She snorted as she brought her coffee cup to her lips, shaking her head. Thankfully the staff room was empty today, offering her five minutes peace after lunch. But those five minutes only meant one thing. Hannah was on her mind.
The school bell sounded, causing Caroline to almost spill hot coffee down the front of her white shirt. Was lunchtime really over already? And when did she become so jumpy?
“Hey, Caz?” Brenda, one of the biology teachers, poked her head around the door. “You still on for Friday with us?”
“So far, yes. I don’t imagine anything will change, though.” A night out with friends could only distract her from Hannah.
Brenda winked. “Good woman. It’ll be a great night. You know what Sharon is like once she gets on that bloody karaoke.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Brenda winked, her heels clicking as they echoed in the hallway. “See you Friday!”
Caroline got to her feet, emptied her coffee down the drain, and placed her cup in the dishwasher. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d actually finished a cup at work; something or someone always demanded her attention. And right now, it was her mentor period with the sixth form students. It was rare that anybody showed up to discuss things with her, they liked to think they were fully fledged adults now who could take care of everything on their own, but on the odd occasion, a student did arrive to speak to her. So, Caroline would sit around for the next hour in the sixth form block, doing very little.
“Ms Baker, I hoped I’d find you here.” John Rankin, the headteacher, caught her as she was leaving the staff room. “I have one of your form students with first aid.”
“One of mine? Which one? What happened?” Panicked, Caroline rushed towards the main foyer with John. “Wait, let me guess…Billy Charlton! He’s a bloody nuisance lately. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
“No. It’s Edie Caffrey.”
“Edie?” Caroline frowned. “What happened?”
“Seems Edie got herself into a fight with a number of other students during lunch hour.”
No. John surely had it wrong. Edie was bright and quiet. Caroline had never had a run-in with her. Her parents had never been called to the school for even the slightest issue. “Edie? Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Caroline scratched the back of her neck, and puffed out a breath. “Right. I’ll go and see her.”
“She’s very upset,” John said, adjusting his glasses on his nose. “But I suppose that’s because she’s being excluded for three days.”
Caroline sighed. Edie being excluded wasn’t good. But before she made any assumptions, she would check on her student. “Right, okay. Leave it with me. I’ll find out what’s happened.”
She stepped out into the foyer, pushing through the double doors that would take her towards the reception. She knocked on the door, hearing sniffling as the designated first aider let her into the room. Edie sat on a chair in the corner, her shoulders slumped, her blonde hair wild. Caroline loathed seeing girls fighting. For some reason, they always went straight for the head, taking as much hair as they could in the process.
“Edie?”
Edie looked up at her, her bottom lip trembling. And then she lowered her head again, clearly preparing for the telling-off she assumed she’d receive. But Caroline had never believed that raised voices were the answer when it came to dealing with students. She preferred to speak to them with the same respect she expected them to speak to her.
“Do you want me to call Edie’s parents?” Rachel, the first aider asked.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll deal with this. I think Edie needs a moment or two to calm down.”
“Okay, well, I’ll leave you to it.” Rachel left the room, the door closing softly behind her.
Caroline crossed the room and lifted a chair, placing it in front of Edie. She sat down and gave her student a couple of minutes to compose herself. Armed with a box of tissues nearby, she plucked one from it and handed it over, smiling when Edie looked up at her.
“Mum is going to kill me when she finds out about this.” Edie whimpered and then winced when she blew her nose. “Ow, that hurts.”
Caroline lifted Edie’s head, frowning when she found scratches all over her face. “Who did this to you?”
“Don’t know. All of them.” Edie lifted a shoulder, scrunching the tissue up in her hand. “They keep picking on me, and now I’ve made things worse.”
“Whokeeps picking on you, Edie?”
“The girls in my year. They keep saying horrible stuff about my mum. They don’t even know her. And then today they just wouldn’t stop saying things in the lunch queue.”