Excerpt #3

It's been a while since I shared anything, so here's a taste of a different character. 

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Karin sat at her customary table in the teacher's lounge.  With one hand, she lifted a slice of homemade pizza to her mouth.  With the other, she made a series of purple circles on the paper in front of her.  She shook her head and looked at the woman sitting next to her.  "I don't know why I bother copying those stupid spelling lists each week, Dani.  It's clear that no one is looking at them"  She tossed her pen down in frustration and gave the pizza her full attention.  "Just think of the savings to my budget if I just stopped."  She laughed.  "And just think of the endless stream of irate calls I would get!"

Dani laughed.  "How dare you not supply a word list for my little darling to ignore?" she said in her best snooty parent voice.  She pointed her fork, complete with ranch dipped tomato slice, in Karin's direction and continued, "I pay taxes that fund this school.  I help pay your salary.  I'm practically your boss, and if I say I want extra copies of the spelling list so I can line my bird cage you have to give them to me!"  She emphasized her words with a flourish of the fork that sent her tomato slice flying across the room.  Karin and Dani dissolved into laughter.

"Seriously, though," Karin said.  "My kids are averaging about 63% on their spelling tests lately.  I've got to do something.  That's just not acceptable."

Her phone began to vibrate in her jacket pocket.  Pulling it out, she could see that it was her brother Alex calling.  Of course.  She'd been home all weekend without a peep from anyone.  It was only when she was working, when talking was inconvenient or impossible, that her siblings ever tried to reach her.  She glanced at the clock and sighed.  With 10 minutes left of her lunch break, she figured she should probably see what he needed.