Chapter 26 - I Smell Burning
Mia was getting grizzly as it was slowly reaching half past 5, she’d had some dinner, which consisted of macaroni cheese and sweet corn and odd combination but Mia usually seemed to like it. However today one of those days and Mia had been particularly fussy and had only eaten half of it, Cesca and Jonah both told her that she would be hungry but Mia wasn’t having any of it so quite simply refused to eat it. Cesca and Jonah weren’t in the mood for a tantrum, well they were more like screaming fits and let her have her way. They had food to cook and visitors to prepare for so had simply let her play. The playing had warn Mia out and she was now cuddled up on Cesca’s lap whilst they watched In the Night Garden together, Mia loved and quite happily sat calmly watching the programme with her mummy, Flopsy in one hand, sucking his ear. He hadn’t been played with much lately but she was beginning to find her attachment to him again at night, Cesca and Jonah were simply happy if she slept through the night, they didn’t care about which toy she cuddled. The programme finished and Cesca kissed Mia on the head before saying “Beddybyes Mia”, Mia looked up, taking Flopsy’s ear out of her mouth before rubbing her eyes and wrapping her arms around Cesca. Cesca smiled, picking Mia up as she got up and rested her on her hip “Are you holding Flopsy tight, Mia?” She asked before heading out in to the kitchen to say goodnight to Jonah, who was busy cooking ribs in barbecue sauce and roasting some pork belly in the oven, it smelt delicious. You could see the crackling crisp and ooze with fat as it spluttered as it cooked. “Going to say na night to daddy?” Mia lifted her arms out to Jonah who placed down the spoon in the pan he had been stirring and took Mia off Cesca’s arms, “Sleep tight monkey” , He gave her a kiss before giving her a long hug and a tap of the nose “Mwa”, Mia blew Jonah a kiss, “Love you Mia”, “Mia loves daddy”, They all giggled and then Cesca took Mia of Jonah’s hands to put her to bed, “Come on rascal, time for bed”, Mia quite happily accepted the idea of going to bed, but that wasn’t always the case. “Smells good by the way”, Cesca smiled in Jonah’s direction before walking up the stairs and into Mia’s room. She placed Mia who was all ready for bed in her cot. Mia started to become grizzly, “see your tired, now lie down”, Cesca was trying to hurry the process of getting Mia in to bed, but she wanted to make sure that Mia was to stay asleep when she finally fell asleep as she didn’t want to be having to sort her out when they Danny and Layla arrived.
“Love you mummy”, the words touched Cesca, she pushed Mia’s hair away from her eyes before she kissed her on the forehead, “I love you to, Mia. Now lie down, you’ve got crèche in the morning and you’re going to play with all the toys and draw pretty pictures” ,”and Flopsy’s going to come”, “If you want him to and Tilly, or is she being left on her own”, “Tilly coming too”. “Oh good, we don’t want her to be sad”, Mia began to lie down, Cesca enjoyed her bedtime talks with Mia, despite the whole routine being stressful she found some joy in talking to her daughter however much it meant that she was still awake. “Night night mummy”, Mia screwed up her hand and opened and closed it, her cute attempt at waving, she then placed her thumb in her mouth and held Flopsy in the other as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Cesca and Jonah had given up on the whole idea of Mia not sucking her thumb, they were never going to win, so they might as well just let her do it. She watched Mia’s eyes close whilst standing at the door before leaving the room, she could hear people chatting so made her way down to join in; Cesca always was one for enjoying a good natter. She had a good feeling about tonight that was until the smoke alarm went off. She ran downstairs passed Jonah, grabbed a tea towel and waved it at the alarm attempting to move the smoke. In the end she took the alarm down as Jonah took the charred ribs out of the oven, there was no hope in saving them, but at least the pork belly was looking rather scrummy. Cesca laughed, “Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d have cooked after all”, and she winked before giving him a sneaky kiss. Jonah laughed and then began to introduce her to Layla and Danny. “This is my lovely wife, Cesca”, Jonah projected his words so proudly he couldn’t believe after everything they had been through together they had now reached this point in their lives, this point in time. “Nice to meet you, I’m Danny and this is my other half, Layla”, Cesca couldn’t help but smile, they seemed like such lovely, genuine people. “I have heard so much about you, in so little time”, “Yeah sorry about the late notice”, “Don’t worry about it, it’s always nice to have company”, Layla and Cesca seemed to hit it off straight away as they chatted and nattered in the lounge whilst the boys talked in the Kitchen a beer in one hand. Jonah was carefully preparing the dinner. It was now all ready just had to be served. “Ces, can you grab me some plates”. “There where they always are”, She called through, “Which is”, Cesca rolled her eyes, Layla laughed before saying “there all the same these blokes”, “tell me about it” was Cesca’s reply.
Cesca walked in, opened the cupboard by Jonah’s legs and got 4 plates out. “How can you not know where the plates are” Danny added,” I knew where they were, just wanted some help”, Cesca made a face that was sarcastic yet almost in hysterics, “Yeah right”, She said under her breathe, loud enough for Danny to hear and laugh. The food was brought through to the table with the help of Cesca. It was lovely the crackling was just right and the conversation was flowing, there was no sign of awkwardness. The food was gobbled up and the wine was also flowing. “I’m glad we did this”, Cesca said, she’d had such a lovely night, “Yeah thank you for inviting us, sorry again for the late notice, I know what these guys are like when they get a plan in their head”, “Tell me about it, it’s fine. It’s been lovely to meet you”. Cesca just about finished her sentence when Mia started screaming. Cesca and Jonah looked at each other, “You going or shall I?” Cesca asked, Jonah showed no signs of moving so she got up, “You have all of this to look forward to”, Cesca laughed to Layla as she held her baby bump, “Were so excited, it was a shock and people found it hard to accept us but it happened and we love each other, nothing could be better”, “Sounds very similar to our situation”, The girls looked at each other, intrigued to know what each other’s stories were. Cesca went upstairs and took Mia out her cot; tears streamed down her face as Mia placed her on her hip and leant over the cot to give her Flopsy. “Here we go, now stop with the tears”. She carried her downstairs; she was enjoying herself and didn’t fancy missing out on the conversation whilst she settled Mia. She was soon back and Danny and Layla were besotted with her, “Hello sweetie”, Layla said as Cesca sat down, placing Mia on her lap. “She’s lovely”, Danny said. “Mia’s usually rather good, think she’s over tired”. “No more tears”, Layla said as Mia began to cry. “Stop your crying”, Jonah said across the table, “Mia that’s enough, shh”, Cesca bounced her on her lap as Layla and Cesca began to talk about their hard and tough past’s that got them to where they are now. “How old is this little madam then,” Layla said, to Cesca whilst she pulled funny faces at Mia, which seemed to be calming her down, you could see and tell instantly that Layla had a love for children. “She is 1 and a half, can’t believe how quickly the time goes”, “It will have been 2 years since all the trouble started”, “Trouble?”, Danny was curious, Jonah took a deep breath in, “Cesca, she used to be my Spanish teacher”, There was a gasp, “That is so romantic”, Layla said, the pair of them were shocked, “You followed your hearts through everything, you stuck by each other, now that is love. Just proves you shouldn’t listen to what others say”. Cesca smiled, she loved Layla she seemed so bubbly. “We haven’t exactly had an easy ride to where we are now, my dad didn’t exactly approve of me dating the older lady, but that is nothing compared to what the pair of you went through”, Danny added. They were acting as if they had known each other for years not a couple of hours. “It was hard, I didn’t know how to stop it, and it was wrong, so very wrong. But we love each other and I couldn’t bear to be apart from him”, Jonah blushed and lifted his hand across the table, Cesca grasping it in the other, “So how did people find out”. “Cesca had an accident on a ladder, which ended with me following her to the hospital, the deputy caught us and Cesca had to tell the head, she was furious and called the police, strangely they both get on quite well now, despite the past, but it’s the future that matters now, we have our family, which was hard to start with. Cesca found out she was pregnant whilst still teaching me, it was hard not being able to tell people who the father was”, “But that’s all done and life has never been better”, Cesca’s eyes were fixed with Jonah’s they were besotted with each other. They had a love so strong nothing was going to ever break it, it was built on trust and support, they had so much respect for one another, and it was magical. “Wish we could say that everything has got better over time, but the truth is it really hasn’t”
Layla became quieter and much more timid as she finished her sentence; Cesca placed her hand on Layla’s arm whilst trying to comfort a sleepy Mia. “It’s okay, you have each other”, “But it’s not, I feel guilty. Every day I look at Danny. I may not be 30 odd or old enough to be his mother but I’m still too old to be with him. His dad is right, he should be with someone younger, be with someone who enjoyed the clubbing scene”. “Layla, I love you. Nothing is going to change that, my dad can think what he likes, we have to accept the positivity”, she smiled breathing in and attempting to relax, “It’s a long and tough process; it definitely wasn’t easy for us. But our friends were the important ingredient, they helped us through this time, they were surprisingly so supportive, despite the fact we had lied to them”. They all felt like they were on the same page, they understood each other, there was no awkwardness, they all had something in common. They were all in hard unusual relationships and were all building their families. They finished their drinks, Mia had fallen back to sleep in Cesca’s arms, “You stay there, she looks comfy. I’ll give you a call we could meet for coffee or something”, “That sounds lovely, I’m teaching most of the time but maybe after school”, “Yeah, I’ll call you”, The women nattered, they were already like best friends they got on so well. “Right well, I’ll see you at college Jonah”, “Yeah. See you Wednesday; I don’t have any classes tomorrow”, “See you then”. The boys were also getting along well, it was lovely to see. It was nice for Jonah to have a fresh start and it was a great coincidence that they both happened to be or were about to be fathers. This gave Jonah someone he could relate to someone who was going through the same things as him, who wasn’t 30 or likely to judge. Danny followed his heavily pregnant wife out of the house, before wrapping his arm around her, holding her close. Cesca got up to watch them leave, she couldn’t help but smile they were both so lovely. Jonah closed the door, he too was beaming. “That went really well”; “they’re both so lovely Jonah, thanks for inviting them”. “Its okay, Mia even enjoyed herself”. “She did, I better go put her back to bed, she has crèche in the morning and I’m going to call it a night, first day back tomorrow”, “Yeah, I’m exhausted, too much to take in, I’ll meet you up there”. Jonah cleared the plates away into the dish washer before going upstairs to bed. Cesca put Mia who looked as gorgeous as ever back into her cot. She placed Flopsy in her arms and kissed her on the head before leaving the room, keeping an eye on her beautiful daughter as she did so, there was something so rewarding about watching her own flesh and blood sleep, she was so content and relaxed. Cesca quietly closed the door behind her; she bumped into Jonah on the stairs before following him into their bedroom. They both got ready and got into bed; Cesca was wrapped up in Jonah’s arms, the duvet keeping the pair cosy. “I love you Mrs Kirby”, “I love you to”, were the last words the couple shared before falling asleep.
“BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP”, Cesca groaned, reaching over Jonah to turn the alarm off but he beat her to it. Swinging his hand up to the button and quickly pressing it, “Morning”, he said, turning around to give his gorgeous wife a morning kiss. “Hey, thought you didn’t have any classes today”, “I don’t but I want to see you off”, “Right, well I better get ready, since you’re up, you’re on Mia duty”, “Thanks Ces”, Jonah rolled out of bed, kissing Cesca once more before heading off to wake Mia up and get her dressed. Cesca sat at her dressing table, applying her lipstick after finishing over her hair, which she had chosen to put half up, half down. This was a new style for her and as always looked lovely. Cesca was going back to work after the summer holidays, there were to be new faces, of those younger year 7’s but still the old familiar ones too. Cesca was excited about going back to work and having her life sorted, being able to get on with her job and not have the awkwardness of teaching her own husband. She loved seeing him but it had to be said it hadn’t been the ideal of circumstances. Jonah had managed to keep a slightly agitated Mia calm, she hated mornings even if meant going to play with toys and other children, Mia would much prefer to be sleeping. “Mia, you’re going to go and play and have fun at Crèche”, Mia didn’t reply, she definitely wasn’t impressed at all. She was dressed in some fashionable jeans, the bottoms were turned over to reveal a pale pink and spotty material, she also wore a pretty white t-shirt, not necessarily the most practical thing to wear, but it was a t-shirt and Mia could live without this t-shirt if were to be ruined. After all, her mum loved clothes and Mia was definitely not deprived of them. Jonah picked Mia up as she refused to walk; it was too early to be doing anything. “Come on munchkin let’s go grab you some breakfast”, “Nana”, “Banana on toast it is then”, Jonah smiled, he loved being able to speak to his daughter. He strapped her into the chair that was now up against the dining room table. Mia was too big for the highchair. He brought through her toast and bananas or nanas as Mia much preferred calling them. “Eat up pickle, you need your energy”, Cesca walked through half asleep, “Almost as much as mummy needs her morning coffee”, The pair of them giggled, Cesca wasn’t functioning properly so just continued on through to the kitchen to pour herself some coffee before carrying it through to the lounge where she drank and walked whilst looking around for the piles of coursework that had all been marked ready to be given back to her GCSE students. Cesca had been rather pleased with the outcome of the essays she had received, proved that the hard work had paid off. She finished her coffee, placing it on the side before cleaning Mia up and putting on her shoes, “We better get going; you don’t want to be late for Crèche Mia”. Mia had her shoes on and had now found the energy from her yummy breakfast to break loose and run around, “Mia, we really need to go, come here please”, Mia started hiding behind chairs, she found this all a big game, “Mia,!”, Cesca was getting annoyed and was about to get really angry when Jonah thankfully burst through the door, “Right monkey, be good for mummy and have fun. Love you Mia”, “Love you daddy”, Jonah put Mia by the front door as Cesca walked through to the hall, with her bag in her arm and Flopsy in the other. “Mia, you forgot Flopsy”, Mia took her favourite bunny from her mummy’s hands, “Ta” she said, “Good girl Mia, now come on monkey”. Cesca reached out to hold Mia’s hand, she waited as Mia turned around to blow a kiss and wave at Jonah. He blew a kiss back. He loved Mia so much. Jonah walked over to give his wife a passionate goodbye and waved them off as Cesca and Mia walked hand in hand to the car.
Cesca opened the car door putting her bag in the back, whilst a patient Mia waited to be lifted into her car seat behind her. “In we go Mia”, she lifted her up, fastening her seatbelt, before getting in herself. She shut the door fastening her seatbelt, careful to check how she looked in the mirror before leaving, but then she saw the empty seat, where Jonah used to sit. It reminded her of all the happy but slightly awkward memories, she couldn’t believe how they had got to this point in their lives, together, married and with Mia. It was perfect! Cesca turned into the gates of waterloo road for the first time in 6 weeks, it felt good to be back, it almost felt like a new start, after all it was a new school year. The years 7’s were all immaculate, still following the school rules, they were shy and a few were saying goodbye to their parents. Cesca smiled, she knew how scary it was to be starting at a new school, especially waterloo road. Mia was happily playing with Flopsy as Cesca parked in her usual space in her legendary blue Clio. “Right, here we are monkey” she got out the car, closing her door behind her before opening Mia’s. She unbuckled her seatbelt and lifted her out to stand beside the car, Cesca couldn’t believe how big Mia had got, and it wasn’t that long ago since she was carrying her around in her tiny car seat. She leant back into the car to grab her bag, which was crammed with all the first day back essentials. She held her hand out for Mia to hold before beginning to walk into school. Mia had gone all shy on Cesca as they reached the steps where Karen and Chris were standing. “Come on popit” She stopped and lifted her up, “Gosh, she’s got so big”, “It’s scary how fast the time goes, isn’t it Karen”, “Can’t believe Becks has left, will be Jess before I know it”, “Right well I better head down to the Crèche before it’s time for first period, catch you in the staffroom”, “Great got some agenda items to go through”. Cesca smiled before walking down the corridor followed by the sound of her heals hitting the floor, Cesca looked amazing as usual, a proper yummy mummy. “Morning miss”, Fin and Sam called out. “Morning you two, see you first lesson”, Sam wasn’t her normal self, she was paler and was defiantly quieter, Cesca knew something was up but couldn’t quite work it out. She carried on down to the Crèche; Mia had started to munch on Flopsy’s ear. “Sure Flopsy is really liking having his ear nibbled Mia” She said as she reached the Crèche, Mia giggled. She had such a lovely laugh. Beth was standing at the door, “Bethh” Mia called out, and Cesca loved how easily Mia was able to be entertained whilst she worked. “Bye bye Mia, mummy’s got to go and work now, love you lots”, she kissed Mia on the head, and Mia blew her a kiss whilst Beth held her. “Thanks Beth, I will see you later”. Cesca left Mia in the happy arms of Beth, she felt positive about the day she had ahead.
Jonah was back at home studying and cleaning the house, he was thinking about giving Danny a bell later and maybe going to get some lunch. He did love not being at school, he felt like he could fully fulfil his maturity level now that he wasn’t a school boy, even if that did mean taking care of the house once in a while. It was strange being at home on a weekday but the kind of strange that was nice. He had the music channel in the background whilst clearing up the mess they had all left; he attempted to store the order that was once around before the holidays. He soon found himself kipping on the sofa, all that heard work was enough to make anyone feel tired. Cesca had made her way to the staff room ready to be blustered with this terms agenda’s. She had placed her coat on the coat rack and had her bag close, ready to take to next lesson. She had just sat down when she was welcomed by Eleanor and Daniel. “Enjoy the break”, Eleanor said, “Yeah, it was lovely thanks you?”, “Yeah, but it’s nice to get back into the swing of things”, Eleanor said, Cesca’s face was filled with sarcasm and greeted with laughter as Grantely added “Suit yourself; sure the kids feel exactly the same way”. Cesca was trying to compose herself as she heard two friendly voices, “Morning Cesca”, it was Tom. Cesca was shocked, “thought you weren’t coming back for a while?”, “That’s what I told him, but he had different ideas”, “You know me, I hate doing as I’m told”, the girls laughed, Karen and Chris entered the room. “Congratulations you two”, Karen said as she walked in, Tom and Adana smiled, they couldn’t believe how crazy this holiday had been. “Welcome back, it’s a new term and a new start for everyone, make yourselves approachable to the new members of our school, especially the younger years “, this comment was directed towards Grantely, everyone laughed, “We hope you have all had a lovely holiday but it’s time to crack on. I just want to finish with a very important note. Sambuca Kelly has had a very hard summer, she has recently been diagnosed with Cancer and been told its terminal. We aren’t sure how many of the pupils know, so please don’t start spreading any rumours that’s the last thing she needs but we would appreciate you all looking out for her, this is a hard time for them all”. Cesca was gobsmacked; this is why she hadn’t heard from Tom or Adana sooner, they’d had so much on their mind. Cesca couldn’t quite get it to sink in, it was stuck in her throat, and it wouldn’t go away it was always there. Chocking her up, Sam was such a lovely girl, why did this have to happen to her. “Cesca you okay?” Cesca was staring into space thinking about poor Sam. “I know it’s a shock and we’re all trying to deal with it, it’s a lot to take in”. “Tom I ...I am so sorry,” Cesca didn’t quite know what to say. “Cesca, just focus on being your normal positive self, you’re her favourite teacher, she trusts you so I’m sure she’ll turn to you if she needs you, we told her you knew. Hoping this might give her the confidence to speak about how she is feeling.” “Of course, anything I can do to help”. Cesca felt honoured to be there to help Sam. She always had, had a soft spot for her. “Right well, I have year 11 Spanish, so I’ll keep my eye on Sam”, “Thanks Cesca”, Tom said. Cesca picked up her bag and headed for her classroom. She was greeted by crowds of year 11’s, “Right, in you go... SILENCIO, por favour”, the year 11’s gathered to their seats, “Miss, this is Ella; she’s new where should she sit”. “Ah, nice to meet you, I’m Mrs Kirby; take a seat at the back next to Sam”. Cesca smiled, Ella seemed lovely, and she was very pretty. She was proud of Sam; she was being her usual fighting self. She was calm and was carrying on with things as normal, so Cesca thought that was the best thing to do to! She finished taking the register finishing with Ella as her surname was Wilde. She looked up; noticing Ella was sitting in Jonah’s seat. It was weird to not have him in her classroom. She set the task, offering her help as usual, the class got on calmly until Fin started to talk about a party, asking if Sam wanted to go. “Fin, I’m busy. Not tonight yeah”. Fin wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Sam, don’t be a spoil sport, come on. It will be a laugh”, “Fin I don’t want to”. Cesca had heard their conversation, “Fin, get on with your work and get over the fact Sam’s not going”, there was a chorus of “oo’s “as Cesca totally owned Fin he wasn’t impressed. “Sorry I was talking to my girlfriend about a party, didn’t see an invite for you to rub your pesky nose in”. Cesca sighed, oh how she loved to be back at school. “Fin, you have just earned yourself 5 minutes after this lesson”. Fin threw his pen down, which bounced of his desk hitting Jess in the back of the head. “God sake Fin”. “Okay Jess, Fin you’re in serious trouble now”. Fin was angry, really angry and stared at the work in front of him for the rest of the lesson, Cesca was taking note. The bell rang so Cesca dismissed the class, “Adios. Not you Fin”. He sat back down throwing his bag to the ground. “As your on break you’re going to complete the task I set you and you’re not leaving till it’s done, that will teach you to back chat in my lessons”, “Maybe I wouldn’t have had to, if you hadn’t butted in”. Cesca was getting more frustrated by the second, “How dare you talk to me like that and give Sam a break”, Cesca found herself boiling over, as she blurted out “SHE’S GOT CANCER” Cesca shouted at Fin, hoping it would make him see sense. She immediately regretted every word she had just said.
“She’s got cancer, she didn’t tell me”, Fin was even more aggressive than before, he grabbed his bag and legged it out the door. “Fin”, Cesca called after him, but it was too late, she went back to her desk and reflected on everything that had just happened. She sat with her head in her hands, wondering if the whole school knew by now, as Tom opened the door aggressively, it made her body jolt. “Nice one Cesca, when I said look out for her, didn’t give you an open invitation to tell her BOYFRIEND”, Karen walked through the door, Fin closely followed behind her. “So it’s your fault that Fin is starting fights in the corridor. Cesca I didn’t expect my staff to be making this situation any harder”, “Cesca, I thought I could trust you, I thought you could help... but no”. “Tom, it wasn’t like that. It came out, he was giving Sam grief. He has a right to know plus he was being his normal arrogant self; something had to put him in his place”. “Cesca my office, now.” Karen’s words were stern; Cesca felt the whole world swallow her up. She didn’t mean to betray her friend, it just happened, Cesca’s bad luck had once again turned around and bitten her. Why did this always happen to Cesca. She just hoped this time she would be able to get herself out of the hole she had dug for herself. She left the room; her face was sincere which is the least you could say for Fin. It was as if he had finally got his own back on Cesca after he practically beat her up in her own classroom, landing him in a hefty suspension period. She knew that Fin hated her but she was only trying to help, he had a right to know. Cesca was always the one helping, it was a shame it never seemed to be perceived in that way.
“Love you mummy”, the words touched Cesca, she pushed Mia’s hair away from her eyes before she kissed her on the forehead, “I love you to, Mia. Now lie down, you’ve got crèche in the morning and you’re going to play with all the toys and draw pretty pictures” ,”and Flopsy’s going to come”, “If you want him to and Tilly, or is she being left on her own”, “Tilly coming too”. “Oh good, we don’t want her to be sad”, Mia began to lie down, Cesca enjoyed her bedtime talks with Mia, despite the whole routine being stressful she found some joy in talking to her daughter however much it meant that she was still awake. “Night night mummy”, Mia screwed up her hand and opened and closed it, her cute attempt at waving, she then placed her thumb in her mouth and held Flopsy in the other as she slowly drifted off to sleep. Cesca and Jonah had given up on the whole idea of Mia not sucking her thumb, they were never going to win, so they might as well just let her do it. She watched Mia’s eyes close whilst standing at the door before leaving the room, she could hear people chatting so made her way down to join in; Cesca always was one for enjoying a good natter. She had a good feeling about tonight that was until the smoke alarm went off. She ran downstairs passed Jonah, grabbed a tea towel and waved it at the alarm attempting to move the smoke. In the end she took the alarm down as Jonah took the charred ribs out of the oven, there was no hope in saving them, but at least the pork belly was looking rather scrummy. Cesca laughed, “Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d have cooked after all”, and she winked before giving him a sneaky kiss. Jonah laughed and then began to introduce her to Layla and Danny. “This is my lovely wife, Cesca”, Jonah projected his words so proudly he couldn’t believe after everything they had been through together they had now reached this point in their lives, this point in time. “Nice to meet you, I’m Danny and this is my other half, Layla”, Cesca couldn’t help but smile, they seemed like such lovely, genuine people. “I have heard so much about you, in so little time”, “Yeah sorry about the late notice”, “Don’t worry about it, it’s always nice to have company”, Layla and Cesca seemed to hit it off straight away as they chatted and nattered in the lounge whilst the boys talked in the Kitchen a beer in one hand. Jonah was carefully preparing the dinner. It was now all ready just had to be served. “Ces, can you grab me some plates”. “There where they always are”, She called through, “Which is”, Cesca rolled her eyes, Layla laughed before saying “there all the same these blokes”, “tell me about it” was Cesca’s reply.
Cesca walked in, opened the cupboard by Jonah’s legs and got 4 plates out. “How can you not know where the plates are” Danny added,” I knew where they were, just wanted some help”, Cesca made a face that was sarcastic yet almost in hysterics, “Yeah right”, She said under her breathe, loud enough for Danny to hear and laugh. The food was brought through to the table with the help of Cesca. It was lovely the crackling was just right and the conversation was flowing, there was no sign of awkwardness. The food was gobbled up and the wine was also flowing. “I’m glad we did this”, Cesca said, she’d had such a lovely night, “Yeah thank you for inviting us, sorry again for the late notice, I know what these guys are like when they get a plan in their head”, “Tell me about it, it’s fine. It’s been lovely to meet you”. Cesca just about finished her sentence when Mia started screaming. Cesca and Jonah looked at each other, “You going or shall I?” Cesca asked, Jonah showed no signs of moving so she got up, “You have all of this to look forward to”, Cesca laughed to Layla as she held her baby bump, “Were so excited, it was a shock and people found it hard to accept us but it happened and we love each other, nothing could be better”, “Sounds very similar to our situation”, The girls looked at each other, intrigued to know what each other’s stories were. Cesca went upstairs and took Mia out her cot; tears streamed down her face as Mia placed her on her hip and leant over the cot to give her Flopsy. “Here we go, now stop with the tears”. She carried her downstairs; she was enjoying herself and didn’t fancy missing out on the conversation whilst she settled Mia. She was soon back and Danny and Layla were besotted with her, “Hello sweetie”, Layla said as Cesca sat down, placing Mia on her lap. “She’s lovely”, Danny said. “Mia’s usually rather good, think she’s over tired”. “No more tears”, Layla said as Mia began to cry. “Stop your crying”, Jonah said across the table, “Mia that’s enough, shh”, Cesca bounced her on her lap as Layla and Cesca began to talk about their hard and tough past’s that got them to where they are now. “How old is this little madam then,” Layla said, to Cesca whilst she pulled funny faces at Mia, which seemed to be calming her down, you could see and tell instantly that Layla had a love for children. “She is 1 and a half, can’t believe how quickly the time goes”, “It will have been 2 years since all the trouble started”, “Trouble?”, Danny was curious, Jonah took a deep breath in, “Cesca, she used to be my Spanish teacher”, There was a gasp, “That is so romantic”, Layla said, the pair of them were shocked, “You followed your hearts through everything, you stuck by each other, now that is love. Just proves you shouldn’t listen to what others say”. Cesca smiled, she loved Layla she seemed so bubbly. “We haven’t exactly had an easy ride to where we are now, my dad didn’t exactly approve of me dating the older lady, but that is nothing compared to what the pair of you went through”, Danny added. They were acting as if they had known each other for years not a couple of hours. “It was hard, I didn’t know how to stop it, and it was wrong, so very wrong. But we love each other and I couldn’t bear to be apart from him”, Jonah blushed and lifted his hand across the table, Cesca grasping it in the other, “So how did people find out”. “Cesca had an accident on a ladder, which ended with me following her to the hospital, the deputy caught us and Cesca had to tell the head, she was furious and called the police, strangely they both get on quite well now, despite the past, but it’s the future that matters now, we have our family, which was hard to start with. Cesca found out she was pregnant whilst still teaching me, it was hard not being able to tell people who the father was”, “But that’s all done and life has never been better”, Cesca’s eyes were fixed with Jonah’s they were besotted with each other. They had a love so strong nothing was going to ever break it, it was built on trust and support, they had so much respect for one another, and it was magical. “Wish we could say that everything has got better over time, but the truth is it really hasn’t”
Layla became quieter and much more timid as she finished her sentence; Cesca placed her hand on Layla’s arm whilst trying to comfort a sleepy Mia. “It’s okay, you have each other”, “But it’s not, I feel guilty. Every day I look at Danny. I may not be 30 odd or old enough to be his mother but I’m still too old to be with him. His dad is right, he should be with someone younger, be with someone who enjoyed the clubbing scene”. “Layla, I love you. Nothing is going to change that, my dad can think what he likes, we have to accept the positivity”, she smiled breathing in and attempting to relax, “It’s a long and tough process; it definitely wasn’t easy for us. But our friends were the important ingredient, they helped us through this time, they were surprisingly so supportive, despite the fact we had lied to them”. They all felt like they were on the same page, they understood each other, there was no awkwardness, they all had something in common. They were all in hard unusual relationships and were all building their families. They finished their drinks, Mia had fallen back to sleep in Cesca’s arms, “You stay there, she looks comfy. I’ll give you a call we could meet for coffee or something”, “That sounds lovely, I’m teaching most of the time but maybe after school”, “Yeah, I’ll call you”, The women nattered, they were already like best friends they got on so well. “Right well, I’ll see you at college Jonah”, “Yeah. See you Wednesday; I don’t have any classes tomorrow”, “See you then”. The boys were also getting along well, it was lovely to see. It was nice for Jonah to have a fresh start and it was a great coincidence that they both happened to be or were about to be fathers. This gave Jonah someone he could relate to someone who was going through the same things as him, who wasn’t 30 or likely to judge. Danny followed his heavily pregnant wife out of the house, before wrapping his arm around her, holding her close. Cesca got up to watch them leave, she couldn’t help but smile they were both so lovely. Jonah closed the door, he too was beaming. “That went really well”; “they’re both so lovely Jonah, thanks for inviting them”. “Its okay, Mia even enjoyed herself”. “She did, I better go put her back to bed, she has crèche in the morning and I’m going to call it a night, first day back tomorrow”, “Yeah, I’m exhausted, too much to take in, I’ll meet you up there”. Jonah cleared the plates away into the dish washer before going upstairs to bed. Cesca put Mia who looked as gorgeous as ever back into her cot. She placed Flopsy in her arms and kissed her on the head before leaving the room, keeping an eye on her beautiful daughter as she did so, there was something so rewarding about watching her own flesh and blood sleep, she was so content and relaxed. Cesca quietly closed the door behind her; she bumped into Jonah on the stairs before following him into their bedroom. They both got ready and got into bed; Cesca was wrapped up in Jonah’s arms, the duvet keeping the pair cosy. “I love you Mrs Kirby”, “I love you to”, were the last words the couple shared before falling asleep.
“BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP”, Cesca groaned, reaching over Jonah to turn the alarm off but he beat her to it. Swinging his hand up to the button and quickly pressing it, “Morning”, he said, turning around to give his gorgeous wife a morning kiss. “Hey, thought you didn’t have any classes today”, “I don’t but I want to see you off”, “Right, well I better get ready, since you’re up, you’re on Mia duty”, “Thanks Ces”, Jonah rolled out of bed, kissing Cesca once more before heading off to wake Mia up and get her dressed. Cesca sat at her dressing table, applying her lipstick after finishing over her hair, which she had chosen to put half up, half down. This was a new style for her and as always looked lovely. Cesca was going back to work after the summer holidays, there were to be new faces, of those younger year 7’s but still the old familiar ones too. Cesca was excited about going back to work and having her life sorted, being able to get on with her job and not have the awkwardness of teaching her own husband. She loved seeing him but it had to be said it hadn’t been the ideal of circumstances. Jonah had managed to keep a slightly agitated Mia calm, she hated mornings even if meant going to play with toys and other children, Mia would much prefer to be sleeping. “Mia, you’re going to go and play and have fun at Crèche”, Mia didn’t reply, she definitely wasn’t impressed at all. She was dressed in some fashionable jeans, the bottoms were turned over to reveal a pale pink and spotty material, she also wore a pretty white t-shirt, not necessarily the most practical thing to wear, but it was a t-shirt and Mia could live without this t-shirt if were to be ruined. After all, her mum loved clothes and Mia was definitely not deprived of them. Jonah picked Mia up as she refused to walk; it was too early to be doing anything. “Come on munchkin let’s go grab you some breakfast”, “Nana”, “Banana on toast it is then”, Jonah smiled, he loved being able to speak to his daughter. He strapped her into the chair that was now up against the dining room table. Mia was too big for the highchair. He brought through her toast and bananas or nanas as Mia much preferred calling them. “Eat up pickle, you need your energy”, Cesca walked through half asleep, “Almost as much as mummy needs her morning coffee”, The pair of them giggled, Cesca wasn’t functioning properly so just continued on through to the kitchen to pour herself some coffee before carrying it through to the lounge where she drank and walked whilst looking around for the piles of coursework that had all been marked ready to be given back to her GCSE students. Cesca had been rather pleased with the outcome of the essays she had received, proved that the hard work had paid off. She finished her coffee, placing it on the side before cleaning Mia up and putting on her shoes, “We better get going; you don’t want to be late for Crèche Mia”. Mia had her shoes on and had now found the energy from her yummy breakfast to break loose and run around, “Mia, we really need to go, come here please”, Mia started hiding behind chairs, she found this all a big game, “Mia,!”, Cesca was getting annoyed and was about to get really angry when Jonah thankfully burst through the door, “Right monkey, be good for mummy and have fun. Love you Mia”, “Love you daddy”, Jonah put Mia by the front door as Cesca walked through to the hall, with her bag in her arm and Flopsy in the other. “Mia, you forgot Flopsy”, Mia took her favourite bunny from her mummy’s hands, “Ta” she said, “Good girl Mia, now come on monkey”. Cesca reached out to hold Mia’s hand, she waited as Mia turned around to blow a kiss and wave at Jonah. He blew a kiss back. He loved Mia so much. Jonah walked over to give his wife a passionate goodbye and waved them off as Cesca and Mia walked hand in hand to the car.
Cesca opened the car door putting her bag in the back, whilst a patient Mia waited to be lifted into her car seat behind her. “In we go Mia”, she lifted her up, fastening her seatbelt, before getting in herself. She shut the door fastening her seatbelt, careful to check how she looked in the mirror before leaving, but then she saw the empty seat, where Jonah used to sit. It reminded her of all the happy but slightly awkward memories, she couldn’t believe how they had got to this point in their lives, together, married and with Mia. It was perfect! Cesca turned into the gates of waterloo road for the first time in 6 weeks, it felt good to be back, it almost felt like a new start, after all it was a new school year. The years 7’s were all immaculate, still following the school rules, they were shy and a few were saying goodbye to their parents. Cesca smiled, she knew how scary it was to be starting at a new school, especially waterloo road. Mia was happily playing with Flopsy as Cesca parked in her usual space in her legendary blue Clio. “Right, here we are monkey” she got out the car, closing her door behind her before opening Mia’s. She unbuckled her seatbelt and lifted her out to stand beside the car, Cesca couldn’t believe how big Mia had got, and it wasn’t that long ago since she was carrying her around in her tiny car seat. She leant back into the car to grab her bag, which was crammed with all the first day back essentials. She held her hand out for Mia to hold before beginning to walk into school. Mia had gone all shy on Cesca as they reached the steps where Karen and Chris were standing. “Come on popit” She stopped and lifted her up, “Gosh, she’s got so big”, “It’s scary how fast the time goes, isn’t it Karen”, “Can’t believe Becks has left, will be Jess before I know it”, “Right well I better head down to the Crèche before it’s time for first period, catch you in the staffroom”, “Great got some agenda items to go through”. Cesca smiled before walking down the corridor followed by the sound of her heals hitting the floor, Cesca looked amazing as usual, a proper yummy mummy. “Morning miss”, Fin and Sam called out. “Morning you two, see you first lesson”, Sam wasn’t her normal self, she was paler and was defiantly quieter, Cesca knew something was up but couldn’t quite work it out. She carried on down to the Crèche; Mia had started to munch on Flopsy’s ear. “Sure Flopsy is really liking having his ear nibbled Mia” She said as she reached the Crèche, Mia giggled. She had such a lovely laugh. Beth was standing at the door, “Bethh” Mia called out, and Cesca loved how easily Mia was able to be entertained whilst she worked. “Bye bye Mia, mummy’s got to go and work now, love you lots”, she kissed Mia on the head, and Mia blew her a kiss whilst Beth held her. “Thanks Beth, I will see you later”. Cesca left Mia in the happy arms of Beth, she felt positive about the day she had ahead.
Jonah was back at home studying and cleaning the house, he was thinking about giving Danny a bell later and maybe going to get some lunch. He did love not being at school, he felt like he could fully fulfil his maturity level now that he wasn’t a school boy, even if that did mean taking care of the house once in a while. It was strange being at home on a weekday but the kind of strange that was nice. He had the music channel in the background whilst clearing up the mess they had all left; he attempted to store the order that was once around before the holidays. He soon found himself kipping on the sofa, all that heard work was enough to make anyone feel tired. Cesca had made her way to the staff room ready to be blustered with this terms agenda’s. She had placed her coat on the coat rack and had her bag close, ready to take to next lesson. She had just sat down when she was welcomed by Eleanor and Daniel. “Enjoy the break”, Eleanor said, “Yeah, it was lovely thanks you?”, “Yeah, but it’s nice to get back into the swing of things”, Eleanor said, Cesca’s face was filled with sarcasm and greeted with laughter as Grantely added “Suit yourself; sure the kids feel exactly the same way”. Cesca was trying to compose herself as she heard two friendly voices, “Morning Cesca”, it was Tom. Cesca was shocked, “thought you weren’t coming back for a while?”, “That’s what I told him, but he had different ideas”, “You know me, I hate doing as I’m told”, the girls laughed, Karen and Chris entered the room. “Congratulations you two”, Karen said as she walked in, Tom and Adana smiled, they couldn’t believe how crazy this holiday had been. “Welcome back, it’s a new term and a new start for everyone, make yourselves approachable to the new members of our school, especially the younger years “, this comment was directed towards Grantely, everyone laughed, “We hope you have all had a lovely holiday but it’s time to crack on. I just want to finish with a very important note. Sambuca Kelly has had a very hard summer, she has recently been diagnosed with Cancer and been told its terminal. We aren’t sure how many of the pupils know, so please don’t start spreading any rumours that’s the last thing she needs but we would appreciate you all looking out for her, this is a hard time for them all”. Cesca was gobsmacked; this is why she hadn’t heard from Tom or Adana sooner, they’d had so much on their mind. Cesca couldn’t quite get it to sink in, it was stuck in her throat, and it wouldn’t go away it was always there. Chocking her up, Sam was such a lovely girl, why did this have to happen to her. “Cesca you okay?” Cesca was staring into space thinking about poor Sam. “I know it’s a shock and we’re all trying to deal with it, it’s a lot to take in”. “Tom I ...I am so sorry,” Cesca didn’t quite know what to say. “Cesca, just focus on being your normal positive self, you’re her favourite teacher, she trusts you so I’m sure she’ll turn to you if she needs you, we told her you knew. Hoping this might give her the confidence to speak about how she is feeling.” “Of course, anything I can do to help”. Cesca felt honoured to be there to help Sam. She always had, had a soft spot for her. “Right well, I have year 11 Spanish, so I’ll keep my eye on Sam”, “Thanks Cesca”, Tom said. Cesca picked up her bag and headed for her classroom. She was greeted by crowds of year 11’s, “Right, in you go... SILENCIO, por favour”, the year 11’s gathered to their seats, “Miss, this is Ella; she’s new where should she sit”. “Ah, nice to meet you, I’m Mrs Kirby; take a seat at the back next to Sam”. Cesca smiled, Ella seemed lovely, and she was very pretty. She was proud of Sam; she was being her usual fighting self. She was calm and was carrying on with things as normal, so Cesca thought that was the best thing to do to! She finished taking the register finishing with Ella as her surname was Wilde. She looked up; noticing Ella was sitting in Jonah’s seat. It was weird to not have him in her classroom. She set the task, offering her help as usual, the class got on calmly until Fin started to talk about a party, asking if Sam wanted to go. “Fin, I’m busy. Not tonight yeah”. Fin wasn’t taking no for an answer. “Sam, don’t be a spoil sport, come on. It will be a laugh”, “Fin I don’t want to”. Cesca had heard their conversation, “Fin, get on with your work and get over the fact Sam’s not going”, there was a chorus of “oo’s “as Cesca totally owned Fin he wasn’t impressed. “Sorry I was talking to my girlfriend about a party, didn’t see an invite for you to rub your pesky nose in”. Cesca sighed, oh how she loved to be back at school. “Fin, you have just earned yourself 5 minutes after this lesson”. Fin threw his pen down, which bounced of his desk hitting Jess in the back of the head. “God sake Fin”. “Okay Jess, Fin you’re in serious trouble now”. Fin was angry, really angry and stared at the work in front of him for the rest of the lesson, Cesca was taking note. The bell rang so Cesca dismissed the class, “Adios. Not you Fin”. He sat back down throwing his bag to the ground. “As your on break you’re going to complete the task I set you and you’re not leaving till it’s done, that will teach you to back chat in my lessons”, “Maybe I wouldn’t have had to, if you hadn’t butted in”. Cesca was getting more frustrated by the second, “How dare you talk to me like that and give Sam a break”, Cesca found herself boiling over, as she blurted out “SHE’S GOT CANCER” Cesca shouted at Fin, hoping it would make him see sense. She immediately regretted every word she had just said.
“She’s got cancer, she didn’t tell me”, Fin was even more aggressive than before, he grabbed his bag and legged it out the door. “Fin”, Cesca called after him, but it was too late, she went back to her desk and reflected on everything that had just happened. She sat with her head in her hands, wondering if the whole school knew by now, as Tom opened the door aggressively, it made her body jolt. “Nice one Cesca, when I said look out for her, didn’t give you an open invitation to tell her BOYFRIEND”, Karen walked through the door, Fin closely followed behind her. “So it’s your fault that Fin is starting fights in the corridor. Cesca I didn’t expect my staff to be making this situation any harder”, “Cesca, I thought I could trust you, I thought you could help... but no”. “Tom, it wasn’t like that. It came out, he was giving Sam grief. He has a right to know plus he was being his normal arrogant self; something had to put him in his place”. “Cesca my office, now.” Karen’s words were stern; Cesca felt the whole world swallow her up. She didn’t mean to betray her friend, it just happened, Cesca’s bad luck had once again turned around and bitten her. Why did this always happen to Cesca. She just hoped this time she would be able to get herself out of the hole she had dug for herself. She left the room; her face was sincere which is the least you could say for Fin. It was as if he had finally got his own back on Cesca after he practically beat her up in her own classroom, landing him in a hefty suspension period. She knew that Fin hated her but she was only trying to help, he had a right to know. Cesca was always the one helping, it was a shame it never seemed to be perceived in that way.
