“Four years, four whole years since the day I finally left this place.” Mrijev walked through the double doors that he had once looked at in disgust, but now he looked upon those doors with a view of hope.
Mrijev had barely slipped through his days at the school and moved onto college, he graduated easily from there and took out a few more years to be eligible to teach. Never in his life did he think to himself that he would one day be the same thing he had hated to see every week day. He was now here to take place in teaching in Chemistry. He always found it interesting; he always liked to know how things worked and what was more elaborate than life and the world around him.
He stepped into the office and spoke to the lady behind the desk. He spotted in his peripheral three other people filling out paperwork in the chairs on the side of the office.
“Hello Mr. Mrijev, we are glad you came. Now please complete these forms in full and we will get you your room number.” The lady handed him a large stack of paperwork and went back to what she was doing. Mrijev found a comfortable chair in between the other three adults and began to fill out the first form. All of those years of teaching never helped him get out of the habit to write how he did: he held his pen to the paper with his pinky, ring, and middle figure going up the side of the pen, interrupted by the thumb which supplied the force into the pen, and the index finger followed that in order to navigate the pen. His writing was also still sloppy due to the strange way he held his pen.
After he got half the way done with the second form he began to hear snickering from his left, Mrijev still wasn’t very comfortable with people laughing when he didn’t want them to, he glanced to the man on his left, “What’s so funny?”
The man didn’t look Mrijev in the eyes but answered, “I used to know a guy that wrote that way, who knew that there would be more people who wrote that way.” The man snickered a little more and continued writing.
Mrijev was off-set by this, who else wrote like him? He continued to write until he finished all the paperwork and returned it to the woman behind the desk.
Thank you Mr. Mrijev, now could you please go wait with the others until we file your paperwork.” She smiled sarcastically at him and she returned to filing paperwork. Just before Mrijev turned around he spotted a signature that he had seen before, he couldn’t read it because he could read very little cursive, thus is why he didn’t teach English.
He walked out of the office and found himself in the midst of maybe a dozen people. “Hey Weird Hand, come over here!” The same man that Mrijev sat by in the office was motioning for him to stand by him; he still didn’t look Mrijev in the eyes.
Mrijev walked up to the man ignoring his mocking tone, “So what are you teaching.” Mrijev really didn’t care but he was just trying to be nice and make conversation with his fellow teacher.
“I will be teaching East Lab.” the man said proudly. He made an attempt for a smile but then went straight back to a neutral frown. “Apparently most of the teachers last year quit or retired so now this school needs a whole new batch of teachers.” Mrijev still didn’t care what the man had to say but he tried to act like he was listening to him.
“We are about to call out names, if you hear your name called then come get your name tag and your room number, Mister Bridges!” A man stepped from the group stepped up to the table and picked up a name tag and a little card that had a number on it; he put on his nametag and stepped aside. “Missus Lloyd,” A woman stepped from the crowd and followed the exact steps. Mrijev was anxious to hear his name; the amount of teachers also began to lessen though he never heard his name. “Mister Boyle,” yet another person was eliminated. Among the commotion made by the teachers Mrijev heard a floor buffer, he followed the sound to the source and found a short janitor polishing the floor, though Mrijev laughed at the task he couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the motion of the floor buffer. Minutes passed, trickling away like wind. “Mister Mrijev, Mister Mrijev? Mister Mrijev!” Mrijev snapped out of his trance, he was the only person left on that side of the room and everyone’s eyes were on him, he wiped the drool from his lip and followed the steps of all the other people, he began to walk towards the man he had befriended, but he noticed the expression on his face, it was one of surprise and disbelief.
Mrijev stopped in front of the man, “What’s wrong?”
The other man looked him straight in the eye with a glazed over look, he grabbed his own shirt where his nametag was clipped to and lifted it up slightly so Mrijev could see.
Mrijev read the nametag and seemed to mimic the expression on the man’s face, “Four years, four whole years since I last saw you, Jag.”