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“Um…” Jewel bit her lip as she moved some papers on her desk to uncover her large calendar. She flipped forward two months until she hit the end of April. “The twenty-second.”

“I’ll mark it on my calendar. That’s something I won’t want to miss.”

“Be careful now or I may give you a role to play.”

“You wouldn’t!” Azalea teased.

“You should do it Ms. Fuller!” Teagan called from the other side of the room.

Azalea’s cheeks heated. “I think that would not be a good idea.”

Teagan came closer. “It’d be excellent. No one would be expecting it.”

Rolling her eyes, Azalea crossed her arms. “What would I even be?”

“You could be the submarine!” Avery came over.

Her heart sank. The least she could be was one of The Beatles themselves. Although, that might not be a good idea either because then Jewel might expect her to sing, and that would absolutely be a disaster.

Jewel gave her a soft look, one that was full of pity and something else Azalea couldn’t quite put her finger on. “I think you could pull off an excellent John Lennon. We should have done The Beatles for Halloween last year.”

“There’s always this year.”

“Yes!” Jewel shot her fist up into the air like she’d just won something.

Azalea shook her head as the first bell rang to signal the end of the lunch period. They would be swarmed with kids soon, and she had to make her way back across the school and up to her second-floor classroom for another wonderful period of dissecting frogs. Grimacing, Azalea shuddered.

Teagan and Avery were distracted by another student who came in. Jewel gave Azalea a concerned look and stepped around her desk. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Azalea muttered.

“You look a little green around the gills.”

Azalea raised an eyebrow in a challenge. “Remind me next time to not have a night like the other night when it’s so close to dissection day. The smell from the formaldehyde is making it a hundred times worse.”

“Oh no!” The concern riddling Jewel’s eyes was nearly her undoing. “Why didn’t you just call out?”

“No coverage, and on dissection day? The kids would kill me. They’ve been waiting weeks to get to this.”

“That’s true.” Jewel cast a glance around her classroom. “Let me make it up to you tonight.”

Azalea pulled her lips tight. “I think I just want to go home and crash again after taking a good long shower.”

“You sure? I feel like I owe you one.”

“You do.” Azalea winked. “But not tonight.”

“Your loss.”

“I’ll see you around.”

“See you!” Jewel called.

Walking out of the room, Azalea felt a little lighter. At least someone else understood the pain and struggle she was having for the day. But she was serious when she had said she just wanted to go home and crash after a cleansing shower. She was not up for company, although she suspected Jewel might try to wheedle her way in for a visit anyway.

The trek back to her classroom wasn’t long even though her room was located nearly on the complete opposite side of the building. She took the stairs one at a time, using the railing to help her get there on more steady feet. Her weekend had been one of the longest she’d had in a while, not because it was emotional, but because she’d over-indulged when she absolutely should have known better. Jewel, however, often pushed her to do things that weren’t her norm. It was part of why she loved Jewel in the first place.

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, Azalea took the hall to her room. She stopped by her desk to grab her lesson plans before focusing on the class that sat rather unsettled in front of her. They were restless for the dissection lab. It was one of the favorite labs of all her students. The scent of formaldehyde churned her stomach again.