Love Bytes: Swap, Snoop, Swoon

Nathan

When I got off the bus, it was 7:38, so I had to sprint to the school, it was a 4-minute walk.

When I finally got to Lanely High, it was 7:40 as I walked through the main doors. I rushed through the halls, and I got to the meeting room at 7:45 after dropping my things off in my room. I got some weird looks from the few students hanging about, but I was late. And probably in trouble, as I had not had a reply to my apology email, so I am unsure as to whether Sahrina had even seen that I had sent it.

As I walked into the meeting room, out of breath, I got a piercing stare from Sahrina. "Hello, Sahrina! I am so sorry for being late!"
"Hmm. I can see that. Due to your reasoning, I would let you off this once. But may I ask, do you have reasoning for not making me aware that you had seen my email?"
"I did? I replied, telling you why I was late-"
"No, not that one. The one I sent after your reply. I sent you an email to excuse your tardiness and accept that you were late this one time. To which, I had no response, or reaction. Nothing."
"What? I did not get another email?" I pull my phone out of my back pocket and pressed the side button.
When the screen flashed on, and I saw my regular home screen, the default Samsung one. But there was no email. Only- 3 missed calls from Sarah. Who is Sarah? Oh. My. God. This was not my phone. "OH NO-"
"You ok there Nathan?"
"Uh- I may or may not have bumped into someone in the street on the way here, and while I was rushing for the bus, picked up the wrong phone and accidentally picked up her phone and have now non-purposely stolen a woman's phone."
"Wow- please slow down. You will be fine. She will probably find you and want her phone back, just sit down, and participate in this 'Start-Of-The-Week-Briefing'."

I sat down, guilt running through me, fear traced my nerves. I had goosebumps down my arms. How could I do this? What were the chances that both of our phones were the same? Had the same lock screens? Weird, I decided to take my mind from it and listen to what Sahrina had to say.
"So, as I was saying, you can all see a copy of the duty points and who is scheduled for where. I also am going to need someone from the English department to come to a meeting after school with me today to discuss the curriculum and how it is going."
Silence took over the room and everyone was trying to avoid eye contact with Sahrina. Her voice broke me from my own thoughts that I had managed to fall back into, "Nathan, you are the English Faculty Lead, are you free?"
"Uh-" I flip through my mind, trying to remember if there was anything I needed to do.
"Yeah, I guess I am free, what time does the meeting start and end?"
"The meeting begins at 3:15 and will go on for approximately half of an hour. Also, I need you to be ready for the meeting and stood outside this room at 3:10."
"Ok, that's fine, I will be here."
"I hope so. And this time, you cannot be late."
I could feel my face burning with embarrassment. "Yes. I understand. I will not be late."
Sahrina finished the briefing, and we were all sent to our classrooms to prepare for registration.

When I reached classroom 1/12, I sat down at my desk looking at the phone that I had placed face-down on the desk. I felt guilty. I knew this could have been avoided. If only I had been ready on time, had my laptop in my bag ready. That poor woman probably thinks that I had set her up, that this was my plan. She probably thinks that I stole her phone on purpose. Is it wrong to look through it? How will I know where to take it? Maybe I should call the person back that left 3 missed calls on the phone, Sarah. Maybe she can help? I do not know what to do, I want to get it back to her. Even if I knew her name, I do not know if I would recognise her, I can barely remember what she looked like- I do not even know what she sounds like, I spoke that fast, and rushed away before she could speak. I do not know what to do, I feel so bad, yet I know that she could find me, she probably saw the email that Sahrina sent, the one that was meant for me, that has the school's address on. What if she is dangerous? Have I just put the whole school at risk?

Once again, my thoughts were broken up, interrupted, that time by the school bell. I stood up from my desk and picked up a small pile of papers and dropped them in the bin as I got to the door, propped it open and stood in the doorway.

A few of my students arrived at my door, I smiled and them and greeted them as I do every day. I told them all to sit in their regular seating arrangement and talk between themselves until the entirety of the form were there. After all of my students had arrived, we all conversed about how their weekends had been, and what interesting things they had been up to recently. I took the register and ensured that all my students knew what lesson they were supposed to be going into first period. The bell rang again, to signify that registration was over and that all students had 5 minutes to get to their first period lessons.

I gathered my pile of exercise books from the back for my first class of the day, I then fanned them out across my front couple of desks to optimise the simplicity of beginning that lesson. I headed over to my computer and displayed that day's starting activity. My day was off, work had started, time for a long day of teaching English.