He wipes his mouth with a napkin before answering. “You know, it’s not so much specific questions as just topics I want to make sure we discuss. How to handle certain things—like how you set expectations in the classroom and what you do if those aren’t met. That sort of thing. Then a whole bunch of boring stuff, like where is the copy machine, who makes the copies, what kind of grading system do I use, how do you enter grades, et cetera.”
“Yeah, most of that is stuff we’ll cover along the way, but I will say I’m a firm believer in setting expectations from the very beginning, just like you mentioned. They will one hundred percent test you, and if you don’t have an idea of how you want your class to run, well … they’ll run right over you.”
“And what if I notice things I don’t like about how certain students are acting toward one another? Do I say something?”
“I’d probably try to do it in private, if possible, unless the offending party is really out of line. One time I heard this kid talking about some girl who was sitting at her desk, minding her own business. He oh-so-boldly pointed at her and stated to his buddy that he was going to ‘tap that ass.’” I give a swift shake with my head. “I sent that kid directly down to the office.”
Sawyer’s eyes bug out. “You’re kidding. Aren’t these just teenagers?”
I give a little huff. “You’d be surprised at the stuff that comes out of their mouths. Did you bring this up for a particular reason?”
“Eh, I just overheard some catty behavior. I don’t know their names yet, but there were two girls that asked a third about her T-shirt. It was obvious they were messing with her—it was a Girl Scout T-shirt.” He shrugs. “Just seemed mean to me. She was sweet and excited about cookie sales and they made her feel bad. I could tell.”
I nod. “I bet I know exactly who you’re talking about, but you can point them out to me. It was during second period, right? The Girl Scout would be Sadie.” I reach for a fork and the salad I’d packed this morning and dig into it while I wait to see what else he has to say.
“Yeah. I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if I see anything else.” Jutting his chin toward the salad I’m holding, he gives me a brief nod. “Did you know forks were once seen as blasphemous because they were considered to be artificial hands?”
Well, that came out of nowhere. I stop chewing, blink twice, and tilt my head to the side to stare at him. Finally, I swallow. “Come again?”
He grins and the adorable dimple I’d noticed earlier becomes very prominent on his cheek. “Sorry. Just an example of one of the random bits of trivia I know. Most of it is history related, but really, I’m just a fan of odd information. Somehow, I manage to file it all away in my head, just waiting for the perfect time to spring it on someone.” He shrugs with a smile.
I set my salad down, the irreverent fork sitting squarely inside the container. “Right. I remember you said something about liking strange facts. But, wait—seriously? Forks were seen as … ungodly?”
“Yeah. I guess people used to eat everything with their hands before the fork was invented by someone in Italy around the eleventh century. A lot of people wouldn’t use the forks though, because they were seen as sacrilegious.”
“What the fork?” I press my lips together, trying to stop it, but when I look at him and see the twinkle in his eye, I let out a full-on giggle-snort. I rush to cover my mouth.
Sawyer grins. “Must have made all that pasta difficult to eat without them, huh?”
That makes me giggle again. “Oh, boy. Tell me more about yourself, King of Oddball Trivia.”
He chuckles. “All right. So, besides being a bit of a trivia fanatic, you know I’m here via Roxford’s teacher education program. About six months ago, I moved in with a friend who has an apartment not too far from here.” He stops to think for a second. “I guess you could say I’m a decent cook, so I do that and my roommate does all the cleaning.”
“That’s a good deal right there.”
He grins broadly. “I like to think so.” He looks down, thinking. “Let’s see … Um, my parents and two younger sisters live in Connecticut where I grew up. And that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.” He pauses to take another bite of his second sandwich.
“Do you see your family much?”
He shakes his head as he swallows. “Nope. Not during the semester. I was just home over Christmas, though.”
“I saw you originally attended Boston University. Why the switch to a smaller school?”
“I wanted a small-town vibe for student teaching. Just personal preference.”
“I get that. That’s why I moved here. I’m originally from Philly.” I shrug. As much as I feel comfortable with Sawyer, I’m not ready to delve into the rest of my family background with him and definitely not ready to go into why I’d left. It seems a little soon to be quite so open.
“Nice. I love Philly.” He smiles, and I can’t say I know what he’s about to say, but I can tell by the gleam in his eye it’s going to be interesting. “Did you know that the first Philly cheesesteaks didn’t actually have cheese on them?”
“What? No! Talk about blasphemous.”
“Seriously. Look it up.” He smirks and takes a bite of his almost-finished second sandwich. He chews thoughtfully and before he says anything else, licks a bit of mustard from his lower lip.
“I’ll do that.” I hide my laugh behind my hand. This guy is too
