Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 59713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
I turned back and forth a couple of times to try to get the full visual of myself in her full-length mirror.
“I feel like it might be too much.” I bent a little to try to get some of my cleavage back into the top. “I’m really not trying to impress anybody. Getting a bunch of attention isn’t what I’m after right now.”
“That’s not the point,” she said. “This isn’t to get you a bunch of attention. And there’s nothing wrong with impressing people. The point is for you to feel good about yourself. For you to strut into that bar knowing you look great and that you have absolute control over yourself and the attention you choose to give anyone there.”
That did sound pretty amazing. Definitely something I hadn’t gotten a lot of in recent memory.
It was Friday night and the start of my official last weekend before starting my student-teaching position at the high school. I wasn’t exactly starting my career yet, but it was a first step, and I wanted to celebrate it. To Fiona, that immediately meant getting gussied up and going out on the town. I hadn’t done that in a long time, and it sounded both like a lot of fun and a little overwhelming.
The last thing I felt like I needed at that moment was guys hitting on me. The old standby of “I just got out of a bad relationship” was a massive understatement for me, and I didn’t feel like having that conversation with anybody.
But now that Fiona put it the way she did, I was liking the idea even more. I did another little twirl in the outfit she’d picked out for me and finally nodded.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
It turned out Fiona, as usual, knew exactly what she was talking about. Going out was just what I needed to loosen up, have some fun, and mark the beginning of this new phase in my life. I even found myself enjoying some of the looks I was getting from the guys at the bar. It didn’t change that I didn’t want any of them to come up and try anything. But it was still fun feeling alive and engaged with the world around me again.
We had an absolute blast and ended up staying out far longer than I expected to. I crashed at Fiona’s place for the night, feeling like a teenager having a slumber party again. The next morning we slept in late and then ate a huge breakfast while we talked about the night before and my excitement about the coming week.
The rest of the weekend was devoted to making sure I had everything in place ready for my first day on Monday. I probably went over everything far too many times, but I didn’t want to risk not having something I needed or feeling unprepared when I walked into the high school.
Finally, it was Sunday night and time to go to bed. I had my clothes for the next day laid out just like before every other first day of school in my life and had set three alarms on my phone as well as the brand-new alarm clock I splurged on just to make sure that there was no way I was going to sleep in and be late. It was hard falling asleep with the butterflies dancing around in my stomach, but I told myself I needed the rest if I was going to be at my best the next day and finally willed my brain to quiet down.
Monday morning dawned bright, and I got out of bed before my alarms even started going off. I had a few moments of nausea, but I knew they were just from my nervousness. This was a big day, and I wanted to get it right. I pushed away the nerves. Now was the time to focus.
I finished getting ready and ate a small breakfast before heading out to the school. I walked in and headed straight for the office.
The secretary looked up from her desk and smiled as soon as she saw me enter.
“Good morning, Camilla,” she said, remembering me from my interview. “Good to see you. Welcome to your first day!”
“Thank you,” I said.
“You can go on back. Mr. Wayne is expecting you.”
I smiled at her and headed toward the principal’s office. The door was standing most of the way open, and I peeked in. Mr. Wayne sat behind his large desk, seeming engrossed in the papers in front of him. I knocked lightly on the door, and he looked up at me. A smile crossed his face.
“Camilla,” he said, standing. “Good morning. Come on in.”
The principal extended his hand to me as I walked across the office toward him. I shook it, and he gestured to the chair opposite his. We sat down, and he continued smiling at me. Before he could say anything, a knock on the door brought our attention back to it. The secretary was standing there.