Chapter 23

                                    

                                          

ANNA'S POV


The rest of the day went by extremely slowly, and I found myself drifting in and out of my own thoughts, my mouth constantly dry. A headache had also set in, one that I had put down to stress. I hadn't had the chance to send Jared a text to tell him to not come and collect me from the school yet. 
I couldn't risk the teachers seeing us together. He could meet me down the road if he was that keen. 
Sophia had been trying to get my attention all day, and even though I tried my best to plaster a smile onto my face, I felt my mouth frowning unconsciously. 
The children had just filed out of the classroom towards the reception, all of them getting collected by their parents. Our classroom was a mess, despite the fact that I had been trying to keep it tidy. I was moving slower than usual today, really just wanting to curl up in my bed and sleep for one hundred hours. 
Pulling my phone from my pocket when nobody was looking, I quickly began typing to Jared. 
Please don't collect me from the school. The teachers are kicking up a fuss over it. I can meet you at home- Anna
Jared quickly responded, letting me know that he would be meeting me around the corner from the school when I was finished, and to text him when I was almost done.
I spent the next forty five minutes putting all of the pens and paper away, grabbing the vacuum and quickly sucking up as much of the dirt that was settled on the carpet as I could. We had been skipping doing it the past couple of days and it was beginning to show. 
Sophia's teacher left at some point during the clean up, claiming that she had a very important doctors appointment to get to. I didn't complain despite the fact that I didn't believe her though. Everyone here enjoyed giving me all of the hard work to do even though I was getting paid the least.  
It was the way it was and I didn't have the energy to challenge it today. 
I grabbed a paper towel, wetting it slightly, beginning to wipe down the board, hearing a jingling from behind me. I gasped, turning to see Miss Lowe standing in the doorway, a smile plastered onto her face. 
"Anna, it appears you're going to be the last one here," she said, frowning slightly, moving closer to me. "Can I give you the keys to lock up?" 
I cocked my head. I had never locked up before. I had never been the last to leave, but, the classroom still wasn't done, and I wasn't supposed to leave until it looked presentable. 
"That's fine," I said, taking the keys from her and shoving them into my back pocket, smiling slightly as she waved me goodbye, exiting the classroom. 
I began tucking all of the chairs under the tables, also wiping them down with a wet paper towel, having to focus a lot on Sophia's seat. She had thrown pink paint around, something that usually made me chuckle, but not today. 
A sudden chill ran up my spine when I straightened, and I gulped as I took a look around the classroom, deciding it looked alright. I could stay behind later tomorrow and fix the posters on the wall. Some of them were hanging on for dear life, the children enjoying picking at them, but unless you stared at them , you couldn't really notice. 
I just wanted to get out. I didn't like the idea of being here alone. 
As I grabbed my bag, goosebumps arose on my skin, and I folded my arms across my chest, feeling suddenly cold. There was a breeze wafting through the small school all of a sudden, confusing me. There weren't any doors open, and I had double checked that the windows were shut and locked.