As Alice asked her question, she began her own internal monologue of what she thought of Tina.  ‘Sheeee-itttttttt……I know I am….that is one FOINE girl…wow…can’t believe I’ll be her mentor!  Damn, Bette better not see this one, ah who am I kidding, of courses she will…but she looks too innocent to be her type…hmm..any chance she might be *****?  Haha, yeah…right….‘  Alice’s head tilted slightly to her left shoulder and raised an eyebrow while she was thinking this.  Her thoughts were interrupted when Tina spoke to answer Alice‘s question.

“Not exactly, but I’ve heard great things about you so I’m sure you have great students.”

“I do, they’re great…well, most of them, some of them are really pain in the asses.”

“Oh…heh…heh…” Tina replied with an awkward laugh not sure if Alice was joking or telling the truth.

Alice could sense that Tina wasn’t confident in her teaching abilities so she tried to reassure her, “Well, you were here for observations last semester so they shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with.  Just use what you saw other teachers do that worked.  Besides, I’m not going to throw you into the fire just yet, I’ll let you slowly take over.”

“Sounds good,” Tina was starting to feel a little better.

“Oh yeah, I don’t think they mentioned this to you, but this year, the school is making a few changes with the curriculum.  They’ve decided to mix in different subjects in an attempt to raise student interests so the English department will be working with the art department, and we’re working with Bette; she’ll be here to help you out too if the students start to give you trouble.”

“Bette?”  A curious Tina asked.

“Yeah, sorry, Bette Porter, she teaches art.  She’s also known as the ‘hot teacher’.”

“The ‘hot teacher’?”

“Yeah, the students here love her, all the guys end up choosing art as their electives.”

“Oh, I see.”  Tina was now wondering just how ‘hot’ this teacher could possibly be.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Bette sat in her desk leaning on her seat, and began smiling.  Her left hand reached over to her right hand, and Bette gently held on to the charm that was dangling on her arm.  Bette’s heart filled with warmness while she thought.