Co-Workers With Benefits

D I O N

I walk over to Ven's class to pick her up so we can leave and I knock on her door.

"Come in Dion." She says, picking up her bag.

"You ready?"

"Yep." She nods and walks past me out the door.

When we get to the staff building, we get in the elevator and take it up to the fourth floor.

All the teachers are in there and the headmaster, Mr Severn is standing on the small stage, in front of a microphone.

We take the two empty seats in the front row and he starts to speak.

"Okay, good afternoon staff. Some of you may already know this but we are planning a fun day for all the students next month." He continues. "Each of you will be paired with another teacher that has a class in the same grade as yours and you'll both be given a budget of $8,000 to make your booth the most interesting. Whichever booth gets the most visits, both teachers will receive a bonus payment at the end of this month."

More money?

On top of what we're already paid?

Yessir!

He begins calling out the pairs of teachers working together and I'm with Paige as she also teaches the fourth grade.

She'd already come to tell me about it this morning.
Venice gets placed with Michelle Evans, another pre-kindergarten teacher and I look over to see her biting her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" I whisper to her.

"Nothing." She tells me, releasing her hold on the skin in her mouth.

Maybe I read wrong.

I shrug my shoulders and listen to Severn for the rest of the meeting.
When it's over, everyone collects their things and starts to head home.

Venice and I wait back until the car park is empty of teachers before we get down to my car.

"Dion, I need you to drop me at the mall again please."

"Didn't you buy everything you needed yesterday?" I ask her.

"Yeah, but I have plans tomorrow and I need a dress."

I scrunch my brows in confusion and quickly glance over at her. "Where you going?"

"Somewhere." She gives me a short answer and pulls her phone out of her bag.

"Okay..." I try to think of what plans could require a brand new dress from the mall on such short notice.

Family reunion maybe?

Wedding?

"Well, I won't be home tomorrow afternoon, I'll be at Paige's place planning for our booth." I continue.

"I know." She bites her cheeks again. "She already told me."

She's acting mad weird.

"What?" I look over in confusion.

"The bitch came all the way over to Devon's class whilst we had our reading partnership and asked to talk to me outside. She boasted 'bout how you're going over to her place and yada yada yada."