“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
~Albert Einstein
“Don’t stop until you get it right.”
~Julius Shepherd
“In class today, we’re going to be making our own bouncy polymer,” I announced to my seventh period science class. “Which is basically Silly Putty.”
“Silly Putty?” Anastasia Collins asked. “We’re making kids’ toys in chemistry class? I thought this was supposed to be a hardcore science class. I didn’t play with Silly Putty as a kid, Mr. Shepherd. I certainly don’t want to start now.”
“That’s great news,” I replied. “I didn’t say anything about playing with our creation. Anastasia. I said we were going to make it.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because chemistry is the study of matter, and how matter behaves and interacts with other kinds of matter. This experiment is a study of both chemical properties and chemical reactions.”
“Surely, there are other things we could make as an experiment. I heard that first period made bubbles.”
“Bubbles?” Billy Hill asked from the corner. “You think making bubbles is more mature than Silly Putty? That’s just…silly.”
“No one asked you, Hillbilly,” she fired back.
“Hey, now,” I said, holding up my hands. “We’re not about to start criticizing each other or revert to name-calling. Anastasia,” I said calmly. “Did you know that some of our most common household items are results of failed NASA experiments? Most of the items were deemed unsuitable for our rockets but are extremely useful in our everyday lives.”
She rolled her eyes in response and snidely said, “Whatever.” That kind of attitude would never fly in my classroom.
“And now you get to write a detailed report about what those household items are and why the experiments failed. It will be due on Monday.”
“What?” she asked. “It’s Thursday already.”
“Keep it up, and it will be due tomorrow.”
She pursed her lips together in a firm line indicating just how displeased she was with me, but at least she was pouting silently.
“I know that this is a small school, and you’ve likely heard what the other classes made today. I introduced a series of experiments today to all my chemistry classes with various levels of difficulty. I will rotate each of the experiments around so that all of you will get a chance to make these projects. Your first experiment will be making Silly Putty. If anyone here doesn’t agree with my lesson plan, they can take a zero on the assignment and hang out in the office.” I sounded more and more like my mother every day. The woman took no prisoners, and neither would I.
I passed the project worksheet out that included the objective, materials, and procedure. “You’ll see under the procedure section there are columns for observations and physical properties beside each ration combination of glue and borax solution. A critical part of being a scientist is recording the data. I will knock a ton of points off your grade if you present me with a perfect specimen of bouncy polymer but don’t include your observations. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir,” most everyone said.
“You will fail this assignment if you aren’t wearing the appropriate safety gear. Lab coats, safety goggles, and disposable gloves are required as stated in the instructions. Am I clear on that too?”
“Yes, sir.”
One person from each team retrieved the safety gear while their lab partner collected the materials they’d need. Once the kids had their backs turned to me, I permitted my gaze to land on the sexy, silver fox observing my class. Looking at him then, no one would guess that we had spent the past three nights together. He was cool, calm, and the ultimate professional who judged my performance in the classroom. He had cheerfully greeted the kids and asked that they pretend he wasn’t there. Some of the kids had joked that they’d seen him in several of their classes over the week. Only I knew the magnetism his fancy suit, flesh, and bones hid from the rest of the world.
I had known Rome would be stopping by and had braced myself for the impact of seeing him in my space while surrounded by my students. I didn’t speak to him directly when he entered the room, nor did I allow myself to meet his crystalline eyes even though I felt his regard on me. Rome’s presence wasn’t an official evaluation, we had decided it wouldn’t be appropriate, but the board had implemented a new plan for the school district. They wanted him to be familiar with the teachers, their styles, and the classes our school district offered. I knew from dinner conversations how impressed he was by the teachers, students, and curriculum. He was looking forward to doing the same with the elementary and middle schools too.
“I feel like I’ve waited my whole life to work in a school district where I can have a real impact on the students’ lives,” he’d said while brushing his teeth last night. Rome’s joy and enthusiasm, both in and out of bed, were invigorating and inspiring to me.
I returned my attention to the class once they started to file back to their tables. “My good pal Einstein said, ‘The only source of knowledge is experience.’ That means we don’t stop until we get it right.”
“Isn’t that a Michael Jackson song?” Aaron Harbinger asked.
“No, Aaron. That’s ‘Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.’ Close though,” I said. “I simply mean you have to start over if you don’t get it right the first time. Work together as a team.”
By the time the bell rang, each of the teams had successfully made bouncy polymer in various colors since food coloring was permitted. I could tell Anastasia was more impressed with her “toy” than she anticipated, but I didn’t comment on it. Most importantly, they each documented their observations.
“Nice job, everyone! See you tomorrow.”
Rome slowly rose to his feet but didn’t make his move toward me until the last student crossed the threshold. His strides were predatory, and his pale blue eyes burned with intensity. When Rome reached me, I noticed the skin on his face looked like it was stretched tighter. His body was rock hard and rigid with tension, and he practically shook with how badly he wanted to touch me. I reached for my bottle of water to moisten my mouth which had gone dry.
“Last class,” he said tersely.
I smiled then because I knew he wasn’t mad. “Was that the final bell?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do after school since tennis practice was canceled due to the bad weather. Do you have any ideas about what I could do with my free time?”
“Dinner at my house. Five thirty.” That had already been the plan, so I was disappointed I wouldn’t be seeing him sooner. “I have to meet with the board to go over our agenda for tomorrow’s meeting.” I filed away my disappointment because he had something very important to do.
“Duh. It’s the ‘gay agenda.’ Haven’t you read the petition?”
Rome snorted. “You know I read every word on the petition at least twice the last time I was naked in bed with you living our ‘gay agenda,’ or have you forgotten?”
“Not in a million years could I forget that. I’ll go home and do some laundry while you’re busy so it won’t cut into our time together later.”
“I’m sorry,” Rome said, looking and sounding conflicted.
“Don’t be. You’re doing something amazing, and I’m going to be so proud of you tomorrow night when you get in front of everyone and stick up for our kids and every marginalized person who’s needed a champion.”
“Our kids?” Rome quirked a brow.
“An educator doesn’t look at their students as just another face or just another number. The students become our kids and their success becomes our motivation. We take every slight against them personally, and we do something about it. You, sexy man, are taking on that fight with the full support of the board and the high school faculty. That POS leader has picked the wrong man, the wrong school, and the wrong town to mess with.”
“I really like this side of you, Julius.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice another notch. “If I can find a yardstick, can we play bad teacher later tonight? That scolding you delivered was so fucking hot.”
“Rome, I need to ask you to leave my classroom now,” I said in a stern voice. His response was a needy little whimper in the back of his throat. “Five thirty.”
He nodded. “Five thirty,” he managed to rasp out.
When I pulled into the driveway, Dare was dumping a plastic tub of recyclables into the bigger bin we hauled out with the trash each week. “Well, hello there, Mr. Shepherd. Did you have a good day at school?”
“I certainly did,” I said, smiling from ear to ear. “Did you have a good day?”
“There’s never a dull day at Curl Up and Dye.”
“Really?” I asked. “And just because your day wasn’t dull doesn’t mean it was good.”
“True, but I got enough material from today to laugh about it for weeks. If I wasn’t heading over to see my grandpa, I’d tell you all about it. As it is, I’m running behind. Grandpa signed us up for another euchre tournament. He and another resident at his nursing home are locked in a vicious battle until one of them dies. It used to be an annual tournament but the two guys had nagged and griped until it’s now a quarterly tournament. We have signals and all kinds of ridiculousness.”
“Rome’s aunt Astrid would fit right in there.”
Dare started walking backward to his house. “You’d just have to bring up his name when I don’t have time to grill you. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your car missing in the driveway a few mornings this week.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not trying to hide anything.”
“Good for both of you. I’ll see you around.” Dare waved then turned around so he could hustle to his car.
After I went up to my apartment, I started my laundry and grabbed a snack. I felt restless and unsettled, and I couldn’t put a finger on what was wrong with me. I found myself staring off into space and wondering how Rome’s meeting was going which was silly because he’d tell me all about it over dinner. By four, I was making myself crazy and dialed the one person who could verbally slap the stupid out of me. I knew she’d be home watching Ellen.
“Hello, baby boy,” Mom said warmly. “I was starting to think you lost your phone or forgot my number. I can’t recall the last time we went this long without talking on the phone. I hope this means you’re up to something five-ten, silver-haired, and sexy.”
I couldn’t keep the chuckle out of my voice. “I’m neither your baby or a boy, Mama.”
“You are if I say so. Did you finally stop fighting the inevitable? Is that why I haven’t heard from you?”
“I have started seeing Rome.”
“All of him or just parts of him?”
“Mom!”
“Okay, that was a bit of an overstep. I apologize.” She knew I’d had dinner at his house Saturday night, but she had no idea we’d been together every night since then. That was more information than I wanted to share with her right then.
“Just know that I’m really happy.”
“I know you are, baby. I can hear it in your voice. You have no idea how happy it makes me.” It sounded like she was about to start crying which would make me cry too, and that was the last thing I wanted for either one of us. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
“What makes you think we’ve reached that level yet?”
“Julius, are you really going to play me like I’m dumb? Hasn’t that failed every time you ever tried to attempt it? You’re a horrible sneak and liar. You know I’m right.”
“True.”
“About which part?”
“You’re right about everything, Mom.”
“Mmm-hmm. I know I am. Marcus FaceTimed me last night, and I got to meet Camilla and Manny. Aren’t they beautiful, Julius?”
“They are,” I agreed. “I’ve never seen Marcus this happy.”
“I thought I had, but I realize now he was only content before he met Camilla. I know I should be worried that he’s too young, but your father and I weren’t much older when we started a family, and we turned out okay. If I’m real honest, things have come easily to Marcus up to this point in his life. His athleticism opened doors that made it easy for him to walk through. I’m not saying he hasn’t worked his ass off on the football field and in the classroom, but it won’t be anything like juggling family, work, and law school.”
“We might be putting the cart before the horse.” Mom snorted. “Yeah, probably not.”
“I cannot wait to see my boys and meet the people who’ve stolen their hearts.” I wanted to argue that my heart was still firmly in my chest, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Will you be able to make a trip before Thanksgiving?”
“I hope so, but we’re short-staffed at the hospital right now. I’ll let you know if I can get away sooner.”
“I’ll cross my fingers, but I won’t hold my breath.” My mom had taken an administrative nursing job which came with a sizable raise. I wasn’t sure the extra money was worth the additional headaches. My mom was a nurturer and caregiver not a pencil pusher and number cruncher.
We got caught up on all the other things going on in each other’s lives, and I lost track of time. I was shocked when I saw the credits on the show start scrolling signaling the hour-long show was over.
“Mom, I have to go. I need to be at Rome’s house for dinner in half an hour.”
“Call me tomorrow night and let me know how the board meeting goes.”
“I will. Love you, Mom.”
“Love you too, Julius.”
After we hung up, I switched my clothes from the washer to the dryer, took a shower, then carefully chose my outfit for the evening. Rome would expect me to wear a T-shirt and sweats or a pair of shorts, but that isn’t the kind of attire a strict teacher would wear. If Rome wanted bad teacher, that is what he’d get.