A Tale Told of WASC: Part Eight

A few days after the fearless leader’s phone call, I was on campus, to begin moving my stuff into my new classroom. Since I was no longer the Drama teacher, I had to get my stuff out of the Drama room and move it into Nicole’s old room. This was a stroke of luck; she had a practical palace of a room--two televisions, new desks, a new whiteboard, two file cabinets. Fantastic. Of course, I had to move my stuff myself, only to find that one of my colleagues, when he (or she, as I would learn later) heard Nicole wasn’t returning, had swiped all the new student desks from her--my new--room, leaving me with desks at which I probably sat fifteen years earlier. In the midst of this discovery, I ran into Aimee Hamm on campus. She looked fatigued.

"What’s up?" I asked.

"Don’t ask, Walters. I’m an ass. Do I look like an ass? Don’t answer." She looked over her shoulder to see her husband John (a teacher at Bard) and their thirteen month-old son Devon coming around the corner, catching up with her.

I smiled. "What happened?"

"You hear about Teddi?"

I nodded. "Great for her. Shitty for us."

She shook her head. "No. Shitty for me." I arched an eyebrow. "I’m WASCing." I started a slow nod and a smile began to expand over my face. I couldn’t contain it. "What? What’s so fucking funny?"

I started to laugh. "When did you get screwed, I mean, promoted to WASC-goddess?"

"Funny. Wednesday. Why?"

"Afternoonish? Two? Three?"

"Yeah..." She started to look suspicious. "Why, Bill?"

"I turned down the job."

"Turned it down? What do you mean turned it down?"

"Just what I said. Boss woman called me up. Told me about Teddi, then asked me if I wanted the job. It was a question." I look at John, holding Devon. "A question means you can refuse, right?" John nods slowly, a smirk widening. "So I refused."

"No."

"And you wanna know what she did? Grey hung up on my ass." I laughed. "Hey, if you’re gonna ask a question, you better be ready for a no. Either that, or don’t ask the question."

"You shit. Well, she learned her lesson, all right. She didn’t ask me; she told me she needed me to do it."

"Well, at least she’s getting smarter. You did get the extra resource, right?"

Aimee nodded. "Like it’s enough time."

I smiled. "That’s why I said no. You gotta learn Aimee. N. O. No."

She gave me the finger. "Well, buddy, I’m telling you now, your life is shit, too." I must have looked like I was stupid. "I’m no longer editing the damn thing. You are. Solo. And I’m going to work your ass."