s social calendar revolved.

Outside of work, she had only maintained a handful of close friends from her school days. She was always surprised at just how many of them seemed to lose interest once Jodie had been born and also because of her age during her pregnancy. She didn’t feel outcast, just kind of an afterthought. So to see the familiar faces of her work colleagues, always felt like something of a homecoming to her. And with three staff nights out a year, she always had something to look forward to. Katy had been with the company for roughly five years and, although promotion had never exactly been out of the question, she had chosen to stay comfortably in her place, feeling that any promotion that came her way would be better suited to her once Jodie went off to University, so she was never in much of a rush. Besides, she had always had the feeling that being a mother was her
true
career.

Once Jodie was gone, she knew she could take anything that was offered to her. Besides, the less responsibility at this point in her life, was all the better. It meant she could leave work behind at the end of each day, with no ties or complications. She got enough of that at home.

The only thing that really bothered her was her manager Ted, a horribly sleazy, forty five year old divorcee with what seemed to be a near permanent tea-stain tan. He did himself no favors by being a moron too. He was a man who had come to the business by way of his father. Katy had once nearly collapsed from boredom as he had tried to impress her with his knowledge of marine life in the North Sea, a passion of his that was almost as boring as the shades of grey suits he wore every day.

Yes, he was an idiot and it was a source of constant embarrassment to Katy that it was she that was the object of his misconceived attention. Worse still, in an office full of older men, he was the pick of the bunch, so it was no wonder that Katy denied herself promotion. She may have had to spend more time with him in that case and who needed that?

She had learned to live with a slow love life and found that as she got older, it suited her right down to the ground. She often used to dream up fictional ad campaigns in her head, for her own amusement. Things like:

‘Childbirth: Nature’s Own Contraceptive’

Or

‘Once you pop, you WILL stop.’

Of course, she had her needs, like anybody else, but she had gotten used to not sharing her bed a long time ago and by this point had pretty much given up on the concept of romance, instead preferring to take pleasure in the details of life. Like a nice glass of wine (or two), a warm bath in an empty house or a really good movie late at night.

Whatever drama was to be gained from romance, she knew, was more likely to come from her daughter by this point. Katy had been prepared for it and while Jodie was almost eighteen and had not yet come home in floods of tears, her mother knew that the floods would be coming and it would be up to her to build the ark.

“Right,” said Rob, addressing his class and now with their full, undivided attention

“Thomas Hardy. What do we know about him?”

Susan thrust her arm up.

“Yes...” Rob looked down at his class roster, still un-familiar with his student’s names,

“...Susan?”

“Tess of the D’Urbervilles.”

Rob nodded.

“Correct, well done. Hardy was one of the most influential writers of his time. He was a documenter of the society in which he lived, a little like Dickens but far more depressing.

What else do we know about him?”

A few students raised their hands, but Jodie didn’t hear their answers. She was focusing on Mr. Peer, pretending to write in her notebook, but really jotting down little observations about him. For example, he was wearing a striped blue tie that went with his eyes but clashed with his brown shoes.

She also noticed that he wasn’t wearing a watch, a fact which then drew her attention to his arms, which she could see were muscular.

From these observations she ascertained that he was clearly physically fit, but charmingly disorganized. Either that or forgetful, but she was willing to let him off with that because he clearly had his mind on other things. Like Thomas Hardy.

“Anything else?” he asked his class.

Without even thinking, Jodie found herself answering.

“Females.”

Rob’s eyes now fell to Jodie. He smiled.

“Very good, strong female characters. Usually stronger than the male protagonists. And also, usually destroyed by said males. Very good, Jodie.”

Jodie was on top of the world for two reasons. Firstly, she hadn’t embarrassed herself, and therefore had regained the high ground intellectually speaking.

Secondly, and far more importantly, hers was the first name that Mr. Peer had not had to look for on the roster, which means she’d already made it into his memory.

‘
Take that, Goatsucker!
’ she thought.

Rob walked over to his desk and picked up a stack of books, handing them out to his class as he spoke.

“So, this term, the first book we’ll be discussing in depth will be
‘Jude the Obscure’
, Thomas Hardy’s story of a young man trying to make his way in the world and his love affair with his cousin.”

Susan let out a disgusted laugh.

“That’s sick.”

Rob tried to ignore the tone in her voice and continued.

“Well, we can discuss that a little later in the term, but for now, we’ll just start at the beginning, and be warned,” Rob, having now handed out all copies of the novel, returned to the front of the class, “this is depressing stuff. Cruelty, lust, death,”

“Sounds awesome!” was Jon’s sarcastic reaction from the back of the class. But Rob was quick to retort.

“If you think this is awesome, wait until we get to Jane Austen. That’ll knock you on your ass.” He was half-joking, half-serious, but it was lost on Jon.

“Brilliant,” Jon replied, “Chick-lit.”

“Females,” Rob corrected, before bringing his gaze back to Jodie, “Strong female characters.” He then gave her a wink, a wink that to him meant
‘at least you know what
we’re talking about here’
, but to Jodie, meant more, so much more.

“I’m going to ask out Sean Lewis.”

Laura had that look in her eyes, a look Jodie knew only too well. And as they sat on the grass verge overlooking the sport’s field, later that day, watching the fifth years play football, talk turned very quickly to men.

“Sean Lewis?” Jodie replied, “Yeah, he’s nice I guess.”

“Are you blind? He’s fit, he’s...”